Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Memento Mori

  • By: Muriel Spark
  • Narrated by: Eve Karpf
  • Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (108 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Memento Mori cover art

Memento Mori

By: Muriel Spark
Narrated by: Eve Karpf
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Complete Short Stories cover art
The Bachelors cover art
Dead in the Morning cover art
The Lemon Table cover art
Barbara Pym: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
Ruritanian Rogues: Volumes 1-3 cover art
The Untouchable cover art
An Imaginative Experience cover art
Staying On cover art
Anna Karenina cover art
I, Claudius cover art
The Four Last Things cover art
Bleak House cover art
Spark cover art
Edinburgh Twilight cover art
Say It With Poison, Mitchell and Markby Village, Book 1 cover art

Summary

Dame Lettie, a blue-blooded reformer, Godfrey - her rather irritating brother, and his once fabulous novelist wife Charmian. But who is the caller? And why are they reminding them of this final truth? It's unsettling and mysterious. The activity increases and soon a witch-hunt is in full force, with nobody beyond suspicion.

First published in 1959, Muriel Spark's startling and timeless novel is at once a crime story, a black comedy and an important meditation on mortality. Rediscover this classic as performed by Eve Karpf on the 100th anniversary of Muriel Spark's birth.

©1953 Muriel Spark (P)2013 Canongate Books Ltd

What listeners say about Memento Mori

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    55
  • 4 Stars
    33
  • 3 Stars
    12
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    64
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    47
  • 4 Stars
    26
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A brilliant novel, a brilliant reading

A superb reading by Eve Karpf of one of Muriel Spark’s best novels. Her repertoire of voices helps the story bubble along with wit and drama. The strangeness, humour and slightly unsettling quality of the book is captured perfectly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Disappointing story, one performance.

What made the experience of listening to Memento Mori the most enjoyable?

The performance was the saving grace of this listen - luckily each character was distinguishable.

Would you be willing to try another book from Muriel Spark? Why or why not?

I usually very much enjoy Spark. However, this was not quite what I was expecting - I felt it was never really resolved.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I could have left this book without finishing it.

Any additional comments?

Perhaps it requires a second listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What a delight!

Any additional comments?

Very trenchant. It went all to quickly, would have loved to read/listen on and on..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Muriel Spark draws you in, as always

This is the fifth or sixth Muriel Spark novel I have listened to on Audible. I’m really still not sure how Muriel Spark writes novels about nearly nothing at all that draw you in completely. An excellent narrator once again helps, but the text and conversations just flow past and sound so natural and before you know it you don’t want to switch it off. I find Nevil Shute also a writer who has this ability too. I had never read a thing by either of them before I subscribed to Audible. I’ll be listening to more of both.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • JR
  • 15-11-22

Morbid, disrespectful to older people and excruciatingly boring

This book depicts older people as vile, self-absorbed, selfish and absolutely horrid, I am half way through and have not yet found a single likeable character and still do not understand what it is I am listening to! It seems to be a meandering account of dreary lives of older people, taking pleasure in suffering and death of others. I haven’t yet stumbled upon a mystery or anything at all funny about it. Well, it supposed to be a comedy after all! Call it whatever you like, but somebody struggling with old age and losing memory is not funny, we all may end up there one day. After listening to the narrator impersonating ear piercing squeals of a half- sane person, I am now done with this morbid so called “book”. Absolutely hated every single second of it. I refuse to believe that all older people are this vile and disgusting, Don’t know how on earth it has such positive reviews. I want my money back! What a vomit inducing drivel!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Oh dear what is to come . Shows an insight into old age without being sentimental

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stupendous!

I was completed entranced by this novel and the flawless narration by Eve Karpf. Her portrayal of so many different characters was absolutely superb. Muriel Spark is in a league of her own when it comes to creating petty, embittered and truly obnoxious characters! She has a fantastic ear for the mundanity of peoples thoughts and conversations. And yet there’s an underlying narrative at the heart of the novel; the philosophical contemplation of decrepitude and death. Marvellous stuff!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Muriel making a great story of human desires from a simple idea

As usual Muriel Spark takes a mundane situation and weaves in the hopes fears and desires of a number of well drawn characters to make a witty and entertaining end product - good performances bring out the characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!