The Takeover by Muriel Spark
"The Takeover" by Muriel Spark is a satirical novel that explores themes of power, materialism, and deception through the story of Maggie, a wealthy woman navigating a web of manipulation surrounding her villas in Nemi, Italy. As she attempts to evict Hubert Mallindaine, an Englishman who has taken over her property, the narrative unfolds to reveal various takeovers: Maggie's possessions are sold off under false pretenses, her fortune is swindled by her business manager, and her familial relationships are strained. The characters, including Maggie's son Michael and his wife Mary, are presented with a blend of caricature and distance that emphasizes Spark's satirical intent.
The novel critiques a society preoccupied with appearances and moral ambiguity, suggesting a world where reality is distorted by personal desires and ambitions. The interactions among the characters highlight a struggle for control, both over material wealth and personal identity, culminating in a series of ironic reversals. Spark's narrative style allows her to maintain an observational detachment, encouraging readers to reflect on the deeper moral questions presented within the storyline. Ultimately, "The Takeover" serves as a parable of the era's ethical dilemmas, critiquing the materialistic culture of the 1970s while delving into the complexities of human relationships.
The Takeover by Muriel Spark
First published: 1976
Type of work: Satire
Time of work: 1973-1976
Locale: Nemi, Italy
Principal Characters:
Maggie the Marchesa Tullio-Friole , a wealthy American and one-time intimate of Hubert MallindaineBerto , her husbandMichael Radcliffe , her sonMary Radcliffe , his California-born wifeHubert Mallindalne , an Englishman professing to be directly descended from the goddess Diana of NemiPauline Thin , Hubert’s secretaryLauro , Hubert’s former secretary, currently employed by Michael and Mary RadcliffeCoco de Renault , Maggie’s business manager, who has disappeared with Maggie’s fortuneDr. Emilio Bernardini , a friend of Coco and a tenant of Maggie
The Novel
As its title suggests, The Takeover is a novel about takeovers: the takeover of Italian property by the Americans, Maggie, Michael, and Mary; Huber Mallindaine’s occupation of Maggie’s villa; Coco de Renault’s swindling of Maggie’s fortune; and Lauro’s acquisition of her property.
As the novel begins, Maggie is trying to evict Hubert Mallindaine, her one-time favorite, from her villa at Nemi. Maggie owns three villas at Nemi—the second occupied by her son, Michael, and his wife, Mary, and the third rented to Dr. Emilio Bernardini and his children, Pietro and Letizia. Mary, wanting to make a “success” of her marriage, is sympathetic to her mother in-law’s point of view, while the Bernardinis refuse to help oust Hubert, an Englishman who claims to be a direct descendant of the goddess Diana of Nemi.
Both “high priest” and “pure fake,” Hubert mythologizes his own ancestry while having Maggie’s furniture and paintings forged, selling the originals and accumulating a healthy bank account in Switzerland. A manipulative and charismatic man, Hubert inspires in his secretary, Pauline Thin, a loyalty that allows her not only to work for him without wages but also to serve as priestess in his cult, the Friends of Diana.
The second half of the novel is shaped by a series of reversals. Pauline Thin denounces Hubert as a fraud; Maggie hires Lauro (a self-serving houseboy who has slept with Maggie, Mary, and Berto, Maggie’s husband) to kidnap Coco de Renault, Maggie’s capitalistic business manager who has disappeared with her fortune; Maggie’s lawyer helps Hubert remove and sell the furnishings of her house; and Hubert takes a job with the Jesuits.
At the end of the novel, Maggie and Hubert meet accidentally at the Devil’s Grottoes, the place where Diana’s temple was located, and reveal that they have understood each other completely. Maggie knows that Hubert has become rich selling her possessions, and Hubert knows that Maggie has regained her fortune by collecting a ransom for the safe return of Coco de Renault.
The Characters
A modern-day Diana, Maggie, the Marchesa Tullio-Friole, is a goddess possessing both great beauty and wealth. A woman “so much in the long, long habit of making heads swim when she came into view that she still did so,” Maggie is “somewhere in her late forties,” yet her look is “imperious’ and “flood-lit.”
Maggie’s supplicants include Hubert Mallindaine, a good-looking Englishman in his forties; Coco de Renault, Emilio Bernardini’s friend from the Argentine; Berto, Maggie’s current husband; and Lauro, Mary Radcliffe’s houseboy. Unlike those of the goddess Diana, however, Maggie’s admirers wield the power. Maggie says of Hubert Mallindaine that “he kind of took over my life; even when I was away I felt dependent, I felt trapped,” and within a year of meeting him, she turns over “the bulk of her fortune” to Coco de Renault. Even when certain that Hubert has sold her furnishings, Maggie sends him a letter of inquiry “just to satisfy Berto,” and it is Lauro to whom she turns for advice.
As in her other novels, Muriel Spark maintains a distance from her characters. Maggie’s fabulous beauty and wealth, Hubert Mallindaine’s belief in his own fraudulent ancestry, Mary’s stock good looks (“she was a young long-haired blonde girl from California”), and Pauline Thin’s unthinking devotion all serve to caricature rather than characterize the inhabitants of The Takeover. Such distancing is necessary to Spark’s satiric purpose: In order to see her characters as comic, Spark’s readers cannot be sympathetic to them. Minor characters such as Pietro Bernardini, “with his Bulgari steel watch, his Gucci shoes and belt, his expensive haircut,” and the Bernardinis’ “big fal whiney parlor maid, Clara” are rendered in a very few strokes, while major characters such as Hubert are sketchily described, as if the details are not particularly important: “His features were separately nothing much, but his face and the way his head was set on his body were effective.”
Critical Context
The Takeover is one of Spark’s later novels, and, as she makes clear in the subtitle to one of the British editions of the novel, it is “a parable of the pagan seventies.” Underlying the political and moral takeovers in the novel is the materializing of apparitions—a false transfiguration that is a form of demonology. As Spark’s narrator explains, the characters of the novel have “personalized and demonologized the abstractions of their lives, believing them to be fundamentally real, indeed changeless.” The novel is thus a strong indictment of a world morally askew, one populated by those who believe, like Hubert, that reality is an appearance and that appearances are reality.
One of Spark’s greatest gifts is her satiric vision. Writing in the midst of the decade she is satirizing, Spark is able to remain outside the world of appearances she creates. The subject of The Takeover is good and evil, and the novel questions the morality of the modern world. A Catholic and a satirist, Spark is casting a critical eye on a decade transformed by materialism and power. As shrewd an observer as she is, her glance is both true and unwavering.
Bibliography
Bold, Alan, ed. Muriel Spark: An Odd Capacity for Vision, 1984.
Stanford, Derek. Muriel Spark: A Biographical and Critical Study, 1963.
Stubbs, Patricia. Muriel Spark, 1973.