The Driver's Seat

Name: The Driver's Seat
Brand: Penguin Random House NZ
SKU: 9780241752036
Price: 17.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Muriel Spark

Series: Penguin Archive

0.0 (0 reviews)

3.6

( 12,593 ratings, 1,931 reviews)

Brief Description

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Muriel Spark claimed The Driver's Seat to be her best and creepiest novel. Once you have met her heroine Lise—heading for the holiday of a lifetime in an extraordinarily garish dress and with violence on her mind—you... Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$17⁰⁰

Elsewhere:

~~$17⁹⁹~~

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

The Driver's Seat

$17⁰⁰

Elsewhere:

~~$17⁹⁹~~

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books

Muriel Spark claimed The Driver’s Seat to be her best and creepiest novel. Once you have met her heroine Lise – heading for the holiday of a lifetime in an extraordinarily garish dress and with violence on her mind – you will understand why.

Description

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books

Muriel Spark claimed The Driver's Seat to be her best and creepiest novel. Once you have met her heroine Lise—heading for the holiday of a lifetime in an extraordinarily garish dress and with violence on her mind—you will understand why.

Series: Penguin Archive

View all

An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter

An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira is part of 90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books. It is 1837 and a brilliant German artist sets out to cross the mountains between Chile and Argentina. Perhaps nobody before him has been able to paint the sights that unfold—vast chasms, surreal plants and animals......

By César Aira

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Ecce Homo

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Ecce Homo No, I don't hate being black. I'm just tired of saying it's beautiful. No, I don't hate myself. I'm just tired of people bruising their knuckles on my jaw. A novella with the force of a screaming trumpet flare, Dambudzo Marechera's seminal literary debut explores a body and spirit...

By Friedrich Nietzsche and Dambudzo Marechera

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
How I Came to Know Fish

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Of all the sleep a man can have, the fisherman's sleep is the sweetest. It is the greatest of luxuries - sleep and fishing. Through tender, vivid, and often humorous recollections - from magical fishing trips to the rivers and ponds of Bustehrad to his charismatic father's eccentric business ventures -...

By Ota Pavel

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Reflections in a Golden Eye

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books On a military base in 1930s Georgia, Private Ellgee Williams catches sight of his captain's wife in the nude and becomes obsessed with her. But Captain Penderton—unhappily married to the unfaithful Leonora—in turn erotically fixates on Williams. Spare, muscular and sensual, with the dramatic vision of a Greek myth, Carson McCullers'...

By Carson McCullers

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Requiem

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books My dear friend, he said, life is strange and strange things happen in life It is a hot July Sunday in Lisbon and our narrator has an appointment to meet someone by the quayside. But when his guest does not arrive, he spends the day wandering the deserted city, encountering some...

By Antonio Tabucchi

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Dreaming Child

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books As for me I have one ambition only- to invent stories, very beautiful stories Gothic, expansive and truly spellbinding, Karen Blixen's short stories offer incisive psychological portraits and imaginative visions of war, longing and tender love. Here, an orphan boy creates an elaborate fantasy of a life of grandeur, a feudal...

By Isak Dinesen and Karen Blixen

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Driver's Seat

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Muriel Spark claimed The Driver's Seat to be her best and creepiest novel. Once you have met her heroine Lise—heading for the holiday of a lifetime in an extraordinarily garish dress and with violence on her mind—you will understand why.

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Umbrella

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books The Umbrella evokes the delicate interplay of emotion and subtle storytelling. In the words of the author: "Then she would feel exposed and cry, as if her life and happiness were ruined for all time, even though she could still hide it from those she only came in contact with by...

By Tove Ditlevsen

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Tristessa

Tristessa is a strange fever-dream of morphine sickness and belly-deep sadness. Or, in the words of Allen Ginsberg: 'a narrative meditation studying a hen, a rooster, a dove, a cat, a chihuahua dog, family meat, and a ravishing, ravished junky lady, first in their crowded bedroom, then out to drunken streets, taco stands, and pads at dawn in Mexico City...

By Jack Kerouac

Paperback

$17⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$17⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Daemon Lover

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books It's terribly important that I get in touch with a gentleman who may have stopped in here to buy flowers this morning. Terribly important. Sometimes, the person you think you love isn't who they seem. And sometimes, you can be your own deception. Spanning Shirley Jackson's entire career, these devilish tales...

By Shirley Jackson

Paperback

$17⁹⁹

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Hop-Frog

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Edgar Allan Poe's short stories have lost none of their power to horrify. He remains a destabilisingly terse sketcher of ideas, a writer who allows the reader to fill in the many ghastly blanks in his narratives of violence, retribution and animalism. It is hard to recommend Hop-Frog wholeheartedly (its original...

By Edgar Allan Poe

Paperback

$17⁹⁹

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Monkey King Makes Havoc in Heaven

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Wu Cheng'en's 16th-century novel Journey to the West is widely regarded as one of the most important Chinese novels ever written. Here, in Julia Lovell's witty and charismatic translation, we meet one of its heroes - Sun Wukong, or Monkey King, whose powers include shape-shifting, immortality, and being incredibly rude. Though...

By Wu Cheng’en

Paperback

$17⁹⁹

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241752036

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 April 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

Introduction by John Lanchester

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 8.0mm

Width: 111.0mm

Height: 181.0mm

Weight: 82g

Pages: 128

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Muriel Spark Penguin Books Penguin Classics Series: Penguin Archive

About the Author

Muriel Spark was born and educated in Edinburgh. She wrote poetry, stories, biographies, and a remarkable series of novels. She won countless awards, was made an an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1993 was given an OBE. She died in April 2006.

Also by Muriel Spark

View all

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

When an unbridled schoolmistress with advanced ideas is in her prime, the classroom can take on a new identity, and no one can predict what will happen. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie introduces Jean Brodie, a teacher whose unconventional ideas put her at odds with the other members of staff at the Marcia Blaine School in Edinburgh. She endeavours...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$25⁹⁹

(1)

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
A Far Cry From Kensington

I can't help it. Sometimes the words just come out and I can't stop them. It feels like preaching the gospel. When publishing assistant and war widow Nancy Hawkins tells Hector Bartlett he 'urinates frightful prose', the repercussions are swift. Losing not one, but two, much-sought-after literary jobs, Mrs Hawkins finds herself embroiled in a mystery involving anonymous letters, quack...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$26⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: Popular Penguins

Romantic, heroic, comic, and tragic, unconventional schoolmistress Jean Brodie has become an iconic figure in post-war fiction. Her glamour, freethinking ideas, and manipulative charm hold dangerous sway over her girls at the Marcia Blaine Academy – the 'crème de la crème' – who become the Brodie Set, introduced to a world of adult games they will never forget. The Prime...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$15⁹⁹

In Stock
Ships today
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

At an Edinburgh school in the 1930s, glamorous, outspoken Miss Jean Brodie is quite certain of her role as teacher: to devote the wisdom of her prime years to six young girls, the crème de la crème, who will receive an education of the most unique kind. Known in school as the infamous Brodie set, the girls are soon entangled...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$20⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$21⁹⁹~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Driver's Seat

New to Modern Classics, published alongside The Ballad of Peckham Rye Lise has been driven to distraction by working in the same accountants' office for sixteen years. So she leaves everything behind her, transforms herself into a laughing, garishly-dressed temptress and flies abroad on the holiday of a lifetime. But her search for adventure, sex and the obsessional experience takes...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$19⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$21⁰⁰~~

Backorder
Ships mid August
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

New edition of the Penguin Essential featuring a schoolmistress you'll never forget... 'Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life . . .' Passionate, free-thinking and unconventional, Miss Brodie is a teacher who exerts a powerful influence over her group of 'special girls' at Marcia Blaine School. They are the Brodie set, the crème...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$22⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$24⁰⁰~~

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
Memento Mori

Remember you must die. Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her circle to receive insinuating anonymous phone calls. Neither she, nor her friends, wish to be reminded of their mortality, and their geriatric feathers are thoroughly ruffled. As the caller's activities become more widespread, old secrets are dusted off, exposing past and present duplicities, self-deception, and blackmail. Nobody is...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$24⁹⁹

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Letters of Muriel Spark (Volume 1)

The first of two volumes of the letters of Muriel Spark, one of the greatest and most fascinating writers of the twentieth century.*One of the TLS Books of the Year 2025* In 1944, on her return to England after a disastrous marriage, Muriel Spark was unknown as a writer except to a handful of close friends; by 1963 she was...

By Muriel Spark

Hardback

$90⁰⁰

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Edinburgh, 1930, and the world is on the brink of change. Leading the charge is the glamorous, free-spirited Miss Jean Brodie, schoolteacher at the Marcia Blaine Academy, whose guiding principle is 'Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she'll be mine for life. I am dedicated to you in my prime.' While Miss Brodie manipulates and charms 'her...

By Muriel Spark

Hardback

$34⁹⁹

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Very Fine Clock

Two stars team up—Muriel Spark and Edward Gorey—to bring the charming tale of Ticky the clock to life in this children's classic. Once there was a very fine clock named Ticky, who lived with Professor Horace John Morris and kept perfect time. Each night, at fourteen minutes past ten, his time was used to set the rest of the clocks...

By Muriel Spark

Hardback

$34⁹⁹

Available
Ships in 4-6 weeks
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Muriel Spark's classic novel, widely hailed as one of the twentieth century's best—the story of a young, unorthodox teacher and her special—and ultimately dangerous—relationship with six of her students. At the staid Marcia Blaine School for Girls, in Edinburgh, Scotland, teacher extraordinaire Miss Jean Brodie is unmistakably, and outspokenly, in her prime. She is passionate in the application of her...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

$49⁰⁰

Available
Ships in 2-3 weeks
Spark's Europe

From the grimly gothic Do Not Disturb to the razor-sharp dissection of manners in The Takeover and the mordantly brilliant The Only Problem, in a panoramic sweep taking in the shores of the Italian lakes to the castles of Geneva, Muriel Spark casts her unflinching gaze over the continent and onto some of the odder specimens of human nature abounding...

By Muriel Spark

Paperback

Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all

The Wedding People

'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...

By Alison Espach

Paperback

$23⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

(3)

In Stock
Ships today
Dylan's Pick

Theo of Golden

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...

By Allen Levi

Paperback

$28⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$34⁹⁹~~

(5)

In Stock
Ships today
New Release

On Mystic Lake

One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...

By Kristin Hannah

Paperback

$31⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$38⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
New Release

Land

Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Land, the new novel from the author of Hamnet, is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great...

By Maggie O'Farrell

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Tim's Pick

Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set

The Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set by Brandon Sanderson is a landmark fantasy series that has captivated readers worldwide. Renowned for its innovative magic system, intricate world-building, and compelling characters, this trilogy is a must-have for any fantasy enthusiast. Immerse yourself in a world shrouded in ash, where a once-hopeful land is ruled by the tyrannical Dark Lord, known as the...

By Brandon Sanderson

Set

$64⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$75⁰⁰~~

(2)

In Stock
Ships today
Signed Bookplate
New Release

Light Wielder

THE EPIC CONCLUSION TO METAL SLINGER, AKA THE BOOK WITH THE PLOT TWIST THAT BROKE THE INTERNET Sail the seas. Master the blade. Protect your heart. What would you do to have it all? READERS ARE GOING WILD FOR *METAL SLINGER* ‘The BEST plot twist to ever grace my Kindle’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The author is a mastermind. Romantasy is back!!!!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐...

By Rachel Schneider

Paperback

$31⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Project Hail Mary

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL A BARACK OBAMA READING PICK A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined. 'The most enjoyable hard SF I have read in years' GUARDIAN 'Weir's finest work to date... This is the one book I read last year that I am certain I can recommend to anyone, no matter who, and know...

By Andy Weir

Paperback

$20⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$28⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
The Deal

Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Deal now for the perfect fake-dating romance! She's about to make a deal with the college bad boy . . . Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns...

By Elle Kennedy

Paperback

$24⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$27⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today
Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...

By Andy Weir

Paperback

$23⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$24⁰⁰~~

(4)

In Stock
Ships today
New Release

Lizzy's Pick

Yesteryear

A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...

By Caro Claire Burke

Paperback

$29⁹⁹
Elsewhere:
~~$36⁹⁹~~

(2)

In Stock
Ships today
New Release

The Bookshop Detectives 3: Murder and Mojitos

Art Deco glamour, a Cuban crime queen and a grammar-obsessed killer collide in the #1 best-selling Bookshop Detectives’ high-stakes final instalment. The Bookshop Detectives are on the case! Booksellers Garth and Eloise Sherlock (and their cowardly dog, Stevie) have been roped into hosting Murder and Mojitos, a glamorous Art Deco festival event starring Cuba’s queen of crime fiction. Between flapper...

By Gareth and Louise Ward

Paperback

$30⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$38⁰⁰~~

In Stock
Ships today
On Sale
20% off

The Wrath of the Fallen

SAMKIEL AND DIANNA WILL RETURN in the next sizzling, dark romantasy series from Amber V. Nicole. EPIC. SPICY. ADDICTIVE. Embrace the darkness . . . 'If you like romantasy, read this!' RAVEN KENNEDY 'A wicked ride from beginning to heart-shattering end. Leaving me literally screaming for more' HANNAH NICOLE MAERHER 'This is perfection. Amber Nicole's Dianna is the FMC of...

By Amber V. Nicole

Paperback

$24⁰⁰
Elsewhere:
~~$37⁹⁹~~

In Stock
Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.