The Ballad of Peckham Rye
by Muriel Spark (1960)
New Directions (1999)
142 pp
Spark’s 1960 novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye is the fourth book in my 22-month chronological journey through Muriel Spark’s novels. It was new to me, but I’d heard folks speak fondly of this one.
I mentioned in last month’s review of Memento Mori that once I got into that book I felt a bit disoriented because Spark tends to set things spinning and then let us observe what the characters say and do without a whole lot of explanation between the lines. I appreciate it, but it does mean I often find her novels more challenging that they seem on the surface.
That was the case with this one as well. The Ballad of Peckham Rye’s opening set me up with a false sense of security: Humphrey Place is outside the door of his former fiancée’s home but he is denied entry. After all, at the wedding, when asked if he would take Dixie to be his wedded wife, Humphrey said, “No, to be quite frank I will not.” There is a consensus that Humphrey would not have done this had Dougal Douglas not come to town.
Spark then takes us back to when this Douglas first arrived in Peckham Rye, joining the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley to do “human research.” While it is not always clear just how he does it (“I have the powers of exorcism . . . The ability to drive devils out of people.”) everyone’s lives begin to wobble; things are just not quite the same once he arrives.
As I mentioned, I continue to find Spark a tricky writer. Spark just doesn’t guide me in the way I expect. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the journey.
It was great reading this alongside The Comforters and Memento Mori because we see the recurrence of Spark’s disruptive force. In The Comforters, it’s the disembodied voice from the typewriter. In Memento Mori, it’s the anonymous phone call reminding the listener of their death. Here, it is Dougal, who may be literally diabolical, or may simply be a person whose presence unsettles everyone around him. In each case, something enters the social world and disturbs it. Ultimately the force does not control outcomes; it reveals the characters.
Next up: The Bachelors.
