{"id":30970,"date":"2026-04-13T21:46:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=30970"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T02:03:17","slug":"muriel-spark-the-ballad-of-peckham-rye-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2026\/04\/13\/muriel-spark-the-ballad-of-peckham-rye-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Muriel Spark: The Ballad of Peckham Rye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Ballad of Peckham Rye<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
by Muriel Spark (1960)<\/span>
New Directions (1999)<\/span>
142 pp<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spark\u2019s 1960 novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye is the fourth book in my 22-month chronological journey through Muriel Spark\u2019s novels. It was new to me, but I\u2019d heard folks speak fondly of this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mentioned in last month\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the case with this one as well. The Ballad of Peckham Rye\u2019s opening set me up with a false sense of security: Humphrey Place is outside the door of his former fianc\u00e9e\u2019s 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, \u201cNo, to be quite frank I will not.\u201d There is a consensus that Humphrey would not have done this had Dougal Douglas not come to town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spark then takes us back to when this Douglas first arrived in Peckham Rye, joining the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley to do \u201chuman research.\u201d While it is not always clear just how he does it (\u201cI have the powers of exorcism . . . The ability to drive devils out of people.\u201d) everyone\u2019s lives begin to wobble; things are just not quite the same once he arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I mentioned, I continue to find Spark a tricky writer. Spark just doesn\u2019t guide me in the way I expect. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was great reading this alongside The Comforters and Memento Mori because we see the recurrence of Spark\u2019s disruptive force. In The Comforters, it\u2019s the disembodied voice from the typewriter. In Memento Mori, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up: The Bachelors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I continue with my project to read all of Muriel Spark’s novels in chronological order with her 1960 novel The Ballad of Peckham Rye<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"libsyn-item-id":0,"libsyn-show-id":0,"libsyn-post-error":"","libsyn-post-error_post-type":"","libsyn-post-error_post-permissions":"","libsyn-post-error_api":"","playlist-podcast-url":"","libsyn-episode-thumbnail":"","libsyn-episode-widescreen_image":"","libsyn-episode-blog_image":"","libsyn-episode-background_image":"","libsyn-post-episode-category-selection":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_thumbnail":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_theme":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_height":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_width":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_placement":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_use_download_link_text":"","libsyn-post-episode-player_custom_color":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-explicit":"","libsyn-post-episode":"","libsyn-post-episode-update-id3":"","libsyn-post-episode-release-date":"","libsyn-post-episode-simple-download":"","libsyn-release-date":"","libsyn-post-update-release-date":"","libsyn-is_draft":"","libsyn-new-media-media":"","libsyn-post-episode-subtitle":"","libsyn-new-media-image":"","libsyn-post-episode-keywords":"","libsyn-post-itunes":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-season-number":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-type":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-title":"","libsyn-post-episode-itunes-episode-author":"","libsyn-destination-releases":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-enabled":"","libsyn-post-episode-advanced-destination-form-data-input-enabled":false,"libsyn-post-episode-premium_state":"","libsyn-episode-shortcode":"","libsyn-episode-embedurl":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[800,90],"tags":[1019,924],"coauthors":[505],"class_list":["post-30970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-muriel-spark","tag-1019","tag-1960s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-Ballad-of-Peckham-Rye-Featured-Image.jpg?fit=700%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqqvZ-83w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30970"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30974,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30970\/revisions\/30974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30970"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=30970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}