The Ballad of Peckham Rye

by Muriel Spark

First published 1960

When a charismatic stranger named Dougal Douglas insinuates himself into the lives of Peckham's ordinary residents, their mundane routines take a dark turn. Dougal's meddling exposes the brittle facades and private obsessions that seethe beneath the neighborhood's staid surface. As his mischievous manipulations escalate, the community spirals into paranoia and scandal. Can anyone stop this enigmatic agent of chaos before he unravels the entire social fabric?

Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary

Vibes: atmospheric, dark, thought-provoking

Tropes: agent-of-chaos, unreliable-narrator

Setting: Peckham

Period: 20th-century

142 pages · Paperback · New Directions

More by Muriel Spark

• The Girls of Slender Means
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• Memento Mori
• The Mandelbaum Gate
• The Bachelors
• A Far Cry from Kensington
• Robinson
• The Public Image

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