
The Ballad of Peckham Rye
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Narrated by:
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Nadia May
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By:
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Muriel Spark
About this listen
When the firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley hires Dougal Douglas (a.k.a. Douglas Dougal) to do "human research" into the private lives of its workforce, they are in no way prepared for the mayhem, mutiny, and murder he will stir up. In fact, this Music Man of the thoroughly modern corporation changes the lives of all the eccentric characters he meets, from Miss Merle Coverdale, head of the typing pool, to V.R. Druce, unsuspecting Managing Director.
This is Dame Muriel Spark at her most devilishly piquant.
©1960 Muriel Spark (P)1996 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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First found contentedly chatting in their London clubs and shopping at Fortnum's, the cozy bachelors are not set to stay cozy for long. Soon enough, the men are variously tormented - defrauded, stolen from, blackmailed, or pressed to attend horrid séances - and then plunged, all together, into the nastiest of lawsuits. At the center of that suit hovers pale, blank Patrick Seton, the medium.
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philosophical black comedy
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Thank you Audible - best spent credit ever
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Muriel Spark's blackly comic masterwork begins with a voice on the telephone warning, "Remember, you must die." The recipient of the grim message is elderly Dame Lettie Colston, but soon 10 of Lettie's oldest friends also become targets of Death's anonymous herald. A bizarre investigation lays bare an intricate network of deception and disloyalty that binds together the vulnerable group of aging eccentrics.
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More Spark, Please!
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In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
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creme de la creme
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Just about perfect
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-
-
philosophical black comedy
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By: Muriel Spark
-
The Josephine Tey Collection: 6 Alan Grant Novels; Brat Farrar; & Miss Pym Disposes
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- Length: 61 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Josephine Tey Collection includes unabridged recordings of Tey's 8 major novels in one audiobook, including all 6 of the novels in the Inspector Alan Grant series.
-
-
Thank you Audible - best spent credit ever
- By Lynn on 05-14-23
By: Josephine Tey
-
Memento Mori
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- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Muriel Spark's blackly comic masterwork begins with a voice on the telephone warning, "Remember, you must die." The recipient of the grim message is elderly Dame Lettie Colston, but soon 10 of Lettie's oldest friends also become targets of Death's anonymous herald. A bizarre investigation lays bare an intricate network of deception and disloyalty that binds together the vulnerable group of aging eccentrics.
-
-
More Spark, Please!
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By: Muriel Spark
-
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- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the classic work that launched a play, a movie, and a song, Muriel Spark tells the darkly intriguing story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher and the intense relationship she develops with six of her students. The scandalously outspoken Miss Brodie makes big waves in the conservative Scottish school, preaching the value of art, passion, and daring.
-
-
creme de la creme
- By Kathleen on 01-04-08
By: Muriel Spark
-
The Secret Hours
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- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service “to investigate historical over-reaching.” Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn.
-
-
Just about perfect
- By June Lapidow on 09-28-23
By: Mick Herron
-
The Books of Jacob
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- Narrated by: Allen Lewis Rickman, Gilli Messer
- Length: 35 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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Black Out
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
London, 1944. While the Luftwaffe makes its final assault on the already battered British capital, Londoners rush through the streets, seeking underground shelter in the midst of the city's blackout. When the panic subsides, other things begin to surface along with London's war-worn citizens. A severed arm is discovered by a group of children playing at an East End bomb site, and when Scotland Yard's Detective Sergeant Frederick Troy arrives at the scene, it becomes apparent that the dismembered body is not the work of a V-1 rocket.
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Critic reviews
"Not only funny but startlingly original, the legendary character of Dougal Douglas....may not have been boasting when he referred so blithely to his association with the devil." ( Washington Post)
What listeners say about The Ballad of Peckham Rye
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Marissa
- 05-30-24
Narcissism unchecked
My least favorite of Muriel Spark's books... billed as her most humorous, the deceitful antics of Dougal Douglas are in fact harmful and abusive to those whose sphere he invades.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- a reader
- 07-24-21
Delicious & sinister!
This is Spark at her wicked best! A strange, unexpected delight. CHARMINGLY read. A great pleasure!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- M. J. Walsh
- 05-29-20
An open door may be dangerous
When a minor demon, in the guise of an eccentric Scot called Dougal, enters the South London work force in the 1950s many lives are disrupted. His odd behavior calls many settled citizens to see that there might be other choices in life. But being undecided can be a torment. A sort of fable for adults this is not Spark's best work. Unusual, especially for its time (1960), but not exciting. A good reading helps it along but, due to the nature of the material, there is little emotional engagement on offer.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- A. Kiss
- 02-23-10
Disappointing
I've really liked some other books by Muriel Spark (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Loitering With Intent; Memento Mori) but this one is quite different and I stopped listening after about the first hour. Very unpleasant characters that I didn't want to spend time on. Maybe the book was going somewhere but I couldn't really tell and couldn't be bothered to find out. The narration was good but perhaps a bit heavy on the accents, almost sounded like caricatures.
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2 people found this helpful