-
The Ballad of Peckham Rye
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 07-06-09
- Language: English
- Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $17.47
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 16
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 49
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"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions." Thus begins Muriel Spark's tragic and rapier-witted portrait of a London ladies' hostel just emerging from the shadow of World War II. Like the May of Teck Club building itself - "three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit" - its lady inhabitants do their best to act as if the world were back to normal, practicing elocution and jostling over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown.
-
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-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,319
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,103
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,098
A stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family’s sizeable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick’s mannerisms, appearance and every significant detail of Patrick’s early life, up to his 13th year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
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- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 40
"How wonderful to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century," Fleur Talbot rejoices. Loitering about London in 1949, with intent to gather material for her writing, Fleur finds a job "on the grubby edge of the literary world", as secretary to the odd Autobiographical Association. Are they a group of mad egomaniacs, hilariously writing their memoirs in advance, or poor fools ensnared by a blackmailer? Rich material, in any case.
-
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 67
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Publisher's Summary
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.
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)
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Average Customer Ratings
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- 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.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alice
- 09-09-15
Great performance of a fantastic novel.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Absolutely - this novel is one of my favourites, and the performance certainly did it justice.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- S. Kadhim
- 10-21-16
Dougal Douglas comes to town
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Only to friends who are interested in slower-pace fiction, and ones that have little plot.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
I was very satisfied with it.
What about Nadia May’s performance did you like?
She was lively and told the story well, and I felt like she was connecting me with the characters.
Any additional comments?
This book is a bit bizarre, and therefore is rather hard to actually review. The story is somewhat listless, before making its way to a point, but even that is vague. However, there were fun bits, funny bits, parts where you were waiting to find out what happened next...
It also provided a pretty interesting perspective, and I loved listening to description of Peckham Rye, somewhere I once lived.