The Ballad of Peckham Rye Summary
Muriel Spark

The Ballad of Peckham Rye Summary

The main focus of the satire of The Ballad of Peckham Rye is the ridiculous nature of class-consciousness. The novel is filled with characters who think that they are better than the rest in some way. Beauty, for instance, believes that she is better than the other girls of Peckham. She may be—but she also wears too much green eye shadow, her skirt is just a bit too short and tight, and she is so drunk that she can barely stay on her barstool. Mr. Druce, who is so concerned with giving his workers "vision," sees a relationship between Dougal and Merle Coverdale that simply does not exist.

He is himself as ridiculous and sordid as anything in the novel. His own wife recognizes him as a cipher whose words may just as well be "quack, quack"; his response is simply not to speak to her...

(read more from the Short Guide)