What do you think?
Rate this book
The Portobello Road
Four stories that illustrate Muriel Spark's unique wit and wisdom: 'The Portobello Road', 'Bang-bang You're Dead', 'The Seraph and the Zambesi' and 'The Dragon', all taken from The Collected Stories (1994).
86 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
2 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Muriel Spark
226 books1,296 followersDame Muriel Spark, DBE was a prolific Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet whose darkly comedic voice made her one of the most distinctive writers of the twentieth century. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.
Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.
Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.
Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, in recognition of her services to literature. She has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". In 2010, Spark was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.
Spark received eight honorary doctorates in her lifetime. These included a Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.
Spark grew up in Edinburgh and worked as a department store secretary, writer for trade magazines, and literary editor before publishing her first novel, The Comforters, in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, published in 1961, and considered her masterpiece, was made into a stage play, a TV series, and a film.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 15, 2020
Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
This little collection of mere four short stories, on the whole well-written and likable enough but a little inconsequential, was my first taste of Dame Muriel Spark. Heaven alone knows why I held off savouring her wonderful wit and uncanny gift for chronicling moral complexity before; apart from a few initial pages of "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie" which had enchanted me splendidly, I had not read anything from her hitherto. Sigh. It's never too late, nevertheless.
A crime and punishment. A "shooting affair" in the heartland of colonial Africa. A mystical being summoned in the heat of an evening by the Zambesi. A "Dragon" who breathes fire. These are the short, for most part succinct and strangely open-ended tales that fill up this slim volume. Throughout the stories, the uninitiated will discover Dame Spark's unerring eye for both nuance and character, her discerning ear for wry humour and her skill at etching scenes with crisp, lucid detail - all signs of a master storyteller of the first order. And yet, while these stories are indeed charming, elegiac, melancholic, evocative and tongue-in-cheek in turns, one does feel the only shred of regret - that they could have been so much more.
This is, of course, not any complaint about the quality of the prose or the lovely wit that the authoress brings to these little episodes, sketched out in the most little and minute details, details that work so splendidly sometimes and details that remain merely trivial in other places.
This is merely to say that there are this little collection is a mixed bag of two well-tailored pieces, where each incident and each word tossed in conversations have a bearing on the inevitable denouement and two other pieces that are, at best, written with measured dramatic pitch and, at worst, could have done with more fleshing out. In a bigger collection of stories, perhaps, they would have blended quite fine. But in this little collection of mere four stories, they do feel a bit under-cooked.
That said, Dame Muriel Spark is there to be on my reading lists from now onward and from this, I will now move on to "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie" for sure.
This little collection of mere four short stories, on the whole well-written and likable enough but a little inconsequential, was my first taste of Dame Muriel Spark. Heaven alone knows why I held off savouring her wonderful wit and uncanny gift for chronicling moral complexity before; apart from a few initial pages of "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie" which had enchanted me splendidly, I had not read anything from her hitherto. Sigh. It's never too late, nevertheless.
A crime and punishment. A "shooting affair" in the heartland of colonial Africa. A mystical being summoned in the heat of an evening by the Zambesi. A "Dragon" who breathes fire. These are the short, for most part succinct and strangely open-ended tales that fill up this slim volume. Throughout the stories, the uninitiated will discover Dame Spark's unerring eye for both nuance and character, her discerning ear for wry humour and her skill at etching scenes with crisp, lucid detail - all signs of a master storyteller of the first order. And yet, while these stories are indeed charming, elegiac, melancholic, evocative and tongue-in-cheek in turns, one does feel the only shred of regret - that they could have been so much more.
This is, of course, not any complaint about the quality of the prose or the lovely wit that the authoress brings to these little episodes, sketched out in the most little and minute details, details that work so splendidly sometimes and details that remain merely trivial in other places.
This is merely to say that there are this little collection is a mixed bag of two well-tailored pieces, where each incident and each word tossed in conversations have a bearing on the inevitable denouement and two other pieces that are, at best, written with measured dramatic pitch and, at worst, could have done with more fleshing out. In a bigger collection of stories, perhaps, they would have blended quite fine. But in this little collection of mere four stories, they do feel a bit under-cooked.
That said, Dame Muriel Spark is there to be on my reading lists from now onward and from this, I will now move on to "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie" for sure.
February 9, 2020
Spark’s narrator-ghost story was one of the tips I picked up from Parnell’s Ghostland - In search of a haunted country , and it’s a tremendous little tale. It begins with one of four young friends finding a needle in a haystack, and continues on to what becomes of the four. It is told in a very matter-of-fact way by the dead friend who late in the piece describes her death with the wonderful line,
He looked as if he would murder me and he did, he stuffed hay into my mouth until it could hold no more, kneeling on my body to keep it still, holding both my wrists tight in his huge left hand...
April 23, 2016
If you can find them, these Penguin 60s (a series published in 1994) are wonderful- small & light, just perfect for slipping into a handbag.
Although I'm not normally a short story fan, these stories are very easy to slip into & certainly not lightweight!What a gift Spark had with her detached, icy cold yet perceptive prose! The Portobello Road was the most unpredictable for me, but I enjoyed all four stories.
Brilliant.
Although I'm not normally a short story fan, these stories are very easy to slip into & certainly not lightweight!What a gift Spark had with her detached, icy cold yet perceptive prose! The Portobello Road was the most unpredictable for me, but I enjoyed all four stories.
Brilliant.
February 14, 2022
Found this little book while our bedroom was being decorated. I don’t know why I never finished it but I have now and it was a delight of 4 short stories all well written too.
July 31, 2011
I'm not a fan of Muriel Sparks and this mini book of (connected) short stories did nothing to change that. There is, however, a great quote in it that resonates with me which I've replicated here:-
"A life like mine annoys most people; they go to their jobs every day, attend to things, give orders, pummel typerwriters, and get two or threee weeks off every year, and it vexes them to see someone else not bothering to do these things and yet getting away wth it, not starving, being lucky as they call it."
"A life like mine annoys most people; they go to their jobs every day, attend to things, give orders, pummel typerwriters, and get two or threee weeks off every year, and it vexes them to see someone else not bothering to do these things and yet getting away wth it, not starving, being lucky as they call it."
March 4, 2023
Trigger warning:
Several stories describe situations in which colonial era racism is prevalent
Several stories describe situations in which colonial era racism is prevalent
July 25, 2019
What delighted me was the size of the book. And then it being Muriel Spark. This volume consists of 4 short stories, 2 of which I absolutely loved. One, I didn't like. And the last, which was alright. But what is consistent through it all, is the wonderful writing of Spark.
November 7, 2021
Very weird as i was not able to connect or flow. Whatever was written was very roughly structured which instead of providing me joy puzzled my mind. However, i liked the first story based on the Portobello Road.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2023
Slim volume of 4 short stories. All of them amusing in their own way. Think this is very much a Marmite compilation.
October 4, 2025
One star for each of the excellent stories. Some questionable ones… but filed by fire and spite and the brilliant observation that Spark excels in. Just to be clear by questionable I mean racism
March 23, 2022
1995 mini book ['Penguin 60s']
Four stories taken from the 1994 The Collected Stories of Muriel Spark
The other three stories are the kinds of clever-plot one-offers that I am not overly fond of.
But the longest of the four, "Bang-bang You're Dead", is priceless! Through the eyes of an Englishwoman early 20s who ends up staying in South Africa [or Southern Rhodesia?] much longer than planned due to WW II, we get such a picture of colonial/expat society. Casual remarks about 'the blacks', interactions with the [black] servants, a certain mindset of the English expats allowing a single woman [like our heroine] very little wiggle room.
In addition, there is a whole lot going on psychologically, Sybil in her childhood feeling lonely when perceiving that 'her intelligence was superior' to that of classmates. And later finding so many people 'boring', resulting in more loneliness and 'her old self-despising'. [I seem to have missed the clues to the self-despising.]
Her anthropologist husband quickly bores her: 'Other women do not wish to be married to a Mind. Yet I do, and I am a freak and should not have married.' 39
About parties, housemates, socializing: 'It was another ten years before she had learnt those arts of leading a double life and listening to people ambiguously, which enabled er to mix without losing identity, and to listen without boredom.' 42
'She did not know then that the price of allowing false opinions was the gradual loss of one's capacity for forming true ones.' 49
'She felt a lonely emotion near to guilt.' 43
The other psychological interest is the married couple Sybil knows, who are ill-suited to each other but do not wish to admit it. Part of this is said to be his preference for writing poetry over running the farm over against her extreme desire for him to make the business ever more profitable.
Four stories taken from the 1994 The Collected Stories of Muriel Spark
The other three stories are the kinds of clever-plot one-offers that I am not overly fond of.
But the longest of the four, "Bang-bang You're Dead", is priceless! Through the eyes of an Englishwoman early 20s who ends up staying in South Africa [or Southern Rhodesia?] much longer than planned due to WW II, we get such a picture of colonial/expat society. Casual remarks about 'the blacks', interactions with the [black] servants, a certain mindset of the English expats allowing a single woman [like our heroine] very little wiggle room.
In addition, there is a whole lot going on psychologically, Sybil in her childhood feeling lonely when perceiving that 'her intelligence was superior' to that of classmates. And later finding so many people 'boring', resulting in more loneliness and 'her old self-despising'. [I seem to have missed the clues to the self-despising.]
Her anthropologist husband quickly bores her: 'Other women do not wish to be married to a Mind. Yet I do, and I am a freak and should not have married.' 39
About parties, housemates, socializing: 'It was another ten years before she had learnt those arts of leading a double life and listening to people ambiguously, which enabled er to mix without losing identity, and to listen without boredom.' 42
'She did not know then that the price of allowing false opinions was the gradual loss of one's capacity for forming true ones.' 49
'She felt a lonely emotion near to guilt.' 43
The other psychological interest is the married couple Sybil knows, who are ill-suited to each other but do not wish to admit it. Part of this is said to be his preference for writing poetry over running the farm over against her extreme desire for him to make the business ever more profitable.
November 8, 2021
Massive fan of Spark's novels, and after twelve of them now, I thought the time had come to have a go at her short fiction. Rather than go all in with the Complete Short Stories I wanted to try just a few of them first, and came across this brief selection of just four. After two of them - Portobello Road and Bang-bang You're Dead - I knew immediately that nothing would hold me back in getting hold of the complete collection. What a class act she was!
Read
June 4, 2024I don’t know if this little selection of short stories is a curated sample of Spark’s output in this format, or all of them? I am enjoying working my way through her back-catalogue and found these interesting, both similar and significantly different. There is a family resemblance in style, and the focus on women and peers of Spark’s age and class in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
They lack her light touch and humour. However, the biggest differences are in the settings partly or wholly in Colonial Africa (3 of 4), and Italy. There are also metaphysical and fantastical elements, from a ghost, Dragons, and an Angel (Seraph). The other story, ‘Bang-bang You’re Dead’ tells of the shooting affairs amongst ex-pats, retold via old cine films, a snapshot of a seemingly perfect time and place, but with undercurrents of darkness and dissatisfaction, again common across these stories.
The title story starts in Portobello Road market with the narrator ‘Needle’ spotting 2 friends from her younger, freer days, (or does she?) Her luck in finding the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’ comes back to haunt her!
They lack her light touch and humour. However, the biggest differences are in the settings partly or wholly in Colonial Africa (3 of 4), and Italy. There are also metaphysical and fantastical elements, from a ghost, Dragons, and an Angel (Seraph). The other story, ‘Bang-bang You’re Dead’ tells of the shooting affairs amongst ex-pats, retold via old cine films, a snapshot of a seemingly perfect time and place, but with undercurrents of darkness and dissatisfaction, again common across these stories.
The title story starts in Portobello Road market with the narrator ‘Needle’ spotting 2 friends from her younger, freer days, (or does she?) Her luck in finding the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’ comes back to haunt her!
July 25, 2022
I still like the shape of Spark's stories - as with her longer works, these short stories have neat, intriguing (if slightly illogical) plots. I didn't warm to the characters in these as much as in her novels. Length might have played a part in that (though her novels aren't long). Mostly, though, I wasn't keen on the sixties-eye view of Africa. I find it frustrating, just because it focuses so much on a narrow set of characters who see only the bits of the setting that they can sculpt to their liking. I don't doubt that that might have been the view point of the kind of people she was writing about, but it's still feels like an artificially narrow perspective to me.
April 10, 2023
To celebrate their 60th anniversary in 1994, Penguin books put out a series of slim volumes called Penguin 60's (they sold for 60 pence). I was lucky enough to find one containing four short stories by Muriel Spark. All I knew about her was her famous novel (and eventual movie) The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the fact that she was a favourite of novelist Graham Greene. In her early days of struggle, he would send her 20 pounds a month just to keep her going.
These four stories are carefully crafted and deal with four different women, each living abroad and single. There is darkness in each tale, but the writing is so good it doesn't really affect your enjoyment level.
These four stories are carefully crafted and deal with four different women, each living abroad and single. There is darkness in each tale, but the writing is so good it doesn't really affect your enjoyment level.
January 14, 2020
A pocket sized collection of short stories
The Portobello Road, quite interesting, a fellow haunted by something from his past.
Bang Bang your dead, mistaken identity
The Seraph and the Zambesi, fanciful tale
The Dragon, people are not what they seem at times.
The Portobello Road, quite interesting, a fellow haunted by something from his past.
Bang Bang your dead, mistaken identity
The Seraph and the Zambesi, fanciful tale
The Dragon, people are not what they seem at times.
December 27, 2023
The stories in this collection were largely forgettable, apart from ‘The Dragon’ - a dress designer based in Lake Como who deals with an employee (spoiler: ‘The Dragon’) who tries to take over her business.
The Africa-based stories were dull, dull, dull. Very Rhodesian. Very racist.
The Africa-based stories were dull, dull, dull. Very Rhodesian. Very racist.
June 21, 2017
I will read more Muriel Spark!
June 27, 2020
Short and Sparky. Several decades since I read her and these 4 memorable stories reminded me I need to revisit. Terrific writing and stories with a twist. Very much enjoyed.
May 1, 2022
A bit different from her usual stuff. Set in E.Africa before WW2.
August 23, 2022
I especially enjoyed 'The Portobello Road' and 'The Dragon'
September 19, 2022
Title story is average at best. The others are dull and uninteresting.
December 19, 2024
It’s amazing how richly she can create a character with only 20 or 30 pages.
December 16, 2014
During 2014 I have often waxed lyrical over discoveries of authors unknown to me whose work was selected for the Penguin 60 series. I should look back when I have completed reading the set and rank the most startling discoveries. I am quite convinced that this set of four stories by Muriel Spark will be placed close to the top of the list, if it does not make it to the top. Her intricate portrayal of human relationships, especially as depicted in 'Bang-bang you're dead', is breathtaking in itself; when coupled with her use of magic realism, as in 'The Portobello Road', 'The seraph and the Zambezi' and 'The dragon', the reading experience is catapulted to a new level of interest and excitement. Part of the realistic background where she sets her stories are British colonies, adding uniquely to the issue of colonialism. Another author to read comprehensively!
Muriel Spark verweef diepsinnige insig in menseverhoudings onder meer met koloniale ruimtes en magiese realisme vir asembenemende verhale wat die leser uitdaag en verras. Nog 'n waardevolle ontdekking in die Penguin 60 reeks, en nog 'n nuutontdekte skrywer wat ek meer volledig moet ondersoek!
Muriel Spark verweef diepsinnige insig in menseverhoudings onder meer met koloniale ruimtes en magiese realisme vir asembenemende verhale wat die leser uitdaag en verras. Nog 'n waardevolle ontdekking in die Penguin 60 reeks, en nog 'n nuutontdekte skrywer wat ek meer volledig moet ondersoek!
December 20, 2012
I'm reaching out for slim novellas as a sneaky bid to boost my annual book count, now that the end of 2012 neighs near. I know this, because it is my practice to jealously ration the oeuvre of my favourite authors (especially the dead ones), and I’ve already done a near-alarming number of Muriel Sparks this year – beginning with "Not To Disturb", "Robinson" and "The Abbess of Crewe".
This is a collection of four (!) short stories – to whet one’s appetite as an entrée to her other works, as they all display her flair and vicarious intimacy with Death, Destruction and Downfall. 3 mini stars!
This is a collection of four (!) short stories – to whet one’s appetite as an entrée to her other works, as they all display her flair and vicarious intimacy with Death, Destruction and Downfall. 3 mini stars!
November 1, 2021
tremendously inspired genius, in a major and extreme way, which reminds one of one’s own plodding stupidity and lust for life ——— Africa!
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews