"Oh Wilmet, life is perfect now! I've got everything that I could possibly want. I keep thinking that it's like a glass of blessings - life, I mean..." "That comes from a poem by George Herbert, doesn't it?" I said. 'When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by ...""But don...
”Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.”Humphrey, a widowed antiques dealer, and his nephew James, who he is attempting to teach about the antiques trade, meet this elegant, aging beauty named Leonora Eyre at a book sale. Meeting such a woman at such a place filled Humphrey with h...
In A FEW GREEN LEAVES the author combines the rural settings of her earliest novels with many of the themes- and even some of the characters- of her later ones. Switching points of view among many characters, she builds with accumulating effect the picture of life in a town forgotten by time yet ...
When I first read Quartet in Autumn I think I found it a little sad – veering towards depressing. Maybe this is the kind of book that one needs to be in the right frame of mind for. This time I found I really loved it. Although this novel does seem to be a bit different from other Barbara Pym nov...
When Pym died in 1980, she left behind unpublished manuscripts in various stages of completion. This volume brings us the last complete novel, portions of three others, four short stories, and an autobiographical essay.
"…though life was sometimes too strong and raw and must be made palatable by fancy, as tough meat may be made tender by mincing" (7)."...and secondly because it was helpful to missionaries and government officials to know as much as possible about the people they sought to evangelize or govern" (...
I am honestly not sure what to make of this book. I initially discovered this book (and author) through a random Amazon-crawl, where I assume it was recommended to me based on some of my other highly-rated books. I vaguely remember reading that Excellent Women was satirical, funny, biting, etc., ...
Some Tame GazelleSome Tame Gazelle, or some gentle dove:Something to love, oh something to love!(Thomas Haynes Bayly)My first read of 2013, and the first read of two reading challenges. Some Tame Gazelle fitted into my month of re-reading, and the Barbara Pym centenary readalong with members of t...
An unsuitable attachmentsThe latest read in the Librarything Virago group Barbara Pym read-a-long is An Unsuitable attachment. Published in 1982 two years after her death, it was actually written in the early 1960’s – and was rejected by Cape in 1963, this was the beginning of the period when Bar...
*3.5 stars."What a pity we can't make a cup of Ovaltine, was her last conscious thought. Life's problems are often eased by hot milky drinks" (23)."Probably because of her connection with haberdashery she had a passion for small gadgets and 'daintiness', as she put it, which was encouraged by the...
If Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates seem an unlikely pair to be walking together at an Oxford reunion, neither of them are aware of it. They couldn't be more different: Jane is a rather incompetent vicar's wife, who always looks as if she is about to feed the chickens, while Prudence, a pristine...
Edward and Mother Give a Tea Party ‘Well, Mother, who do you think will be the first to arrive?’ said Edward Killigrew, pacing eagerly about the drawing-room. ‘I think it will be Miss Doggett.’ ‘Did you remember to bring the cakes from Boffin’s, dear?’ asked his mother. &...