Barbara Pym's novels are celebrated for their subtle irony and exquisite style, offering profound insights into the intricate dance of social customs and human relationships. Beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary village and suburban life, Pym skillfully unearths the hidden desires and quiet desperations of her characters. Her work often employs the guise of gentle comedy, yet it is imbued with a deep, often tragic, undercurrent that explores the motivations driving our lives. Pym's distinctive voice captures the nuances of human connection with remarkable precision and wit.
Offering a rare glimpse into the mind of a beloved novelist, this unique autobiography is crafted from Barbara Pym's diaries, notebooks, and letters spanning thirty years. It weaves a continuous narrative that reflects her thoughts, experiences, and the creative process behind her writing, providing readers with an intimate understanding of her life and literary journey.
A classic comedy of manners from Barbara Pym, the acclaimed author of Quartet in Autumn, Jane and Prudence and Excellent Women
An Unsuitable Attachment is a classic novel from Barbara Pym, acclaimed author of Quartet in Autumn, Jane and Prudence, and Excellent Women.
It is surely appropriate that anthropologists, who spend their time studying life and behavior in various societies, should be studied in their turn, says Barbara Pym. In a wonderful twist on her subjects, she has written a book inspecting the behavior o
A charming and funny tale of match-making misadventures by an author whose fans include Philip Larkin, Alexander McCall Smith and Jilly Cooper.
Wilmet Forsyth is well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good looking and fairly young - but very bored. Her husband Rodney, a handsome army major, is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less. Her interest wanders to the nearby Anglo-catholic church, where at last she can neglect her comfortable household in the more serious-minded company of three unmarried priests, and, of course, Piers Longridge, a man of an unfathomably different character altogether.
Here, Barbara Mary Crampton Pym sails off into a wickedly comedic farce, focusing on the unsuitable romantic entanglements of a curate and a pretty young girl, both of whom live in the same rooming house, and a starry-eyed university professor and his female student.
A charming and funny tale of parish life by an author whose many fans include Philip Larkin, Alexander McCall Smith and Jilly Cooper.
Quartet in autumn is the story of four people in late middle-age who work in the same office and who all suffer from loneliness. Poignantly and with humour, Pym takes us through their small lives and the facades they erect to defend themselves against the outside world.
This volume includes an early novel and three novellas, which were discovered and published after Barbara Pym's death in 1980.