Customer Reviews (1)

"And a monkey puzzle dark against it, and none of us getting any younger."
First of all, let me say that if you have not read any novels by Barbara Pym, then you should remedy that quickly. Not because of this book, exactly, but because I tend to believe that most people's lives are richer for having at least read Sweet Dove Died (as one choice). Certainly if you have any interest in reading Pym's letters and diaries, it would be better to first read one of her books.

I haven't read just one of her books. I have read most of them. (I had originally planned to write that I read all of them, but I realize that this isn't true-- I've never gotten around to either Some Tame Gazelle or A Few Green Leaves. I also love to read diaries and letters. I was a natural to read this book and it didn't disappoint me. I really enjoyed it-- a rare treat to look a little ways into the mind of one of my favorite writers.

The book spans the years between 1932, when Pym was at Oxford, and 1979, when she sadly died of breast cancer. Her sister, Hilary Pym, provides a biographical sketch of her early life. As the title of the book suggests, the material is arrange chronologically and drawn from Pym's diaries, notebooks, and letters.

As is normal in a case like this, there is more material for some years than others. This can make the pacing a bit odd if one tries to read it as a narrative-- I wished for more in some places and (honestly) less in others. I love her tone, and I added quite a few novels to my reading list based on what she recommended. I was most struck by her sense of time passing-- it never left her, not all the way through her life.

I am not sure how much I would recommend this book if a reader did not like nor was not familiar with Pym as a novelist. I can recommend it wholeheartedly for her already established fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 4391. ... Read more

Product Description
This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Excellent Women, Some Tame Gazelle, Quartet in Autumn, Jane and Prudence, an Unsuitable Attachment, the Sweet Dove Died, a Glass of Blessings, No Fond Return of Love, Less Than Angels, Crampton Hodnet. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Jane and Prudence is a novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1953 and according to the novelist Jilly Cooper her finest work full of wit, plotting, characterization and miraculous observation" Jane, a vicar's wife, lives a very different kind of life from her friend, the single and independent Prudence. The book details the period in Nicholas and Janes life when they take over a new parish in an (anonymous) English village and encounter the widower Fabian Driver, who Jane decides will make an excellent husband for Prudence. Prudence has an imponderable attraction to her older and completely impervious employer, the head of an unspecified academic foundation. There is, however, competition for Fabian - Miss Morrow, another spinster in the parish who seeks escape from her low-paid job as a companion to the domineering Miss Doggett. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=14560286 ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Kenneth Horne, Barbara Pym, Robert Burnell, Eliza Haywood, Richard Lee I, John Brunt, John Thynne, Hilda Murrell, Robert Corbet, Hugh Broughton, Mary Webb, George Shelvocke, John Audelay, Herbert Annesley Packer, Eglantyne Jebb, Humphrey Kynaston, Peter Lee, William Farr, Richard Allestree, Agnes Hunt, Thomas Hyde, William Sommers, Henry Maybury, Mary Esther Harding, Clopton Lloyd-Jones, Edward Lhuyd, Geoffrey Musson, Charles Pritchard, Di Jones, Edmund Plowden, Arthur Boucher, Sir Archibald Alison, 1st Baronet, William Cureton, Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies, Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, Walter Nugent Monck, Clement Edmondes, Edward Frederick, Edward Whalley-Tooker, Barry Driscoll, Benjamin Whichcote, Dave Pountney, James Evans, Bert Trentham, David Chilton Phillips, Fulk Fitzwarin, Gerry Harris, Anna Richardson, John Chetwynd, Samuel Lee, Thomas Bray, Thomas Rowley, Selby Clewer, Jason Barnett, Aubrey Scriven, John Hartley, Kim Hill, Marjorie Chibnall, John Robert Kenyon, Mary Barbara Bailey, Arthur Prince, William Laken, Andrew Downes, David Humphries, William Craven, 6th Baron Craven, Silvester Jenks, Anthony William Hall, Sophie Bould, Norman Jones, John Lloyd Dickin, John Slany, Robert Johnson, Colin Hemsley, David York, Maurice Stanbrough. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 255. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Robert Burnell (sometimes Robert Burnel) (c. 1239 25 October 1292) was an English bishop who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 12741292. A native of Shropshire, he served as a minor royal official before switching to the service of Prince Edward, the future King Edward I of England. When Edward went on Eighth Crusade in 1270, Burnell stayed in England to secure the prince's interests. He served as regent after the death of King Henry III of Englan...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=153669 ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Susan Blackmore, Barbara Pym, D. K. Broster, Susanna Clarke, Sheila Rowbotham, Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, Murder of Rachel Mclean, Susan Kramer, A. E. Levett, Wendy Cope, Meg Hillier, Kate Millett, Tsuda Umeko, Hermione Lee, Gillian Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold, Val Mcdermid, Zeinab Badawi, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Helen Gardner, Bettany Hughes, Kate Barker, Cecil Woodham-Smith, Betty Radice, Nicola Lefanu, Jacqueline Rose, Fiona Caldicott, Juliet E. Mckenna, Helen Jackson, Gillian Rose, Helen Williams, Lettice Curtis, Victoria Hislop, Gwenllian Lansdown, Rosalind Miles, Jenny Joseph, Angela Lambert, Sheila Forbes, Kate Fenton, Marilyn Butler, Ann Thwaite, Catherine Heath, Barbara Everett. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 153. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Susanna Mary Clarke (born 1 November 1959) is a British author best known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 2350 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Barbara Pym's affectionate irony.(Viewpoint essay)
Author: Betty Smartt Carter
Publication: First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 167Page: 9(3)

Article Type: Viewpoint essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Set of three paperback books By Barbara Pym ... Read more