Of whom is John Updike writing here?
"She writes thrillingly well, in lucid, balanced sentences that owe something to the scrupulous qualifications and dry moral vigilance of Henry James. She sees human beings, if one may generalize, as most active in their own behalfs, and the ruthless drive of her characters, as filtered through the rueful sensibility of one of her female observers, can shock us into laughter. She is, in the English tradition, a thoroughly social novelist, for whom there lies beyond the human spectacle nothing but death and scenery, yet she brings to the English scene an outsider's eye."
a. Anita Brookner
b. Margaret Drabble
c. Iris Murdoch
d. Barbara Pym
e. Virginia Woolf
More trivia...
"She writes thrillingly well, in lucid, balanced sentences that owe something to the scrupulous qualifications and dry moral vigilance of Henry James. She sees human beings, if one may generalize, as most active in their own behalfs, and the ruthless drive of her characters, as filtered through the rueful sensibility of one of her female observers, can shock us into laughter. She is, in the English tradition, a thoroughly social novelist, for whom there lies beyond the human spectacle nothing but death and scenery, yet she brings to the English scene an outsider's eye."
a. Anita Brookner
b. Margaret Drabble
c. Iris Murdoch
d. Barbara Pym
e. Virginia Woolf
More trivia...
Barbara Pym
author profile
born
June 02, 1913
died
January 11, 1980
gender
female
place of birth
Oswestry, Shropshire, The United Kingdom
website
genre
Humor, Literature & Fiction, Women & Gender Studies
influences
Aldous Huxley, Jane Austen
about this author
After studying English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, she served in the Women's Royal Naval Service during World War II.
The turning point for Pym came with a famous article in the Times Literary Supplement in which two prominent names, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin, nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Pym and Larkin had kept up a private correspondence over a period of many years. Her comeback novel, Quartet in Autumn, was nominated for the Booker Prize. Another novel, The Sweet Dove Died, previously rejected by many publishers, was subsequently published to critical acclaim, and several of her previously unpublished novels were published after her death.
Pym worked at the International A...more
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avg rating: 3.93
| 2,368 ratings
| 357 reviews
| 32 distinct works
|
27 fans
More books by Barbara Pym…
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Excellent Women by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.97 — 536 ratings — published 1952 16 editions |
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Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.93 — 203 ratings — published 1971 12 editions |
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Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym avg rating 4.01 — 191 ratings — published 1977 18 editions |
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Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.98 — 180 ratings — published 1976 12 editions |
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No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym avg rating 4.02 — 150 ratings — published 1979 14 editions |
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Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.86 — 140 ratings — published 1985 9 editions |
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An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.99 — 134 ratings — published 1982 15 editions |
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The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.94 — 130 ratings — published 1978 11 editions |
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A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.93 — 118 ratings — published 1981 8 editions |
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Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym avg rating 3.98 — 115 ratings — published 1955 12 editions |
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upcoming events
No scheduled events.
"Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink."
— Barbara Pym
— Barbara Pym
tags:
librarians
14 people liked it
"I stretched out my hand towards the little bookshelf where I kept cookery and devotional books, the most comfortable bedside reading."
— Barbara Pym (Excellent Women)
— Barbara Pym (Excellent Women)
tags:
reading
4 people liked it
"'Oh, this coming back to an empty house,' Rupert thought, when he had seen her safely up to her door. People - though perhaps it was only women - seemed to make so much of it. As if life itself were not as empty as the house one was coming back to."
— Barbara Pym (An Unsuitable Attachment)
— Barbara Pym (An Unsuitable Attachment)
tags:
loneliness
3 people liked it
topics mentioning this author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Next Best Boo...: Female author recommendations? | 73 | 379 | Feb 20, 2009 11:57AM |

































