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114th out of 187 books
—
30 voters
Jane and Prudence
by
Barbara Pym
This early novel by Barbara Pym captures the charm and folly of English middle-class life. The two title characters share a devoted friendship based on memories of Oxford school days, poetry and their neighbors' private affairs- all discussed over leisurely lunches. And they share a common goal: finding a suitable mate for Prudence.
Paperback, 222 pages
Published
September 1st 1999
by Moyer Bell
(first published 1953)
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Pym writes loneliness, the urban/modern condition, and humanity’s oft mistaken attempts at communication and companionship very well. Given that her characters are generally overlooked middle-aged people clinging quietly but desperately to a pretense of gentility, one might assume her stories are unhappy. Of course parts of them are, but I get the feeling that her characters are happier by the end of her novels than at the start. They definitely progress, toward intimacy with another person(s) o...more
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British author Barbara Pym is a treasure. Initially, her books seem like dry, straight-forward accounts of spinsters and ministers' wives. Very civilized and detailed, the plots weave in and out of the different characters' thoughts as they unfold.
Set close to the WWII period, this book was seemingly paced more slowly within a more simple world. The heroines and friends, Jane and Prudence are both warped as they struggle to adapt to an environment that just doesn't fit....
Sly, subtle writing....more
Set close to the WWII period, this book was seemingly paced more slowly within a more simple world. The heroines and friends, Jane and Prudence are both warped as they struggle to adapt to an environment that just doesn't fit....
Sly, subtle writing....more
This is the first book I've read by Pym and on that basis alone, I will say she is in the tradition of Jane Austen (the main character's Emma Woodhouse comment acknowledges this), Trollope (whom the character Jane is a reader of) and even Gaskell's Cranford. While reading, I also couldn't help but compare Pym to her contemporary, Muriel Spark. But what a contrast that is -- while Spark mercilessly spears us with her stiletto (yeah, too much alliteration), Pym very gently skewers us.
I loved the c...more
I loved the c...more
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20. JANE AND PRUDENCE. (1953). Barbara Pym. ****+.
This is another early novel by Ms. Pym that features another “excellent woman” as one of the principal characters – Jane. Jane is married to a clergyman who is soon assigned to a church in a village just beyond London. Jane is sorry to give up her London residence and her close proximity to Prudence, a younger woman who is still unmarried, though she has managed to accumulate a number of ‘romances.’ Jane immediately falls into the role of a mini...more
This is another early novel by Ms. Pym that features another “excellent woman” as one of the principal characters – Jane. Jane is married to a clergyman who is soon assigned to a church in a village just beyond London. Jane is sorry to give up her London residence and her close proximity to Prudence, a younger woman who is still unmarried, though she has managed to accumulate a number of ‘romances.’ Jane immediately falls into the role of a mini...more
After less than ten pages I found myself chuckling more than once on each page, the dialogue, both internal and interpersonal, is so droll and delightfully dated, so incisive and mannered, yet at the same time so fresh and honest. Pym has an acute ear for both the commonplace and the minutely particular. Very witty, indeed. And the entertainment never flagged.
Jane is the 41-year-old former Oxford tutor now married happily to an Anglican clergyman; she is a less than ideal clergyman’s wife, howev...more
Jane is the 41-year-old former Oxford tutor now married happily to an Anglican clergyman; she is a less than ideal clergyman’s wife, howev...more
I've been reading Barbara Pym's books in order, so this is our third. :) I wasn't quite as smitten with it as with Some Tame Gazelle and Excellent Women--it seemed somehow to lack some vim . . . not that "vim" is an idea you'd associate with any of her books, but still.
Jane and Prudence seemed somewhat of a more bitter book than the first two, and there was definitely a stronger, more unhappy current of feminism running through it. The first two books seemed to say, "Oh, those dear boys, what wo...more
Jane and Prudence seemed somewhat of a more bitter book than the first two, and there was definitely a stronger, more unhappy current of feminism running through it. The first two books seemed to say, "Oh, those dear boys, what wo...more
Funny, sharp, utterly unsentimental: all good things. Two intelligent, well-educated women in postwar England without very much to do with their intelligence or their education. Of the two title characters, Jane is the more likeable, if likeability matters to you. She's entering middle age, adjusting herself to the idea that this is her life--wife to a country vicar, mother to a young woman just heading off to Oxford (where her mother also attended and was briefly a tutor at the women's college,...more
Jane and Prudence, by Barbara Pym.
This is the second Pym book I have read (the first was Excellent Women), and I liked this one much more than the other. Jane is a country minister’s wife, who met Prudence, who is younger and single, when she was her tutor at Oxford. Prudence is adjusting to life in a new village where her husband has taken the pulpit. She is completely flummoxed as to how one makes her way among the people she finds are her neighbors. She also worries about Prudence, who works...more
This is the second Pym book I have read (the first was Excellent Women), and I liked this one much more than the other. Jane is a country minister’s wife, who met Prudence, who is younger and single, when she was her tutor at Oxford. Prudence is adjusting to life in a new village where her husband has taken the pulpit. She is completely flummoxed as to how one makes her way among the people she finds are her neighbors. She also worries about Prudence, who works...more
Barbara Pym can be hilarious, and give you the kind of laughs that makes you feel you are sharing a delicious secret or a furtive observation with someone, so that makes reading her a lot of fun. I didn't enjoy this one as much as I did the excellent "Excellent Women" though -- maybe I read it too close on the heels of the earlier novel, and they are very similar. Her characters make you want to follow them anywhere -- even to gritty tea shops on the platform of some suburban train station or a...more
Published in 1953 when Pym was at the height of her powers, here we find two old friends from their Oxford days; Jane - a vicar's wife - and Prudence - single, beautiful, and infatuated with the distracted academic she works for. This is a woman's world, as Jane thinks early in the novel, and men are really there as a backdrop. Here we have the spotless dialogue, the sly humour, the sharply drawn little world that Pym both knew and created so exquisitely. Jane wants to find Prudence a husband, a...more
I enjoyed this one very much; my favorite so far among the Barbara Pym's I've been rereading. Jane and Prudence were friends at Oxford, although Jane is older and was a mentor to Prudence. Jane is the wife of an Anglican clergyman, but doesn't fit well into that role, and Prudence works at a dull job in a London office. Most of the story is set in the small village near London where Jane's husband has recently become the vicar, and the depictions of the people living in the village are typical P...more
This book had many of the same characters and the same setting as Crampton Hodnet. The story and characters were just as witty and real, however, I found it didn't have so many of the great little asides and observations as Crampton Hodnet, and the ending left me a bit unsatisfied. I could so relate to one of the main characters, Jane. She is a clegymans wife who was a literary major in college, wrote a book about 17th century poetry, and had no idea how to deal with a household, cooking, cleani...more
I love Barbara Pym. She tells everyday stories with humor and feeling." Jane and Prudence" is about 2 friends who have chosen different paths in relationships.
Jane is the older, married to a clergyman yet finds herself not quite the ideal wife of a minister. She tends to say what comes to mind, not necessarily thinking first. Her domestic skills are nonexistent. Her clothing is dowdy and old fashioned. Although she sees that her relationship with her husband isn't all she hoped, she loves him a...more
Jane is the older, married to a clergyman yet finds herself not quite the ideal wife of a minister. She tends to say what comes to mind, not necessarily thinking first. Her domestic skills are nonexistent. Her clothing is dowdy and old fashioned. Although she sees that her relationship with her husband isn't all she hoped, she loves him a...more
Barbara Pym is a must-read for any Jane Austen fans that are looking for a similar wit and even subject matter (choosing eligible suitors, the trapped feeling in small communities, etc.), but doesn't mind a less-happy or even downright unhappy ending and quite a lot of church talk. I enjoyed this book but, having come to it after reading the excellent Excellent Women, I could see it was not her best work. Still, I could identify with a number of the characters' worries and liked the way that the...more
Jane (age 41) and Prudence (age 29) have been friends since their days at Oxford , where Jane tutored Prudence. Jane is now married to a clergyman, recently assigned to a country parish, to the delight of Jane’s Victorian-novel-fueled imagination; Prudence is a career woman in London.
As with the others of Pym’s I’ve read, the plot meanders while poking gentle, often sly, fun at church & society, gender roles, and love affairs in 1950s Britain.
At first , I didn’t like this book as much as Exc...more
As with the others of Pym’s I’ve read, the plot meanders while poking gentle, often sly, fun at church & society, gender roles, and love affairs in 1950s Britain.
At first , I didn’t like this book as much as Exc...more
Jane and Prudence, two women a decade apart, completely different lives as well as personalities , are best of friends. Thirtyish Prudence, a London resident and office worker has spent her adult life living (and suffering) through romantic relationships, while middle-age Jane is the forgetful mildly scatterbrained sometimes meddling wife of an Anglican country clergyman. This book is about relationships, personalities and promises that "We have many more evenings before us if we want them" Pym...more
Jan 14, 2013
Valerie
added it
This was one of my vacation books and part of the Barbara Pym marathon I've been on since reading Quartet in Autumn for book group. Here we meet Jane, a forty-ish country' clergyman's wife with a literature degree from Oxford, and Prudence (Pru) a young friend whom Jane met while tutoring at Oxford. Pru is single but has had a series of affairs with married men. Neither woman has lived up to her younger aspirations, but neither is unhappy either. This is a fun and funny book about country manner...more
Favorite sentences:
"I should have liked the kind of life where one ate food flavored with garlic, but it was not to be."
"Prudence thanked him, experiencing that feeling of contrition which comes to all of us when we have made up our minds to dislike people for no apparent reason and they then perform some kind action."
"The food wasn't even particularly good; it seemed that Jane would stop to admire a smoked salmon in a window or a terrine of foie gras, but in the abstract, as it were; her own ca...more
"I should have liked the kind of life where one ate food flavored with garlic, but it was not to be."
"Prudence thanked him, experiencing that feeling of contrition which comes to all of us when we have made up our minds to dislike people for no apparent reason and they then perform some kind action."
"The food wasn't even particularly good; it seemed that Jane would stop to admire a smoked salmon in a window or a terrine of foie gras, but in the abstract, as it were; her own ca...more
Jun 01, 2012
Kirsty
added it
Started reading this book, moved on to others and finally completed a month or two later. Enjoyed the second half more than the first, but not sure if that's the book or me. I had recently read 'Excellent Women' and 'Some Tame Gazelle' so may be too much Pym in a sort time?? Overall, I liked it, but not as much as the other two Pym novels I've read. I think the oft repeated criticism of Jane for not being the perfect housewife grated a bit - partly for obvious feminist reasons, but perhaps i'm t...more
Really enjoyed this, more than Excellent Women (the only other Pym I've read). She's just so good at observations -- the office scenes in which Prudence's co-workers discuss in great detail what time they arrived at work and debate about making the tea are perfect -- and some of Jane's lines -- “Prudence's flat was in the kind of block where Jane imagined people might be found dead, though she had never said this to Prudence herself" -- are wonderful. As with Excellent Women, there are a lot of...more
I am giving this book three stars because it was well written. Other than that, it wasn't that great. I laughed a few times but I thought the lives of the women so depressing! I wanted to smack Jane upside the head for being such an idiot. Oh, she drove me crazy, I felt like yelling for somebody to PLEASE give that lady something to do! She needs some purpose in her life instead of walking around like an idiot. After reading this I don't want anybody to mention tea to me for a while. Holy cow,...more
Another fine offering in the vein of Excellent Women, Jane and Prudence is the story of two friends with very different lives. They met when Jane was Prudence’s tutor in college; Jane now wants to find a husband for Prudence.
Both women are smart, but they have vastly different experiences with the opposite sex. Jane is married to a clergyman and bored senseless; Prudence is single and has carried on a series of love affairs.
When Jane tries her hand at matchmaking, the village’s handsome widower...more
Both women are smart, but they have vastly different experiences with the opposite sex. Jane is married to a clergyman and bored senseless; Prudence is single and has carried on a series of love affairs.
When Jane tries her hand at matchmaking, the village’s handsome widower...more
I loved Excellent Women when I read it several years ago. Today I read about the Barbara Pym Society, which is getting together for an annual convention of sorts in the near future. Perry Klass is going to give a talk about the role of whiskey in Pym's work! She has undergone some kind of resurgence, perhaps to honor one of her death anniversaries in recent years? Anyway, reading about the society inspired me to add another one of her books to my list.
Now that I have finished Jane and Prudence...more
Now that I have finished Jane and Prudence...more
Jane and Prudence have been friends since they were at Oxford together, when Prudence was a student there and Jane was her tutor. Jane's husband is a curate, and they have recently transferred to a village parish, where Jane expects life will be more bucolic, in a pastoral poem sort of way--certainly more so than the suburban parish they have left behind. But people are people wherever you go, and Jane, moreover, isn't particularly good at being a curate's wife; she has no talent (or patience) f...more
The Barbara Pym Society of North America will focus their meeting this year in March (2012) on Jane and Prudence. If you can make it, sign up and I’d love to meet you at Harvard, Cambridge, MA.
The one thing I know about this work and all of Ms Pym’s work is that I’ve missed bucket loads of information. Books such as this one and all that I’ve read so far of Ms Pym cry out for group readings. Women need to gather round and well-rounded men, who love women, need to pick up these books.
A clergyman...more
i didn't laugh as much or get as attached to the characters here as i did in some tame gazelle, but i'm still really into barbara pym. i have a better sense now as to why i find her so oddly comforting to read. her characters all lead mundane lives, seem to be stuck in ruts, and frequently recognize that their lives aren't what they'd imagined they'd be when they were younger. it's really pathetic and sad in moments. but sad in a recognizable and familiar way - and honestly, that's part of what...more
Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates first knew one another at Oxford, Jane some years older than Prudence had once been her tutor. Now Jane is married to Nicholas an Anglian clergyman and has a daughter also bound for Oxford. Prudence, however an attractive twenty nine year old is still a spinster. Jane and her family move to a new country parish, where Jane with her odd clothes and her wry view of life has to play a part she feels vaguely unequal to. Her husband’s predecessor and his wife were re...more
Brilliant.
Quotations:
“The lump in Prudence’s throat made it difficult for her to speak, but she managed to offer to change places so that the man and woman could be at the same table. They thanked her and the change was made. Prudence sat for the rest of the meal, listening to her neighbors’ conversation, her eyes full of tears. Disliking humanity in general, she was one of those excessively tender-hearted people who are greatly moved by the troubles of complete strangers, in which she sometimes...more
Quotations:
“The lump in Prudence’s throat made it difficult for her to speak, but she managed to offer to change places so that the man and woman could be at the same table. They thanked her and the change was made. Prudence sat for the rest of the meal, listening to her neighbors’ conversation, her eyes full of tears. Disliking humanity in general, she was one of those excessively tender-hearted people who are greatly moved by the troubles of complete strangers, in which she sometimes...more
There's something quietly lovely about a Barbara Pym novel. It's a perfect rainy day read, as you imagine yourself in England... if you have a large chintz armchair, all the better. And while I don't think you need to adore Jane Austen in order to enjoy Barbara Pym, it probably helps, though there's something a little darker and more melancholy in Pym.
Jane and Prudence unsurprisingly deals with two Englishwomen named Jane and Prudence. (As a result, I was singing "Dear Prudence" over the three o...more
Jane and Prudence unsurprisingly deals with two Englishwomen named Jane and Prudence. (As a result, I was singing "Dear Prudence" over the three o...more
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| how to live your life | 2 | 13 | Oct 17, 2009 06:15pm |
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 o...more
More about Barbara Pym...
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 o...more
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