The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One Quotes

“Actually he is a friend of Piers’s,’ I said. ‘Ah’ said Sybil, in a meaningful tone. I changed the subject, but when we were having dinner she brought it up again. ‘Wilmet has been entertaining a friend of Piers’s to tea,’ she said. ‘Really?’ said Rodney, in a not very interested tone. ‘Yes. I see now the clue to Piers’s lack of success in this world. I believe that he has loved not wisely but too well.’ ‘Mother, that’s such a hackneyed quotation, and it really tells one nothing. I suppose we’ve all of us done that in our time, if you come to think of it.’ I looked at Rodney in surprise. He so seldom indulged in these generalizations about love. I saw that he had gone a little pink. ‘Noddy, I think you misunderstand me,’ said Sybil.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“It was no doubt significant that Mary Beamish should have the novels of Miss Goudge while Piers had those of Miss Compton-Burnett,”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“The lesson started. We were to learn the subjunctive, and I found myself wondering whether I could take so kindly to the Portuguese now that I realized how often they seemed to use it. It seemed as if there were going to be a great many things I couldn’t possibly say.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“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.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“Men took themselves so seriously and seemed to insist on arguing even the most trivial points.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“when she thought it over, Jane decided that she was really much more like Emma Woodhouse.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“Later that evening, as we sat in the garden having drinks, I caught Harry looking at me with a kind of doggy devotion in his eyes. I leaned back in my chair, well satisfied, both with my drink in such pleasant surroundings and with his devotion. It seemed like a balm to heal the little wound inflicted by Piers’s unkindness.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“Piers was not to be considered at all, even had he been the kind of man who might marry.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“Miss Prideaux had a curious kind of fascination for me. The words ‘distressed gentlewoman’ always came into my mind when I thought of her, though the expression was not really accurate. She was undoubtedly a gentlewoman, but perhaps reduced circumstances described her position better than any phrase suggesting distress or decay. Indeed, I felt that the word ‘reduced’, with its culinary associations hinting at something that has been concentrated and enriched by the boiling away of unnecessary elements, gave a much truer picture.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“she might have wept had she not been past the age when one considers that weeping can do good or bring relief.”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence

“Oh”
― Barbara Pym, The Barbara Pym Collection Volume One: A Glass of Blessings / Some Tame Gazelle / and Jane and Prudence