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Excellent Women

Barbara Pym
A Glass of Blessings

Barbara Pym

Well dressed, well looked after, suitably husbanded, good looking and fairly young. Wilmet Forsyth is most, if not all of those things. No matter that Rodney, the handsome army major, working nine thirty to six at the Ministry, is slightly balder and fatter than he once was. Wilmet would like to think she has changed rather less.
No Fond Return of Love

Barbara Pym
Some Tame Gazelle

Barbara Pym

Barbara Pym is a master at capturing the subtle mayhem that takes place in the apparent quiet of the English countryside. Fifty-something sisters Harriet and Belinda Bede live a comfortable, settled existence. Belinda, the quieter of the pair, has for years been secretly in love with the town's pompous (and married) archdeacon, whose odd sermons leave members of his flock in muddled confusion. Harriet, meanwhile, a bubbly extrovert, fends off proposal after proposal of marriage. The arrival of Mr. Mold and Bishop Grote disturb the peace of the village and leave the sisters wondering if they'll ever return to the order of their daily routines. Some Tame Gazelle, first published in Britain nearly 50 years ago, was the first of Pym's nine novels.
Jane and Prudence

Barbara Pym

Middle-aged Jane is the well-intentioned but far from perfect clergyman's wife and mother. Prudence, who at 29 is teetering at the edge of spinsterhood, is an attractive, educated working girl. The two best friends share memories of their carefree days at Oxford, leisurely lunches, and gossip, but their ultimate goal is to find a suitable mate for Prudence.
An Unsuitable Attachment

Barbara Pym

An Unsuitable Attachment is set in a parish outside of London. There the novel's "unattached" characters work out a confusing web of matchmaking and forming attachments. A new eligible bachelor in the neighborhood, Rupert Stonebird, finds himself choosing between two very different women.
Sophie, the wife of the Vicar of St. Basil, becomes determined to match her sister Penelope with Rupert, a plan that would seem to work well until a graceful and quite suitable Iantha Broome also becomes a member of the community. As Rupert grapples with courting either Penelope or Iantha, Iantha finds herself with two more suitors. This elegant novel will keep readers enthralled as unsuitable and suitable attachments unfold.
Sweet Dove Died

Barbara Pym

A chance encounter over a Victorian flower book brings together Humphrey, an antiques dealer, his nephew James, and Leonora. Although she is considerably older, Leonora develops a fondness for James. She also knows that Humphrey has feelings for her. Leonora is determined to keep James under her spell until she realises that she has to contend with the bookish Phoebe. Then Ned, a wicked young American, appears on the scene. Readers of Barbara Pym's earlier novels will find her wit and observation as sharp as ever.
Less Than Angels

Barbara Pym
A Few Green Leaves

Barbara Pym

Completed barely two months before her death, Pym's last novel is an incisive and wry portrait of life in an English village in Oxfordshire. It is also certain to be considered by many her masterwork.
In A Few Green Leaves the author combines the rural setting of her earliest novels with many of the themes--and even some characters--of her later ones. Switching points of view among many characters, she builds with accumulating effect the picture of life in a town forgotten by time yet affected dramatically by it. Historical time--represented by Druid ruins, the local eighteenth-century country manor, and the last aristocrats who occupied it in the 1920's--is juxtaposed against the banalities of life in today's world.
Quartet in Autumn

Barbara Pym
Crampton Hodnet

Barbara Pym

Unsuitable romance is the theme of this wickedly comedic novel. A series of entanglements brings together an odd assortment of characters - clergymen, university dons, naive students, and academic hangers-on - with hilarious results.
Civil to Strangers

Barbara Pym

This novel originally called Adam and Cassandra was written in 1936 about the time of SOME TAME GAZELLE, when Pym was in her 20's. CIVIL TO STRANGERS takes place in small Shropshire village. The charm of Budapest and a Hungarian by the name of Stefan Tilos find there way into this quiet novel. The people of the Shropshire village are forever changed by his influence.
A Very Private Eye

Barbara Pym
An Academic Question

Barbara Pym
A Very Private Eye (Panther Books)

Barbara Pym, Hilary Pym
The Barbara Pym Cookbook: 2

Barbara Pym, Wyatt
Civil to Strangers and Other Writings

Barbara Pym
A Few Green Leaves

Barbara Pym
A Glass for Beginners

Barbara Pym