New Releases by Barbara Pym

Quattro ritratti cesellati alla perfezione «Per la levità della pagina, lo scavo psicologico, l'ironia impeccabile della scrittura, Barbara Pym è stata definita la ‘Jane Austen del nostro tempo'.» Laura Lilli, la Repubblica «Senza dubbio il miglior romanzo di Barbara Pym, maestra induscussa di stile, di ironia e di scavo psicologico.» The Evening Standard Letty, Marcia, Edwin e Norman sono colleghi d’ufficio da molto tempo, ma le loro vite si sono sfiorate senza mai incrociarsi davvero. Eppure, ormai prossimo all’autunno della vita, questo quartetto si scopre unito: da un passato doloroso – la guerra –, da un presente che non capiscono – la Londra del rock ’n’ roll e delle minigonne – e da un futuro breve e probabilmente non roseo. Ognuno reagisce a proprio modo al cambiamento – Letty immagina di trasferirsi in campagna, Marcia accentua le sue pose eccentriche, Edwin confida nella religione e Norman si abbandona al sarcasmo – quasi senza rendersi conto che, in realtà, ogni loro gesto è un modo per tenere aperta la porta alla speranza. Perché “la vita ha ancora in serbo infinite occasioni di cambiamento” se si ha il coraggio, o la follia, di cercarle. Con questi quattro ritratti perfetti, cesellati come miniature, e uniti da un tema attualissimo – la ribellione alla solitudine – Barbara Pym si conferma una delle autrici più sensibili e intense del Novecento.

Barbara Pym escribió Cuarteto de otoño sin grandes esperanzas de que viera la luz. Llevaba tiempo sin publicar, al considerar sus editores que había quedado anclada en un costumbrismo apolillado y poco comercial. Después de que el poeta Philip Larkin y el crítico lord David Cecil reivindicaran su valía, Pym encontró editor para este libro, que resultó finalista del Premio Booker en 1977 y la consagró como una de las autoras inglesas más leídas y queridas del siglo XX. Los protagonistas de esta novela trabajan en la misma oficina y afrontan el otoño de su vida sumidos en la soledad. Letty se va a jubilar sin haber encontrado el amor. Marcia tiene un carácter excéntrico y hosco, cualidades que se han acentuado desde que le practicaron una mastectomía. Edwin es un viudo obsesionado con asistir a ceremonias religiosas, y Norman un misántropo muy dado al sarcasmo. Todos viven suspendidos entre sus recuerdos de la guerra, un presente que no comprenden —el Londres del rock and roll y la minifalda— y un futuro lúgubre. Todos se obstinan, sin embargo, en encontrar la esperanza en una sociedad que les da la espalda o se apiada de ellos. Cuarteto de otoño es un estudio sutil de la soledad en la edad tardía, el retrato de cuatro vidas humildes pero dignas de atención, pese a no tener, como advierte Letty, «ningún interés para los escritores de narrativa contemporánea». La crítica ha dicho «Una sobria obra maestra sobre la soledad después de la jubilación.» Telegraph «Sin duda la mejor novela de Barbara Pym.» Evening Standard «El tibio sol de Inglaterra ilumina estas páginas.» El Confidencial

Teinté d'humour et d'ironie, paru en Angleterre en 1950 et chez Fayard en 1989, le premier roman de la grande Barbara Pym chronique délicieusement les intrigues d'une paroisse faussement paisible, qui fleure bon la campagne anglaise... Le nouveau vicaire semblait être un jeune homme très convenable, mais quel dommage que l'on vît, dès qu'il s'asseyait, le bas de ses caleçons longs négligemment fourrés dans ses chaussettes ! Belinda l'avait déjà remarqué lors de leur première rencontre au presbytère la semaine précédente, et en avait été fort gênée. Peut-être Harriet pourrait-elle lui en toucher un mot ; avec ses manières enjouées et sa franchise, elle parvenait toujours mieux que la timide Belinda à expliquer aux gens ces petits détails embarrassants. Les sœurs Bede vivent une existence tranquille et prospère. Volubile et coquette, Harriet voue un culte sans limite aux nouveaux vicaires ; timide et rêveuse, Belinda nourrit une passion pour l'archidiacre Hoccleve. Mais le quotidien de ces demoiselles pourrait bien être chamboulé par la venue d'un fameux bibliothécaire et d'un évêque africain...

Cassandra Marsh-Gibbon, la protagonista de Extranjeros, bienvenidos, es una de las primeras «mujeres excelentes» que tan bien supo retratar Barbara Pym. Cassandra lleva una vida de provincias sometida a los caprichos y delirios de grandeza de Adam, su marido escritor, quien, por si fuera poco, puede dedicarse a la vida de literato gracias a las rentas de su esposa. Pero este matrimonio asimétrico se ve sacudido por la llegada de Stefan Tilos, un húngaro misterioso y de aire romántico que se enamorará de Cassandra y la colmará de atenciones. La figura del extranjero encarnará para ella la posibilidad de romper con su monótona existencia y confirmar, así, las hipócritas, y, acaso, proféticas, palabras de su marido: «¿Sabes que para mí eres mucho más que una excelente ama de casa?». El presente volumen incluye «En busca de una voz: una charla radiofónica», una grabación, realizada por la BBC —emitida en Radio 3 el 4 de abril de 1978—, que nos da las claves de la personalidad literaria de una escritora imprescindible, señalada por Philip Larkin y el crítico lord David Cecil como una de las figuras más importantes de la literatura inglesa de la segunda mitad del siglo xx.

Two literary romantic novels from the New York Times–bestselling author of Excellent Women. Less Than Angels: In a story that explores the mating habits of humans, magazine writer Catherine Oliphant lives comfortably with anthropologist Tom Mallow—until he announces he''s leaving her for a nineteen-year-old student. Though stunned by the betrayal, Catherine becomes fascinated by another anthropologist: a reclusive eccentric recently returned from Africa. Now Catherine must weigh her options and decide who she is and what she really wants. No Fond Return of Love: The course of true love does not run smoothly in this delightful comedy of manners set in 1960s London. Jilted by her fiancé, Dulcie Mainwaring gives up on ever finding true love. Of course, that doesn''t stop her from meddling in the romantic lives of others. Her friend Viola is enamored with a handsome editor, who in turn has eyes for Dulcie''s young niece. Dulcie, meanwhile, for all her struggles may be falling back into love again.

Three comedies of manners set in postwar England by the New York Times–bestselling author of Excellent Women and "the rarest of treasures" (Anne Tyler). Often characterized as the twentieth-century literary heiress to Jane Austen, and heralded by Phillip Larkin as "the most underrated novelist of the century," Barbara Pym explored female friendship and the quiet yearnings of British middle-class life—not the least of which, unrequited love—with sharp wit and deep compassion for her characters. No wonder Eudora Welty called her work "sheer delight" and the New York Times raved, "her entire canon is a treat." A Glass of Blessings: Wilmet Forsyth is bored with her everyday routine: teatimes, local gossip, even with her husband, Rodney, a civil servant who dotes on her. But Wilmet''s conventional life takes a turn when she runs into the enigmatic brother of a close friend. Piers Longridge is a mystery Wilmet is determined to solve. Driven by a fantasy of romance, the sheltered, naïve Englishwoman sets out to seduce Piers—only to discover that he isn''t the man she thinks he is. Some Tame Gazelle: Pym''s debut novel invites readers to "step into the Jane Austen–like lives of Harriet and Belinda Bede," sisters who live together in a small English village ( The Christian Science Monitor). Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with the married archdeacon of their church for thirty years. Meanwhile Belinda''s more confident younger sister, Harriet, is herself pursued by an Italian count whose proposals of marriage are always graciously declined. But it''s a new arrival in their midst who has everyone talking. For now, in this poignant novel of unrequited love, that is enough. Jane and Prudence: Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates were friends at Oxford, but now lead very different lives. Jane is married to a vicar in a proper English parish with a daughter she adores. Prudence lives in London, career-minded and fiercely independent—until Jane decides she should be married. Jane has the perfect husband in mind. What follows is a delightfully trenchant story of manners, morals, family, and female bonding that redefines the social novel for a new generation.

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure.'' Jilly Cooper ‘Could one write a book based on one’s diaries over thirty years? I certainly have enough material,’ wrote Barbara Pym. This book, selected from the diaries, notebooks and letters of this much loved novelist to form a continuous narrative, is indeed a unique autobiography, providing a privileged insight into a writer’s mind. Philip Larkin wrote that Barbara Pym had ‘a unique eye and ear for the small poignancies of everyday life’. Her autobiography amply demonstrates this, as it traces her life from exuberant times at Oxford in the thirties, through the war when, scarred by an unhappy love affair, she joined the WRNS, to the published novelist of the fifties. It also deals with the long period when her novels were out of fashion and no one would publish them, her rediscovering in 1977, and the triumphant success of her last few years. It is now possible to describe a place, situation or person as ‘very Barbara Pym’. A Very Private Eye, at once funny and moving, shows the variety and depth of her own story.

Miss Morrow is content in her position as spinster companion to Miss Doggett, even if her employer and the woman s social circle regard her as a piece of furniture. Stephen Latimer, the new cleric and Miss Doggett s dashing new tenant, upsets the balance for Miss Morrow by proposing the long discounted possibility of marriage.

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure.'' Jilly Cooper Barbara Pym was an incomparable chronicler of ordinary, quiet lives. With warmth, humour, precision and great vividness, she gave her best characters an independent life we recognise as totally familiar. In A Few Green Leaves, her last novel, her heroine is Emma Howick, anthropologist. Through her eyes Barbara Pym examines in her own ironic and individual style the quiet revolution in English village life, combining the rural settings of her earliest novels with the themes and characters of her later works. The result is a compelling portrait of a town that seems to be forgotten by time, but which is unmistakably affected by it. Romance shares the pages with death in this engaging novel that is the culmination of Barbara Pym''s acclaimed writing career. ''I could go on reading her for ever'' A L Rowse, Punch ''A vivid sense of how we live now'' New Statesman ''Her sense of brilliant comedy is a direct inheritance from Jane Austen'' Hibernia ''A beautifully written, very delicate comedy'' The Times Literary Supplement

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure.'' Jilly Cooper Between the amorous antique dealer Humphrey and his good-looking nephew James glides the magnificent Leonora, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. Can she keep James in her thrall? Or will he be taken from her by a lover, like Phoebe . . . or Ned, the wicked American? ''A highly distinctive and - ultimately - charitable novel'' Financial Times ''Faultless'' Guardian ''Her Characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly'' Observer ''A coldly funny book'' Sunday Telegraph ''Highly distinctive . . . the critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym''s too long neglected gifts have not been wrong'' Financial Times

The author of Excellent Women explores female friendship and the quiet yearnings of British middle-class life—a literary delight for fans of Jane Austen. Jane Cleveland and Prudence Bates were close friends at Oxford University, but now live very different lives. Forty-one-year-old Jane lives in the country, is married to a vicar, has a daughter she adores, and lives a very proper life in a very proper English parish. Prudence, a year shy of thirty, lives in London, has an office job, and is self-sufficient and fiercely independent—until Jane decides her friend should be married. Jane has the perfect husband in mind for her former pupil: a widower named Fabian Driver. But there are other women vying for Fabian''s attention. And Pru is nursing her own highly inappropriate desire for her older, married, and seemingly oblivious employer, Dr. Grampian. What follows is a witty, delightful, trenchant story of manners, morals, family, and female bonding that redefines the social novel for a new generation.

Three lonely people come together in this poignant, witty novel of star-crossed romance from the New York Times–bestselling author of Jane and Prudence. After being jilted by her fiancé, Dulcie Mainwaring despairs of ever finding true love. For a distraction, she goes to a publishing conference, where she meets Viola Dace, a dramatic woman who refuses to live without romance, as well as Aylwin Forbes, an editor whom Viola adores. The fact that Aylwin is married doesn''t stop Viola. When her amorous pursuit prompts Aylwin''s wife to leave him, the academic heartthrob is wide open to Viola''s romantic attentions. That is, until Dulcie''s eighteen-year-old niece moves in with Viola, and the young girl soon catches Aylwin''s roving eye. Set in London in the early 1960s, No Fond Return of Love is a delightful comedy of manners that comes full circle as Dulcie discovers a love as unexpected as it is liberating.

Barbara Pym''s early novel takes us into 1950s England, as seen through the funny, engaging, yearning eyes of a restless housewife Wilmet Forsyth is bored. Bored with the everyday routine of her life. Bored with teatimes filled with local gossip. Bored with her husband, Rodney, a civil servant who dotes on her. But on her thirty-third birthday, Wilmet''s conventional life takes a turn when she runs into the handsome brother of her close friend. Attractive and enigmatic, Piers Longridge is a mystery Wilmet is determined to solve. Rather than settling down, he lived in Portugal, then returned to England for a series of odd jobs. Driven by a fantasy of romance, the sheltered, naïve Englishwoman sets out to seduce Piers—only to discover that he isn''t the man she thinks he is. As cozy as sharing a cup of tea with an old friend, A Glass of Blessings explores timeless themes of sex, marriage, religion, and friendship while exposing our flaws and foibles with wit, compassion, and a generous helping of love.

A tale of a woman''s romantic entanglements with two anthropologists—and the odd mating habits of humans—from the author of Jane and Prudence. Catherine Oliphant writes for women''s magazines and lives comfortably with anthropologist Tom Mallow—although she''s starting to wonder if they''ll ever get married. Then Tom drops his bombshell: He''s leaving her for a nineteen-year-old student. Though stunned by Tom''s betrayal, Catherine quickly becomes fascinated by another anthropologist, Alaric Lydgate, a reclusive eccentric recently returned from Africa. As Catherine starts to weigh her options, she must figure out who she is and what she really wants. With a lively cast of characters and a witty look at the insular world of academia, this novel from the much-loved author of Excellent Women and other modern classics is filled with poignant, playful observations about the traits that separate us from our anthropological forebears—far fewer than we may imagine.

A novel of two sisters in postwar England that lets you "step into the Jane Austen–like lives of Harriet and Belinda Bede" ( The Christian Science Monitor). Belinda and Harriet Bede live together in a small English village. Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with Henry Hoccleve—the poetry-spouting, married archdeacon of their church—for thirty years. Belinda''s much more confident, forthright younger sister Harriet, meanwhile, is ardently pursued by Count Ricardo Bianco. Although she has turned down every marriageable man who proposes, Harriet still welcomes any new curate with dinner parties and flirtatious conversation. And one of the newest arrivals, the reverend Edgar Donne, has everyone talking. A warm, affectionate depiction of a postwar English village, Some Tame Gazelle perfectly captures the quotidian details that make up everyday life. With its vibrant supporting cast, it''s also a poignant story of unrequited love.

" Avec la discrète Barbara Pym, nous voici au cœur de l'Angleterre : villages écologiques, églises anglicanes hantées par de ténébreux pasteurs à marier et par de malicieuses bigotes, ventes de charité où l'on papote et l'on médit et l'on s'épie, salons de thé, bibliothèques, associations universitaires. Et sur tout le monde, la romancière jette un regard ironique et faussement naïf qui ébranle soigneusement les valeurs les plus solides d'une société sclérosée, un regard impitoyable : celui d'une ethnologue. " " Des dialogues sans arrêt, très britanniques, l'air de ne pas y toucher. Barbara Pym a une prédilection pour le petit fait vrai. "

“The finest introduction to Barbara Pym” (The New York Times): a hilarious comedy of manners by the shrewdly observant British novelist often compared to Jane Austen One of Barbara Pym’s richest and most amusing high comedies, Excellent Women has at its center Mildred Lathbury, a clergyman’s daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those “excellent women,” the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors—anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door—the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

"Fidèle à son talent de romancière qui jauge le pouls de la petite société anglaise conventionnelle, Barbara Pym (1913-1980) brosse dans ce roman le portrait-aquarelle de Wilmet Forsyth, une bourgeoise oisive qui doute. Mariée à un haut fonctionnaire terne, Wilmet passe son temps en shoppings peu excitants, bonnes oeuvres paroissiales, papotages avec de sages vieilles filles. Dans Une corne d'abondance, la romancière montre, avec un brio particulier dans les dialogues, l'échec d'une vie douillette avec des accents amers et résignés."

Shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize This is the story of four people in late middle-age - Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia - whose chief point of contact is that they work in the same office and they suffer the same problem - loneliness. Lovingly, poignantly, satirically and with much humour, Pym conducts us through their small lives and the facade they erect to defend themselves against the outside world. There is nevertheless an obstinate optimism in her characters, allowing them in their different ways to win through to a kind of hope. Barbara Pym''s sensitive wit and artistry are at their most sparkling in "Quartet in Autumn". "An exquisite, even magnificent work of art" - Observer "''Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviour" - The Times "The wit and style of a twentieth century Jane Austen" - Harpers & Queen "Barbara Pym''s unpretentious, subtle, accomplished novels are for me the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past 75 years ...spectacular" - Sunday Times "Very funny and keenly observant of the ridiculous as well as the pathetic in humanity" - Financial Times

"Des femmes remarquables passe, en Angleterre, pour l'un des meilleurs crus, et à juste titre. Mildred Lathbury, qui s'épuise elle-même par son excès de vertu et contemple avec consternation les reflets gris et ternes que lui renvoient les miroirs du presbytère trop assidûment fréquenté, est l'un des personnages paradoxalement les plus réussis de Barbara Pym. Son drame ? Etre une chic fille qui sait prêter aux autres une oreille trop aisément compatissante et qui a toujours une bouilloire sur le feu pour le thé quand on sonne à sa porte." René de Ceccatty. Le Monde.

" Barbara Pym ne s'est jamais cassé la tête pour trouver un sujet ! Tous ses romans portent sur le même thème : la vie d'une vieille fille à Londres ou en province, qui partage son existence entre les kermesses et l'église. On pourrait se lasser. On retrouve pourtant toujours avec le même plaisir les livres de cet auteur anglais. Et le dernier paru en français Une Demoiselle comme il faut se révèle " pymissime ". " Tribune de Genève, 25 août 1989.

When Pym died in 1980, she left behind unpublished manuscripts in various stages of completion. This volume brings us the last complete novel, portions of three others, four short stories, and an autobiographical essay.

Minutieux et tendrement ironique, ce récit d'une amitié entre une femme de pasteur et son élève, une jeune célibataire en quête de mari, constitue une lecture très agréable.