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.

En modern klassiker av en efterkrigstidens Jane Austen Mildred Lathbury är en av många »förträffliga kvinnor«. Hon är i trettioårsåldern, ogift, intelligent och självständig, »i stånd att klara upp de flesta situationer här i livet - födelse, giftermål, död, framgångsrika loppmarknader, trädgårdsfester som regnade bort...« Hennes nya glamourösa grannar, herr och fru Napier, genomlever en äktenskapskris, och Mildred blir till sin förvåning indragen i intriger som är betydligt svårare att hantera. Barbara Pym brukar kallas en modern Jane Austen. Hennes vassa sociala observationer och skildringar av bottenlös ensamhet har gett henne rykte som en av de stora sedeskildrarna i efterkrigstidens England. i översättning av Jane Lundblad. BARBARA PYM [1913-1980] var en engelsk författare. Under 1950-talet skrev hon en rad romaner, varav Förträffliga kvinnor förblivit den mest lästa och älskade. Efter ett längre uppehåll blev romanen Höstkvartett en stor återkomst. Den nominerades till Booker-priset, och när Times Literary Supplement samma år frågade en rad framstående författare vem de ansåg vara 1900-talets mest underskattade kollega var Barbara Pym den som fick flest röster.

Sie arbeiten im selben Büro und stehen kurz vor der Rente: Marcia, Letty, Norman und Edwin. Alle vier leben allein, dennoch pflegen sie außerhalb des Büros kaum Kontakt – auch wenn sie täglich Kaffee und Teewasser teilen. Sie beobachten, beargwöhnen, beraten einander und versuchen, über ihre Einsamkeit hinwegzuspielen. Letty, die zur Untermiete wohnt, gerne liest und Wert auf ihre Kleidung legt, steht im Schatten ihrer Freundin, zu der sie im Alter aufs Land ziehen wollte. Plötzlich jedoch werden alle Pläne umgeworfen. Das einzige große Ereignis in Marcias Leben, eine Krebsoperation, bringt sie dazu, für ihren Arzt zu schwärmen. Wenn sie keinen Nachsorgetermin hat, widmet sie sich dem Ordnen ihrer Milchflaschen und Konserven. Edwin ist Witwer und verbringt seine Zeit mit der Suche nach einem Gottesdienst. Sein ewig nörgelnder Kollege Norman besucht lieber einen kranken Verwandten, den er eigentlich genauso wenig leiden kann wie den Rest der Menschheit. Als Marcia und Letty in Rente gehen, trennen sich die Wege der vier − aber das Leben bringt die Schicksalsgemeinschaft immer wieder zusammen. Ironisch, schwarzhumorig und doch mit leisem Optimismus zeigt Barbara Pym in ›Quartett im Herbst‹ ihr herausragendes Können.

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.

En 1977, le Times désigne Barbara Pym comme l''un des auteurs les plus injustement méconnus du XXe siècle. Une remise en lumière qui sonne comme une renaissance pour l''écrivain, érigée alors en virtuose dans l''art de la comédie douce-amère. Avec Des femmes remarquables, l''un de ses plus fameux romans, Barbara Pym chronique délicieusement les tracas d''un quotidien pimenté et brosse, d''une plume teintée d''humour et d''ironie, un brillant tableau de la middle class londonienne d''après-guerre... Londres, dans les années 1950. Mildred Lathbury, jeune femme célibataire au quotidien partagé entre la vie de la paroisse et les tâches domestiques, voit son existence bouleversée lorsque débarque dans son immeuble une fougueuse anthropologue au bras d''un très bel homme... Je laissai Dora poursuivre, mais sans réellement lui prêter l''oreille car je connaissais l''opinion que nourrissait Dora à l''égard de miss Protheroe et de tout précepte religieux. Nous nous étions souvent querellées autrefois à ce sujet. Je me demandais comment elle pouvait gâcher autant d''énergie à lutter pour une vétille telle que le port du chapeau à l''office ; puis je me dis qu''après tout, la vie se réduisait, pour la plupart d''entre nous, à des détails de cet ordre : les petits désagréments plus que les grandes tragédies, les dérisoires petites envies plus que les grands renoncements et les tragiques passions amoureuses de l''histoire ou des romans.

Mujeres excelentes está considerada una de las mejores novelas de Barbara Pym. Mildred Lathbury, la narradora, es una mujer soltera que vive en Londres y ocupa su tiempo en diversas tareas en la parroquia, en tomar el té con las amigas, en obras de caridad y en satisfacer las necesidades de los demás. Es inteligente y observadora, pero también tímida e insegura, en parte debido a su soltería, pues muchos querrían verla casada ya a sus treinta y pocos años. Además de sus buenos amigos, el vicario Julian Malory y su hermana Winifred, Mildred intimará con sus vecinos, los Napier, recién instalados en el piso de abajo de su casa. Conocerá también a Allegra, una viuda que se aloja en la parroquia, y a un sinfín de personajes más. Mildred se verá implicada en diversos asuntos de índole sentimental. Con una extraordinaria y sutilísima ironía, Barbara Pym traza en Mujeres excelentes un espléndido retrato sobre la cotidiana realidad de unos personajes, cuyas vidas se debaten entre sus sentimientos y sus convencionalismos. En 1977, en un artículo-encuesta en el suplemento cultural del Times, el crítico lord David Cecil y el poeta Philip Larkin afirmaron que la obra de Barbara Pym era una de las más importantes e influyentes de la literatura.

With an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies'' Detective Agency series. One did not drink sherry before the evening, just as one did not read a novel in the morning. In 1970s London, Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia work in the same office and suffer the same problem – loneliness. Lovingly and with delightful humour, Barbara Pym conducts us through their day-to-day existence: their preoccupations, their irritations, their judgements, and – perhaps most keenly felt – their worries about having somehow missed out on life as post-war Britain shifted around them. Deliciously, blackly funny and full of obstinate optimism, Quartet in Autumn shows Barbara Pym''s sensitive artistry at its most sparkling. Its world is both extraordinary and familiar, revealing the eccentricities of everyday life.

Jane e Prudence: amiche di età e modi di essere differenti, una teneramente sciatta, l’altra impeccabilmente elegante. Jane e Prudence: due età e due donne molto diverse. Una è teneramente sciatta, l’altra è impeccabilmente elegante; una sposata è a un pastore, l’altra è sempre coinvolta in amori infelici. Finché Jane non si mette in testa di combinare un matrimonio per l’amica e si renderà conto che combinare matrimoni è molto, molto difficile...

‘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

''I''m a huge fan of Barbara Pym'' Richard Osman ‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure.'' Jilly Cooper ‘The day comes in the life of every single man living alone when he must give a dinner party.’ The parish of St Basil, on the fringes of North Kensington, is all of a flutter due to the arrival of Rupert Stonebird, a most eligible bachelor, in the neighbourhood. The local matchmakers are sure he will make a suitable husband for the vicar’s wife’s sister, Penny, or perhaps for local librarian Ianthe Broome? But Ianthe is in danger of forming a most unsuitable attachment for her new library assistant, John, a man of questionable background with not a penny to his name... Owing a debt to Jane Austen''s Pride and Prejudice, Barbara Pym''s An Unsuitable Attachment is an elegant and witty comedy of manners from an acclaimed author who Philip Larkin called: ''the most underrated novelist of the century''.

‘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.

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.

DIVDIVDIVBarbara Pym’s early novel takes us into 1950s England, as seen through the funny, engaging, yearning eyes of a restless housewife/divDIV 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./divDIV /divDIVAttractive 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./divDIV /divDIVAs 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. /div/divDIV/div/div

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.

Three lonely people come together in this poignant and witty novel of thwarted dreams, scandalous secrets, and star-crossed romance After being jilted by her fiance, 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. "With sheer joy I read Barbara Pym''s . . . No Fond Return of Love." -Mary Gordon ." . . comic, heartrending, brave; in short, like life itself." -Shirley Hazzard "No novelist brings more telling observation or more gentle pleasure." -Jilly Cooper "A splendid, humorous writer." -John Betjeman Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was a bestselling and award-winning English novelist. Her first book, Some Tame Gazelle (1950), launched her career as a writer beloved for her social comedies of class and manners. Pym is the only author to be named twice in a Times Literary Supplement list of "the most underrated novelists of the century." She produced thirteen novels, the last three published posthumously. Her 1977 novel Quartet in Autumn was shortlisted for the Booker Prize."

Excellent Women is probably the most famous of Barbara Pym''s novels. The acclaim a few years ago for this early comic novel, which was hailed by Lord David Cecil as one of ''the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past seventy-five years,'' helped launch the rediscovery of the author''s entire work. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman''s daughter and a spinster in the England of the 1950s, one of those ''excellent women'' who tend to get involved in other people''s lives - such as those of her new neighbor, Rockingham, and the vicar next door. This is Barbara Pym''s world at its funniest.

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.