303:, represents the reasonably affluent end of that microcosm. Without children, with no job or meaningful social function, she is largely cocooned from reality and only comes to an understanding of her situation through exposure to the fascinating Piers and his "slightly common" homosexual partner. Some would regard Pym herself as similarly limited at this stage and judge "the dwindling class relevance of this kind of English social comedy by the way in which Pym was bypassed by literary trends" and lost her publisher soon after. Others see her as objectively ironical and have pointed to the way in which she, in the company of other women novelists of the 1950s, portrays the prop of the social establishment, the
234:’s poem "The Pulley", which is quoted and commented on in this novel’s final chapter. In the poem, when God first made man and, "having a glass of blessings standing by", all its contents were poured on him except rest, since otherwise he would not appreciate the others with which he was endowed. It is this theme, that a life that does not run smoothly is itself a glass of blessings, that Wilmet has satisfaction in applying to all that has happened to her. There is also an ironical reference back to the source of Wilmet Forsyth's name, which is taken from the heroine of
148:, until she becomes aware of his relationship with Keith, a lower-class young man with a Leicester accent. Keith comes in useful later, helping her to choose furniture after she and Rodney have to find somewhere new to live following Sybil's remarriage. Rodney confesses that he has taken a colleague, Prudence Bates, out for dinner on a couple of occasions, but there was nothing more than that. The move brings Rodney and Wilmet closer together at the same time as troubles are resolved for some of the other characters.
127:, Rodney, with a comfortable though routine life. She does not need to work and enjoys a life of leisure. When not lunching or shopping she occupies her time, somewhat guiltily, with occasional "good works", particularly at the instigation of Sybil, her slightly eccentric mother-in-law, whose house Wilmet and Rodney share. She becomes drawn into the social life of her church, St Luke's, and there makes a change for the good in the lives of two other characters. The
259:), who works in the same ministry as Rodney, and he had taken her out to dinner on two occasions. This prompts Wilmet to admit to previously unmentioned lunches with Rowena's husband Harry and with Piers. Their stiff conversation then dissolves "into helpless laughter, so that an elderly woman, coming into the lounge to retrieve the knitting she had left there before dinner, retreated quickly and with a look of alarm on her face." Julian and Winifred Malory from
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of the gay relationship between Piers and Keith that is treated as comic. As a novelist, "Pym just seems to see homosexual characters as part of the world, and depicts them as they are, with no fuss." Nor does she present only Piers's domestic relationship; she extends her depiction to the homosexual
171:. The book received less critical attention than Pym's previous novels, and she noted in a diary entry that none of the reviews was "wholly good". There she was described as "tone-deaf to dialogue" and "moderately amusing". Pym later recalled that - of her first six novels -
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After a church service, Wilmet renews acquaintance with her close friend Rowena's attractive but ne'er-do-well brother, Piers
Longridge. She and Sybil go to his evening classes in Portuguese. Wilmet develops a romantic interest in Piers, and begins to believe that he is her
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Wilf Bason has to resign from the government ministry where Rodney works and she arranges for Wilf to become housekeeper at the clergy house, shared by two celibate priests. She also gives support to Mary, a ‘mousy’ worshipper, who goes to live for a trial period in a
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310:
Nowhere is Pym's sympathetic permissiveness more clear than in her attitude to homosexuality, particularly in this novel, although, given the time at which it was published, that is usually referred to in oblique and subtle ways. In fact both
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to note how the "queer goings on of male housekeepers are described with catty accuracy". But whereas this behaviour is made the matter of comedy, it is only Wilmet's
255:(1953). Now Prudence Bates serves as catalyst to the renewed closeness between Wilmet and Rodney. Prudence is a friend of Eleanor Hitchens (a very minor character in
269:
as well as Rocky Napier, whom both Wilmet and Rowena remember as a love interest during their war service in Italy. Archdeacon
Hoccleve from Pym's debut novel
242:. There Yonge's Wilmet Underwood was the mainstay of her family, while the performance of Pym's narrator falls rather short of her achievement.
568:
115:, first published in 1958. It deals with the growing estrangement of a well-to-do married couple and the means by which harmony is restored.
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249:, John Bayley refers to it as "one of her most engaging devices". Rodney and Wilmet Forsyth had already made a cameo appearance in
319:' behaviour are described. The former is found Wilf Bason (and possibly some of the clergy), which led a contemporary reviewer in
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514:, a paper presented at the Annual General Meeting of the Barbara Pym Society, St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, August 2014
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in 1991 in an adaptation by
Valerie Windsor, produced by Barbara Pym's sister Hilary and the actress Elizabeth Proud.
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Another form of intertextuality is the way characters from one Pym novel reappear in another. In his introduction to
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was the worst reviewed. The novel sold 3,071 copies in its first printing - fewer than any of Pym's previous novels.
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Commentators frequently point out that the focus of
Barbara Pym's earlier novels is limited to the world of
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is mentioned. The names of two other characters, Oswald Thames and Wilf Bason, were eventually recycled in
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A Very
Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (ed. Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym)
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The central character and narrator, Wilmet
Forsyth, is the thirty-three-year-old wife of a
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Social
Dimensions in the Novels of Barbara Pym, 1949-1962: the Writer as Hidden Observer
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in order to give her novels added depth and relevance. In the case of
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after the death of her mother, but later marries the handsome curate.
508:"Not Named Amongst Christians": Debating 'Marginal' Homosexuals in
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subculture, as in the scene in the gay coffee-bar, La
Cenerentola.
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The
Cambridge Introduction to Modern British Fiction, 1950-2000
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A Few Green Leaves: The
Journal of the Barbara Pym Society
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Archbishop Fisher, 1945–1961: Church, State and World
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275:makes an appearance, and Catherine Oliphant from
441:. The Charlotte M. Yonge Fellowship. 14 May 2011
222:Barbara Pym often resorted to various kinds of
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159:was Pym's fifth novel and was published by
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144:. Wilmet fails to realise that Piers is
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299:women. Wilmet Forsyth, the narrator in
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230:, the title is taken from a line in
214:released the novel as an audiobook.
186:in 1980. The novel was published in
695:A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym
364:A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym
366:. London: Macmillan. p. 179.
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395:. New York: E.P. Dutton. p.
178:The novel was first published in
152:Publication history and reception
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491:Andrew Chandler, David Hein,
265:(1952) are also mentioned in
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16:1958 novel by Barbara Pym
656:An Unsuitable Attachment
497:, Routledge 2016, pp.7-8
240:The Pillars of the House
208:Un sacco di benedizioni
755:Novels with gay themes
628:No Fond Return of Love
750:Novels by Barbara Pym
387:Pym, Barbara (1984).
267:A Glass of Blessings,
200:Los hombres de Wilmet
22:A Glass of Blessings
670:An Academic Question
621:A Glass of Blessings
510:A Glass of Blessings
465:A Glass of Blessings
362:Holt, Hazel (1990).
339:A Glass of Blessings
301:A Glass of Blessings
247:A Glass of Blessings
228:A Glass of Blessings
157:A Glass of Blessings
108:A Glass of Blessings
760:Jonathan Cape books
745:1958 British novels
642:The Sweet Dove Died
322:The Daily Telegraph
192:Ein Glas voll Segen
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765:1950s LGBTQ novels
702:A Very Private Eye
677:Civil to Strangers
649:A Few Green Leaves
482:, CUP 2002,pp.76-8
467:, Hachette UK 2011
284:A Few Green Leaves
236:Charlotte M. Yonge
167:for the novel was
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607:Jane and Prudence
593:Some Tame Gazelle
512:and 1950s England
341:was broadcast by
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252:Jane and Prudence
180:the United States
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119:Plot summary
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687:Non-fiction
578:Barbara Pym
539:Orna Raz -
343:BBC Radio 4
334:Adaptations
206:in 2012 as
198:in 2010 as
190:in 1995 as
184:E.P. Dutton
113:Barbara Pym
43:Barbara Pym
739:Categories
445:26 January
406:0525242341
373:0525249370
349:References
202:, and in
90:Hardcover
57:Publisher
726:Category
709:À La Pym
287:(1980).
212:Hachette
49:Language
585:Fiction
188:Germany
134:convent
88:Print (
52:English
543:(2007)
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313:'camp'
291:Themes
100:255 pp
39:Author
315:and '
204:Italy
196:Spain
194:, in
173:Glass
97:Pages
447:2022
401:ISBN
368:ISBN
72:1958
397:199
317:gay
238:'s
182:by
146:gay
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