Barbara Pym

Barbara Mary Crampton Pym (June 2nd 1913 - January 11th 1980) was a short story writer English.

She was born with Oswestry, in the Shropshire. After English studies with St Hilda' S College of Oxford, it engaged in the Women' S Royal Naval Service at the time of the Second world war. Its literary career is remarkable because of a long eclipse between 1963 and 1977, period during which, in spite of its last success and its persistent popularity, she did not manage to find an editor for her highly comic news.

A famous article of the Times Literary Supplement caused its " réapparition". Two eminent names, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin designated it as the writer more underestimated century. Its news Quartet of autumn (1977) was worth the Booker Prize to him.

Barbara Pym worked in African Institute of London during a few years, and played a great part in the publication of her newspaper Africa , which explains the many appearances of Anthropologue S in his news. She never married, in spite of close relations with several men, of which Henry Harvey, one of his school-fellows of Oxford, and the future politician Julian Amery. After its retirement, it divided a Cottage with her younger sister Hilary in Finstock (Oxfordshire), which remained there until its in February 2005 death.

Barbara Pym died of a Breast cancer at the 66 years age. The two sisters are buried in Finstock.

Works

Like a tamed gazelle ( Nap Tame Gazelle ) (1950)
Of the remarkable women ( Excels Women ) (1952)
Jane and Prudence ( Jane and Prudence ) (1953)
Less than the angels ( Less than Angels ) (1955)
a horn of plenty ( has Knell Blessings off) (1958)
No Fund Return Of Coils (1961)
Quartet of autumn ( Quartet in Fall ) (1977)
the soft dove died ( The Sweet Dove Died ) (1978)
a bit of greenery ( has Few Green Leaves ) (1980)
Crampton Hodnet (written about 1940, published in 1985)
An Unsuitable Attachment (written in 1963, posthumous publication in 1982)
a purely academic question ( An Academic Question ) (written in 1970-72, published in 1986)

Several topics intersect in works of Barbara Pym, which are more remarkable by their characters than by their intrigues. A surface reading gives the impression of fragments of life in villages or suburbs, with an excessive importance attached to the social activities related to the church (mainly in its alternative catholic-Anglican). However the dialogs are often deeply ironic there, and a tragic current traverses some of the breaking news, particularly Quartet of automne" and " The soft dove is morte".

External bonds

The Barbara Pym Society with St Hilda' S College, Oxford.
An Excels Woman (English)

Source

Article wikipedia in English

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