 First edition | |
| Editor | Hazel Holt |
|---|---|
| Author | Barbara Pym |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
Publication date | 1987 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 388 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | 9780452261389 |
Civil to Strangers and Other Writings is a collection of novels and short stories by Barbara Pym, published posthumously.
When Pym died in 1980, she had published 9 novels and a small number of short stories. After Pym's death, her literary executors were her sister, Hilary Pym, and her good friend and fellow novelist Hazel Holt. They aimed to release much of Pym's unpublished material. This included three complete novels, An Unsuitable Attachment, Crampton Hodnet and An Academic Question . Pym's notebooks and diaries were published in 1984. Civil to Strangers and other Writings was the final volume released, collecting some of her remaining material. It was released by Macmillan in England, and E.P. Dutton in the United States, both in 1987.
The volume contains one full-length novel, three incomplete novellas, four short stories, and a transcript of a radio talk.
Civil to Strangers was positively reviewed by the New York Times [1] as a volume that "can take its place alongside [Pym's] others with no apology". Anita Brookner, reviewing for The Spectator, found the early novels to be "formulaic" but praised Pym's distinctive voice. [2]
The collection was published in France in 1989 as Adam et Cassandra, in Italy in 1999 as Tutte le virtù (All the Virtues), and in Spain in 2019 as Extranjeros, bienvenidos (Welcome, Foreigners).
Civil to Strangers was written in 1936, with the working title of Adam and Cassandra. Pym's first novel, Some Tame Gazelle , had been rejected by publishers in 1935. She felt that Civil to Strangers was not "really as good as Some Tame Gazelle but it may stand a better chance of getting accepted". [3] The novel's title is taken from a poem, The Choice, by 17th century English poet John Pomfret. [4] Each chapter of the novel features an epigraph using quotes from the 1730 poem cycle The Seasons by James Thomson.
The novel is set primarily in a small town in Shropshire where the obscure novelist and poet Adam Marsh-Gibbon lives with his overly doting wife Cassandra, who has put her needs second to ensure his career, although it is her family money on which they live. A handsome and single Hungarian man, Stefan Tilos, arrives in the town, creating an aura of romance in the dull lives of the townspeople, including Cassandra, with whom he falls in love. As Adam's and Cassandra's desires follow separate paths, Adam takes a holiday in Oxford for research while Cassandra travels to Budapest by train. By coincidence, Stefan leaves for Budapest at the same time. Cassandra is worried that observers will jump to the conclusion that she has eloped with Stefan. Adam realises how much he needs his wife and follows her to Hungary, where they reach a better relationship and meet Stefan and some of his relatives on friendly terms.
The climactic scenes in Budapest were inspired by a visit Pym took to the city with her sister Hilary in 1935.
Pym wrote Gervase and Flora in 1938. The novel is set in Finland, and tells the story of two young English people living in or visiting the country. It was based on the experience of Henry Harvey, a man with whom Pym had had a relationship during the 1930s, and with whom she regularly exchanged letters. Pym finished the draft of the novel; however, when she learned that Harvey had married in late 1938, she put it aside, not wanting to work on it further due to her strong feelings. [5]
Pym did not title the novel; this was done by Holt after Pym's death. [6] The completed manuscript was 216 pages; however, the volume only includes polished excerpts, rendering this a novella.
Pym wrote this unfinished, untitled novel in 1939. After studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford, Pym had returned home to Oswestry to live with her parents. She participated in voluntary work before and during the commencement of World War II. The novel chronicles life in a village during 1939, based on Pym's own experiences as she was writing. [7] Pym abandoned the manuscript to write Crampton Hodnet in 1940, and was then distracted by her war service, leaving the manuscript unfinished. In the 1960s, she considered updating the manuscript, since she thought its wartime setting might be attractive to publishers, but ultimately did no more work on it. [8]
The incomplete manuscript is 195 pages; however, this volume only includes polished excerpts from it.
Pym's only spy novel, So Very Secret features an ordinary unmarried woman, Cassandra Swan, whose father had been an Anglican vicar. When Cassandra's friend Harriet disappears while staying with her, Cassandra discovers that her friend did secret work for the Foreign Office, and sets out to find her, becoming entangled in an espionage plot amongst the usual Pym cast of priests and academics. [9] Pym wrote the novel while living in Oswestry in 1940 and 1941. However, she found herself struggling with the need for such a strong plot, writing in a letter that "I don't quite know what I'm driving at". [10] It was the observational humour that was most notable about the text. Pym completed the first draft; however, she had to register for war work in October 1941, and had no more time to write during the war. [11]
The complete manuscript is 227 pages; however, this volume only includes polished excerpts. The story was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in 1998. [12]
This volume includes four of Pym's 27 short stories. Her complete manuscripts are collected in the archives at the Bodleian Library, but most were incomplete or not of a finished quality. Holt selected the strongest stories. [13]
A transcript of a radio talk given by Pym for BBC Radio 3 and transmitted on 4 April 1978. Pym discusses the circumstances of finding her authorial voice during her early success (1950-1961) and the challenge of being asked to change her voice, when her novels started being rejected by publishers in the 1960s. She also recounts her "rediscovery" in 1977, which led to her fame and international success.
| Fiction | |
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| Non-fiction | |
Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958). In 1977 her career was revived when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin both nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Her novel Quartet in Autumn (1977) was nominated for the Booker Prize that year, and she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Excellent Women, the second published novel by Barbara Pym, first appeared from Jonathan Cape in 1952. A novel of manners, it is generally acclaimed as her funniest and most successful in that genre.
Quartet in Autumn is a novel by British novelist Barbara Pym, first published in 1977. It was highly praised and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the top literary prize in the UK. This was considered a comeback novel for Pym; she had fallen out of favour as styles changed, and her work had been rejected by publishers for 15 years. This followed her successful record as a novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s. As a novel, it represents a departure from her earlier style of light comedy, as it is the story of four office workers on the verge of retirement.
Some Tame Gazelle is Barbara Pym's first novel, originally published in 1950.
No Fond Return of Love is a novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1961.
(John) Robert Liddell was an English literary critic, biographer, novelist, travel writer and poet.
Hazel Holt was a British novelist.
Less Than Angels is a novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1955.
A Glass of Blessings is a novel by Barbara Pym, 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.
Crampton Hodnet is a comic novel by Barbara Pym, published posthumously in 1985, and originally written in 1940.
An Unsuitable Attachment is a novel by Barbara Pym, written in 1963 and published posthumously in 1982.
The Sweet Dove Died is a novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1978. The title is a quotation from a poem, "I Had a Dove", by John Keats.
Thomas Michael Maschler was a British publisher and writer. From 1960, he was influential as the head of publishing company Jonathan Cape over a period of more than three decades. Maschler was noted for instituting the Booker Prize for British, Irish and Commonwealth literature in 1969. He was involved in publishing the works of many notable authors, including Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Heller, Gabriel García Márquez, John Lennon, Ian McEwan, Bruce Chatwin and Salman Rushdie.
Jane and Prudence is the third novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1953.
Honor Ellen Wyatt was an English journalist and radio presenter, known for her association with Barbara Pym, Robert Graves, and Laura Riding as well as for her own work. She was the mother of the actor Julian Glover and the musician Robert Wyatt.
An Academic Question is the title given an unfinished novel by Barbara Pym, written in the early 1970s. A reconstructed version was published posthumously in 1986.
A Few Green Leaves is the final novel by Barbara Pym, first published in 1980, the year of Pym's death. Although several novels were published posthumously, A Few Green Leaves was the final novel she worked on.
A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters is a 1984 publication of writings by the English novelist Barbara Pym. Released after Pym's death, the volume was edited by Pym's sister Hilary and her literary executor Hazel Holt.
A Lot To Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym is a 1990 biography of the English novelist Barbara Pym. The author, Hazel Holt, worked with Pym in the 1950s at the International African Institute in London before embarking on her own literary career. The pair remained friends, and Holt functioned as Pym's literary executor after the latter's death from breast cancer in 1980.
À La Pym: The Barbara Pym Cookery Book is a 1988 cookbook by Hilary Pym and Honor Wyatt collecting recipes for meals served, or mentioned, in the novels of Hilary's sister, Barbara Pym. The book was published in the United States by E.P. Dutton in 1988, and in the United Kingdom by Prospect Books in 1995.
