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Jane And Prudence (Virago Modern Classics)
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Review
She's such a wonderful writer and has given me so much pleasure . . . My favourite of all is JANE AND PRUDENCE. It's just brilliant (Jilly Cooper )
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen (Philip Larkin )
There is a thrill of humanity through all her work (Shirley Hazzard )
She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life (Anne Tyler )
I'd sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen (Philip Larkin )
There is a thrill of humanity through all her work (Shirley Hazzard )
She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life (Anne Tyler )
The Times
'This comedy of manners is a salutary reminder of just how good Barbara Pym was . . . It is a gem - and a fitting introduction to this inexplicably neglected writer's work, for all those still to have the pleasure of discovering her'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A novel that gives the authentic flavour of the middle class gentility in the 1950s. If this sounds dull, it really isn't.
Her anthropological view of the society she is examining is so wry, pitiless but so humorous (She worked at the International African Institute in London for some years, and played a large part in the editing of its scholarly journal, Africa, hence the frequency with which anthropology/anthropologists crop up in her novels, and maybe foregrounds her social criticism.) The hopeless vagaries of men of the cloth as well as academics come under her scornful microsopic scrutiny. Her single women, devout and well-meaning, live lives of virtuous 'quiet desperation'.
Her writing is succinct and clear, hardly a word wasted. She has often been compared to Jane Austen, but she also shares the sharp eye of Waugh in a novel like "A Handful of Dust'.
Her anthropological view of the society she is examining is so wry, pitiless but so humorous (She worked at the International African Institute in London for some years, and played a large part in the editing of its scholarly journal, Africa, hence the frequency with which anthropology/anthropologists crop up in her novels, and maybe foregrounds her social criticism.) The hopeless vagaries of men of the cloth as well as academics come under her scornful microsopic scrutiny. Her single women, devout and well-meaning, live lives of virtuous 'quiet desperation'.
Her writing is succinct and clear, hardly a word wasted. She has often been compared to Jane Austen, but she also shares the sharp eye of Waugh in a novel like "A Handful of Dust'.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book, a very English setting, and some very English characters who inhabit a world that is gone forever. Prudence is a character many of us can sympathise with, her past littered with disappointments. Her interfering friend Jane - who is much older, married with an almost grown up daughter, is keen to help her become settled. Jane despite her being a middle aged clergy wife is still wonderfully romantic, and it demonstrates superbly, how, no matter how we age, and take on various responsibilities, we still have the same concerns as in our youth. This is the second Barbara Pym novel I have read - and I am now keen to read them all
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As the reader learns on the first page 'Prudence Bates was twenty-nine, an age that is often rather desperate for a woman who has not yet married. Jane Cleveland was forty-one, an age that may bring with it compensations unexpected by the anxious woman of twenty-nine'. Attractive but unfulfilled Prudence slaves away at a dull office job and tots up a string of inconclusive love affairs. Her close friend Jane is the domestically rather hopeless wife of a nice but inconsequential vicar in a quiet rural parish. Rather than enthusiastically embracing the duties of a clergyman's consort Jane is more concerned to find Prudence 'the perfect man'. Barbara Pym's novel dates from 1953, when a certain amount of food rationing was still in force and the dubious innovations of mobile phones, Hello magazine and alcohol-fuelled hen parties lay very much in the future. This is a Britain in which the ramifications of Parochial Church Council meetings and the gentle rhythm of vicarage tea parties are still being written about but robust references to sex in the raw are most definitely not to be found. The author has a light touch and a certain elegance of style but a lack of asperity in the dialogue, characterisation and plotting makes for a degree of blandness. A pleasant read, all the same.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
perspicacious, moving, hilarious....strongly recommended!
Jane is a clergyman's wife, moving into a new parish in the country, while Prudence is her younger friend who lives and works in London and is in search of love - and Jane hopes to... Read more
Published 2 months ago by William Jordan
Very funny
Every now and then a lucky author hits exactly the right notes and writes their masterpiece. Good examples would be CP Snow's The Masters and Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale. Read more
Published 3 months ago by F. M. Stockdale
"The whole thing seemed to be of very little importance, the kind of...
Published in 1953, this tells the rather limp story of Jane, the incompetent vicar's wife and her younger friend Prudence, horrifically unmarried at 30 and so the subject of Jane's... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Roman Clodia
new barbara pym fan
I have only very recently come to Barbara Pym's work, and am loving everything i have read so far. Don't expect strong plots, these are delicate works of everyday life at the time,... Read more
Published on 12 April 2010 by currer bell
anyone for pyms?
If you have not yet indulged yourself with Miss Pym, then do so, if you like a leisurely few hours. She writes with humour and gentle irony. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2009 by Alisoun Francis
Austerity aga-saga
Ignore if you can the dreadful mass-market cover ... lord knows why Virago is trying to market Barbara Pym as chick-lit! Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2008 by booksetc
Not Pym's best
I enjoy Barbara Pym's novels generally but she is definitely off form with this outing. Perhaps it is because she is describing the lives and (disappointing) loves of two female... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2008 by T. Bently
Not worthy of the many reprints
Light and frothy, with very unbelievable characters. If you enjoy dated tales about 2 dimensional characters - this is for you! If not, try anything by Khalid Hosseini!
Published on 1 Sep 2008 by Mrs. Helen S. Wilkinson
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