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Less Than Angels (Virago Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Book Description
A modern Jane Austen' Alexander McCall Smith
Product Description
Less Than Angels follows the loves, works and hopes of a group of young anthropologists.
Catherine Oliphant is a writer and lives with handsome anthropologist Tom Mallow. Their relationship runs into trouble when he begins a romance with student Deirdre Swann, so Catherine turns her attention to the reclusive anthropologist Alaric Lydgate, who has a fondness for wearing African masks. Added to this love triangle are the activities of Deirdre's fellow students and their attempts to win the competition for a research grant.
The course of true love or academia never did run smooth.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I thought 'Jane and Prudence' was my favourite Pym novel, but this is even better.
The brilliant conceit is that a group of anthropologists squabbling over grants for work in Africa can't help subcosciously bringing their forensic diagnoses to focus on everyday life in England. (Does anyone remember those Times satires, reporting on the travails of the Heath government as if transposed to Peking?)
It really is a very funny book indeed, along with all the wonderful Pym qualities of incisive clarity and humane sympathy that her fans expect.
The 'significance' of the mother's brother (or father's sister) in family affairs across the globe is just hilarious.
The brilliant conceit is that a group of anthropologists squabbling over grants for work in Africa can't help subcosciously bringing their forensic diagnoses to focus on everyday life in England. (Does anyone remember those Times satires, reporting on the travails of the Heath government as if transposed to Peking?)
It really is a very funny book indeed, along with all the wonderful Pym qualities of incisive clarity and humane sympathy that her fans expect.
The 'significance' of the mother's brother (or father's sister) in family affairs across the globe is just hilarious.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Barbara Pym's fourth novel largely moves away from the world of the chuch into the world of anthropology and anthropologists. There are more serious themes - the breakup of relationships and bereavement alongside young love and the everyday ups and downs of domestic life. Her knowledge of the human heart is undimmed. And the work remains as uproariously funny as ever.
The novel takes its title from a line of Pope quoted late on in the novel. He refers to man as 'little less than angel, would be more'. It is a triumph as much of this work as of her earlier novels that she convinces us, for the duration of the book at least, that this is true.
The novel takes its title from a line of Pope quoted late on in the novel. He refers to man as 'little less than angel, would be more'. It is a triumph as much of this work as of her earlier novels that she convinces us, for the duration of the book at least, that this is true.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For me, a good book is one that I will read and re-read. On each reading, I get to know and understand the characters or their situations better. That is not the case with this book.
And yet.. the story is well-written, and Barbara Pym is always worth reading. Perhaps the characters are just not real or believable. The anthropologists come and go, and there is little in their personalities to engage the reader or to distinguish them. Tom and Digby, the students, are mere devices to move the story on. Deirdre's love affair is flat and Tom, the male lead, is one-dimensional.
Comparisons with Jane Austen are somewhat tenuous. Pym is following the fortunes of a group of anthropologists and the relationships between them, but the characters are, on the whole, lifeless. With the possible exception of the bossy, middle-aged spinsters, there is no-one in this book that a reader could be passionate about.
And yet.. the story is well-written, and Barbara Pym is always worth reading. Perhaps the characters are just not real or believable. The anthropologists come and go, and there is little in their personalities to engage the reader or to distinguish them. Tom and Digby, the students, are mere devices to move the story on. Deirdre's love affair is flat and Tom, the male lead, is one-dimensional.
Comparisons with Jane Austen are somewhat tenuous. Pym is following the fortunes of a group of anthropologists and the relationships between them, but the characters are, on the whole, lifeless. With the possible exception of the bossy, middle-aged spinsters, there is no-one in this book that a reader could be passionate about.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Book review
Read this book as part of a list for a reading circle. Not impressed, bland plotline and somewhat Mills and Boonish approach. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Aphra Benn
I love this book!
I really love Barbara Pym's books and I have read them all many times. They are a bit of an acquired taste. This one is especially good.
Published on 21 May 2004
Not everyone's cup of tea.
Very few people seem to appreciate the work of Barbara Pym. I have only met one other person who enjoys her novels. Read more
Published on 17 April 2000
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