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Miss Pym Disposes
  
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Miss Pym Disposes (Paperback)

by Josephine Tey (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Macmillan USA; 1st Collier Books Ed edition (30 Aug 1988)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0020545401
  • ISBN-13: 978-0020545408
  • Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.7 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,145,474 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #92 in  Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Authors, A-Z > T > Tey, Josephine

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Product Description

Pamela Hansford Johnson

‘A crime story of masterly elegance’ --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Leys Physical Training College was famous for its excellent discipline and Miss Lucy Pym was pleased and flattered to be invited to give a psychology lecture there. But she had to admit that the health and vibrant beauty of the students made her feel just a little inadequate. Then there was a nasty accident - and suddenly Miss Pym was forced to apply her agile intellect to the unpleasant fact that among all those impressively healthy bodies someone had a very sick mind... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A dark tale in Golden Age clothing, 9 Jan 2007
By S. Bailey "will work for books" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Miss Pym Disposes (Paperback)
This is a very dark and nasty tale, in the clothing of a cutesy romp in the Golden Age of detective fiction. Miss Lucy Pym, the celebrated scourge of the psychological establishment, has been invited to give a lecture to the physically perfect specimens of the Leys Training College. The institution has its share of politics, in-fighting and petty injustices, vividly portrayed here, but what Miss Pym does not expect to encounter is murder.

Superficially, this was very enjoyable to read; a classic detective story with a rather nice twist to the ending, plenty of well-drawn characters and enough subplots to become a soap opera.

But scratch the beautiful surface of the Leys' girls, trained to be something between gym teachers and nurses. For a generation that has lost its young men in the trenches, these are more women than can be married off, more women than anyone, including themselves, knows what to do with. Miss Pym herself has achieved celebrity by sheer accident. The old friend who runs the College has achieved her postion 'in spite', not 'because' of, and on graduation, the girls are assigned jobs by their headmistress, prisoner turned gaoler, rather than choosing for themselves.

Tey makes a rather radical statement here about choice and control of ones life, how beauty (and I'm afraid that for the duration of the book, we must accept that outer equals inner beauty) counts for little, and justice can be achieved only by subversion of the status quo. The message, I am grateful to say, is fairly much out of date; it's rarely necessary in the twenty-first century to commit murder to have the chance of a decent career. That it might have been once should still give us pause.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars miss pym cops out, 20 July 2008
This review is from: Miss Pym Disposes (Paperback)
An odd book but strangely fascinating. Tey creates a murder mystery set in the long lost world of girls' Physical Ed. colleges and introduces us to an array of 'types': the rich and sociable, the ambitious, and the oddball, like the bizarrely nick-named, flamenco dancing 'Nut Tart'.

The staff too are an arrestingly odd and old fashioned lot. Miss Pym, a self-taught psychologist, finds herself captivated by the atmosphere and energy of the school and drawn into its life and events. For me the atmosphere was the interesting part, a world where girls, even rich ones, were beginning to become independent and work, but still harking back to days of a more formal and restricted activities for young women. Miss Pym has a moral choice to make and whether you feel she makes the right one is up to you. I don't want to spoil the ending but it is extraordinarily idiosyncratic....morally questionable even.
If you have ever attended an all girls' boarding school yourself you will find yourself reminded of sights and sounds of communal life that you thought you had long ago forgotten.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Not about outward beauty, 17 Mar 2008
By J. Parker "A UK viewer" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Miss Pym Disposes (Paperback)
The clue is in the title Miss Pym Disposes.

She has three chances to make a decision to affect the fate of another person and each time she gets it wrong, even though she lectures in psychology and might think she understands the human mind. Discuss?

That misunderstanding is what is at the heart of the story.

The fate of the girls who are at this school post WW11 is only half of the story - the other half is what Miss Pym does with what she knows and who is affected by her decisions.

Of course, there is a lot about the beauty or otherwise of the students at Leys College and the hard work they do. It is crucial to them all what work they will get, if they want it and not all of them do, but for different reasons. I think Tey manages to create a claustrophobic atmosphere and explain it so well.


It's a fascinating read. Tey spends most of the book setting the scene so that the crime comes almost at the end but the book is nevertheless engrosssing.

Tey is in my view an under-rated author - she wrote books that appear to be crime novels but I don't feel they are intended to be that, although she can do the twist at the end if she wants to want to, as with this book.

She was more interested I feel in creating characters and atmosphere than the crime story which I think was more a vehicle for what she wanted to say about people in general.





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