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Crampton Hodnet
Formidable Miss Doggett fills her life by giving tea parties for young academics and acting as watchdog for the morals of North Oxford. Anthea, her great-niece, is in love with a dashing undergraduate with political ambitions. Of this, Miss Doggett thoroughly approves. However, Anthea’s father, an Oxford don, is carrying on in the most unseemly fashion with a student – they have been spotted together at the British museum! But the only liaison Miss Doggett isn’t aware of is taking place under her very own roof: the lodger has proposed to her paid companion Miss Morrow. She wouldn’t approve of that at all.
271 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
148 people are currently reading
2261 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Pym
41 books996 followersPeople know British writer Barbara Pym for her comic novels, such as
Excellent Women
(1952), of English life.
After studying English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, Barbara Pym served in the Women's Royal Naval Service during World War II. From 1950 to 1961, she published six novels, but her 7th was declined by the publisher due to a change in the reading public's tastes.
The turning point for Pym came with a famous article in the 1975 Times Literary Supplement in which two prominent names, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin, nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Pym and Larkin had kept up a private correspondence over a period of many years. Her comeback novel, Quartet in Autumn, was nominated for the Booker Prize. Another novel, The Sweet Dove Died, previously rejected by many publishers, was subsequently published to critical acclaim, and several of her previously unpublished novels were published after her death.
Pym 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 anthropologists crop up in her novels. She never married, despite several close relationships with men, notably Henry Harvey, a fellow Oxford student, and the future politician, Julian Amery. After her retirement, she moved into Barn Cottage at Finstock in Oxfordshire with her younger sister, Hilary, who continued to live there until her death in February 2005. A blue plaque was placed on the cottage in 2006. The sisters played an active role in the social life of the village.
Several strong themes link the works in the Pym "canon", which are more notable for their style and characterisation than for their plots. A superficial reading gives the impression that they are sketches of village or suburban life, with excessive significance being attached to social activities connected with the Anglican church (in particular its Anglo-Catholic incarnation). However, the dialogue is often deeply ironic, and a tragic undercurrent runs through some of the later novels, especially Quartet in Autumn and The Sweet Dove Died.
After studying English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, Barbara Pym served in the Women's Royal Naval Service during World War II. From 1950 to 1961, she published six novels, but her 7th was declined by the publisher due to a change in the reading public's tastes.
The turning point for Pym came with a famous article in the 1975 Times Literary Supplement in which two prominent names, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin, nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Pym and Larkin had kept up a private correspondence over a period of many years. Her comeback novel, Quartet in Autumn, was nominated for the Booker Prize. Another novel, The Sweet Dove Died, previously rejected by many publishers, was subsequently published to critical acclaim, and several of her previously unpublished novels were published after her death.
Pym 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 anthropologists crop up in her novels. She never married, despite several close relationships with men, notably Henry Harvey, a fellow Oxford student, and the future politician, Julian Amery. After her retirement, she moved into Barn Cottage at Finstock in Oxfordshire with her younger sister, Hilary, who continued to live there until her death in February 2005. A blue plaque was placed on the cottage in 2006. The sisters played an active role in the social life of the village.
Several strong themes link the works in the Pym "canon", which are more notable for their style and characterisation than for their plots. A superficial reading gives the impression that they are sketches of village or suburban life, with excessive significance being attached to social activities connected with the Anglican church (in particular its Anglo-Catholic incarnation). However, the dialogue is often deeply ironic, and a tragic undercurrent runs through some of the later novels, especially Quartet in Autumn and The Sweet Dove Died.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 451 reviews
February 25, 2025
This book is a Sheer Delight from start to finish.
And right from the outset the colourful cast of characters - with whom we cannot help but identify - is from moment to moment "pinned and wriggling upon the wall" by the severely upright village gossip mill of their peers and social arbiters.
In short, it's a barrelful of pure escapist fun! It will charm your weekend.
The village of North Oxford, UK, might seem to be dowdy and forgettable - and so it may be. But scratch the surface of its deathly drudge, and you'll find it teeming with "life, filled to good measure, brimming over, and compacted."
The redoubtable Miss Dogget holds an exceedingly high opinion of her own high social standing, from which exalted perch she enjoys a high degree of self-esteem and passes sententious Olympian judgments upon the universe at large.
Her paid companion in her old age is the amiable but mousy Miss Morrow, who must also parry the sentimental advances of Miss Doggett's tenant, the village vicar.
And her nephew Francis, a tenured professor, escapes his humdrum life, as a pampered househusband for the village charities' Queen Bee, in the admiring gaze of a love-struck student.
People WILL talk! A cornucopia of personal foibles and follies.
And a real Snake Pit!
Barbara Pym has become one of my favourite Cozy British Authors. She digs deep; she chuckles without ceasing; and she bites.
Reading it as fellow guilty humans, more often than not we'll be foisted on our own petards! Touche and Ouch...
But laugh - oh, how we'll laugh!
Ms Pym wrote it - I would guess mainly to make herself laugh, along with her closest friends - as the doom of the blackest shade of Nazi Night descended on Europe like a funereal burial shroud, in 1939.
Can we blame her?
I think not.
And if it worked as joyful escapism for her, back then, it will work wonders for your mood, too, today!
Not her best, but a Solid Four Stars.
And right from the outset the colourful cast of characters - with whom we cannot help but identify - is from moment to moment "pinned and wriggling upon the wall" by the severely upright village gossip mill of their peers and social arbiters.
In short, it's a barrelful of pure escapist fun! It will charm your weekend.
The village of North Oxford, UK, might seem to be dowdy and forgettable - and so it may be. But scratch the surface of its deathly drudge, and you'll find it teeming with "life, filled to good measure, brimming over, and compacted."
The redoubtable Miss Dogget holds an exceedingly high opinion of her own high social standing, from which exalted perch she enjoys a high degree of self-esteem and passes sententious Olympian judgments upon the universe at large.
Her paid companion in her old age is the amiable but mousy Miss Morrow, who must also parry the sentimental advances of Miss Doggett's tenant, the village vicar.
And her nephew Francis, a tenured professor, escapes his humdrum life, as a pampered househusband for the village charities' Queen Bee, in the admiring gaze of a love-struck student.
People WILL talk! A cornucopia of personal foibles and follies.
And a real Snake Pit!
Barbara Pym has become one of my favourite Cozy British Authors. She digs deep; she chuckles without ceasing; and she bites.
Reading it as fellow guilty humans, more often than not we'll be foisted on our own petards! Touche and Ouch...
But laugh - oh, how we'll laugh!
Ms Pym wrote it - I would guess mainly to make herself laugh, along with her closest friends - as the doom of the blackest shade of Nazi Night descended on Europe like a funereal burial shroud, in 1939.
Can we blame her?
I think not.
And if it worked as joyful escapism for her, back then, it will work wonders for your mood, too, today!
Not her best, but a Solid Four Stars.
November 17, 2021
"... she, who had at one time helped and encouraged her husband with his work, had now left him to do it alone, because she feared that with HER help it might quite easily be finished before one of them died, and then where would they be?
...
This book meant that he spent long hours in his study, presumably working on it. It would not be at all convenient for Mrs. Cleveland to have him hanging about the drawing-room, wanting to be amused.
...
It was an excellent thing for a husband to have something like research to occupy his time."
Well, isn't it lovely to meet a Charlotte Lucas-Mr Collins(OK, admittedly this is stretching it a bit)-like scenario in a book written in 1939 and first published in 1985?
And this is definitely not the only resemblance between Jane Austen and Barbara Pym. There is a "trademark" gentle humour/irony combined with sharp and brilliant observation both of them possess.
This book is absolutely brilliant, even considering this was a first try by Barbara Pym.
Very much recommended.
...
This book meant that he spent long hours in his study, presumably working on it. It would not be at all convenient for Mrs. Cleveland to have him hanging about the drawing-room, wanting to be amused.
...
It was an excellent thing for a husband to have something like research to occupy his time."
Well, isn't it lovely to meet a Charlotte Lucas-Mr Collins(OK, admittedly this is stretching it a bit)-like scenario in a book written in 1939 and first published in 1985?
And this is definitely not the only resemblance between Jane Austen and Barbara Pym. There is a "trademark" gentle humour/irony combined with sharp and brilliant observation both of them possess.
This book is absolutely brilliant, even considering this was a first try by Barbara Pym.
Very much recommended.
June 4, 2025
Barbara Pym is an author that I will be devouring, hungrily and to the fullest extent whenever I can. Her prose is utterly hilarious, with a slight PG Wodehouse of the Oxford academic world thrown in as well as that sharp humour of Nancy Mitford and I adore her satirical wit which makes a mockery of the most normal things. To me she is an unearthed treasure, and I am only sorry there aren't lots more of her books, but I suppose with a talent like hers it is quality over quantity.
June 8, 2023
Enjoyable read but not very captivating. The satirical remarks were really fun. It had flawed characters whose intrigues made for an entertaining ride and captured the complexities of interpersonal relationships. It was a charming book with romantic entanglements, secret longings and social conventions. Subtle nuances of human behaviour were captured by the many characters in this book. The character of Miss Morrow was enigmatic and well developed. Some other characters felt shallowly developed.
A good idea as a delightful and witty little book for break from heavy reading, but can be missed.
A good idea as a delightful and witty little book for break from heavy reading, but can be missed.
August 17, 2025
Barbara Pym writes ordinary stories about ordinary people. Their daily routines, emotions, and thoughts grace many of her stories. These stories have no remarkable characters, like the Darcian young gentleman, the gallant Colonel Brandon, the sensible and grounded Mr. Knightley, or bold and beautiful Elizabeth Bennet. Nor are there dashing wild men like Mr. Wickham and Mr. Willoughby. Most of them are normal people from everyday life. Women who've lost their chances of marriage, old meddling ladies, irresponsible men, and religious men who struggle with their duties come to life in her stories. I know it sounds boring when expressed like that. We somehow expect to meet extraordinary characters when it comes to fiction. But let me tell you, Barbara Pym's novels are far from boring. They may not be exceptional, but they are fun reads.
Crampton Hodnet is set in North Oxford, and we meet most of the standard Pym characters. Part of the story revolves around the University of Oxford, so fictional dons and pupils also appear in this story. The setting had a particular attraction for me. I love university cities. They have a vibrant atmosphere, and Barbara Pym captures it quite nicely in her tale. Her characters and story sit harmoniously with the setting. And however ordinary and unexciting the story may be, Pym has a way of seeing you through to the end. Here it was humour. The intended satire firmly binds the different threads and loose ends of the story.
I'm not a fan of Barbara Pym. I have already expressed it in my other reviews of her novels. But there is a quiet charm in her novels that I won't deny. Perhaps that is why I keep coming back to her from time to time (although I'm careful with my choices). Everyone knows that she's regarded by many as the modern-day Jane Austen. While I personally disagree with the comparison, and there will be only one unique Jane Austen for me, I understand why such a presumption is made. Like Jane Austen, Pym uses satire to convey her social message, and her novels are comfort reads: light and fun.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
Crampton Hodnet is set in North Oxford, and we meet most of the standard Pym characters. Part of the story revolves around the University of Oxford, so fictional dons and pupils also appear in this story. The setting had a particular attraction for me. I love university cities. They have a vibrant atmosphere, and Barbara Pym captures it quite nicely in her tale. Her characters and story sit harmoniously with the setting. And however ordinary and unexciting the story may be, Pym has a way of seeing you through to the end. Here it was humour. The intended satire firmly binds the different threads and loose ends of the story.
I'm not a fan of Barbara Pym. I have already expressed it in my other reviews of her novels. But there is a quiet charm in her novels that I won't deny. Perhaps that is why I keep coming back to her from time to time (although I'm careful with my choices). Everyone knows that she's regarded by many as the modern-day Jane Austen. While I personally disagree with the comparison, and there will be only one unique Jane Austen for me, I understand why such a presumption is made. Like Jane Austen, Pym uses satire to convey her social message, and her novels are comfort reads: light and fun.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
September 20, 2025
'And what would Sunday supper be without beetroot?' said Miss Morrow brightly.
There's a sort of beginner's charm about this book which Pym started writing in 1939 - it was published posthumously but we have already met some of the characters here in the later Jane and Prudence, written after Hodnet but published before it. Miss Morrow and Miss Doggett are perhaps both sharper and more callous in the later book and it's interesting to meet this more mellow Jessie Morrow.
This is also the book with the most plot of those I've read so far: unsuitable attachments are everywhere, including the awkward one between Francis Cleveland, a middle-aged and married Oxford don, and his undergraduate student, Barbara Bird. Reading it today, we can't help but shake our heads at how Cleveland's colleagues egg him on, the rector of the college even suggesting a weekend in Paris with his student... Pym rolls it back but not for the same reasons of exploitative and asymmetrical power dynamics that we might have. This strand does date the novel even if it's there to send up the difference between romantic fantasies and reality.
The love life of Mr Latimer, the handsome young curate, is far more palatable, offering much comedy from Miss Doggett's snobbery to Miss Morrow's wistful refusal to settle for a marriage in which there is no love, mere convenience principally for the male partner.
Pym's humour is perhaps less subtle but the domestic comedy always makes me smile from the gloomy servings of beetroot to the number of hours women spent darning men's socks!
January 5, 2023
This is the second book I’ve read by Barbara Pym and I look forward to reading many more.
What I enjoy about her books: The setting- this time it is North Oxford- a contained community where everyone seems to know everyone’s business. The people- interesting, diverse individuals- usually a curate/minister; spinsters, busy bodies, plus throw in a new good looking man, potential love interests and you now have your story.
Pym brings humour and pathos to her stories. I was laughing out loud at some of the antics and passages. A couple that I loved:
About Miss Doggett, an elderly spinster:
“ Her chief work in life was interfering in other people’s business and imposing her strong personality upon those who were weaker than herself.”
“ Well, thought Miss Morrow, looking down at her new green dress, so it had been an occasion after all. A man had asked her to marry him and she had refused. But did a trapped curate count as a man?”
What Barbara Pym doesn’t do is give everyone a happy ending. Sometimes it is about compromise and acceptance or just going with the flow! I found this book to be delightful and charming- a lovely interlude for me!
Written- 1940
Published posthumously: 1985
What I enjoy about her books: The setting- this time it is North Oxford- a contained community where everyone seems to know everyone’s business. The people- interesting, diverse individuals- usually a curate/minister; spinsters, busy bodies, plus throw in a new good looking man, potential love interests and you now have your story.
Pym brings humour and pathos to her stories. I was laughing out loud at some of the antics and passages. A couple that I loved:
About Miss Doggett, an elderly spinster:
“ Her chief work in life was interfering in other people’s business and imposing her strong personality upon those who were weaker than herself.”
“ Well, thought Miss Morrow, looking down at her new green dress, so it had been an occasion after all. A man had asked her to marry him and she had refused. But did a trapped curate count as a man?”
What Barbara Pym doesn’t do is give everyone a happy ending. Sometimes it is about compromise and acceptance or just going with the flow! I found this book to be delightful and charming- a lovely interlude for me!
Written- 1940
Published posthumously: 1985
October 27, 2022
This was my first introduction to Barbara Pym. I had decided that I should read some of her books when I found out that she was said to be "the most underrated writer of the century." I was not disappointed, I found her writing to be very witty, intelligent, and just all around hilarious. As someone else on the list just wrote about a book, I found myself running to the drawer for a highlighter while reading the first chapter. Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up in the story that I forgot to highlight many great little bits I would have liked to be able to find again. Definitely will be in my re-read pile. A quote from the book: "Margaret Cleveland, who had at one time helped and encouraged her husband with his work, had now left him to do it alone, because she feared that with her help it might easily be finished before one of them died, and then where would they be?" This novel was published posthumously, and now having read two more of her books, I find this one to be a little bit more cohesive and flowing than the others, maybe because of a more modern editor.
June 6, 2022
Pym’s very early and delightful Oxford comedy gently satirises both University and residents within an almost Shakespearean plot. Utterly readable wth a lightness and wit that sadly seems to now be unfashionable in more recent writings. Enjoy.
September 28, 2025
“Everything went on just the same in Oxford from year to year. It was only the people who might be different.”
In her first novel, left unpublished until after her death, Barbara Pym gives us an enchanting romantic farce that is pure delight.
Miss Jessie Morrow is companion to the elderly Miss Doggett, and we see the story primarily through her view. Every year Miss Doggett hosts new Oxford students (who she believes can benefit from her wisdom) to tea in her North Oxford home called Leamington Lodge. This year they are also having the new unmarried curate Stephen Latimer stay with them.
I loved what Pym did with the character of Jessie Morrow. She takes a woman who is taken advantage of by her employer, written off by most of her society as a spinster, and pretty much walked all over by everyone, and gives her a clear dignity, seen through her self-deprecating humor and flashes of insight. We may be set up to pity her, but she ends up being the one character we admire.
As fall turns to winter and then spring, we explore different romantic entanglements. The curate thinks Jessie might be someone he could settle for. Miss Doggett’s nephew Francis, a married Oxford Don, is tempted by a young female student. Francis’ daughter, the pretty Anthea, assumes her beau Simon will be the one that lasts forever.
As all this goes on and each of the characters makes one misstep after another, we are treated to Jessie’s wisdom.
Like
“Perhaps she had now given up hope of getting anything, if there was anything. But was there? And if there was anything, wasn’t it often much less than people expected? Wasn’t it moments, single hours and days, rather than months and years?”
And perhaps my favorite
“… the sort of love that lingers on through many years, dying sometimes and then coming back like a twinge of rheumatism in the winter, so that you feel it in your knee when you are nearing the top of a long flight of stairs.”
While this had many funny moments, I found it even more touching than funny. Satisfying from beginning to end.
In her first novel, left unpublished until after her death, Barbara Pym gives us an enchanting romantic farce that is pure delight.
Miss Jessie Morrow is companion to the elderly Miss Doggett, and we see the story primarily through her view. Every year Miss Doggett hosts new Oxford students (who she believes can benefit from her wisdom) to tea in her North Oxford home called Leamington Lodge. This year they are also having the new unmarried curate Stephen Latimer stay with them.
I loved what Pym did with the character of Jessie Morrow. She takes a woman who is taken advantage of by her employer, written off by most of her society as a spinster, and pretty much walked all over by everyone, and gives her a clear dignity, seen through her self-deprecating humor and flashes of insight. We may be set up to pity her, but she ends up being the one character we admire.
As fall turns to winter and then spring, we explore different romantic entanglements. The curate thinks Jessie might be someone he could settle for. Miss Doggett’s nephew Francis, a married Oxford Don, is tempted by a young female student. Francis’ daughter, the pretty Anthea, assumes her beau Simon will be the one that lasts forever.
As all this goes on and each of the characters makes one misstep after another, we are treated to Jessie’s wisdom.
Like
“Perhaps she had now given up hope of getting anything, if there was anything. But was there? And if there was anything, wasn’t it often much less than people expected? Wasn’t it moments, single hours and days, rather than months and years?”
And perhaps my favorite
“… the sort of love that lingers on through many years, dying sometimes and then coming back like a twinge of rheumatism in the winter, so that you feel it in your knee when you are nearing the top of a long flight of stairs.”
While this had many funny moments, I found it even more touching than funny. Satisfying from beginning to end.
September 18, 2025
For, after all, respect and esteem were cold, lifeless things–dry bones picked clean of flesh. There was nothing springlike about dry bones, nothing warm and romantic about respect and esteem.
This book is about love and romance, or maybe it isn’t, maybe it's really about how empty and sordid things can be done in the name of love and romance. Most of the characters here are confused, to say the least, and marriage is an institution that has more to do with convenience and contrivance than affection or desire. In fact, most of what we see here is a struggle to meet the expectations of society rather than any individual satisfaction.
Barbara Pym steps into ordinary lives and exposes, gently and with humor, how unsatisfactory they can sometimes be. There is an undercurrent of irony and a subtle humor that permeates the story and makes most of the characters seem both foolish and unrelentingly human. She seems to say we all have disappointments, some succumb completely and others flourish despite them; we all struggle at times with living the everyday, but the difference is what we decide to make of life as a whole.
One irony in this story is that the person who understands most about what is going on beneath the surface of other people’s lives, including the married ones, is a spinster who functions as a companion to an elderly woman. The other inhabitants of the village would be surprised to realize the depths of knowledge she possesses. Miss Morrow’s life is rather sad in some ways. She lives in another woman’s house, takes orders, is often denigrated, is somewhat ordinary, and lacks romance. However, she is smart and observant, and she sees all the positives in her position and does not envy others or fall for fantasies and dreams. She knows how to laugh at herself and she never uses information to hurt another person. I liked her very much.
What I love most about Pym is that she can show you the negative, and sometimes the worst, sides of people without being cruel, unkind or discompassionate. She understands people, their connections or lack thereof, and she has a way of presenting the social rituals of a community with a true picture of how little sincerity they foster.
I am a long way from exhausting Barbara Pym’s oeuvre, and I am happy for that. It means I have some delightful reading ahead of me.
This book is about love and romance, or maybe it isn’t, maybe it's really about how empty and sordid things can be done in the name of love and romance. Most of the characters here are confused, to say the least, and marriage is an institution that has more to do with convenience and contrivance than affection or desire. In fact, most of what we see here is a struggle to meet the expectations of society rather than any individual satisfaction.
Barbara Pym steps into ordinary lives and exposes, gently and with humor, how unsatisfactory they can sometimes be. There is an undercurrent of irony and a subtle humor that permeates the story and makes most of the characters seem both foolish and unrelentingly human. She seems to say we all have disappointments, some succumb completely and others flourish despite them; we all struggle at times with living the everyday, but the difference is what we decide to make of life as a whole.
One irony in this story is that the person who understands most about what is going on beneath the surface of other people’s lives, including the married ones, is a spinster who functions as a companion to an elderly woman. The other inhabitants of the village would be surprised to realize the depths of knowledge she possesses. Miss Morrow’s life is rather sad in some ways. She lives in another woman’s house, takes orders, is often denigrated, is somewhat ordinary, and lacks romance. However, she is smart and observant, and she sees all the positives in her position and does not envy others or fall for fantasies and dreams. She knows how to laugh at herself and she never uses information to hurt another person. I liked her very much.
What I love most about Pym is that she can show you the negative, and sometimes the worst, sides of people without being cruel, unkind or discompassionate. She understands people, their connections or lack thereof, and she has a way of presenting the social rituals of a community with a true picture of how little sincerity they foster.
I am a long way from exhausting Barbara Pym’s oeuvre, and I am happy for that. It means I have some delightful reading ahead of me.
January 21, 2015
Yes, I know! I'm back in England again; this time up at Oxford for a comic romp through a particularly eventful Trinity term and long vac.
"There is something very disturbing about the spring in Oxford." Indeed there is, and it is enough to give all sorts of normally staid souls some very odd notions. More than one unsuitable attachment is formed and an assortment of busybodies and gossips do their best make the most of it all. The moral of the story is that one really mustn't make a drama of things--and one ought to be sure to have walnut cake on hand for tea.
This is the first Barbara Pym I've read. The forward by Hazel Holt explains how and why this manuscript, written in 1939, was laid aside and only published in 1985. As Holt says: "It is more purely funny than any of her later novels. So far, everyone who has read the manuscript has laughed out loud--even in the Bodleian Library."
I did not read this in the Bodleian (alas!), but I laughed out loud quite often--it's cutting satire and very amusing. I can't imagine living in the kind of claustrophobic, gossip-filled town she describes, but much as I would hate living in that time and place, I enjoyed my visit.
"There is something very disturbing about the spring in Oxford." Indeed there is, and it is enough to give all sorts of normally staid souls some very odd notions. More than one unsuitable attachment is formed and an assortment of busybodies and gossips do their best make the most of it all. The moral of the story is that one really mustn't make a drama of things--and one ought to be sure to have walnut cake on hand for tea.
This is the first Barbara Pym I've read. The forward by Hazel Holt explains how and why this manuscript, written in 1939, was laid aside and only published in 1985. As Holt says: "It is more purely funny than any of her later novels. So far, everyone who has read the manuscript has laughed out loud--even in the Bodleian Library."
I did not read this in the Bodleian (alas!), but I laughed out loud quite often--it's cutting satire and very amusing. I can't imagine living in the kind of claustrophobic, gossip-filled town she describes, but much as I would hate living in that time and place, I enjoyed my visit.
September 5, 2025
A delightful little novel, Barbara Pym's beginnings...
August 3, 2024
Crampton Hodnet is a fictional village or church. The Reverend Mr. Latimer says he was there when he was actually walking in the rain with Miss Morrow. She is shocked. She’s never heard a clergyman tell a deliberate untruth before.
08/2020
I'd like to solve the mystery of Pym's writing: so pleasant, so easy and breezy. So readable. Hard to put down despite an utter lack of suspense. But it's hard to put my finger on what exactly makes this so. It slips away when I try to study it. Lighter than air. I guess this is my second time reading "Crampton Hodnet."
08/2020
I'd like to solve the mystery of Pym's writing: so pleasant, so easy and breezy. So readable. Hard to put down despite an utter lack of suspense. But it's hard to put my finger on what exactly makes this so. It slips away when I try to study it. Lighter than air. I guess this is my second time reading "Crampton Hodnet."
August 11, 2009
Sickeningly, this is my third attempt to write a review of this book. I just have to tell myself that I get more and more computer literate every time I persevere. So here I go again: The other day I was casting about for strong openings to books and I looked at Crampton Hodnet, which I had read ages ago. This is how it starts: “It was a wet Sunday afternoon in North Oxford at the beginning of October. The laurel bushes which bordered the path leading to Leamington Lodge, Banbury Road, were dripping with rain. A few sodden chrysanthemums, dahlias and zinnias drooped in the flower-beds on the lawn.” As before, I was immediately smitten. What do I love about this book? The “God is in the details” little things – good, hot tea, a new frock in a feel-good color, a train ride to London. I’m amazed that I can identify with three of the female characters. Miss Morrow doesn’t expect a lot, but she won’t settle for a marriage based just on respect or admiration. You pretty much know she won’t ever marry. Barbara Bird, well, she’s the female lead of Chesil Beach, but from a woman’s perspective. How many times have you felt that infatuation is a whole lot more intense in the abstract? And finally Mrs. Cleveland: I hope that anyone whose husband is going through a mid-life crisis will read this book and learn from her. Me too, but I have a pretty strong feeling that this will not be a problem in our marriage. Of course I hope I won’t turn into Miss Doggett, but maybe we all do, at a certain age.
Lessons from this book? Relax, nobody expects you to do anything special, so just do what you want to. What I want to do is read or reread all of Barbara Pym and go to the next annual meeting of the Barbara Pym Society meeting in Cambridge, Mass., in March. Chris will probably even come with me, even though he has no interest in Barbara Pym. That’s just how he is.
Lessons from this book? Relax, nobody expects you to do anything special, so just do what you want to. What I want to do is read or reread all of Barbara Pym and go to the next annual meeting of the Barbara Pym Society meeting in Cambridge, Mass., in March. Chris will probably even come with me, even though he has no interest in Barbara Pym. That’s just how he is.
February 28, 2020
This is a delight. 1930s middle-England where strict social codes abound revolving around university, church and ladies who do flowers, fetes and funerals.
The characters are funny, staid and drawn well. Barbara Pym has a high eye for the absurd as well as the things that matter to people...or should be seen to.
Crampton Hodnet is sublime situational comedy, but also a lense on an England past.
The characters are funny, staid and drawn well. Barbara Pym has a high eye for the absurd as well as the things that matter to people...or should be seen to.
Crampton Hodnet is sublime situational comedy, but also a lense on an England past.
October 1, 2025
Always a joy to be back in the cosy world of Pym.
December 12, 2017
I need more stars for a few of my other VERY favourite books. But how can I not give this one all of the available stars? I think I had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading. Delightful characters, dialogue, and plot.
September 28, 2025
I enjoyed the dry and sometimes snarky humor in this Pym novel. It takes place in North Oxford over the course of a year, new students come to tea, matrons and academics gossip, illicit romances are speculated about - there is a rhythm to life in North Oxford, as timid Miss Morrow observes.
The reader sees a lot of the story through her eyes, and even though the bossy, dictatorial Miss Doggett (the elderly lady Miss Morrow lives with and works for as a companion) constantly corrects her as “not a woman of the world”, I liked Miss Morrow, her common sense, her sense of the ridiculous, and her positive attitude about her rather dull life. She seems quite insightful about the gossipy goings-on around her!
Francis Cleveland is a handsome, middle aged Oxford don; his wife, Margaret, is a common sensical, domestic woman, who reminisces at one point that they had very passionately in love when they were young. She now has a grown daughter, Anthea, with her own romantic interests, and regards her husband as a rather childlike responsibility who gets under foot around the house if he isn’t busy enough. Her internal musings about her husband and marriage are quite funny!
Francis becomes interested in a pretty young student, inevitably, gossip begins to circulate, and finally comes to a head when Miss Doggett puts her oar in (she’s Francis’ aunt). Meanwhile, a young curate has come to board at Miss Doggett’s, and Miss Morrow befriends him - could there be more to it?
A witty and entertaining social comedy - I definitely want to read more Barbara Pym novels.
The reader sees a lot of the story through her eyes, and even though the bossy, dictatorial Miss Doggett (the elderly lady Miss Morrow lives with and works for as a companion) constantly corrects her as “not a woman of the world”, I liked Miss Morrow, her common sense, her sense of the ridiculous, and her positive attitude about her rather dull life. She seems quite insightful about the gossipy goings-on around her!
Francis Cleveland is a handsome, middle aged Oxford don; his wife, Margaret, is a common sensical, domestic woman, who reminisces at one point that they had very passionately in love when they were young. She now has a grown daughter, Anthea, with her own romantic interests, and regards her husband as a rather childlike responsibility who gets under foot around the house if he isn’t busy enough. Her internal musings about her husband and marriage are quite funny!
Francis becomes interested in a pretty young student, inevitably, gossip begins to circulate, and finally comes to a head when Miss Doggett puts her oar in (she’s Francis’ aunt). Meanwhile, a young curate has come to board at Miss Doggett’s, and Miss Morrow befriends him - could there be more to it?
A witty and entertaining social comedy - I definitely want to read more Barbara Pym novels.
November 18, 2016
The quiet village of North Oxford is populated by widows and spinsters and is close to the University where there are dons and co-eds a plenty to give the old gossips something to talk about. Miss Doggett, the aunt of one such don, is the village's moral police. She keeps strict tabs on her companion, Miss Morrow, a woman of a certain age. When the new curate comes to stay, Miss Doggett naturally assumes that Miss Morrow, plain and boring, will not be a threat to the young man. Miss Morrow finds she enjoys his company but why would a man ever think twice about her? Romance is for young and pretty girls like Anthea Cleveland, Miss Dogget's great niece. Anthea's father, an aging don, thinks romance may be for him as well. It all plays out in the village, the British Museum in London, tea rooms and trains. This is a very BBCish sort of story. Fans of Cranford or BBC period dramas will probably enjoy this one.
The story took a long time to get into. Too many characters were introduced in the first chapter and most of them didn't reappear for a very long time, if at all. The plot picks up about halfway through and then I had to see how it all turned out. It is funny in places, especially in one scene that is reminiscent of Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth, but it's very bittersweet. Characters reflect on morality and mortality; some have their hearts broken while others discover their true place. Some of the attitudes expressed in the story are very dated. Some of the older characters behave like it's still 1900 and expect everyone else to live up to the same strict moral code. Miss Doggett is on the lookout for an advantageous match for her great-niece and Miss Morrow is rather Fanny Price-ish. She has a bit more spunk in her that comes out once in awhile and I liked her witty banter with the curate. Older characters have a lax attitude towards adultery, some are prepared to wink at it, while some propose to ignore it. The one thing I was mostly bothered by was a scene where a young lady is kissed by a young gentlemen she's only just met! That wasn't even the first time it happened and not one character had a problem with it. Also, an middle-aged don falls in love with a student and the age difference isn't the problem.
I didn't find any of the characters completely likeable. I found Miss Doggett incredibly nosy, selfish and domineering but she wasn't half as bad as old Mrs. Killigrew and her son who spy on people and use what they learn to fuel the gossip hotline and stick their noses in where they don't belong. They are very nasty, unpleasant people. I had some sympathy for Miss Morrow. She is somewhat likeable, especially in the middle of the novel. She has a sense of humor which I liked. Anthea is likeable enough for a young woman absorbed in her own affairs. The other young woman appearing in the story, Barbara Bird, is a bizarre nitwit. She may be intelligent but she lacks common sense.
This book was never published in the author's lifetime and the introductory blurb on the dust jacket indicates she was just honing her skills. I may give a later novel a chance and see if I like it more than this one.
The story took a long time to get into. Too many characters were introduced in the first chapter and most of them didn't reappear for a very long time, if at all. The plot picks up about halfway through and then I had to see how it all turned out. It is funny in places, especially in one scene that is reminiscent of Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth, but it's very bittersweet. Characters reflect on morality and mortality; some have their hearts broken while others discover their true place. Some of the attitudes expressed in the story are very dated. Some of the older characters behave like it's still 1900 and expect everyone else to live up to the same strict moral code. Miss Doggett is on the lookout for an advantageous match for her great-niece and Miss Morrow is rather Fanny Price-ish. She has a bit more spunk in her that comes out once in awhile and I liked her witty banter with the curate. Older characters have a lax attitude towards adultery, some are prepared to wink at it, while some propose to ignore it. The one thing I was mostly bothered by was a scene where a young lady is kissed by a young gentlemen she's only just met! That wasn't even the first time it happened and not one character had a problem with it. Also, an middle-aged don falls in love with a student and the age difference isn't the problem.
I didn't find any of the characters completely likeable. I found Miss Doggett incredibly nosy, selfish and domineering but she wasn't half as bad as old Mrs. Killigrew and her son who spy on people and use what they learn to fuel the gossip hotline and stick their noses in where they don't belong. They are very nasty, unpleasant people. I had some sympathy for Miss Morrow. She is somewhat likeable, especially in the middle of the novel. She has a sense of humor which I liked. Anthea is likeable enough for a young woman absorbed in her own affairs. The other young woman appearing in the story, Barbara Bird, is a bizarre nitwit. She may be intelligent but she lacks common sense.
This book was never published in the author's lifetime and the introductory blurb on the dust jacket indicates she was just honing her skills. I may give a later novel a chance and see if I like it more than this one.
August 1, 2022
I’m a slow reader. I very rarely read a hundred pages in a day. I read more than that of Crampton Hodnet today. I soared through its pages on a fluffy speedy cloud. Pym’s novels are a pure pleasure, and I’m gonna go ahead from now on and call her a favourite. It was my fifth Pym, and in the course of reading it I ordered three more. She is a guaranteed good time.
The comedy is breezy and intelligent, the prose flows like sweet music, and her characters are vividly realised, sharply and sympathetically portrayed. It’s a joy to surrender to Pym’s psychological prowess and masterful narration. She shows how relational all things are where people are concerned, nothing is ever what it seems to any one person. We have our perceptions but we get things wrong all the time, and we’re all a little pathetic in our own way. We’re so limited! It’s a relief, somehow, to know that. And it’s a powerful thing to be conscious of as I go about my everyday life. I’m much less judgmental thanks to the stories of writers like Pym. I’m freer than I was before.
There’s a quote by Anne Tyler, a favourite writer of mine, on one of my Elizabeth Taylor (another favourite) novels that reads, “Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul-sisters all.” And that’s pretty apt. Tyler is clearly their descendent, and is keeping the literary domestic realist novel, with its keen and essentially comic perceptions of human behaviour, alive today. This time around, reading Crampton Hodnet, I really felt that connection between them more than ever. And it makes me wonder, Who will take the torch from Tyler, who is well into her twilight years, and carry it into the next decades?
The comedy is breezy and intelligent, the prose flows like sweet music, and her characters are vividly realised, sharply and sympathetically portrayed. It’s a joy to surrender to Pym’s psychological prowess and masterful narration. She shows how relational all things are where people are concerned, nothing is ever what it seems to any one person. We have our perceptions but we get things wrong all the time, and we’re all a little pathetic in our own way. We’re so limited! It’s a relief, somehow, to know that. And it’s a powerful thing to be conscious of as I go about my everyday life. I’m much less judgmental thanks to the stories of writers like Pym. I’m freer than I was before.
There’s a quote by Anne Tyler, a favourite writer of mine, on one of my Elizabeth Taylor (another favourite) novels that reads, “Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul-sisters all.” And that’s pretty apt. Tyler is clearly their descendent, and is keeping the literary domestic realist novel, with its keen and essentially comic perceptions of human behaviour, alive today. This time around, reading Crampton Hodnet, I really felt that connection between them more than ever. And it makes me wonder, Who will take the torch from Tyler, who is well into her twilight years, and carry it into the next decades?
September 5, 2013
The story was promising but not exactly what I was hoping for. The book title comes from a situation where the curate of the village North Oxford must explain to the vicar's wife why he missed evensong. While he had in fact been wandering the countryside with his friend Miss Morrow, he decided to tell Mrs. Wardell that he was visiting a sick friend in Crampton Hodnet (a village Miss Morrow believes he made up on the spot). I thought the village name was perfect. So proper, nothing untoward could happen in Crampton Hodnet. Quite happy with this development, I thought we were going to be exposed to a "Bunbury" situation where Crampton Hodnet is used frequently to get the curate out of a jam. No such luck. This is the only time the village is mentioned. Odd then that it is the title of the book.
The story takes place in and around the village of North Oxford. The Cleveland family make up three of the main characters. Mr. Cleveland is a middle-aged college professor who thinks he's in love with one of his students. Mrs. Cleveland spends all her energy running the household and enjoys her husband's lack of attention. Daughter Anthea is 20 and regularly falls in love with one of this year's crop of new students at the local college. The Clevelands are a silly upper class family who are unsure how to find happiness, or realize they have found it, as they stumble through their lives.
As with any small town, everyone is involved in everyone else's business and the highlight of many a resident's day is to be the one to expose the latest scandal. Pym did a great job creating the many characters who make up the village of North Oxford.
In addition to the whole Cleveland storyline, we also follow the new curate, Mr. Latimer, who takes up residence with the elderly and forceful Miss Dogett (Cleveland's aunt) and her thirty-something-year-old companion Miss Morrow. There are hints of a scandal in Mr. Latimer's past but no details. While most of the women of the village swoon at the sight of the handsome young curate, Miss Morrow is impervious to his charms. They strike up a very nice friendship. Mr. Latimer is the only one who treats her as an equal, while the rest if the village see her as just another of Miss Dogett's appendages. I was really hoping for more from this relationship as I enjoyed the scenes involving these two. .
I wanted a little more farce but was happy enough with this gentle comedy of manners. More Pym please.
The story takes place in and around the village of North Oxford. The Cleveland family make up three of the main characters. Mr. Cleveland is a middle-aged college professor who thinks he's in love with one of his students. Mrs. Cleveland spends all her energy running the household and enjoys her husband's lack of attention. Daughter Anthea is 20 and regularly falls in love with one of this year's crop of new students at the local college. The Clevelands are a silly upper class family who are unsure how to find happiness, or realize they have found it, as they stumble through their lives.
As with any small town, everyone is involved in everyone else's business and the highlight of many a resident's day is to be the one to expose the latest scandal. Pym did a great job creating the many characters who make up the village of North Oxford.
In addition to the whole Cleveland storyline, we also follow the new curate, Mr. Latimer, who takes up residence with the elderly and forceful Miss Dogett (Cleveland's aunt) and her thirty-something-year-old companion Miss Morrow. There are hints of a scandal in Mr. Latimer's past but no details. While most of the women of the village swoon at the sight of the handsome young curate, Miss Morrow is impervious to his charms. They strike up a very nice friendship. Mr. Latimer is the only one who treats her as an equal, while the rest if the village see her as just another of Miss Dogett's appendages. I was really hoping for more from this relationship as I enjoyed the scenes involving these two. .
I wanted a little more farce but was happy enough with this gentle comedy of manners. More Pym please.
April 13, 2017
'Crampton Hodnet' is another of Barbara Pym's gems. It chronicles the quiet, dull and uneventful lives of academics, students and a range of other - mostly unmarried - adults in North Oxford. Pym began to write it in the late 1930s. She set it aside after finishing it in 1940. It was published - posthumously (Pym died in 1980) - in 1985, by which time the author's reputation as a writer of endearing, comedic and poignant fiction was secure. Hazel Holt, who edited the novel for publication, says in a foreword to the story that the manuscript contained elements of over-writing, over-emphasis and repetition. None of those faults is present in the published version of the novel, which is almost as good as Pym's very best work.
The plot is the least important feature of any Barbara Pym story, so I shan't dwell on that of 'Crampton Hodnet'. Suffice it to say that there are three separate love-affairs and that, as is usual with Pym, very little happens. But the things that make this wonderful writer's stories so beguiling - expert characterisation, a succinct and very readable prose-style and a mordant wit - are very much in evidence. The message seems to be that love and passion are often more trouble than they are worth and that a quiet, romantically unfulfilled life is often the more sensible option. That is perhaps a somewhat unsettling philosophy but one that is at least worth thinking about in our modern, frenzied, sometimes brutal world. Barbara Pym's work may seem superficially old-fashioned. But like all great novelists her themes resonate and are timeless. 'Crampton Hodnet' is a wonderful read. 9/10.
The plot is the least important feature of any Barbara Pym story, so I shan't dwell on that of 'Crampton Hodnet'. Suffice it to say that there are three separate love-affairs and that, as is usual with Pym, very little happens. But the things that make this wonderful writer's stories so beguiling - expert characterisation, a succinct and very readable prose-style and a mordant wit - are very much in evidence. The message seems to be that love and passion are often more trouble than they are worth and that a quiet, romantically unfulfilled life is often the more sensible option. That is perhaps a somewhat unsettling philosophy but one that is at least worth thinking about in our modern, frenzied, sometimes brutal world. Barbara Pym's work may seem superficially old-fashioned. But like all great novelists her themes resonate and are timeless. 'Crampton Hodnet' is a wonderful read. 9/10.
December 8, 2014
Another delightful comedy of English life. I've become a great fan of Barbara Pym.
March 31, 2020
Barbara Pym is undoubtedly the Jane Austen of 20th century. Crampton Hornet was the writer's first finished novel but only published posthumously. Very comic, very English. A lighthearted humouring of the life of middle class academics in Oxford in 1930s.
The book is character-driven. Here are some of the well crafted and lively characters:
A passionate young woman whose idea of perfect love is platonic and includes a lot of poetry reading
A 50 something professor in his mid-life crisis
A 35 years' old curate whose moral standard is not any higher than God's people and who recently discovers he does not want to celibate after all
A formidable snobbish old widow
A amiable gay (hinted) couple who always at each other's side
....
Perhaps my favourite character is Miss Morrow, a small, "plain" looking 35 year's old spinster (what a dated word), a paid companion of a rich widow, kind, sharp and observant, far more intelligent than her employer knows or allows. I keep hoping she would find her Mr. Right and the passionate love she deserves. Of course, it won't be a Barbara Pym if it happens that way.
The book is character-driven. Here are some of the well crafted and lively characters:
A passionate young woman whose idea of perfect love is platonic and includes a lot of poetry reading
A 50 something professor in his mid-life crisis
A 35 years' old curate whose moral standard is not any higher than God's people and who recently discovers he does not want to celibate after all
A formidable snobbish old widow
A amiable gay (hinted) couple who always at each other's side
....
Perhaps my favourite character is Miss Morrow, a small, "plain" looking 35 year's old spinster (what a dated word), a paid companion of a rich widow, kind, sharp and observant, far more intelligent than her employer knows or allows. I keep hoping she would find her Mr. Right and the passionate love she deserves. Of course, it won't be a Barbara Pym if it happens that way.
March 24, 2017
A farce written by Barbara Pym before others she published first, this was published posthumously based on an old manuscript copy with the author's pencilled in correcitons. Excellent women, curates, professors, beautiful young students, meddling gossips and more work together in an early rendering of the characters and sorts of characters that mark Barbara Pyms fiction. Crampton Hodnet isn't even a real place, just a last minute excuse made by a curate who inadvertently walked too long with a spinster (later known in her books as excellent women), but comes up a number of times in reference to various incidents.
If you are a Barbara Pym fan and haven't yet read this book, then it's a must read for you. I liked it, but am not as keen on the humour; I suspect that this is a book I should have listened to.
If you are a Barbara Pym fan and haven't yet read this book, then it's a must read for you. I liked it, but am not as keen on the humour; I suspect that this is a book I should have listened to.
January 30, 2025
This novel is not without small and isolated charms, but it would need a lot of revision to be in the company of Pym's best work. She wrote it in 1940, shelved it when the war interfered, and it was published posthumously by her executor in 1985. Its characters and dialogue are nonstop twee, which sits dissonantly with one of the plot themes, adultery. Stock characters like virginal spinsters and earnest yet handsome curates are to be expected, but they need to have some authentic emotions if Pym wants us to believe the story.
September 15, 2024
A lovely story taking the reader back to pre war England. This story is set in North Oxford and there are plenty of eccentric characters to make you laugh. I found this book hard to put down once I started to read it.
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May 24, 2021
Crampton Hodnet is an early Pym novel that was written in the ‘30’s but edited and published posthumously by her literary executor. There is some overlap with the later/earlier novel Jane and Prudence: the characters of Miss Doggett and Miss Morrow are essentially the same but the story lines clash between the two books as it pertains to Miss Morrow; the Wardells, the vicar and his wife are called the Clevelands in J&P and again, the time line clashes; and finally, to make things more confusing, in Crampton Hodnet , the family called the Clevelands are Miss Dogett’s nephew, a married Oxford don with a wife and a grown daughter. But otherwise, this was very enjoyable Pym novel. I just wish she could have lived to complete it herself and iron out those inconsistencies.
The title is sort of an inside joke between Miss Morrow, the thirty-something paid companion to the elderly Miss Doggett and the curate, the thirty-something Mr. Latimer, who is living with them. As with all Pym novels, there is a little romance, much of it unrequited. Other than the potential match of Mr. Latimer and Miss Morrow, there is Mr. Cleavland falling for one of his students and she for him, if only in the abstract. Also Mr. Cleavland’s daughter, Althea, is dating one of the undergraduates who may not be worthy of her affections. It’s all charming and slyly funny in that classic Barbara Pym way. Nothing much happens in in terms of the plot and yet internally there is a lot of development with the characters and their relationships with one another.
The title is sort of an inside joke between Miss Morrow, the thirty-something paid companion to the elderly Miss Doggett and the curate, the thirty-something Mr. Latimer, who is living with them. As with all Pym novels, there is a little romance, much of it unrequited. Other than the potential match of Mr. Latimer and Miss Morrow, there is Mr. Cleavland falling for one of his students and she for him, if only in the abstract. Also Mr. Cleavland’s daughter, Althea, is dating one of the undergraduates who may not be worthy of her affections. It’s all charming and slyly funny in that classic Barbara Pym way. Nothing much happens in in terms of the plot and yet internally there is a lot of development with the characters and their relationships with one another.
June 2, 2016
3.5
When I bought this novel, the bookshop seller at the till couldn't help commenting that this was a good book, and it sure was. Crampton Hodnet is a comedy of manners set in Oxford in the 1930s, and focuses on romance, or rather unsuitable attachments. We have the typical university don falling for one of his students, while his wife is oblivious to all; the daughter courted by many students before settling on a supposedly promising young man; and the single, good looking, curate who while battling female interest convinces himself a plain lady's companion would make him the perfect wife. Crowning over all this is of course the older medling spinster by excellence, concerned only with scandal and village gossip, and controlling all around her. If these sound familiar, it's because they are to a certain extent but Pym portrays them in such a way that delights and entertains. The plot is not the most important element but rather its treatment, full of witty dialogue and comical scenes.
"Are there no sick people I ought to visit?”
"There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that’s all”
"I think Mr Latimer is highly strung", ventured Miss Morrow.
"Yes, he is like a finely tuned instrument", agreed Miss Doggett.
My favourite character was Miss Morrow, paid companion to Miss Doggett. She is invisible to most people, and yet she is the one who sees and understands more than what people give her credit. She is sharp, sensible, likeable, and perhaps the only content character. Observing all around her, she takes amusement from the often ridicule scenes, and the small pleasures in life, while knowing exactly what she wants.
When I bought this novel, the bookshop seller at the till couldn't help commenting that this was a good book, and it sure was. Crampton Hodnet is a comedy of manners set in Oxford in the 1930s, and focuses on romance, or rather unsuitable attachments. We have the typical university don falling for one of his students, while his wife is oblivious to all; the daughter courted by many students before settling on a supposedly promising young man; and the single, good looking, curate who while battling female interest convinces himself a plain lady's companion would make him the perfect wife. Crowning over all this is of course the older medling spinster by excellence, concerned only with scandal and village gossip, and controlling all around her. If these sound familiar, it's because they are to a certain extent but Pym portrays them in such a way that delights and entertains. The plot is not the most important element but rather its treatment, full of witty dialogue and comical scenes.
"Are there no sick people I ought to visit?”
"There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that’s all”
"I think Mr Latimer is highly strung", ventured Miss Morrow.
"Yes, he is like a finely tuned instrument", agreed Miss Doggett.
My favourite character was Miss Morrow, paid companion to Miss Doggett. She is invisible to most people, and yet she is the one who sees and understands more than what people give her credit. She is sharp, sensible, likeable, and perhaps the only content character. Observing all around her, she takes amusement from the often ridicule scenes, and the small pleasures in life, while knowing exactly what she wants.
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