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No Fond Return of Love
Dulcie Mainwaring, the heroine of the book, is one of those excellent women who is always helping others and never looking out for herself- especially in the realms of love. The novel has a delicate tangle of schemes and unfulfilled dreams, hidden secrets and a castle or two. Told wonderfully in the deadpan honesty that has become a Pym hallmark, this book is a delight.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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2743 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Pym
40 books987 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previously rejected by many publishers, was subsequently published to critical acclaim, and several of her previously unpublished novels were published after her death.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 414 reviews
July 14, 2019
Uno de esos raros libros que te hacen feliz mientras los lees, a los que solo les pides que no se terminen..
Me ha gustado más que 'Mujeres excelentes', no sé si es que he conectado más con los personajes, con la autora o simplemente ha sido el momento perfecto para leerlo pero he adorado a Dulcie, y su obsesión cotilla por investigar la vida de los demás.
Es un libro sencillo pero con un humor fino muy british, cargado de ironía.
A mi dame cien libros más de la Pym por favor. Pero rapidito
Me ha gustado más que 'Mujeres excelentes', no sé si es que he conectado más con los personajes, con la autora o simplemente ha sido el momento perfecto para leerlo pero he adorado a Dulcie, y su obsesión cotilla por investigar la vida de los demás.
Es un libro sencillo pero con un humor fino muy british, cargado de ironía.
A mi dame cien libros más de la Pym por favor. Pero rapidito
April 5, 2011
Anyone who has a fondness for the repressed English middle class should find this enchanting. With characters who glory in names like Dulcie Mainwaring, Viola Dace and Aylwin Forbes, you know you are in the territory of comedy of manners. Pym has been compared to Austen, which is unfair on anyone, but whereas Austen dealt in a society of strict rules, Pym's London of the turn of the 60's deals in much more vague customs and therein lies the comedy: the etiquette of the church jumble sale, who to invite to dinner parties, dare one mention a mutual acquaintance who might be thought to be a libertine?
This is a comfortable read: lovely, sweet and heart-warming, like a cup of tea after a bracing walk. But it is a level above comfort reading, because the details are just right: in cup of tea terms, the china pot has been warmed properly and the porcelain cup is spot on. Someone has even made a fire in the hearth. Come on in and make yourself comfortable.
This is a comfortable read: lovely, sweet and heart-warming, like a cup of tea after a bracing walk. But it is a level above comfort reading, because the details are just right: in cup of tea terms, the china pot has been warmed properly and the porcelain cup is spot on. Someone has even made a fire in the hearth. Come on in and make yourself comfortable.
November 7, 2024
If this were my first Barbara Pym, I might believe the plot was a little scattered and unsure of where it was leading, but a Pym novel is all about the journey. You will reach your destination eventually, but you'll meet some lovely and not so lovely characters along the way, and get some delicious insights and witty conversations in the meantime. I even spotted two references to herself in this one. One was seeing one of her titles on a bookshelf, the other was a lady novelist in a hotel dining room observing her fellow diners.
Here Dulcie Mainwaring (she of the sensible shoes and no makeup or stylish hairdo) tries to get over a broken engagement by meddling in other people's lives. In the pre-internet days, innocent stalking out of curiosity involved a lot more work and personal involvement. This leads to all sorts of complications and misunderstandings. All's well that ends well though, and wonderfully entertaining too. My new favorite word is "libertine", now to find a way to use it in conversation!
Here Dulcie Mainwaring (she of the sensible shoes and no makeup or stylish hairdo) tries to get over a broken engagement by meddling in other people's lives. In the pre-internet days, innocent stalking out of curiosity involved a lot more work and personal involvement. This leads to all sorts of complications and misunderstandings. All's well that ends well though, and wonderfully entertaining too. My new favorite word is "libertine", now to find a way to use it in conversation!
February 6, 2021
Exactamente no sé cómo empezar esta reseña. En este momento estoy tan sin palabras que, quizá, sólo puedo resumir en una frase lo que me ha parecido: una historia bonita en la que no pasa nada destacado.
June 2, 2013
“There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual.”
How could a novel with such an opening sentence not be anything but wonderful? I already had an idea that No Fond Return of Love, (along with Jane and Prudence) – was my favourite Pym, I’m now convinced of it.
Shortly after her engagement is broken off, Dulcie Mainwaring attends a conference at a girl’s boarding school in Derbyshire. Clustered together are a strange group of scholars, indexers and proof readers. Dulcie is given a room next to Viola Dace, who has been holding a bit of a torch for Aylwin Forbes, who will speaking during the weekend, and for whom she has previously done some indexing work. Aylwin becomes something of a fascinating figure for both women, but increasingly for Dulcie. Once the conference is over, and everyone back home, Aylwin a handsome scholar separated from his wife becomes the focus for Dulcie’s fantasies and fairly thorough investigations. Dulcie is living alone in a large house she once shared with her parents, she is soon joined by her eighteen year old niece Laurel, and not long after that, Viola Dace – in need of a temporary home also moves in. Dulcie begins to indulge in what today we would not hesitate to call fairly intensive stalking. With the help of various directories and who’s who – Dulcie tracks down, Aylwin’s mother-in-law, and Anglican priest brother. Viola rather aids and abets Dulcie – the two of them discussing the Forbes family at length, neither of them thinking it in the least odd for Dulcie to visit her Aunt and Uncle so that she has an excuse to go home via Aylwin’s brother’s church.
Meanwhile Dulcie’s niece Laurel has started a tentative relationship with the boy next door – while longing to move out of Dulcie’s house and into a bedsitter – where she can lead a bachelor girl kind of life and eat in coffee bars. It is while she is in the midst of this transition that she first comes to the notice of Aylwin Forbes himself, despite his being older than her father. Thus the scene is set for a fabulous comedy of manners, and unrequited love.
Part of Barbara Pym’s genius lays in the minutely observed everyday situations of her upper middle class characters, we may never have lived their lives, yet somehow they are peculiarly recognisable. There is a delicious dry humour to Pym’s writing that is comforting and subtly profound. Her dialogue and interactions between characters is, as ever spot on, some of the scene just brilliantly acute. The awkwardness of a hotel dining room, the worry of whether a cauliflower cheese will stretch, avoiding someone at a station, Barbara Pym portrays all these curious little things with absolute perfection.
“Sitting aimlessly in bedrooms- often on the bed itself- is another characteristic feature of the English holidays. The meal was over and it was only twenty five past seven. 'The evening stretches before us,' Viola said gloomily.”
I love the way Pym manages to expose those wicked little thoughts we all have from time to time. I think many readers have found that there is very much more to Miss Pym than meets the eye.
Of course one of the things regular readers of Pym’s novel adore – is how she drops characters from other novels into the story, here we glimpse characters from A Glass of Blessings.
How could a novel with such an opening sentence not be anything but wonderful? I already had an idea that No Fond Return of Love, (along with Jane and Prudence) – was my favourite Pym, I’m now convinced of it.
Shortly after her engagement is broken off, Dulcie Mainwaring attends a conference at a girl’s boarding school in Derbyshire. Clustered together are a strange group of scholars, indexers and proof readers. Dulcie is given a room next to Viola Dace, who has been holding a bit of a torch for Aylwin Forbes, who will speaking during the weekend, and for whom she has previously done some indexing work. Aylwin becomes something of a fascinating figure for both women, but increasingly for Dulcie. Once the conference is over, and everyone back home, Aylwin a handsome scholar separated from his wife becomes the focus for Dulcie’s fantasies and fairly thorough investigations. Dulcie is living alone in a large house she once shared with her parents, she is soon joined by her eighteen year old niece Laurel, and not long after that, Viola Dace – in need of a temporary home also moves in. Dulcie begins to indulge in what today we would not hesitate to call fairly intensive stalking. With the help of various directories and who’s who – Dulcie tracks down, Aylwin’s mother-in-law, and Anglican priest brother. Viola rather aids and abets Dulcie – the two of them discussing the Forbes family at length, neither of them thinking it in the least odd for Dulcie to visit her Aunt and Uncle so that she has an excuse to go home via Aylwin’s brother’s church.
Meanwhile Dulcie’s niece Laurel has started a tentative relationship with the boy next door – while longing to move out of Dulcie’s house and into a bedsitter – where she can lead a bachelor girl kind of life and eat in coffee bars. It is while she is in the midst of this transition that she first comes to the notice of Aylwin Forbes himself, despite his being older than her father. Thus the scene is set for a fabulous comedy of manners, and unrequited love.
Part of Barbara Pym’s genius lays in the minutely observed everyday situations of her upper middle class characters, we may never have lived their lives, yet somehow they are peculiarly recognisable. There is a delicious dry humour to Pym’s writing that is comforting and subtly profound. Her dialogue and interactions between characters is, as ever spot on, some of the scene just brilliantly acute. The awkwardness of a hotel dining room, the worry of whether a cauliflower cheese will stretch, avoiding someone at a station, Barbara Pym portrays all these curious little things with absolute perfection.
“Sitting aimlessly in bedrooms- often on the bed itself- is another characteristic feature of the English holidays. The meal was over and it was only twenty five past seven. 'The evening stretches before us,' Viola said gloomily.”
I love the way Pym manages to expose those wicked little thoughts we all have from time to time. I think many readers have found that there is very much more to Miss Pym than meets the eye.
Of course one of the things regular readers of Pym’s novel adore – is how she drops characters from other novels into the story, here we glimpse characters from A Glass of Blessings.
October 13, 2017
Esta es la primera lectura que acabo dentro de la iniciativa #LeoAutorasOct de 2017 y no podría haber empezado mejor. Mucho y muy bien había oído hablar sobre Barbara Pym, así que partí con grandes expectativas y esta vez no me han traicionado: el libro me ha encantado. No es perfecto, posee conceptos que incluso parecen haber envejecido (más abajo hablaré de esto y lo matizaré), pero con todo, ha sido una lectura deliciosa.
COMPARACIÓN CON JANE AUSTEN. BARBARA PYM COMO LA AUSTEN DEL SIGLO XX
Sí, constantemente he visto a Pym comparada con Austen, tanto por lectores como por críticos literarios, y ahora que he leído un libro suyo veo que es verdad. Puede parecer descabellado que con solo un libro me atreva a afirmarlo tan rotundamente, pero los elementos que ambas autoras comparten son más que evidentes. Quiero señalar que esto no es malo en absoluto, sino curioso, porque es casi como experimentar con la idea de cómo serían los libros de Austen si hubiesen sido escritos en el siglo XX.
Los elementos en común son: un grupo reducido de personajes que se encuentran y desencuentran constantemente en su ciudad y otras, románticos malentendidos, ironía fina a la hora de analizar y hablar de la sociedad, transmisión de melancolía y comedia al mismo tiempo, un párroco guapete (en los libros de Austen los párrocos pueden ser guapos mozalbetes o gusanos desagradables, y en Amor no correspondido es lo primero), mujeres fuertes que cuando se quedan a solas se comen la cabeza, nuevas amistades dispares entre gente aparentemente opuesta y un final que se resuelve en la última página. Lo mejor es que Pym hace incluso una referencia en esa página final a un libro de Austen en plan "si en Mansfield Park ocurrió...".
Lo único que cambia es la época, finales de los años 50 del s. XX, y hay cosas que se ajustan a ello, pero por todo lo demás la fórmula es muy, muy parecida. Se palpa Austen. Y también se nota en el ritmo pausado de narración, en el que parece que en un principio no está pasando gran cosa, pero hay que profundizar, pensar como piensan los personajes. Y sí, pasan cosas.
¿CONCEPTOS ANTICUADOS?
Hay momentos en los que da ese regusto, pero ¡alto! Siempre que esto pasa me digo (y recomiendo) que hay que situarse en el contexto histórico del momento en que se escribió o se inspira el libro. Y aquí, a finales de los 50, con la II Guerra Mundial relativamente fresca y esa sociedad inglesa tan conservadora, pues como que tiene sentido.
Cuando empieza el libro da la sensación de que los personajes femeninos son como mujeres desesperadas a la caza de un marido, y es que en ese momento de la historia ser "la solterona" era todavía un tabú vergonzoso, un hecho que convertía a esas mujeres casi en parias sociales (ojo, que esto tristemente sigue pasando). Es extraño, porque en un libro de Austen esto puede parecer tan normal, sin embargo cuando hablamos del siglo XX ya nos crispamos, pero sí, ocurrió y sigue ocurriendo.
Confieso que yo misma me quedé un poco trastocada al ver a esas mujeres persiguiendo a un hombre desde el principio del libro, pero en seguida me situé en el contexto, me relajé y pude disfrutar de la novela. Según las vas conociendo y entiendes sus motivos para actuar de un modo u otro, todo cobra sentido.
PERSONAJES Y AMBIENTACIÓN
Los personajes femeninos son sin duda la gracia y la fuerza del libro. Desde su protagonista, Dulcie, que debe ser la mujer más positiva del universo, pasando por su hosca amiga Viola Dace, su sobrina la moderna, su vecina... y las muchas secundarias.
Los personajes masculinos no me han gustado tanto. En especial el galán, Aylwin Forbes, me cayó fatal desde el primer momento, lo encontré mujeriego, mezquino y con un puntito de falso. No me molestaba tanto el hecho de que las mujeres lo persiguieran, sino que lo persiguieran a él. Me cayó bastante mejor su hermano (el párroco).
Y la ambientación es sin duda es otro punto fuerte de la novela, además de los personajes femeninos. Es una de esas ambientaciones tan bien narradas que te transportan al momento y al lugar. Me transmitía mucha paz. Las calles, el clima y hasta el florero de la mesa de centro están tan bien expuestos que esta lectura ha sido casi un viaje al Londres de los años 50.
CONCLUSIONES
Es un libro que me ha hecho disfrutar muchísimo, que me ha tenido por completo sumergida. Mientras lo leía no podía evitar pensar en lo bien que quedaría una adaptación de esto, porque era en todo momento como si tuviera los escenarios y los personajes delante de mí. Aun con sus puntos débiles creo que es una gran novela, hecha para el deleite. Es verdad que el final me habría gustado que fuera otro, no me ha molestado que acabe en la última página (a Austen se lo perdonamos y sobrevivimos, ¿no?), sino que habría preferido otro desenlace para Dulcie que el que la autora le da. Pero el camino, conocer a los personajes y la escritura de Pym sin duda merecen la pena. Ahora necesito leer más cosas suyas.
COMPARACIÓN CON JANE AUSTEN. BARBARA PYM COMO LA AUSTEN DEL SIGLO XX
Sí, constantemente he visto a Pym comparada con Austen, tanto por lectores como por críticos literarios, y ahora que he leído un libro suyo veo que es verdad. Puede parecer descabellado que con solo un libro me atreva a afirmarlo tan rotundamente, pero los elementos que ambas autoras comparten son más que evidentes. Quiero señalar que esto no es malo en absoluto, sino curioso, porque es casi como experimentar con la idea de cómo serían los libros de Austen si hubiesen sido escritos en el siglo XX.
Los elementos en común son: un grupo reducido de personajes que se encuentran y desencuentran constantemente en su ciudad y otras, románticos malentendidos, ironía fina a la hora de analizar y hablar de la sociedad, transmisión de melancolía y comedia al mismo tiempo, un párroco guapete (en los libros de Austen los párrocos pueden ser guapos mozalbetes o gusanos desagradables, y en Amor no correspondido es lo primero), mujeres fuertes que cuando se quedan a solas se comen la cabeza, nuevas amistades dispares entre gente aparentemente opuesta y un final que se resuelve en la última página. Lo mejor es que Pym hace incluso una referencia en esa página final a un libro de Austen en plan "si en Mansfield Park ocurrió...".
Lo único que cambia es la época, finales de los años 50 del s. XX, y hay cosas que se ajustan a ello, pero por todo lo demás la fórmula es muy, muy parecida. Se palpa Austen. Y también se nota en el ritmo pausado de narración, en el que parece que en un principio no está pasando gran cosa, pero hay que profundizar, pensar como piensan los personajes. Y sí, pasan cosas.
¿CONCEPTOS ANTICUADOS?
Hay momentos en los que da ese regusto, pero ¡alto! Siempre que esto pasa me digo (y recomiendo) que hay que situarse en el contexto histórico del momento en que se escribió o se inspira el libro. Y aquí, a finales de los 50, con la II Guerra Mundial relativamente fresca y esa sociedad inglesa tan conservadora, pues como que tiene sentido.
Cuando empieza el libro da la sensación de que los personajes femeninos son como mujeres desesperadas a la caza de un marido, y es que en ese momento de la historia ser "la solterona" era todavía un tabú vergonzoso, un hecho que convertía a esas mujeres casi en parias sociales (ojo, que esto tristemente sigue pasando). Es extraño, porque en un libro de Austen esto puede parecer tan normal, sin embargo cuando hablamos del siglo XX ya nos crispamos, pero sí, ocurrió y sigue ocurriendo.
Confieso que yo misma me quedé un poco trastocada al ver a esas mujeres persiguiendo a un hombre desde el principio del libro, pero en seguida me situé en el contexto, me relajé y pude disfrutar de la novela. Según las vas conociendo y entiendes sus motivos para actuar de un modo u otro, todo cobra sentido.
PERSONAJES Y AMBIENTACIÓN
Los personajes femeninos son sin duda la gracia y la fuerza del libro. Desde su protagonista, Dulcie, que debe ser la mujer más positiva del universo, pasando por su hosca amiga Viola Dace, su sobrina la moderna, su vecina... y las muchas secundarias.
Los personajes masculinos no me han gustado tanto. En especial el galán, Aylwin Forbes, me cayó fatal desde el primer momento, lo encontré mujeriego, mezquino y con un puntito de falso. No me molestaba tanto el hecho de que las mujeres lo persiguieran, sino que lo persiguieran a él. Me cayó bastante mejor su hermano (el párroco).
Y la ambientación es sin duda es otro punto fuerte de la novela, además de los personajes femeninos. Es una de esas ambientaciones tan bien narradas que te transportan al momento y al lugar. Me transmitía mucha paz. Las calles, el clima y hasta el florero de la mesa de centro están tan bien expuestos que esta lectura ha sido casi un viaje al Londres de los años 50.
CONCLUSIONES
Es un libro que me ha hecho disfrutar muchísimo, que me ha tenido por completo sumergida. Mientras lo leía no podía evitar pensar en lo bien que quedaría una adaptación de esto, porque era en todo momento como si tuviera los escenarios y los personajes delante de mí. Aun con sus puntos débiles creo que es una gran novela, hecha para el deleite. Es verdad que el final me habría gustado que fuera otro, no me ha molestado que acabe en la última página (a Austen se lo perdonamos y sobrevivimos, ¿no?), sino que habría preferido otro desenlace para Dulcie que el que la autora le da. Pero el camino, conocer a los personajes y la escritura de Pym sin duda merecen la pena. Ahora necesito leer más cosas suyas.
November 8, 2024
“There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the most unusual.”
What a great opening line! With that, we meet Dulcie Mainwaring, our heroine, who is suffering from a broken heart. Thanks to this conference, two new people come into her life: Viola Dace, who will become a friend and Aylwin Forbes, who will become an obsession. Aylwin is good looking and charming and quite appealing to most women.
Barbara Pym is excellent at portraying people- Dulcie, our sweet, accommodating “excellent” woman; Viola, selfish and thoughtless; Aylwin, a man who definitely thinks too highly of himself. Added to this mix are many side characters.
Relationships are tricky. How does one make a suitable connection?
“No, some men seem to make a habit of choosing the wrong women,” said Dulcie thoughtfully. “ I suppose it’s because subconsciously they don’t really want what’s good for them.”
Will Dulcie find the right someone or is she always destined to be on the sidelines, looking in?
Barbara Pym has a subtle wit that kept me smiling throughout. There is always some wisdom in what appear to be simple tales of spinsters, unrequited love, companionships and living the life you have.
A delightful, humorous book that came together brilliantly at its close.
Published: 1961
What a great opening line! With that, we meet Dulcie Mainwaring, our heroine, who is suffering from a broken heart. Thanks to this conference, two new people come into her life: Viola Dace, who will become a friend and Aylwin Forbes, who will become an obsession. Aylwin is good looking and charming and quite appealing to most women.
Barbara Pym is excellent at portraying people- Dulcie, our sweet, accommodating “excellent” woman; Viola, selfish and thoughtless; Aylwin, a man who definitely thinks too highly of himself. Added to this mix are many side characters.
Relationships are tricky. How does one make a suitable connection?
“No, some men seem to make a habit of choosing the wrong women,” said Dulcie thoughtfully. “ I suppose it’s because subconsciously they don’t really want what’s good for them.”
Will Dulcie find the right someone or is she always destined to be on the sidelines, looking in?
Barbara Pym has a subtle wit that kept me smiling throughout. There is always some wisdom in what appear to be simple tales of spinsters, unrequited love, companionships and living the life you have.
A delightful, humorous book that came together brilliantly at its close.
Published: 1961
March 30, 2020
Just delightful and what was very much needed to take me away from reality!
July 16, 2023
Another of my ‘theme’ reads for June and another that was a perfect fit, taking us back into the familiar world of proof-readers, editors, and index-makers. Dulcie Mainwaring lives alone in a London suburb in her large family home after her mother’s death. She has been working from home over the last few years making indexes and has been leading a generally happy, though perhaps not particularly eventful life. At a conference, she encounters Viola Dace, who is besotted with the very handsome Dr Aylwin Forbes—but Aylwin has problems of his own. His marriage is breaking up, and his lecture at the conference doesn’t go exactly as planned when he faints while delivering it. Meanwhile Dulcie’s niece Laurel comes into town to stay with her while she is taking a secretarial course while Viola moves in as well. Aylwin begins to take an interest in Laurel, and Dulcie herself a little in Aylwin. Laurel has another admirer of course, and Dulcie’s ex finacé seems to be rethinking his decision. But this somewhat ridiculous and convoluted state of affairs doesn’t cause anyone too much heartbreak, and Dulcie certainly has her share of fun looking into Alwyn’s family and roots and taking a more active part (not on her own behalf though) rather than simply watching things play out. Play out they do, and with other characters with their own eccentricities, idiosyncrasies, and problems, there is plenty for the reader to ‘watch’ and smile along with.
This one was probably among the lighter hearted Pyms (all of them are, of course, but this some do end up having a touch of melancholy but this one didn’t). I liked Dulcie quite a lot and enjoyed watching her antics as she gets up to all sorts of tricks to satisfy her curiosity about Aylwin and his family. Dulcie isn’t one of Pym’s excellent women—she doesn’t really attend church or involve herself in charity work—but looking into Aylwin takes her to those familiar Pymish places, various church services, a charity jumble sale, even a seaside trip, and the reader certainly has fun going along. There are twists and turns and some unexpected things that happen, just the kind that life throws up every now and then, but nothing to bring you down, but just flow along with pleasantly, a world that is lovely to lose oneself in for a bit.
This one was probably among the lighter hearted Pyms (all of them are, of course, but this some do end up having a touch of melancholy but this one didn’t). I liked Dulcie quite a lot and enjoyed watching her antics as she gets up to all sorts of tricks to satisfy her curiosity about Aylwin and his family. Dulcie isn’t one of Pym’s excellent women—she doesn’t really attend church or involve herself in charity work—but looking into Aylwin takes her to those familiar Pymish places, various church services, a charity jumble sale, even a seaside trip, and the reader certainly has fun going along. There are twists and turns and some unexpected things that happen, just the kind that life throws up every now and then, but nothing to bring you down, but just flow along with pleasantly, a world that is lovely to lose oneself in for a bit.
October 22, 2023
You'd be forgiven for dismissing Barbara Pym's novels as quaint and old-fashioned. They're full of dotty old vicars and eccentric spinsters and church jumble sales. For someone like me, the epithet "comedy of manners" usually functions as a deterrent, unless referring to Austen. Pym's writing, while dealing with the exotic customs of the English middle-class, has so much depth and wit it is impossible to resist its charms. Her low-key humor and sharp observations make even the most trivial account of everyday life a joy to read.
This one was published in 1961 and concerns the domestic and romantic lives of a group of mismatched people in London. The story is mainly told by Dulcie, a thirty-something single woman who, after a broken engagement, is quite happily settling into spinsterhood. At a learned conference (I want to go to a learned conference!) with lectures titled "Some problems of indexing" and "Some problems of editing" (on second thought, I don't want to go) she befriends the haughty Viola, who is carrying a torch for conceited writer Aylwin Forbes. Fascinated by these odd creatures(and hot for the dashing Aylwin), Dulcie starts snooping around in a very roundabout way, although she doesn't consider it snooping but research. She takes it seriously too, and her sleuthing leads her to Alwyn's brother, who naturally turns out to be a vicar (just looking someone up in Who's Who is too dull for Dulcie). Before long the cast of characters grows to include bitchy mother-in-laws, estranged wives and uppity nieces.
Simply wonderful.
This one was published in 1961 and concerns the domestic and romantic lives of a group of mismatched people in London. The story is mainly told by Dulcie, a thirty-something single woman who, after a broken engagement, is quite happily settling into spinsterhood. At a learned conference (I want to go to a learned conference!) with lectures titled "Some problems of indexing" and "Some problems of editing" (on second thought, I don't want to go) she befriends the haughty Viola, who is carrying a torch for conceited writer Aylwin Forbes. Fascinated by these odd creatures(and hot for the dashing Aylwin), Dulcie starts snooping around in a very roundabout way, although she doesn't consider it snooping but research. She takes it seriously too, and her sleuthing leads her to Alwyn's brother, who naturally turns out to be a vicar (just looking someone up in Who's Who is too dull for Dulcie). Before long the cast of characters grows to include bitchy mother-in-laws, estranged wives and uppity nieces.
Simply wonderful.
August 16, 2016
Barbara Pym is, for me, one of the best writers that I have ever read. She has a way of making every day life in little British towns seem so interesting and enthralling that I never want to leave. This tale of a woman's obsession with a man she meets at an "indexing and editing" conference showed such deft touch that at the end I felt sad to leave Dulcie's life. She creates a mystery in her mind that revolved around this man, Aylwin, and searches out his wife, with whom he is currently separated, his brother, a pastor who has had one of his clergy fall in of with him, and his mother, who is just plain odd. Dulcie is so involved in where and how Aylwin came to be who he is - and really in all accounts we should not care. But I did. I felt like I was there with her each step of her odd journey.
Pym also has a way of making little side characters interesting enough that when they take full control of the story you are not thrown off, but not so much that the take away from everything else. From Paul the flower guy to Dulcie's niece, I was hooked.
I highly recommend Pym to people who like books like Stoner or Gilead. Books about simple life, and how people are who they are.
Pym also has a way of making little side characters interesting enough that when they take full control of the story you are not thrown off, but not so much that the take away from everything else. From Paul the flower guy to Dulcie's niece, I was hooked.
I highly recommend Pym to people who like books like Stoner or Gilead. Books about simple life, and how people are who they are.
October 16, 2022
I am truly delighted to have discovered Barbara Pym, after years of being aware of her existence but not reading her. This last one is probably my favourite novel so far, as it condenses everything I enjoy about her writing - witty, ironic, disrespectful in just the right amount. Also, something rare - she makes me laugh out loud. How many authors can achieve this without setting out to do so? Not many I know.
This was Pym's sixth published novel before she became persona non grata, as her publisher decided she was no longer fashionable. Astounding, really, particularly as this one is a gem.
She has been referred to as the twentieth century Jane Austen, and I can see why. I would recommend her books to anybody in need of a dose of merriment during these difficult times we are living. There is nothing sentimental about them, but the underlying belief that good things might happen if only we persevere. There are seldom happy endings in her books, but often a sense of resolution, which can be immensely pleasing.
This was Pym's sixth published novel before she became persona non grata, as her publisher decided she was no longer fashionable. Astounding, really, particularly as this one is a gem.
She has been referred to as the twentieth century Jane Austen, and I can see why. I would recommend her books to anybody in need of a dose of merriment during these difficult times we are living. There is nothing sentimental about them, but the underlying belief that good things might happen if only we persevere. There are seldom happy endings in her books, but often a sense of resolution, which can be immensely pleasing.
June 28, 2019
Es lo primero que leo de Barbara Pym y me ha sorprendido mucho porque no me la esperaba asi, tan ácida y con ese humorcillo negro soterrado, entre lineas, es muy sútil. Esta novela es de 1961 y fue rechazada por editores lo que parece que la forzó a retirarse muy pronto, pero poco antes de su muerte la redescubrieron.
El caso es que ha sido una escritora muy invisible en vida e incluso ahora se la está conociendo. Seguiré con ella sin duda, porque no es tanto el argumento lo que me interesa de esta escritora sino como describe ciertas relaciones y a sus personajes, divertida y transparente, su estilo es una delicia.
El caso es que ha sido una escritora muy invisible en vida e incluso ahora se la está conociendo. Seguiré con ella sin duda, porque no es tanto el argumento lo que me interesa de esta escritora sino como describe ciertas relaciones y a sus personajes, divertida y transparente, su estilo es una delicia.
November 9, 2024
Perhaps love for somebody totally unsuitable dies more completely, when it does die, than any other kind of love.
Dulcie Mainwaring is a rather ordinary woman. She is neither young nor old, she is naive and trusting but also taking on a bit of the old-lady habit of getting all her thrills in life from living vicariously. She has a mediocre job of compiling indexes, but this puts her in contact with writers and editors and lives that rotate outside her own calm and boring existence. When she meets Viola Dace and Aylwin Forbes at a conference, she becomes a bit insanely interested in the both of them. This interest takes her into some places I would say a person should not go, particularly when her curiosity and nosiness seems to turn a bit into stalking.
Barbara Pym is very good at creating unorthodox characters that somehow still seem normal. [She always seems to call to my mind early days of reading Anne Tyler.] She seems to say to us, “I’d create people who do what you expect, but people never do do what you expect.” At any rate, her creations certainly don’t and it makes the everyday lives they are living far more interesting.
At one point, Dulcie says The whole thing now has the inevitability of Greek tragedy. I laughed aloud. It certainly did in Dulcie’s mind, since she was writing the play as she went, but it truly had more the flavor of Shakespearean comedy to me.
This Pym landed right in the middle for me. It was not as charming as Excellent Women, perhaps because I did not ever fully connect with Dulcie, or as relatable as Quartet in Autumn, which was just so pertinent to the stage of life my contemporaries and I have reached. Still, it was a fun read and I liked the ending. I certainly see more Pym in my future.
Dulcie Mainwaring is a rather ordinary woman. She is neither young nor old, she is naive and trusting but also taking on a bit of the old-lady habit of getting all her thrills in life from living vicariously. She has a mediocre job of compiling indexes, but this puts her in contact with writers and editors and lives that rotate outside her own calm and boring existence. When she meets Viola Dace and Aylwin Forbes at a conference, she becomes a bit insanely interested in the both of them. This interest takes her into some places I would say a person should not go, particularly when her curiosity and nosiness seems to turn a bit into stalking.
Barbara Pym is very good at creating unorthodox characters that somehow still seem normal. [She always seems to call to my mind early days of reading Anne Tyler.] She seems to say to us, “I’d create people who do what you expect, but people never do do what you expect.” At any rate, her creations certainly don’t and it makes the everyday lives they are living far more interesting.
At one point, Dulcie says The whole thing now has the inevitability of Greek tragedy. I laughed aloud. It certainly did in Dulcie’s mind, since she was writing the play as she went, but it truly had more the flavor of Shakespearean comedy to me.
This Pym landed right in the middle for me. It was not as charming as Excellent Women, perhaps because I did not ever fully connect with Dulcie, or as relatable as Quartet in Autumn, which was just so pertinent to the stage of life my contemporaries and I have reached. Still, it was a fun read and I liked the ending. I certainly see more Pym in my future.
July 27, 2019
La gente nos critica por darle demasiadas vueltas a las cosas triviales - se lamentó Dulcie -, pero es que la vida está llena de ellas. Y si sólo hemos tenido una única gran pena o un único gran amor, ¿quién va a criticarnos porque sólo nos centremos en cosas triviales?
Una novela muy interesante con un estilo completamente british, con personajes tan variados y curiosos que no cabe duda que Pym plasmó lo complejas y distintas que pueden ser las mujeres entre sí. La ingenuidad de Dulcie contrasta con la acidez de Viola y suceden toda una serie de disparates dignas del nombre "Amor no correspondido". Fue una novela divertida y con un buen final, disfruté el estilo de cambios de personajes en el mismo capítulo y lo absurdos que parecen los personajes masculinos en contraste con las protagonistas. Buena novela para empezar con la autora :)
January 18, 2021
Here it is. Barbara Pym's most delightful little midcentury rom-com, and it lives up to everything I had heard about it. These people are all the silliest in their very proper, British, middle class, slightly middle aged way of trying to pursue romance without the advantage of actual dating.
What results is a group of ridiculous characters, all too wary of being "unsuitable" who end up doing what we would term stalking each other.
I have read several other books by her. They are all dated, but in a charming way which makes them a fun glimpse into a Britain of Queen Elizabeth's early reign, before the American way of life came to dominate so much of the world.
A must read for all light-hearted Anglophiles.
What results is a group of ridiculous characters, all too wary of being "unsuitable" who end up doing what we would term stalking each other.
I have read several other books by her. They are all dated, but in a charming way which makes them a fun glimpse into a Britain of Queen Elizabeth's early reign, before the American way of life came to dominate so much of the world.
A must read for all light-hearted Anglophiles.
April 15, 2022
Almost gave up reading this one... glad I didn't. For me, Pym's at her best with Excellent Women, a first person narrative, darkly funny. In No Fond Return of Love, I had the distance of third person perspective through the likable if somewhat pathetic Dulcie. However, she changes. Just enough that I stayed with her.
While Pym's primary focus is on relationships, she's far from starry-eyed in that regard. Especially interesting, she portrays an array of connections, how they work (or don't), if they're "suitable" (or not), and consequently, reveals the complexities of men & women not only trying to understand one another, but themselves.
While I've finished reading, I'm still mulling over the story... there's so much here.
While Pym's primary focus is on relationships, she's far from starry-eyed in that regard. Especially interesting, she portrays an array of connections, how they work (or don't), if they're "suitable" (or not), and consequently, reveals the complexities of men & women not only trying to understand one another, but themselves.
While I've finished reading, I'm still mulling over the story... there's so much here.
September 12, 2017
Un libro delicioso, maravillosamente escrito y con un sentido del humor sutil que le dota de un encanto especial. Ideal para pasar un rato entretenido y gozar de un buen estilo narrativo. Sin embargo, su concepto "victoriano" del amor, teniendo en cuenta que se escribió en 1961, me chirrió un poco por esos amores platónicos que aparecen y desaparecen de la nada y esas relaciones que no se desarrollan.
November 13, 2018
Little did I know that there is a “Pymverse” in which many of Barbara Pym’s characters operate. For careful readers there is a tiny Easter egg from Excellent Women in Less Than Angels and now I find another follow up tidbit from Less than Angels in No Fond Return of Love. I don’t know why but this makes me absurdly happy.
The main character of No Fond Return of Love is Dulcie Mainwaring who decides to attend a weekend conference on publishing (she works freelance as an indexer and research) to help her get over her broken engagement. Dulcie likes researching people as well. ‘I love finding out about people’, said Dulcie, ‘I suppose it’s a sort of compensation for the dreariness of everyday life’. I have to imagine that Dulcie shares this interest in the lives of strangers with Barbara Pym herself.
At the conference, Dulcie meets the dreary Viola Dace, a fellow indexer and Aylwin Forbes, a handsome, married forty-something author with whom both Viola and Dulcie maybe, sort-of fall in love. It’s all very Pymsian as their lives intertwine, making the London suburbs seem like cozy village rather than a sprawling metropolis. As usual, I laughed out loud multiple times. The humor is so subtle and surprising.
The main character of No Fond Return of Love is Dulcie Mainwaring who decides to attend a weekend conference on publishing (she works freelance as an indexer and research) to help her get over her broken engagement. Dulcie likes researching people as well. ‘I love finding out about people’, said Dulcie, ‘I suppose it’s a sort of compensation for the dreariness of everyday life’. I have to imagine that Dulcie shares this interest in the lives of strangers with Barbara Pym herself.
At the conference, Dulcie meets the dreary Viola Dace, a fellow indexer and Aylwin Forbes, a handsome, married forty-something author with whom both Viola and Dulcie maybe, sort-of fall in love. It’s all very Pymsian as their lives intertwine, making the London suburbs seem like cozy village rather than a sprawling metropolis. As usual, I laughed out loud multiple times. The humor is so subtle and surprising.
July 23, 2022
As my reading buddy, Susie, said when she recommended this to me, "Welcome to Pymworld." Indeed! I've already started on Excellent Women.
Why I'm reading this: I shared this loving tribute to Pym by author Sara Paretsky with a couple of IRL reading buddies who then shared their own love of Pym with me. I'll start with this one as it was available immediately as an ebook from my library.
Why I'm reading this: I shared this loving tribute to Pym by author Sara Paretsky with a couple of IRL reading buddies who then shared their own love of Pym with me. I'll start with this one as it was available immediately as an ebook from my library.
February 19, 2024
I'm on my tenth or so reading of this delicious classic by Barbara Pym. Immortal lines and scenes such as Alwyn Forbes fainting at his lecture on "Some Problems of an Editor", or Dulcie Mainwaring wishing she had some knitting because it seemed like Viola Dace was about to share some secrets with her and at least she's have the sleeve of a sweater knitted at the end of the conversation... and so many more. My worn out faded copy is filled with notes and check marks and underlinings around the places that made me laugh out loud, or at least snicker!
February 25, 2018
Me ha parecido ingenioso y divertido.
June 26, 2013
I'd never heard of Barbara Pym before, but happened on an article describing her work, and how it went out of fashion and then (sort of) came back in again.
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/barba...
So the next time I was at the library, I picked up one of her books: "No Fond Return of Love."
This book sounds like it should be a romance novel, and is--sort of. Almost everything in this novel is driven by chance: the main character meets the women who becomes her annoying friend at a conference simply because they are rooming next door to each other; they later become roommates simply because one of them has rooms available at a time that the other needs to move, not because of any great friendship; and they investigate (and, by modern standards, stalk) the life of a handsome man simply because they are bored, not out of any great interest or real passion for the man himself.
There are mild plots and subplots, and a generous helping of day-to-day life of a particular English class at a particular time. And there are marriages. But this is much closer to Jane Austen (who is mentioned, along with a lot of funny metacommentary about what it means to be a writer and flesh out a character) than to today's standard page-turning, sexual-tension-driven, in-search-of-a-better-life-romance that has to end up with an obvious happily ever after.
If you like "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series or even George Orwell's "The Clergyman's Daughter," you'll probably like this story and, by extension, the rest of her work. I also thought that this sort of story was what J.K. Rowling was trying to achieve in "The Casual Vacancy," and I like Pym's work better.
I really l liked it; as advertised, it's like sitting down for a cup of tea with knitting, and I felt time slow down around me as I read. Off to the library in search of more...
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/barba...
So the next time I was at the library, I picked up one of her books: "No Fond Return of Love."
This book sounds like it should be a romance novel, and is--sort of. Almost everything in this novel is driven by chance: the main character meets the women who becomes her annoying friend at a conference simply because they are rooming next door to each other; they later become roommates simply because one of them has rooms available at a time that the other needs to move, not because of any great friendship; and they investigate (and, by modern standards, stalk) the life of a handsome man simply because they are bored, not out of any great interest or real passion for the man himself.
There are mild plots and subplots, and a generous helping of day-to-day life of a particular English class at a particular time. And there are marriages. But this is much closer to Jane Austen (who is mentioned, along with a lot of funny metacommentary about what it means to be a writer and flesh out a character) than to today's standard page-turning, sexual-tension-driven, in-search-of-a-better-life-romance that has to end up with an obvious happily ever after.
If you like "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series or even George Orwell's "The Clergyman's Daughter," you'll probably like this story and, by extension, the rest of her work. I also thought that this sort of story was what J.K. Rowling was trying to achieve in "The Casual Vacancy," and I like Pym's work better.
I really l liked it; as advertised, it's like sitting down for a cup of tea with knitting, and I felt time slow down around me as I read. Off to the library in search of more...
April 2, 2018
I loved everything about this book.
November 13, 2024
I gave this one 3.5 stars and rounded up to 4 because -- I just like Barbara Pym!
This story kind of wound around from place to place, from person to person, with the reader not always knowing the purpose or intention of the author (IMO!). But I thought it all came together in the end, everyone finding their person and their place. And though the end was vague, I felt it was "telling."
I will definitely read more of Pym's writings. My next ones will be Some Tame Gazelle and A Glass of Blessings.
This story kind of wound around from place to place, from person to person, with the reader not always knowing the purpose or intention of the author (IMO!). But I thought it all came together in the end, everyone finding their person and their place. And though the end was vague, I felt it was "telling."
I will definitely read more of Pym's writings. My next ones will be Some Tame Gazelle and A Glass of Blessings.
July 30, 2015
Bittersweet and tender, the plot of “No Fond Return Of Love” beckons its reader through a broken heart into a plot comprising a residential conference in Derbyshire, an Anglo-Catholic Lent, a missing clergyman, the most uncongenial English seaside B&B establishments imaginable, and back for final statements in London. It’s a plotline of unusual combination, which remarkably, works.
The ‘learned conference’ which brilliantly begins the first two chapters of this book sets the initial note of Pym(re)gret within the book. It doesn’t take long (page 3, to be exact) before the reader discovers that this gathering is far from being a sparkling Oxbridge exercise of academic cut & thrust for the prize of determining and polishing reputations and determining pecking order within the peer group. No. This is instead a gathering of worthy cleaners: of those who scrabble to identify and claim their ordered places through the housekeeping work of preparing learned manuscripts for the published glorification of authoritative academics. As worker bees their reward is merely to bathe in the cooler, reflected sunshine that represents a less lauded association with the reputational glory conferred by published academic research.
The tragedy of coming second, of confidence portrayed in watercolour rather than in oils, is subtly painted within those first two chapters … before changing medium to bounce and play loose as might a reel of decaying 1960s peach Sylko cotton thread dropped from the making of a debutante’s dress. Through the maze of social uncertainty and angst which forms the meat of the remainder of this book, the plot finally winds-up with a second stamp of that trademarked enigmatic bittersweet Pym(re)gret; this time left hanging on the inside of window in Ladbroke Grove in (the less fashionable) North Kensington.
A strangely addictive book indeed!
The ‘learned conference’ which brilliantly begins the first two chapters of this book sets the initial note of Pym(re)gret within the book. It doesn’t take long (page 3, to be exact) before the reader discovers that this gathering is far from being a sparkling Oxbridge exercise of academic cut & thrust for the prize of determining and polishing reputations and determining pecking order within the peer group. No. This is instead a gathering of worthy cleaners: of those who scrabble to identify and claim their ordered places through the housekeeping work of preparing learned manuscripts for the published glorification of authoritative academics. As worker bees their reward is merely to bathe in the cooler, reflected sunshine that represents a less lauded association with the reputational glory conferred by published academic research.
The tragedy of coming second, of confidence portrayed in watercolour rather than in oils, is subtly painted within those first two chapters … before changing medium to bounce and play loose as might a reel of decaying 1960s peach Sylko cotton thread dropped from the making of a debutante’s dress. Through the maze of social uncertainty and angst which forms the meat of the remainder of this book, the plot finally winds-up with a second stamp of that trademarked enigmatic bittersweet Pym(re)gret; this time left hanging on the inside of window in Ladbroke Grove in (the less fashionable) North Kensington.
A strangely addictive book indeed!
January 20, 2018
Reseña
"Amor no correspondido”
, de Barbara Pym
August 26, 2018
Review to be up soon !! Loved the voice and wit of Barbara Pym and I am so happy to have made a discovery and foray into her writing :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2015
This is a quiet English novel about a single woman working a quiet job. Her fiancé broke off their engagement and she now lives alone in her deceased parents' house. By all descriptions in the story, she is dowdy and boring, but she slowly insinuates herself into other people's lives and in doing so, creates a new more interesting life for herself. I almost gave up halfway through as it is not a page turner, but the ending was worth the reading. While I usually like more action in my reading, there is a place for quieter stories and I will give Barbara Pym another try. Thanks to Thomas of The Readers for the recommendation.
December 15, 2019
Es el primer libro que leo de la autora, y he tardo más tiempo del que me esperaba, también es cierto que fui intercambiando lecturas con este libro, creo que no fue el mejor momento para escogerlo para disfrutarlo de todo, se que quiero seguir probando la pluma de la autora, pero voy a dejar descansar un tiempo, dado el tiempo que me ha llevado leerlo, hubo partes que me gustaron, y otras que no disfrute tanto que se me hicieron un poco pesadas, pero no se lo achaco al libro sino a mi momento personal,por eso tengo claro que voy a leer Mujeres excelentes para ver si lo disfruto más que este y es una autora para mi o no que no a todos nos tiene que gustar lo mismo.
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