A Few Green Leaves

by Barbara Pym

Despite the banalities of modern life, a group of friends and acquaintances--including spinsters, widows, rectors, retirees, and a bearded intellectual and his wife--encounter history and nostalgia, romance and death

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Classics, Novels, 20th Century, Humor, Womens

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

People 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previously rejected by many publishers, was subsequently published to critical acclaim, and several of her previously unpublished novels were published after her death.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.

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard of Barbara Pym quite often, especially since joining Goodreads, but this has been my first opportunity to read one of her novels. I am very glad my journey has begun (yes, I definitely will be reading more of Miss Pym's work).

The setting is an English village in the 1970s, appearing sadly out of date, perhaps because most of the primary characters have spent most of their adult lives living in the past. This novel so beautifully captures the social life (or is it a life?) of such a place, with its stratified lives, an old manor house sold to new incomers who only visit on weekends, social occasions marked with tea, flowers, alcohol, jumble sales. And so much coveting! The rector should be quite busy with his parish but he's busy looking for historic stones in the woods.

Yes Pym is sly. Her descriptions of her characters and their interactions are clever without being cruel. A very important feat to accomplish. The story is told through multiple members of the community as well as a newcomer, Emma Howick, an anthropologist, settling in to complete a study she has been working on. Through Emma's eyes, Pym provides brief capsule summaries of many members of the commumity. Among these portraits, accumulated for a possible study of the village itself:

Miss Lee (Olive). Lives in Yew Tree Cottage. Solid, elderly,
well-established village resident of type which is said to be
'backbone of England'. Rather well-dressed, usually wears hat.
Churchgoer, does brasses and flowers but on a lower scale than
Christabel G. Interested in local history- helps the rector with
copying parish registers, etc. Member of W.I. Nice cottage
with pretty garden. Probably critical of newcomers to the
village? Lives with friend, Miss Grundy.

Miss Flavia Grundy. Rumoured (Emma's mother had told
her) that Miss G. had once written a romantic historical
novel, but it was never spoken of. A rather sad character.
London high-church goer dumped in the country, pining for
incense (?). Bossed by Miss Lee. (pp 39-40)

We have eyes on the village and Pym has her eyes on Emma. We are let in on her wishes and doubts, insecurities and thoughts of the future and how the village fits into it all.

It did take a bit for me to acclimate to her writing style but her wit and clever portrayals--so well done--won me from the start. By the end of the book I had decided that my rating would be a 4 because of the portrayals and how I felt as I ended my reading. I was left wanting to know what happened to these people...but of course will never know. Barbara Pym died 2 months after completing this novel.

[Geevee · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is much here as is usual for a Barbara Pym novel. In A Few Green Leaves, set in a small Oxfordshire village, the reader meets a small cross-section of inhabitants who often grace Pym's pages. These include the local GPs, an older doctor, and a younger man, perhaps more attuned to modern life. The Rector, as well as village and church stalwarts with their daily and family worries and considerations, as well as local legends, such as Miss Vereker, who nce taught the manor house owner's children many years ago.

Emma, an anthropologist, moves into a cottage temporarily from London to conduct a study of a modern village [1970s] life. Through her, we meet those characters and more at village fetes, church teas and meetings, a funeral, group walks, and other events. Tom, the Rector, who is widowed but searches valiantly (or perhaps in vain) for the disappeared medieval village - aka the DMV; his spinster sister who longs to live in domestic harmony in Greece with her longtime friend Heather; a food critic who might be a little too superior for village life; and the younger doctor's wife who wants a larger home and eyes the vicarage.

As Emma becomes ingrained in village life, she notices much about behaviours, attitudes, and relationships. But, does she also recognise things about her own relationships, life, and what she might want?

A delightful observational novel that has Pym's gentle wit, humour, and fine descriptive prose. A pity, then, that this was her final novel as she died in January 1980 as this was due for publication.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need a break from modern life and would like to vacation for a few days in an English village full of rectors, spinsters, well meaning busybodies and odd characters, then Barbara Pym can take you there. There is no one like her for humorous barbs and gentle wit. When you finish this book you feel rested and ready to re-enter the fray of modern life.

[Mary Durrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love Barbara Pym.
This was a lovely gentle read told with wit and charm.
She certainly has an eye for character.
You can just imagine the coffee mornings, sherry parties, hunger lunches, flower arranging and jumble sales!
Village life where everyone had a part.
I did feel for Tom though .
A vicar needs a wife to help him with his duties!
A lot is still relevant today, nothing changes!

[Christmas Carol ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, there are still roses in our garden," she said in her flutey voice," and I think these will do another week, with a few green leaves. A few green leaves can make such a difference."

I read one of Pym's early books A Glass of Blessings in May & was fairly tepid about it. This one is Pym's final novel, published just after her death in 1980 & shows that Pym has mastered the Gentle Village Life genre. The humour is gentle, but it is there, the plot is slow moving, but again there is one. Some of the authors in this genre have had me well nigh screaming with boredom.

Anthropologist Emma Howick has moved to a fictional village in Oxfordshire to write a study on 'Social patterns in a West Oxfordshire village. I liked this plot idea. I could just about hear David Attenborough breathily saying, & here we have an example of a Food Critic Ambitosus, in his natural habitat...'

Events move slowly but they do move & I both became fond of the characters & had no trouble remembering them. The reader is left to create their conclusion & I like a writer who doesn't feel the need to spell everything out!

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[Kim Kaso · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second time reading this book, & it is a solid 4.5 stars. Why not a full 5, I ask myself, and my answer is that I felt at one remove from the characters. I could not engage fully with Emma, or anyone else. It is as if Emma's observational nature as an anthropologist influenced Miss Pym's narrative style & made it a bit chillier than usual.

I was glad to be in her world again, but I felt as if glass was separating me from the book. My mind enjoyed the story, the focus on the quotidian as the seasons passed, but my heart was not engaged. That being said, I love Barbara Pym's books and feel she left us too soon. Even a slightly lesser, for me, Pym is better than so many other books.

[Pamela Shropshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently read Some Tame Gazelle, the first novel by Barbara Pym; A Few Green Leaves is her last one.

The title of the book comes from a scene in which Miss Grundy, an elderly spinster lady, is arranging flowers in the church. Tom, the rector, compliments her on having freshly cut roses in November. Miss Grundy replies:

’Oh, there are still roses out in our garden,’ she said in her flutey voice, “and I think these will do another week, with a few more leaves. A few green leaves can make such a difference.”

The story is told from the viewpoint of Emma Howick, a single, thirty-something anthropologist who has come to live in the village in her mother’s cottage. Emma has vague ideas of writing a scholarly article on customs of rural villages. While this is decidedly not a romance, one of the main themes is Emma’s love life, or rather, the lack thereof, and by extension this alludes to the plight of the modern career woman - does one choose a career or a marriage and family or some (often unsatisfying) combination of the two?

All the characters are vividly and mostly lovingly portrayed, and the story is beautifully written. It is set in the late 1970s, an exceptionally unpicturesque period, but a connection to the past is another theme. Emma is, as I mentioned, an anthropologist; Tom, the rector, is an amateur historian who is specially interested in the Civil War & Restoration periods. Miss Gundy and Miss Lee are elderly ladies who remember the local manor as it was before the war; one of their friends, Miss Vereker, was governess to the young ladies of the house.

My only quibble is that it ends rather abruptly; it hints at a future relationship, a possible “happily ever after” for Emma. Darn it, I want to know more!

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 I love Barbara Pym and all of her novels are worth reading, but this one was not one of my favourites. The characters here are all familiar types, though if my memory serves, there is only a memorial service where we meet characters that actually have appeared in previous novels.

Laura is staying at her mother's cottage in a village in order to finish writing up some anthropological research papers. While there she starts studying the villagers too. There is the rector and his dissatisfied sister, the Dr and his wife, who want to move into the coverage with their growing family, and a rather pompous restaurant critic. All in all, it felt a little more subdued than her other books.

[Dominika]

It sort of broke my heart reading this knowing that Barbara Pym died two months after completing it. There's so much in here regarding approaches to death and the spiritual life, the inevitable sweeping away of things by time, how little thought we give to the very real connection we have to our ancestors, and so on. Yet it's handled with such a light touch, it's easy to miss all that and come away thinking it's merely an account of the mundane lives of English villagers in the 1970s.

I think on the whole I still love her early lighter and more comic novels more, but this was a really meaningful read with a beautifully written ending.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Put a widowed rector, a couple of spinsters, a food critic, and a few other quirky characters in a small village and you have the makings of a Barbara Pym novel. Not a lot ever happens in her books, but that's what I like; it's the quiet, country life of its inhabitants. With a little bit of romance, these are sweet tales and this is one of my favorites of hers.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Barbara Pym’s last novel, published shortly before her death in 1980 (other earlier, previously unpublished books emerged posthumously), and came at the end of her second flowering as a novelist that had begun in 1977 after fifteen years without a publisher and was crowned by the appearance on that year’s Booker Shortlist of Quartet in Autumn, her remarkable novel of loneliness and ageing. A Few Green Leaves covers familiar territory: the inner lives of ordinary women, the life of a community dispassionately observed (not for the first time, a key character is an anthropologist by profession; Pym had spent many years working for an anthropological institute and knew the type well), the Anglican Church and its clergymen and relations between men and women. Her prose is disarmingly clear and a delight to read, but under the surface there’s a rich mix of subtle irony, social comedy and a finely-tuned ear for dialogue.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a small English village this later Pym novel, published in the year of her death - has something of the feel of one of her much earlier novels, although it lacks a little of the sharpness of those earlier perfections.
Emma Horwick is an anthropologist in her mid-thirties, she moves to the village to write up her notes, and is immediately drawn into observing her neighbours. These of course are wonderful Pymish creations, clergymen, doctors, spinsters, academics and housewives. Tom is a slightly ineffectual widowed rector living with his sister in a large barn of a rectory that is coveted by the young doctor and his wife, while the old doctor also fairly ineffectual contents himself with prescribing hot milky drinks and placebos for insomnia. Elderly spinster Miss Lee reminisces about the days when the last governess of the de Tankerville family Miss Vereker and the “the girls” were still to be seen around the village. Tom concerns himself with local history particularly the de Tankerville mausoleum and the peculiar local ancient rite of burial in wool. Pym and her characters contemplate the village inhabitants of the recent and distant past – giving the village a timeless feel.
“August 1678, Tom Dagnall read in the diaries of Anthony a Wood ‘The act of buring in woollen commences the first of this month,’
While the idea of being buried in woollen in August seemed decidedly stuffy, it gave one a more comfortable feeling on this uncertain spring morning in the chilly study, looking out on to the tumbled gravestones. Daphne had placed a paraffin heater at his side but it gave out smell rather than warmth. How many of his parishioners, Tom wondered, had been buried in woollen? “
A former Anglican clergyman turned restaurant critic Adam Prince is especially proud of his wine cellar. Daphne – the rector’s sister – yearns for Greece – where she holidays each year leaving Tom to his own devices, and suddenly reveals she has always wanted a dog. The young doctor Martin Shrubsole finds the home he shares with his wife Avice, three children and mother in law just a bit too small – and casts his eyes towards the rectory, thinking a smaller house would be more suited to Tom’s needs. Newly installed in the Shrubsole home, Martin’s mother in law, finds herself no longer allowed to eat butter or sugar, and is required to take a walk from time to time.
Comfortably ensconced in her academic mother’s cottage, Emma is surprised to see her former lover Graham Pettifer on a late night discussion programme, and impulsively writes to him, inviting him to lunch. Emma imagines Graham will bring his wife Claudia with him – however when Graham does arrive he is alone, apparently estranged from his wife. Emma and Graham strike up a somewhat half-hearted relationship, Graham is frankly a bit dull, but when he decides to take up residence in a deserted woodland cottage on the edge of the village to finish his work, he and Emma are thrown together. Emma seems rather more interested in observing her village neighbours from a sociological point of view than she is in Graham however. Meanwhile, Tom, whose sister has moved to Birmingham, also starts to cast on eye in Emma’s direction.
A Few Green Leaves won’t be a favourite Pym novel for me, but it is gentle and engaging and very readable, there is a lovely mix of Pymish eccentrics and some amusing scenes of village life. It is interesting to note how Pym has updated her village to the modern (1970’s) world, the garden party has been replaced by a hunger lunch, and I was delighted to see patterned toilet roll holders at the bring buy sale. I had somehow forgotten about bring and buy sales. Overall A Few Green Leaves is simply charming, and that after all is no bad thing.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the last novel published in Pym’s lifetime (she had several novels published posthumously) and, fittingly, this was my last full-length Pym novel. I went in with low expectations, but I really enjoyed it and will happily return to it in the future. This is a novel set in an Oxfordshire (I think) village in the 1970s and is focused on the dynamics of village life, much of which we get through the eyes of an anthropologist named Emma Howick, a newcomer to the village. Emma’s mother owns the cottage she lives in, and we get some delightful snippets of Beatrix Howick, a scholar of the 19th century novel. Emma is named after THE Emma (Woodhouse of course). Has village life changed that much since Austen’s day?

Emma’s nebulous “work” is to study modern village life, so she goes to as many functions as she can and gets to know the village Personalities. She goes to a Bring-and-Buy sale at Miss Lee and Miss Grundy’s. She attends the funeral of the local eccentric woman (rather like Dotty Harmer in the Thrush Green series). She goes to the local Anglican Church and meets Tom-the-rector (a widower!) and his much-older sister Daphne. She goes to the flower show and meets the older doctor and his pretentious wife and the younger, pretentious doctor and his do-gooder wife. The local manor house and its former Family (before the house had to be sold) lurk in the background of the story, especially the former governess Miss Vereker.

We get inside the heads of most of these characters and Pym manages to make them types and yet unique at the same time. It’s very clever. This struck me as one of Pym’s more slyly funny books. I chuckled numerous times. Reading a Pym biography helped me pick up on some things while reading this. For example, Beatrix wants Emma to move out of the cottage so her young female student who is “recovering from an unhappy love affair and writing a novel” can move in instead. Beatrix’s description of her student is a description of Pym in her 20s to a T. I love that Pym can poke fun at herself so many years later.

The two main characters are Emma and Tom. I found them both likable and sympathetic. Some of the other characters, while fun to read about, are unpleasant in the sense that I wouldn’t want to be stuck at a dinner party with them. (This is usually the worst that can be said of a character in a Pym novel. But if you think about normal life, it’s pretty darn accurate.) Emma and Tom have the qualities I like best in main characters, humility and self-knowledge. They’re not obtuse about their own idiosyncrasies and weaknesses and so they can observe those around them with a mixture of amusement and compassion.

For once, the ending is pretty clear though it still stops short of having all the ends tied up. I think the last sentence is rather understated brilliance. The more I write, the better I think of this novel. I’ll leave it at four stars for now, but I am hopeful that a future re-read may bump it up to five stars.

[Anastasia Hobbet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pym is a favorite drug. Every few years I go on a bender and re-read a bunch of her books. This one I picked up after reading One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes. It was not One Fine Book, but reminded me of Pym in the setting and the cast--so I had to get the taste of it out of my brain with the real Pym. Success. Never was there a lighter, defter touch than Pym's. She was a master of dark, gentle, comic irony. Her writing looks simple--but it isn't. Why aren't there movies of her books?

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feeling rather sad having read Pym’s last book. Perhaps ‘last book’ is a tad deceiving as there is one book which I have not read. Civil to Strangers, a collection of bits and bobs of her writings that were found after her death, and somehow, even in a short summary, does not give me much hope that it will hold the same magic as her full novels...but perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.

[Hema Yoganarasimhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this after a long time. One of the last books by Pym -- a gentler, softer, and almost sadder take on English village life in the 70s. The protagonist, Emma, is taking a break from her city life in a small English cottage and immerses herself into the cultural landscape -- as a detached participant, or maybe more appropriately, as an anthropologist observer. The everyday themes of -- hunger lunches, bring-and-buy sales, village-gossips, change of seasons, teas, the village pub-scene, the locals remembrance of the heydays of the Edwardian and Victorian glory in the nearby Manor house and the village church -- are all captured with a touching nuance. The two male leads are typical Pym -- self-absorbed and inept. Through them, Pym captures the common theme of modern sexism -- not outright hostility, but bemused condescension and selfish neglect of the women.

One thing which was a little different from her earlier novels is the marked lack of quotes from `lesser Victorian poets', as Pym calls them. Probably reflects the trend of the 70s, when quoting poetry was simply not done, as it was in the 1950s. A sad loss.

The meandering pace of the novel is peppered with spots of witty humor. Overall a lovely read, one for days when you want to slow down and de-stress. A rainy day + a cup of tea + a view of a garden with brambles and roses, would be a perfect setting for this novel (or any of the Pyms, for that matter!).

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbara Pym is one of my favorite authors for the quiet way she writes and her wry wit. A Few Green Leaves contains all Pym's main themes. She deals with personal crises and life changes in a dignified, undramatic manner, the way many people live their lives. Decisions are made,lives area ltered but it continues without emotional scenes. A Few Green Leaves is not Pym's best book. It does move more slowly than her other works, the wit is less apparent and the characters are less well drawn. I gave it three stars for those reasons. I think she was trying to make her novel into a contemporary novel suitable for the 1970's and it doesn't quite work. The single sex scene is awkward and so sublty drawn that it leaves even the characters involved unsatisfied. Her earlier works, published in the 1950's, are much better and if you haven't read her before, you might want to start with one of those.
What I did enjoy most about A Few Green Leaves is that she ties up a couple of loose ends, the love that develops between two of the characters is suitable (a favorite word of Pym's), the story is gentle. It is witty but you have to watch the phrasing closely or you'll miss it. I know she depicts a way of English life that probably never existed, but maybe it should have. All the people are decent, all the drama is contained and everything comes to a suitable ending.

[Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pym's last novel before her death (there have been some posthumously published novels since) contains the usual mix of gentle satire, delightful humor and clear-eyed observations about the human condition. This one comes across a tad more modern, written and taking place in the late 70's, but you still have your gossiping parishioners, jumble sales and social anxieties. It's set in a sleepy little village where anthropologist Emma settles to get some work done, but is distracted by the eccentric villagers who make for an even more fascinating anthropological study. The cast consists of not only one vicar but two (although the second one left the C of E for Rome and is now a pompous food critic), a fair number of spinsters, two doctors (of different generations but equally sexist), a dull old lover of Emma's and his hippie ex-wife. All of them struggle with social obligations and the changing times, but nevertheless manage to be unfailingly polite to one another, buying disgusting marmalades at the Bring & Buy and treating uninvited guests to ham mousse (yes, I'm sure ham mousse is supposed to be a treat rather than an act of aggression). Sad to say I'm nearing the end of my Pym binge. She is quite inimitable.

[Ruthiella · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite things about Barbara Pym novels are the details about food and clothes. In this novel, its ham mousse AND tuna mousse. Served with a salad and an onion tart. I also loved the description of the bric a brac left for the church jumble sale. The main character of A Few Green Leaves is Emma Howick who is staying at her mother’s cottage in a village near Oxford, where her mother lectures. Emma is thirty something, an anthropologist, never married. She’s staying at the cottage on her own in the hopes that she will have the peace and quiet she needs to finish some research writing. She toys with the idea of writing an anthropological study of the village inhabitants, the widowed rector, his sister who keeps house for him, the local GP, Miss Lee who knew the family at the local manor before it had to be sold., Miss Lickerish, who keeps hedgehogs, etc.

This wasn’t my favorite Pym. It was maybe a little too low key or perhaps just too samey in its characters and plot points compared to some of her earlier books. I do like, however, that I’ve read enough Pym to be able to know how it will end (even though she leaves it open ended).

[cloudyskye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Village life, clerics, spinsters, who'd have thought that reading about them could be so riveting! This was my last unread Barbara Pym book. Something tells me I'll start rereading the lot very soon ...

To be honest, I probably didn't do this one justice, I read it with biggish breaks in between, so perhaps next time I'll enjoy it more and add a star or two.
Still, even on a bad day Ms Pym could write circles around many, many other authors.

[Jennifer (formerly Eccentric Muse) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned at the halfway point. Dreadful sexism with no tongue-in-cheek wit or irony as I normally read into Pym. This novel makes it clear why she fell out of favour in the 70s.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barbara Pym's writing has a sort of wryly observant distance to it akin to Muriel Spark's, but less waspish and offbeat. Pym's protagonists are usually anthropologists and her narratives take a somewhat anthropological tone. Unlike in Spark's novels, strange things do not happen; the comedies and tragedies of Pym's world are resolutely mundane. She is a keen observer of bored and frustrated women. In A Few Green Leaves, the protagonist Emma is staying at her mother's rural cottage, observing mid-1970s comfortable rural life. This largely revolves around meals, invariably prepared by women. The reader observes the gentle absurdities and character flaws of the village residents, while Emma vaguely considers writing a book about them. Although I appreciate Pym's distinctive tone and keen observations, this, her last novel, is by no means her best. Perhaps I just prefer an urban milieu, where things are more likely to happen? Although what plot there was did not really compel me, the writing is great:

"Two eggs?" Emma asked. "And how do you like them?"
"Oh, just as they come."
"Boiled eggs don't exactly do that." On the hard side, she thought, five minutes. A too-soft-boiled egg would be awkward to manage, slithering all over the place in the way they did. Not to be coped with by a person in an emotional state, though Mr Woodhouse in that novel about her namesake had claimed that it was not unwholesome. "I'll have some toast too," she said, "to keep you company." It was hardly the weather for toast, but it seemed easier.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am barmy for English Pastoral, English Village, or even English Vicar books: Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, O. Douglas, Elizabeth Goudge, D.E. Stevenson, Miss Read, the Larkrise books, Flavia de Luce, Barbara Pym. I don't need much plot, just vivid characters and the charmingly stolid Britishness of it all.

I was bereft after I finished reading Jane Austen's oeuvre. Silly me. Jane richly rewards re-reading. But I perked up when I heard that Barbara Pym was the "20th c. Jane Austen" and began collecting her books. I have not yet read all of Pym's panoply, but I'm close.

Pym has perfected snarky comments that make you laugh aloud. [She] was the type that the women's magazines used to make a feature of 'improving.' But A Few Green Leaves is more Modern Realism than English Pastoral. 1980, alas, is not 1940. Also, the action jumped around and the plot was left dangling at the end. It is my least favorite of Pym's novels.

There was one scene, a dinner party crammed with awkward relationships, that busted me up. The conversation rambles to wild life and nature, zeroes in on foxes; a spinster then eagerly instructs the others how to identify fox scat. Did you know that a fox's dung is grey and pointed at both ends? Nobody did know and there was a brief silence. It seemed difficult to follow such a stunning piece of information.

[Mrsgaskell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Barbara Pym at her best. Emma Howick, an anthropologist in her thirties, is spending some time at her mother’s cottage in a small English village. Although she is supposed to be writing up her notes, she is sidetracked by village and church activities. It’s the 1970s but woman’s emancipation has been slow to arrive. The village’s inhabitants include the requisite rector and his spinster sister as well as a few doctors and a host of “excellent women”. An old flame of Emma’s, separated from his wife, comes to stay at a cottage in the woods and there is some speculation about their relationship. But the vicar’s sister leaves and it is felt by some, including Emma’s mother that he should remarry. Glasses of Madeira and sherry, as well as endless cups of tea are poured as the villagers visit and gossip and enjoy the regular round of festivals, coffee parties, and dinners. This is a delightful book, quietly hilarious.

[Pooch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! I think of Louise Penny and wonder if she's influenced by Barbara Pym's writing since there is a strong similarity in style and wry wit.

A favorite description: He was "...a sometime chaplain on the Riviera." It makes me smile.

Enchanting story of a quiet English village and "slow living", gentle, ordinary, and engaging. An anthropologist comes to stay in her mother's cottage and collects observations and experience with the people in all their individuality and complexities. This book is very charming and relaxing. I feel as though I have visited this lovely village through the author's words.

I plan to read more books by Barbara Pym.

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this book as enjoyable or interesting as the other the other Pym books I have read. I found the characters a bit flat.

[D.A. Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't my favourite of Pym's novels but I do find her views of village society so apt and often hilarious I still enjoyed every minute of reading it.
In this case, the main character, Emma, is a social anthropologist studying the village she resides in, surrounded by well-meaning ex-subjects of the manor house. Emma's mother is a professor of English literature (thus her name) and pops in every once and awhile to gesture with romance options at her daughter, who seems largely uninterested. Odd men wander through the text, all of them with some sort of unusual focus, whether food or antiquities or the need for a good walk (provided, if you are a woman, the doctor says it's okay). They're the sort of exasperating men seen often in novels but everyone puts up with their absurdities, just as they put up with the women polishing the church who never attend services. Everyone has a dream, most of them unrealized.
What I love best about Pym's books is that they are filled with women doing what is expected of them (often involving casseroles) while having internal caustic conversations with themselves about why they are even bothering. This is what goes on in my head all the time and thus I am very comfortable here. I also like the fact that people in her books still believe in duty to ones neighbours, no matter how onerous. A Poverty dinner is the scene for much hilarity, as all those invited whine gently for better bread and cheese while contributing a tiny amount to the cause. It's all so lovely and familiar and it even made me want to go back to church, simply for the framework of life that it provides. The efforts to make the world better, even in a smallish way. Heartwarming. While the gossips hang about, viperish, they still contribute a loaf or some sweets, endless cups of tea...
In these times of Sturm und drang, it's nice to leave a novel with a smile on one's face and a feeling of hope.

[Kirk]

DNF @ pg 44

[Kendalyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the hallmarks of Pym are gathered in here: warmth, humor, a shrewd eye. I wonder whether Emma and her anthropological study of the inhabitants of this English village operate as a stand-in for Pym herself. It seems that any good novelist (as Pym shows herself to be over and over again) has to have a small anthropologist in them tugging at whatever they can get ahold of saying, "Are you noticing the roll of the rigamarole? Seeing the patterns, hmm? Pay heed: people are ever the same and yet, ever fresh. Let's sink our teeth into the old stories and find new flavor every time."

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEW

Another delicious sojourn in the world of Barbara Pym where vicars and ladies of a certain age, and spinsters with a penchant for hedgehogs mingle with novelists and academics in a blackly comic exposure of the daily life of an Oxford village. As usual Pym "s flawless observations include, food, clothes and endearing idosyncracies in a lovely novel less tinged with poignancy than some of her other works. There are more than A Few Green Leaves in thisvtale and optimistic buds of romance for its central character. Pym is a very rewarding novelist