Reading the 20th Century discussion

Welcome to our June 2023 buddy read of


Some Tame Gazelle


All are welcome

Please feel free to contribute before and after June 2023

Having loved Excellent Women, I'm all ready for this one too:

It was odd that Harriet should always have been so fond of curates. They were so immature and always made the same kind of conversation. Now the Archdeacon was altogether different . . . ' Together yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of new curates, secure in the knowledge that elderly Italian Count Ricardo Bianco will propose to her yet again this year. Belinda, meanwhile has harboured sober feelings of devotion towards Archdeacon Hochleve for thirty years. Then into their quiet, comfortable lives comes a famous librarian, Nathaniel Mold, and a bishop from Africa, Theodore Grote - who each take to calling on the sisters for rather more unsettling reasons.

Some Tame Gazelle sounds awesome! I just ordered it.

This is my next book as I try to get on top of all my RTTC forthcoming reads


After loving Excellent Women and Quartet I have high hopes

Can't wait to discover what we all make of this one

About 50 pages in now. This has not been an immediate hit like Excellent Women & Quartet, perhaps because I’ve been reading it in tiny sections as I’ve been v busy. Now I’m warming to it as I get to grips with the characters.

I've also been v busy this week have hardly read at all - it can be hard to sink into a book when reading in snippets, especially if your mind is partly somewhere else.

Agreed

Nigeyb wrote: "About 50 pages in now. This has not been an immediate hit like Excellent Women & Quartet, perhaps because I’ve been reading it in tiny sections as I’ve been v busy. Now I’m warming to it as I get t..."

From my recollection that's a fair assessment Nigey, doesn't have the immediate appeal of Excellent Women or Jane and Prudence, but I thought it was ultimately worth reading.

I’m amazed to discover that the original version of this book was awash with Nazis. It’s instructive reading this and the Paula Byrne biography concurrently 🤔

Alwynne wrote:


"From my recollection that's a fair assessment Nigey, doesn't have the immediate appeal of Excellent Women or Jane and Prudence, but I thought it was ultimately worth reading"

I suspect you're spot on Alwynne. Certainly my least favourite Pym so far, though this might change of course and, if I'm honest, I'm not particularly engaged. It's perfectly fine but it's not really grabbing me despite some very pleasing scenes and some amusing dialogue. It's lacks the consistency of Excellent Women and Quartet.

One of those circumstances when I'd prefer to be proved wrong, always a pain when a book doesn't live up to expectation. I wonder what the original version might have been like! Was very intrigued by your earlier comments.

The original version is in the (I think) Bodlian library in Oxford. Paula Byrne has obviously read it, so can be done. There's one section quoted in the biog complete with direct and indirect allusions to Hitler and the Nazis.

BP's good pal Jock consistently told her to remove the Nazis, which she did. After the war, when it was published, the world was in no mood for a novel full of Nazis.

Is it 'positive' representations of Nazis? Sounds interesting, anyway.

My guess is that it was fairly sympathetic. BP was in thrall to Germany and the Nazis for a few years.


Byrne also cites Wigs On The Green which, whilst overtly satirical, was a book Nancy Mitford later regretted. Nazis being no joking matter, she later concluded.

I suspect BP's opinion altered once war was underway, perhaps a bit earlier, I'll let you know.

More generally I'm still finding this a bit slow. It's enjoyable enough but doesn't have the readability of my previous Pyms. It was her first novel so perhaps not surprising.

It's primary interest currently lie with the many sly references to those she knew at Oxford who form the basis of the characters.

It's also impressive how BP was able to convincingly imagine herself a spinster in her 50s given she wrote most of it while studying at Oxford.

Nigeyb wrote: "My guess is that it was fairly sympathetic. BP was in thrall to Germany and the Nazis for a few years.


Byrne also cites Wigs On The Green which, whilst overtly satirical"

Gosh! Really looking forward to reading Byrne on Pym. I guess the difference between her and Nancy Mitford is that Nancy was never taken in by fascism right from the start. From what I recall, didn't Wigs on the Green mock Mosley's Blackshirts with their dressing up and sloganeering?

Nigeyb wrote: "It's also impressive how BP was able to convincingly imagine herself a spinster in her 50s given she wrote most of it while studying at Oxford."

What an interesting premise - was her portrait based on her imagining the dons she was surrounded by?

Yes, Wigs sought to ridicule the fascists.


Byrne hasn’t mentioned using Dons as a way in to being an older person. I would guess it was imagination. The age of the BP character isn’t a major part of the plot except in how she doesn’t want anything to threaten her domestic life with her sister

I’ve done an RC, as we sat in the trade. At the halfway point, and having read the plot on Wikipedia, I skim read the second half. It’s perfectly fine but just didn’t grab me like the other Pym books. Still worthy of three stars I’d say, despite not feeling it. If I did halves, 2.5 might be a more accurate rating.

Haha, I hope you feel liberated, Nigeyb 😉 Now you're free to move onto something more rewarding.

I'm still going to try Gazelle next month but have my expectations under control.

As I remember it, and Nigeyb can correct me, she was uncomfortable with the anti-semitism of the nazis, but was enamoured of one man. She did try to argue, but was young and not entirely confident of getting her point across. She later bitterly regretted that part of her life when more became known about what was actually happening.

She was indeed involved with an SS officer. The way PB reports it she was in denial about what was going on. Her sister Hilary was far more aware of the real face of the regime. I fully expect her to realise, in later life, that she was young and naive.

As late as 1938 she went to visit the SS officer in Dresden despite the concerns of her parents and her friends.

I just came across this two star review on Amazon which articulates and clarifies some of the issues I had with the novel...


In mitigation I will say that Pym's 'Excellent Women' is, well, excellent, so I'm not entirely writing her off. And this was her first effort...

But... sadly, this is a tedious, pretentious, puffed up, second rate little book; churning out that hackneyed, literary idyll: self-satisfied middle-aged spinsters wallowing in privileged village splendour (servants and all), doting on, of course, the local clergy - the celebrity A list of the milieu. Darning socks, knitting pullovers, fussing over little suppers - all rather superficial and cliched.

Something this flimsy story really needed was a barrel full of laughs or rapier-like social observations to drag it from its mire of insipidity. Instead you get an abundance of pompous quotes from little known 18th century poets, and the odd dash of Latin, untranslated. So much sophistication... Yet amidst all this high brow intellectual posing, one's surprised to encounter an embarrassing clumsiness: just count the number of times the word 'doubtfully' is used to describe speech or thought, for instance. The editor, it seems, somehow went missing. Which explains a lot.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1LUF...


I did not put the boot in to that extent but I do agree with the reviewer's comments

Yes, you wouldn't have been nearly as patronizing and superior, Nigeyb, even if you don't get on with a book!

🤠


Quite so RC

Unnecessarily mean too

I'm starting this and have laughed already at the opening line:

'The new curate seemed quite a nice young man, but what a pity it was that his combinations showed, tucked carelessly into his socks when he sat down.'

Clergymen's underwear just seems the essence of comedy to me for some reason!

It's a classic opening line


Something the Pym sisters observed as children

I recall Paula Byrne stating this opening was quite a departure from the original work

This is perfect commute reading - I swear I sat on the tube this morning with a constant grin on my face!

It's reminding me a bit of the Mapp and Lucia books, all that smiling through gritted teeth and village one-upmanship - the woman who writes her name pointedly in the dust on the piano! I'm so glad I know about the origin of Archbishop Hoccleve 😉

So glad you're finding so much to enjoy. The backstory of Hoccleve adds another dimension of appreciation

It's such a brilliantly waspish portrait of Henry - very satisfying to read and must have been even more so to write!

This made me snort on the tube home:

'Oh, Harriet, you’re quite wrong,’ said Belinda stoutly. ‘Agatha is a most intelligent woman. She knows a great deal about medieval English literature. And then there’s palaeography,’ she continued, as if her emphatic tone would explain its importance in the married life of Agatha and the Archdeacon.'

The way BP puts her words together just really makes me laugh. Gosh, and to think I almost passed Pym by after Quartet!

Ooh, the caterpillar in the cauliflower cheese 🤮 but it's genius to make social comedy out of this mundane material.

And then the shared bonding session at the expense of Agatha

Ha, yes! So glad we understand the dynamics behind those relationships.

You know, it strikes me that when men write books about nothing much happening, they're hailed as being existentialist classics about the human condition - I'm thinking here of My Struggle: Book One by Karl Ove Knausgård or Septology by Jon Fosse. But when women authors do the same, their books are seen as slight little things.

This little gem from Belinda made me think of Fremlin and the below-the-line warfare between her women and men:

'Belinda could see that the Archdeacon was sitting in his favourite seat under the yew trees. She felt a faint irritation to see him sitting there in the middle of the morning when so many people, women mostly, were going about their household duties and shopping. She supposed that men would be working too, but somehow their work seemed less important and exhausting.'

This is just after the scene where she got a little light-headed at being so close to the archbishop... when she got to darn the hole in his sock!

It's a great section and one that struck me too

What makes Belinda and Harriet so interesting is that they don't really want to get married:

"Who would change a comfortable life of spinsterhood in a country parish, which always had its pale curate to be cherished, for the unknown trials of matrimony?"

And partly that's because in this book the men are all so hopeless - figures of fun but not to be taken seriously.

Roman Clodia wrote:


"What makes Belinda and Harriet so interesting is that they don't really want to get married"

Indeed the whole idea is viewed as a threat to their perfect existence by Belinda

The men are also really hopeless 🤠

Nigeyb wrote: "The men are also really hopeless"

They really are! That's another thing very different from Jane Austen: there's no romance in the books I've read so far and the women are happier together.

That tea party where Miss Aspinall and the other lady come home with Harriet and Belinda is revealing: with no men to cause all that anxiety about what they're wearing and what the food's like, they have a wonderful time together, laugh uproariously at Harriet's re-enactment of her latest marriage proposal and dance!

I've just finished - I like the way it ends with a wedding, but not for either of our heroines.

Roman Clodia wrote: "Nigeyb wrote: "The men are also really hopeless"

They really are! That's another thing very different from Jane Austen: there's no romance in the books I've read so far and the women are happier t..."

Think we have a fullly-fledged convert! There is something slightly addictive about Pym's world.

Haha, I am indeed a Pym convert, Alwynne! I love the way her world seems so staid and restricted on the surface (at least in the two books I've read so far) but her women are quietly transgressive.

Belinda wouldn't see that, I don't think, but Harriet is actually quite outrageous with her glamorous clothes and the way she charms all the men but rejects every proposal that comes her way.

Ironically, this, “sadly, this is a tedious, pretentious, puffed up, second rate little book; churning out that hackneyed, literary idyll: self-satisfied middle-aged spinsters wallowing in privileged village splendour (servants and all), doting on, of course, the local clergy - the celebrity A list of the milieu. Darning socks, knitting pullovers, fussing over little suppers - all rather superficial and cliched” sold me!
I love self-satisfied middle-aged spinsters. It wasn’t working for Nigeyb, so I wasn’t sure if I would read it, but Im starting it right now. Glad to hear it’s working for you, RC.

I certainly wouldn't want to put you off Wndy. I didn't dislike it. Indeed there is lot I really appreciated. I just wasn't really in the mood for it when I was reading it. I also concluded that for me it's mid ranking BP rather than top tier. I may well come back to it. I'm still keen to read more BP and am really looking forward to our our next buddy

I think that's right about being in the right mood for Pym - I wouldn't want to read them one after the other.

I'm not sure Pym's 'spinsters' (such a horrible word, feels quite spidery, unlike the male equivalent of 'batchelor' which has an insouciance about it) are self-satisfied - that mean-spirited review misses so many points.

Wendy, hope you enjoy it as I did.

So far I am enjoying it, but I’m only a few pages in.

I have passed the half-way point. I had not 'warmed' to the sisters Harriet and Belinda yet and even have had trouble visualizing them. However, this Chapter 12, involving Harriet's meeting with the visiting assistant librarian Mr. Mold was superb. For the first time, I found myself entertained and engaged by the characters.
Previously, I felt like I did not know or understand Harriet. Presumably it's because we only knew Harriet from her dialogue and from Belinda's perspective. Chapter 12 takes us inside Harriet's brain, and her point of view. The chapter ending had me warming more to Belinda too. The chapter's dialogue and Harriet's thoughts had me smiling a lot for the first time. I have hopes for this book yet.

Delighted to hear this is amusing you now, Brian - I smiled all through this!

I finished. While it was pleasant and occasionally entertaining, i liked it at a 3 star rating level. My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

You've echoed my reaction there Brian, although I suspect I will return to it and quite possibly enjoy it more next time round

I'm bumping this thread in prep for our November 2025 buddy read, everyone welcome as always. Let's just say, I can't wait to re-read this Pym. Here's the blurb:

It was odd that Harriet should always have been so fond of curates. They were so immature and always made the same kind of conversation. Now the Archdeacon was altogether different . . . Together yet alone, the Misses Bede occupy the central crossroads of parish life. Harriet, plump, elegant and jolly, likes nothing better than to make a fuss of new curates, secure in the knowledge that elderly Italian Count Ricardo Bianco will propose to her yet again this year. Belinda, meanwhile has harboured sober feelings of devotion towards Archdeacon Hochleve for thirty years. Then into their quiet, comfortable lives comes a famous librarian, Nathaniel Mold, and a bishop from Africa, Theodore Grote - who each take to calling on the sisters for rather more unsettling reasons.

I’ve reached the halfway point in Some Tame Gazelle, and I find myself enjoying it much more than I did on my previous read. Throughout the novel, Pym lets us see events mainly through Belinda’s perspective, but she occasionally interjects the inner thoughts of other characters, adding depth and irony to the scenes.

Belinda’s steady, conscientious nature and quiet devotion towards Archdeacon Hoccleve often put her at odds with Agatha—most memorably in the “marrow” incident. Similarly, Agatha finds Belinda a nuisance when she offers to help decorate the produce stall for the garden party.
What I find particularly funny is how much of Pym’s humor arises from such small human missteps—moments of pride, awkwardness, or mild irritation that any of us might experience. For example, when Agatha criticizes Belinda’s wrapping and then, taking over from her, struggles to wrap the marrows herself, Pym transforms an ordinary domestic moment into something both comic and revealing.