Quartet in Autumn (Plume)
Barbara Pym
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 0452269342
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize
This is the story of four people in late middle-age - Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia - whose chief point of contact is that they work in the same office and they suffer the same problem - loneliness. Lovingly, poignantly, satirically and with much humour, Pym conducts us through their small lives and the facade they erect to defend themselves against the outside world. There is nevertheless an obstinate optimism in her characters, allowing them in their different ways to win through to a kind of hope. Barbara Pym's sensitive wit and artistry are at their most sparkling in "Quartet in Autumn".
"An exquisite, even magnificent work of art" - Observer
"'Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviour" - The Times
"The wit and style of a twentieth century Jane Austen" - Harpers & Queen
"Barbara Pym's unpretentious, subtle, accomplished novels are for me the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past 75 years ...spectacular" - Sunday Times
"Very funny and keenly observant of the ridiculous as well as the pathetic in humanity" - Financial Times
she had used for her early morning tea, but she left the cup behind on the dressing table where it would remain for some days, the dregs of milky tea eventually separating into sourness. As she was not going to the office, she changed the dress she had put on for her old Saturday morning skirt and a crumpled blouse which needed ironing, but there was nobody to notice it or to criticize and no doubt the warmth of her body would soon press out the creases. Downstairs at the sink she was about to
never have used such an expression. But fifty years ago nobody did – things were different now, so that was nothing to go by. In the meantime, the girl moved away with dignity. She had been braver than Letty. That morning was a flag day. Marcia peered at the young woman standing with her tray and rattling tin outside the station. Something to do with cancer. Marcia advanced, quietly triumphant, a 10p coin in her hand. The smiling girl was ready, the flag in the form of a little shield poised
thought, as he saw them coming to the house. What do they want? ‘Yes?’ he barked in a brusque, unpromising way, as he opened the front door an unfriendly crack. Such an odd little man, thought Priscilla, preparing to assume her coolest social manner, but Janice got in first. ‘I’m Janice Brabner,’ she said, ‘and I used to look after Miss Ivory.’ Rather a pointless thing to say, she realized, as it might appear that she hadn’t been all that successful. ‘We saw somebody at an upstairs window,’
in it.’ ‘Yes, that’s the best thing – it would be much too big for you,’ Edwin pointed out, reasonably enough. ‘Oh, I don’t know so much about that,’ said Norman huffily. ‘It’s only an ordinary semi, you know, just like yours, and you don’t find yours too big. I don’t necessarily want to end my days in a bedsitter.’ ‘No, of course not.’ Edwin’s tone was the soothing one he generally used to pacify the angry little man. ‘I suppose I’m more likely to end my days in an old people’s home,’ said
ago, that she now lived alone and that she had recently left hospital after a major operation. The medical social worker, whom Janice knew, had dropped a hint, suggested that it might be as well to keep an eye on her. It was true that she went out to work but nobody seemed to know much about her – she didn’t speak to neighbours and nobody had ever been into her house. She did not invite Janice to come in now and they continued their conversation on the doorstep. Of course one couldn’t force one’s