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An Unsuitable Attachment
sticker mark on back outer cover
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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1566 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Pym
39 books963 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previously rejected by many publishers, was subsequently published to critical acclaim, and several of her previously unpublished novels were published after her death.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 246 reviews
August 19, 2025
“Well, some books are destined never to be read,' said Mervyn. 'Its's the natural order of things.'
Like women who are destined never to marry, thought Ianthe.”
NOONE DOES LITERATURE THE WAY BARBARA PYM DID IT!
Some of you may say 'And thank God for that' and I am the first to admit that it is not easy to find anything inspiring or riveting about cups of tea, church ceremonies, anthropologists and very ordinary people that generally feature in all her books. BUT STILL... there is humour, understanding and acceptance for all things ordinarily human.
YES, there is not much in the way of "happenings". It's just ordinary people living their ordinary lives, thinking ordinary (sometimes malicious, base or nice) thoughts, doing ordinary deeds, but simple truths are presented in such a way that I find them more touching and much deeper than any works of philosophy.
The MC, Ianthe Broome is very much like Mildred Lathbury in Excellent Women or Catherine Oliphant Less Than Angels.
She is a 35-year-old spinster, daughter of a deceased canon and a librarian by profession. She is kind, unassuming, gentle. A gentlewoman in an age (1963) that is just moving by and does not appreciate those creatures, when it takes notice of them at all.
She has just moved into a small, terraced house in a not very fashionable North London neighbourhood and is surrounded by kind, ordinary, but nosy people, most of whom just label her as a spinster and worthy supporter of the Anglican congregation of St. Basil's.
Then she meets and falls for a fellow librarian, John, who is younger than she is, too good-looking, has unsuitable clothes, hairdo and social background.
And the reaction of the worthy neighbours: She should stay a spinster because that is a more fitting role for her.
“...'this young man is quite unsuitable for Ianthe.'
'Ianthe?' he said suddenly realizing who Sophia was talking about. 'What does she want to get married for? Isn't she quite happy as she is in her charming little house?'
'No, that doesn't seem to be enough,' said Sophia. 'We've both had this picture of her which so pleasing and comfortable and all the time she's been wanting something more.”
This is presented simply, neutrally, without accusations or defense for Ianthe, but in a way that I still wanted to shake all these bloody smug and narrow minded characters and scream at them F**K YOU, TOO! JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE!
And then of course I just had to realise that I am one of them, not better or worse. SIGH
This is what Barbara Pym does to you.
“At least he would be taking away a pot of his favourite jelly, which was a great deal more than one usually got out of trying to interfere in other people's business.”
Like women who are destined never to marry, thought Ianthe.”
NOONE DOES LITERATURE THE WAY BARBARA PYM DID IT!
Some of you may say 'And thank God for that' and I am the first to admit that it is not easy to find anything inspiring or riveting about cups of tea, church ceremonies, anthropologists and very ordinary people that generally feature in all her books. BUT STILL... there is humour, understanding and acceptance for all things ordinarily human.
YES, there is not much in the way of "happenings". It's just ordinary people living their ordinary lives, thinking ordinary (sometimes malicious, base or nice) thoughts, doing ordinary deeds, but simple truths are presented in such a way that I find them more touching and much deeper than any works of philosophy.
The MC, Ianthe Broome is very much like Mildred Lathbury in Excellent Women or Catherine Oliphant Less Than Angels.
She is a 35-year-old spinster, daughter of a deceased canon and a librarian by profession. She is kind, unassuming, gentle. A gentlewoman in an age (1963) that is just moving by and does not appreciate those creatures, when it takes notice of them at all.
She has just moved into a small, terraced house in a not very fashionable North London neighbourhood and is surrounded by kind, ordinary, but nosy people, most of whom just label her as a spinster and worthy supporter of the Anglican congregation of St. Basil's.
Then she meets and falls for a fellow librarian, John, who is younger than she is, too good-looking, has unsuitable clothes, hairdo and social background.
And the reaction of the worthy neighbours: She should stay a spinster because that is a more fitting role for her.
“...'this young man is quite unsuitable for Ianthe.'
'Ianthe?' he said suddenly realizing who Sophia was talking about. 'What does she want to get married for? Isn't she quite happy as she is in her charming little house?'
'No, that doesn't seem to be enough,' said Sophia. 'We've both had this picture of her which so pleasing and comfortable and all the time she's been wanting something more.”
This is presented simply, neutrally, without accusations or defense for Ianthe, but in a way that I still wanted to shake all these bloody smug and narrow minded characters and scream at them F**K YOU, TOO! JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ALL ARE!
And then of course I just had to realise that I am one of them, not better or worse. SIGH
This is what Barbara Pym does to you.
“At least he would be taking away a pot of his favourite jelly, which was a great deal more than one usually got out of trying to interfere in other people's business.”
June 1, 2018
Some people are drawn to vampires, zombies, ax murderers, burnt-out detectives to escape daily life; my fantasy fiction of choice, however, is Barbara Pym's world of vicars, gentlewomen, cat ladies, and uptight yet feckless men. No matter that her books are set in contemporary post-war England or that her characters are drawn from real life, Pym's world is a lost world of people who read Tennyson, drink sherry on special occasions, and construct their social world around books and the local church. While people may not 'get' Pym because of the cloistered worlds she creates, her macro lens has an extraordinary eye for probing convention whether it be what a certain kind of person is supposed to wear or to whom he or she should marry. Her novels are about as uncool as one could get and yet she is able to pierce her characters' underbellies, exposing their prejudices, anxieties, and trepidations that can only arise within a repressive class-based society such as England in the 50s and 60s. In troping the 'unsuitable' in this novel, Pym reveals how much society constrains and dictates people's tastes and behaviors through dialogue and setting. In this circumscribed world, defying convention becomes for Ianthe a radical act and one that it seems by the end of the novel may not have negative repercussions but instead is ushering in a newer, better England. Rather than being punished for her decision to marry beneath her, she is granted, among her peers and relatives, a reluctant acceptance. additionally, while Pym focuses only on a subset of this social sphere, the setting of a provincial outpost of north London, itself an unsuitable place for an ambitious and pretentious vicar such as Mark, becomes a prism of what is to become of England: the fear of change is ever-present with constant allusions to England's post-colonials--a growing immigrant population that while never fully engaged with in the novel becomes a source of anxiety for some of the parishioners who now have to share their church AKA social life with the 'other'.
One can read this novel as an attempt to maintain not only class boundaries that were beginning to dissolve post WWII but also racial and national boundaries--all of this occurring in the suburbs among characters who think they are charitable and kind and open-minded and yet cling to social habits and conventions perhaps because they dread the future. This is most potently served up by Pym's characterization of Rupert, a cultural anthropologist, obsessed with studying marriage rituals of an obscure African tribe and yet incapable of understanding his own desires, constantly shifting between two women: Penelope, a bohemian who aspires to move beyond the confines of her sister's life and the other Ianthe, a gentlewoman who on the surface appears to be suitable and yet becomes the more unconventional of the two in her love of a working class younger man. It is easy to read Pym as old-fashioned and her publishers apparently thought so as they rejected this book after publishing 7 of her novels. But her doting on such unfashionable characters and their odd obsessions--the feeding of feral cats by one of the spinsters during a trip to Rome, for example--allow her to gently offer us a 'condition of England' novel whose social and political ramifications are farther reaching than the vicar's own diocese.
One can read this novel as an attempt to maintain not only class boundaries that were beginning to dissolve post WWII but also racial and national boundaries--all of this occurring in the suburbs among characters who think they are charitable and kind and open-minded and yet cling to social habits and conventions perhaps because they dread the future. This is most potently served up by Pym's characterization of Rupert, a cultural anthropologist, obsessed with studying marriage rituals of an obscure African tribe and yet incapable of understanding his own desires, constantly shifting between two women: Penelope, a bohemian who aspires to move beyond the confines of her sister's life and the other Ianthe, a gentlewoman who on the surface appears to be suitable and yet becomes the more unconventional of the two in her love of a working class younger man. It is easy to read Pym as old-fashioned and her publishers apparently thought so as they rejected this book after publishing 7 of her novels. But her doting on such unfashionable characters and their odd obsessions--the feeding of feral cats by one of the spinsters during a trip to Rome, for example--allow her to gently offer us a 'condition of England' novel whose social and political ramifications are farther reaching than the vicar's own diocese.
December 22, 2021
In 1963 Jonathan Cape considered this novel Unsuitable for publication. This would have been the seventh novel by Barbara Pym that his house would have published. The previous six had been relatively successful and the rejection therefore came as a shattering surprise for Pym. She tried with other editors, but they all came back with negatives – neither her style nor her subject matter was suitable for the new times. Pym was shattered and did not publish again for seventeen years, until 1977 when an article in the TLS included her in a list of the most underrated writers. Both Philip Larkin and David Cecil had selected her, and Pym was “rediscovered”.
As I am now in a Barbara Pym streak, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this soon after a couple others, because her works form a continuum, not so much in terms of plot but in terms of their ambiance and setting. The characters also reappear and several in this volume the reader could have met in the previous ones. I also particularly enjoyed that a section of the novel takes place in Rome, a city with which I am somewhat obsessed and which, befittingly in my eyes, has a lasting effect on one of the characters, on the plot, and also on a premise that should have pleased Jonathan Cape. In this novel Pym goes further in her exploration of English society with the proposition that classes can mix – however unsuitable they may be thought to be. The Cape editors ought to have found that this was a Suitable theme for the times.
November 19, 2023
"What is it?" he asked. "I can't bear to see you cry - is it my fault in some way?" Could it have been something to do with the oxtail? he wondered wildly.
Things are changing in Pym-world. The 'unsuitable attachment' of the title is that between fragrant Ianthe Broome who owns her own house and nice furniture, and the impecunious but very good looking John who is younger, not quite 'quite', has no money other than what he earns in his library job - and who seems lovely, smitten with Ianthe and quite devoted. The epithet 'unsuitable' is, therefore, the judgement of some of the characters not, seemingly, that of either author or readers - which makes this mildly subversive as Pym so often is.
As is not unusual with Pym's novels, this is shapeless and finishes rather abruptly with a hanging ending - but, as always, plot is less important than characterisations and Pym's wit and pointedness even if these are less on show than some of her earlier books. It's lovely, too, to see characters from previous novels drop in: Everard Bone, Miss Brede, some of the anthropologists and Esther Clovis.
Set in north-west London, the social background is also being transformed: there are Black parishioners ('coloured' is the awkward term used), people are splitting over whether or not to have and watch TV, a group go off to Rome and travel to Naples, enjoying all that 'foreign' culture.
This isn't the funniest of Pym's books or the sunniest, but I love how polite, lady-like Ianthe upsets her more socially-conventional neighbours - and how Pym creates so much intrigue around her with four suitors who are almost like a version of Pym bingo: the churchman, the librarian, the anthropologist! We also get to enjoy classic scenes like the single man's dinner party, the church fete and awkward lunch and dinner dates. It's quite a feat to have created such a 'perfect' character in Ianthe without alienating more cynical readers like me but Pym pulls it off delightfully. Such a charming read.
June 12, 2019
Honestly, I am rather the odd one out on this particular Pym book. It's the one that was published long years after it was written and two years after her death.
It's a good book and holds some of the great banter and wit that also shines in Excellent Women.
BUT, I can fully understand the reject from the publisher now. This one was on the edge of a changing age and personifies the "status" and the appropriate nature of a future spouse pool. And the worm was turning in wider culture by that time, IMHO. Instead the rebel or the poor borrower became more "apt" to get the girl or vice versa. Not to speak of the role religion began to meet in worm turn also.
So it's pure Pym prose styled piece, for sure with all her wonderful placements. And yet partially covered in the "missed" life melancholy strains (they are certainly there), while having glimpses much reduced for the optimistic energy of her more exuberant characters that I adored in her other novels. It's a good story and fits all around. Mild, lovely people and entertaining read.
But I do think the tide was already turning big time and she (maybe within her own life/ place too) didn't quite know how much.
I must admit that I found myself returning to other books over this one until I got quite 1/2 way into the story.
It's a good book and holds some of the great banter and wit that also shines in Excellent Women.
BUT, I can fully understand the reject from the publisher now. This one was on the edge of a changing age and personifies the "status" and the appropriate nature of a future spouse pool. And the worm was turning in wider culture by that time, IMHO. Instead the rebel or the poor borrower became more "apt" to get the girl or vice versa. Not to speak of the role religion began to meet in worm turn also.
So it's pure Pym prose styled piece, for sure with all her wonderful placements. And yet partially covered in the "missed" life melancholy strains (they are certainly there), while having glimpses much reduced for the optimistic energy of her more exuberant characters that I adored in her other novels. It's a good story and fits all around. Mild, lovely people and entertaining read.
But I do think the tide was already turning big time and she (maybe within her own life/ place too) didn't quite know how much.
I must admit that I found myself returning to other books over this one until I got quite 1/2 way into the story.
March 17, 2013
Sometimes, you just want to read a book where nice, polite, normal everyday people do nice, polite, normal everyday things and have nice, polite, normal everyday interactions with other nice, polite, normal everyday people. Pym's genius is that she makes the above fascinating and funny.
October 2, 2022
I enjoyed this very much. It felt more lighthearted along the lines of Jane and Prudence and Crampton Hodnet. I think I can see why the publisher rejected it. It’s a well crafted story in terms of character but it seems to lack a central focus and ends abruptly. I think it would have been better if it had been longer with a more distinct protagonist. As it is, it’s hard to tell if Sophia, Ianthe, Penelope, or Rupert is meant to be primary. If I had to pick one who felt more primary, it would be Ianthe, but I agree with some reviews I read that her story is underdeveloped.
The characters are delightfully Pym-like and that is why I would loved to have it even longer. Her characteristic dry humor and wry observation is here in spades. She crafts a believable world that feels like a faithful picture of the London she knew and yet has her own particular stamp on it. Pym’s world is one of clergymen and anthropologists, spinsters of various types, single adults trying to find happiness with or without marriage, working adults, etc. We get cameos from previous characters as well like Harriet Bede (as curate mad as ever), Everard Bone (though sadly just a mention of Mildred), Doctor Apfelbaum (spelling? 😆), and Esther Clovis. I’ll look forward to returning to this novel in the future.
The characters are delightfully Pym-like and that is why I would loved to have it even longer. Her characteristic dry humor and wry observation is here in spades. She crafts a believable world that feels like a faithful picture of the London she knew and yet has her own particular stamp on it. Pym’s world is one of clergymen and anthropologists, spinsters of various types, single adults trying to find happiness with or without marriage, working adults, etc. We get cameos from previous characters as well like Harriet Bede (as curate mad as ever), Everard Bone (though sadly just a mention of Mildred), Doctor Apfelbaum (spelling? 😆), and Esther Clovis. I’ll look forward to returning to this novel in the future.
August 19, 2010
Another great BP. Vicars, spinsters, devilish cads, librarians, tea and preposterous obsessions about cats and dinner parties. No-one writes so well about the British of fifty years ago. Had me snorting with laughter out loud on the train at times. Getting a bit worried that I only have about another 4 novels to go. Will need to ration myself.
July 14, 2015
This lightly humorous tale is set in a north London parish in the 50s/60s and concerns the marrying off (or not) of some members of that parish. Both the author and the characters in it assume that most people go to church, and that that church is CofE.
It is of its time, so can seem a little twee, with Ianthe being a little shocked that a woman knows about wine and sentiments such as "like many modern young women she had the right old fashioned ideas about men and their work". Pym is perceptive about her characters' inner thoughts, but not as acerbic as more modern writers often are, though there are touches: "indignant that Miss X wasn't conforming more to type", being "fiercely hygienic and protestant" and "teeth that could only have been her own".
Propriety and class are major concerns for all the main characters, so there are lots of misunderstandings, wrong assumptions and missed opportunities because everyone is too polite to say anything, though sometimes they nearly do, as when trying to angle for a lift "in the car they did not know he possessed". I found it rather charming that the characters were anxious about whether to refer to the lounge, drawing room or sitting room and whether the evening meal was tea or supper, according to context.
As I read it, similarities with Elizabeth Bowen came to mind, and then Pym described one of her characters as being like an EB heroine. Some of them seem a little stereotypical at first, but as the story progresses, depth and variety are added. On the other hand, a "dress of a rather uninteresting shade of blue" reminded me of Douglas Adams' Hooloovoo, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not!
It is of its time, so can seem a little twee, with Ianthe being a little shocked that a woman knows about wine and sentiments such as "like many modern young women she had the right old fashioned ideas about men and their work". Pym is perceptive about her characters' inner thoughts, but not as acerbic as more modern writers often are, though there are touches: "indignant that Miss X wasn't conforming more to type", being "fiercely hygienic and protestant" and "teeth that could only have been her own".
Propriety and class are major concerns for all the main characters, so there are lots of misunderstandings, wrong assumptions and missed opportunities because everyone is too polite to say anything, though sometimes they nearly do, as when trying to angle for a lift "in the car they did not know he possessed". I found it rather charming that the characters were anxious about whether to refer to the lounge, drawing room or sitting room and whether the evening meal was tea or supper, according to context.
As I read it, similarities with Elizabeth Bowen came to mind, and then Pym described one of her characters as being like an EB heroine. Some of them seem a little stereotypical at first, but as the story progresses, depth and variety are added. On the other hand, a "dress of a rather uninteresting shade of blue" reminded me of Douglas Adams' Hooloovoo, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not!
March 15, 2010
I read this book for the second time after reading it a year ago, and like most Barbara Pym books I have read, found it even more funny and sweet and well written the second time around. Like calling dinner "tea", pickled beets, marmite, and rock cakes, Barbara Pym is an acquired taste and not for everyone. If you do not delight in Barbara Pym's books, I recommend them nonetheless as a soporific. If you don't care for quirky, stylish, original English people going about their lives in the 1950's-1970's, the books will help you sleep. Looking at them from the perspective of the 21st century, I just have one problem: the English Imperialist attitude leaks in, as does just a whiff of unconscious racism. In that way they seem very much a product of the time. On the other hand, they are amazing in acknowledging and including gay relationships. I don't know. All I know is she's my favorite!
May 14, 2023
06/2011
Of course I just adore Barbara Pym and I believe this was my third time reading this. Her writing is good but it's her wonderful subtle observations and also subtle hilarious moments that make it so readable. Because, as any Pym fan knows, there's not much action.
Of course I just adore Barbara Pym and I believe this was my third time reading this. Her writing is good but it's her wonderful subtle observations and also subtle hilarious moments that make it so readable. Because, as any Pym fan knows, there's not much action.
April 2, 2020
A lovely enjoyable story.
October 14, 2020
Lovely. Barbara Pym is absolutely wonderful. It just doesn't get boring to read about all these unspectacular (dare I say dull?) people. I'd say she just observed and wrote about those around her: They are lower-to-middle middle class, church-going or clergy, not too rich, not too poor, mostly VERY English, a lot of them anthropologists. They lead very ordinary lives, sometimes a little sad, sometimes with small happinesses.
I still have no idea why I love these books. But they are always relaxing and amusing, and this one hit the spot at just the right time.
Warmly recommended.
I still have no idea why I love these books. But they are always relaxing and amusing, and this one hit the spot at just the right time.
Warmly recommended.
October 25, 2020
Being back in the unmistakable world of Barbara Pym is such a comfort. Full of vicars, spinsters, anthropologists and unattached eligible young men.
September 22, 2024
Pym was so good at finding humour in the mundane everyday, but adding a tinge of melancholy. This book started her 16-year publishing exile, and it's definitely not one of her best, but still, it's Pym and well worth reading. It has a slightly younger focus than most of her books and includes a trip to Italy which is a great interlude.
November 2, 2013
An unsuitable attachments
The latest read in the Librarything Virago group Barbara Pym read-a-long is An Unsuitable attachment. Published in 1982 two years after her death, it was actually written in the early 1960’s – and was rejected by Cape in 1963, this was the beginning of the period when Barbara Pym was unable to get published. Inexplicably Barbara Pym found herself in the literary wilderness, having been widely popular for ten years – publishing seven novels – suddenly she was no longer wanted. Hurt and confused as she was, Pym never gave up writing. Thankfully in 1977 when both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil independently of each other named Barbara Pym as being one of the most underrated novelists almost overnight Barbara Pym found her work back in vogue. In his forward to my little Granada edition Philip Larkin maintains that due to its “undiminished high spirits” we should regard ‘An unsuitable Attachment’ as belonging to Pym’s “first and principal group of novels.” As always Barbara Pym is wonderful at highlighting those small everyday absurdities; such as buying fish and chips for one’s wife and her cat.
“FRING TONIGHT. ROCK SALMON – SKATE – PLAICE.’ Mark Ainger read from the roughly chalked – up notice in the steamy window. Which would Sophia prefer? he asked himself. And which would tempt Faustina’s delicate appetite? Rock salmon – that had a noble sound about it, though he believed it was actually inferior to real salmon. “
An unsuitable Attachment is recognisably Barbara Pym – clergymen, anthropologists, librarians and spinsters concern themselves with who may or may not fancy who and whether they are “suitable” all set against a backdrop of an Anglican Church year. Anthropologist Rupert Stonebird a single man in his mid-thirties moves to a house in a North London suburb, close to the church of St. Basil and close too, to the home of Vicar Mark Ainger, his wife Sophia and their cat Faustina – upon whom Sophia lavishes an increasingly ridiculous amount of attention. Sophia immediately considers Rupert as being a potentially suitable husband for her younger sister Penelope. However also new to the street is Ianthe Broome the daughter of a Canon and niece to an Archdeacon, a librarian, who is at the centre of the Unsuitable Attachment of the title. The young man for who Ianthe nurses an affection is John, who works with her at the library – he is five years younger than her, lives in a rented bedsit in the wrong part of London, isn’t even a fully qualified librarian and then borrows money from her. All this is supposed to demonstrate how very unsuitable John is – but somehow this unsuitable relationship never really feels unsuitable enough to justify the title. Philip Larkin wryly suggests that the true unsuitable attachment in the novel could be that of Sophia and her cat Faustina – I like that idea.
“Sophia realized that she was tired and closed her eyes, as if by so doing she could shut out further tortuous imaginings. She decided to meditate on Faustina, to try to picture what she would be doing at this moment. Various little scenes came into her mind – Faustina at her dish, her head on one side, vigorously chewing a piece of meat; sitting upright and thumping her tail, demanding for the door to be opened; reposing on a bed, curled up in a circle; sharpening her claws on the leg of an armchair – so many of these pictures brought the cat before her, so that she could almost smell her fresh furry smell and her warm sweet breath.”
Unusually for Barbara Pym, in this novel she takes her characters away to Rome – where the group run into a young clergyman who was once Ianthe’s father’s curate, who is accompanying two elderly sisters, named the Misses Bede (Some Tame Gazelle) on a tour of the city. The re-appearance of characters from previous books is certainly something Pym readers are used to – and there are plenty to spot in this one.
Although not Barbara Pym’s best novel – it is still an enjoyable read – you know where you are with Barbara Pym, and I really like that, there is something recognisably comforting and reassuring about Pym’s world, that I will probably never really tire of.
The latest read in the Librarything Virago group Barbara Pym read-a-long is An Unsuitable attachment. Published in 1982 two years after her death, it was actually written in the early 1960’s – and was rejected by Cape in 1963, this was the beginning of the period when Barbara Pym was unable to get published. Inexplicably Barbara Pym found herself in the literary wilderness, having been widely popular for ten years – publishing seven novels – suddenly she was no longer wanted. Hurt and confused as she was, Pym never gave up writing. Thankfully in 1977 when both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil independently of each other named Barbara Pym as being one of the most underrated novelists almost overnight Barbara Pym found her work back in vogue. In his forward to my little Granada edition Philip Larkin maintains that due to its “undiminished high spirits” we should regard ‘An unsuitable Attachment’ as belonging to Pym’s “first and principal group of novels.” As always Barbara Pym is wonderful at highlighting those small everyday absurdities; such as buying fish and chips for one’s wife and her cat.
“FRING TONIGHT. ROCK SALMON – SKATE – PLAICE.’ Mark Ainger read from the roughly chalked – up notice in the steamy window. Which would Sophia prefer? he asked himself. And which would tempt Faustina’s delicate appetite? Rock salmon – that had a noble sound about it, though he believed it was actually inferior to real salmon. “
An unsuitable Attachment is recognisably Barbara Pym – clergymen, anthropologists, librarians and spinsters concern themselves with who may or may not fancy who and whether they are “suitable” all set against a backdrop of an Anglican Church year. Anthropologist Rupert Stonebird a single man in his mid-thirties moves to a house in a North London suburb, close to the church of St. Basil and close too, to the home of Vicar Mark Ainger, his wife Sophia and their cat Faustina – upon whom Sophia lavishes an increasingly ridiculous amount of attention. Sophia immediately considers Rupert as being a potentially suitable husband for her younger sister Penelope. However also new to the street is Ianthe Broome the daughter of a Canon and niece to an Archdeacon, a librarian, who is at the centre of the Unsuitable Attachment of the title. The young man for who Ianthe nurses an affection is John, who works with her at the library – he is five years younger than her, lives in a rented bedsit in the wrong part of London, isn’t even a fully qualified librarian and then borrows money from her. All this is supposed to demonstrate how very unsuitable John is – but somehow this unsuitable relationship never really feels unsuitable enough to justify the title. Philip Larkin wryly suggests that the true unsuitable attachment in the novel could be that of Sophia and her cat Faustina – I like that idea.
“Sophia realized that she was tired and closed her eyes, as if by so doing she could shut out further tortuous imaginings. She decided to meditate on Faustina, to try to picture what she would be doing at this moment. Various little scenes came into her mind – Faustina at her dish, her head on one side, vigorously chewing a piece of meat; sitting upright and thumping her tail, demanding for the door to be opened; reposing on a bed, curled up in a circle; sharpening her claws on the leg of an armchair – so many of these pictures brought the cat before her, so that she could almost smell her fresh furry smell and her warm sweet breath.”
Unusually for Barbara Pym, in this novel she takes her characters away to Rome – where the group run into a young clergyman who was once Ianthe’s father’s curate, who is accompanying two elderly sisters, named the Misses Bede (Some Tame Gazelle) on a tour of the city. The re-appearance of characters from previous books is certainly something Pym readers are used to – and there are plenty to spot in this one.
Although not Barbara Pym’s best novel – it is still an enjoyable read – you know where you are with Barbara Pym, and I really like that, there is something recognisably comforting and reassuring about Pym’s world, that I will probably never really tire of.
July 27, 2016
I first read and loved Excellent Women, after reading the article A Nice Hobby, Like Knitting: on Barbara Pym found here: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a...#! Now I moved on to An Unsuitable Attachment, Barabara Pym’s so called lost novel. It was written in 1963, but not found until after death in amongst her papers. Originally published then in 1982.
An Unsuitable Attachment is about love, what is it and how do we know, relationships, how they form with the help or hinderance of others, men and women, and social expectations and transactions. The characters are written in ways that allow you to see these quite ordinary people behaving in a variety ways with changes in circumstances and yet remaining true to their characters, much lke real people. The issues of power between men and women are written here in such a way that neither sex is demonized nor idolized. I really appreciate that!
Love and marriage are not easy, nor are they THE solution seems to the takeaway from this novel. Just as in Excellent Women, many of the characters are involved directly or indirectly with the church and yet this is not a preachy or religious book. Some of the characters reveal that they are not believers or they simply go to church as a social event or to be polite. The church is presented more as a social institution about good works, than a religous one.
The plot involves matchmaking attempts and failures, an eventual love match, hope for the future, hinted infertility, and acceptance of disappointment. It begins with an eligible bachelor moving into a not quite fashionable community in London and the vicar’s wife setting her sights on him for her sister. If you want to know more, you’ll need to read the book! Highly recommended.
An Unsuitable Attachment is about love, what is it and how do we know, relationships, how they form with the help or hinderance of others, men and women, and social expectations and transactions. The characters are written in ways that allow you to see these quite ordinary people behaving in a variety ways with changes in circumstances and yet remaining true to their characters, much lke real people. The issues of power between men and women are written here in such a way that neither sex is demonized nor idolized. I really appreciate that!
Love and marriage are not easy, nor are they THE solution seems to the takeaway from this novel. Just as in Excellent Women, many of the characters are involved directly or indirectly with the church and yet this is not a preachy or religious book. Some of the characters reveal that they are not believers or they simply go to church as a social event or to be polite. The church is presented more as a social institution about good works, than a religous one.
The plot involves matchmaking attempts and failures, an eventual love match, hope for the future, hinted infertility, and acceptance of disappointment. It begins with an eligible bachelor moving into a not quite fashionable community in London and the vicar’s wife setting her sights on him for her sister. If you want to know more, you’ll need to read the book! Highly recommended.
January 19, 2014
Usually I feel it's essential for a writer to have respect for his/her characters, even if they are ridiculous. But here, I feel like Pym had too almost much respect for her characters--she seemed so sympathetic toward and interested in the trivia of their rather pathetic lives.
There were a few quotes from the novel that I enjoyed, such as:
From Mervyn, the catty librarian: "Why is it, I wonder, that when books have things spilt on them it is always bottled sauce or gravy of the thickest and most repellent kind rather than something utterly exquisite and delicious?"
And from Sophia, the cat-obsessed vicar's wife: "I feel sometimes that I can't reach Faustina as I've reached other cats."
If the book had been more like this all the time, I would have enjoyed it much more. But in fact, it was mostly fussy and staid, and so dated I wanted to cringe at times.
There were a few quotes from the novel that I enjoyed, such as:
From Mervyn, the catty librarian: "Why is it, I wonder, that when books have things spilt on them it is always bottled sauce or gravy of the thickest and most repellent kind rather than something utterly exquisite and delicious?"
And from Sophia, the cat-obsessed vicar's wife: "I feel sometimes that I can't reach Faustina as I've reached other cats."
If the book had been more like this all the time, I would have enjoyed it much more. But in fact, it was mostly fussy and staid, and so dated I wanted to cringe at times.
September 21, 2020
This book is but a catalogue of lonelinesses, not at all made less so by . I was pretty bored by the plot, if it even could be called that.
July 24, 2021
Like all Barbara Pym’s novels, this one has a gentle and slightly melancholy tone, a yearning for a time that is past, a sense that the characters have found themselves in a time and place where they don’t quite belong.
Although it isn’t stated I gather this book is set in the 50s, but its characters are all throwbacks from the 30s and 40s, expecting that level of gentility and rigidly defined class that just didn’t exist any more. They wear gloves and hats at all times when outdoors, attend church and take tea at three in little tea shops. In former days they would not have had to work, spending their time knitting bed jackets for their old nannies and dead-heading their roses. But these are not former days and so these women hold down jobs as secretaries and library assistants, and cook their own suppers because servants are no longer a thing.
The story is about three women, two of whom are single and looking for a suitable man to marry. Romance, passion, love … none of these things seems very important to them. Rather, they want a man who, like them, has old fashioned ideals, is in a ‘respectable’ job and will show them courtesy and consideration. Sophia, the married woman, has found these things in her husband Mark, who is a clergyman but not in as fashionable or smart a parish as she would have liked. It’s clear that she is desperate to become a mother. She lavishes all her care and affection on a cat. But their childless state is something never discussed between the couple. Feelings, indeed, are felt to be an uncomfortable interruption to the humdrum routine of house cleaning, cooking and parish visits that make up their life.
I think was the thing that struck me most about the book, the entirely modest expectations of the characters, their being ready to settle for something even remotely ‘suitable’. I found it exquisitely sad, but so honest. Probably, in that era when so many women did not find love because so many men had been killed in the war, it was exactly that the author herself experienced.
Although it isn’t stated I gather this book is set in the 50s, but its characters are all throwbacks from the 30s and 40s, expecting that level of gentility and rigidly defined class that just didn’t exist any more. They wear gloves and hats at all times when outdoors, attend church and take tea at three in little tea shops. In former days they would not have had to work, spending their time knitting bed jackets for their old nannies and dead-heading their roses. But these are not former days and so these women hold down jobs as secretaries and library assistants, and cook their own suppers because servants are no longer a thing.
The story is about three women, two of whom are single and looking for a suitable man to marry. Romance, passion, love … none of these things seems very important to them. Rather, they want a man who, like them, has old fashioned ideals, is in a ‘respectable’ job and will show them courtesy and consideration. Sophia, the married woman, has found these things in her husband Mark, who is a clergyman but not in as fashionable or smart a parish as she would have liked. It’s clear that she is desperate to become a mother. She lavishes all her care and affection on a cat. But their childless state is something never discussed between the couple. Feelings, indeed, are felt to be an uncomfortable interruption to the humdrum routine of house cleaning, cooking and parish visits that make up their life.
I think was the thing that struck me most about the book, the entirely modest expectations of the characters, their being ready to settle for something even remotely ‘suitable’. I found it exquisitely sad, but so honest. Probably, in that era when so many women did not find love because so many men had been killed in the war, it was exactly that the author herself experienced.
July 21, 2022
Apparently this is not supposed to be one of her better novels, but I must have just been particularly primed for some Barbara Pym humor when I read it, because I found it absurdly wonderful.
There are crazy cat ladies. There's a curate led around like a puppy by domineering old women. There are parishioners concerned their vicar's getting too high church for his britches, ahem, cassock. There's a librarian who's like a marvelous mix of Mr. Collins and Cecil Vyse. It was everything I wanted and more.
Barbara Pym gets compared to Jane Austen frequently and I don't think that's fair to her. She's in a league of her own.
Some favorite passages:
"Not that she had anything against the vicar personally, though it had been hard to forgive his refusal of her request for an ‘Animals’ Sunday’ to which people might bring their pets to be blessed. She glanced round at the cats to see how much food would be needed. Their cries rose louder and more urgent now in their primitive longing for meat. They were great and splendid creatures, perhaps hardly in need of any blessing from man or God, she thought defiantly"
"When Ash Wednesday arrived, however, she found herself going alone to the service. She knew that Mervyn Cantrell was an agnostic, though on this particular day, as he pointed out to her, his packed lunch consisted of tuna fish sandwiches and hard boiled eggs in deference, as it were, to the beliefs of others."
"'I feel sometimes that I can’t reach Faustina as I’ve reached other cats...'
'Oh dear,’ Ianthe heard herself saying, feebly, she felt, but it was difficult to know how best to express her sympathy. She felt she wanted to shut herself away from life if this was what it was like."
"‘I’m sure they will be very happy,’ he said reproachfully.
'Imparadised in one another’s arms, as Milton put it,’ Basil went on. ‘Or encasseroled, perhaps – the bay leaf resting on the boeuf bourgignon.’"
There are crazy cat ladies. There's a curate led around like a puppy by domineering old women. There are parishioners concerned their vicar's getting too high church for his britches, ahem, cassock. There's a librarian who's like a marvelous mix of Mr. Collins and Cecil Vyse. It was everything I wanted and more.
Barbara Pym gets compared to Jane Austen frequently and I don't think that's fair to her. She's in a league of her own.
Some favorite passages:
"Not that she had anything against the vicar personally, though it had been hard to forgive his refusal of her request for an ‘Animals’ Sunday’ to which people might bring their pets to be blessed. She glanced round at the cats to see how much food would be needed. Their cries rose louder and more urgent now in their primitive longing for meat. They were great and splendid creatures, perhaps hardly in need of any blessing from man or God, she thought defiantly"
"When Ash Wednesday arrived, however, she found herself going alone to the service. She knew that Mervyn Cantrell was an agnostic, though on this particular day, as he pointed out to her, his packed lunch consisted of tuna fish sandwiches and hard boiled eggs in deference, as it were, to the beliefs of others."
"'I feel sometimes that I can’t reach Faustina as I’ve reached other cats...'
'Oh dear,’ Ianthe heard herself saying, feebly, she felt, but it was difficult to know how best to express her sympathy. She felt she wanted to shut herself away from life if this was what it was like."
"‘I’m sure they will be very happy,’ he said reproachfully.
'Imparadised in one another’s arms, as Milton put it,’ Basil went on. ‘Or encasseroled, perhaps – the bay leaf resting on the boeuf bourgignon.’"
March 6, 2014
BBC blurb - Penelope Wilton stars in Barbara Pym's wonderful story of love - requited and otherwise - in unfashionable north London in 1960. A terrace of newly done-up houses attracts a different kind of resident to Queens Park, and the Reverend Mark Ainger and his wife Sophia are keen to attract them to the church. But the arrival of anthropologist Rupert Stonebird and librarian Ianthe Broom in the congregation does more than swell the collection plate.
An Unsuitable Attachment was turned down by Barbara Pym's publishers, Faber, when she gave them the manuscript in 1963, with very little explanation. Her previous 6 books had met with some success, so she was very upset and according to her correspondence felt very badly treated. It wasn't until 1977, when the Times Literary Supplement published a symposium on the most over and under-rated writers of the century and two contributors named her in the second category - the only living writer to be so distinguished - and her next novel was published before the year was out. She was widely interviewed, appeared on Desert Island Discs, and was the subject of a tv film. She died in 1980. An Unsuitable Attachment was finally published in 1982.
Dramatised by Jennie Howarth. Ten episodes. Theme tune Magic Moments, Perry Como
Narrator ..... Penelope Wilton
Penelope ..... Sophie Thompson
Sophia ..... Lucy Akhurst
Ianthe ..... Raquel Cassidy
Mervyn ..... Stephen Critchlow
Mark ..... Martin Ball
Rupert ..... Ben Crowe
John ..... Tom Andrews
Sister Dew ..... Angela Curran
Lady Selvedge ..... Joanna Wake
Mrs Grandison ..... Frances Jeater
Edwin ..... Robin Bowerman
Basil ..... Joe Coen
Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 4, 7:45pm Monday 26th April 2010
Categories:
Drama, Relationships & Romance
An Unsuitable Attachment was turned down by Barbara Pym's publishers, Faber, when she gave them the manuscript in 1963, with very little explanation. Her previous 6 books had met with some success, so she was very upset and according to her correspondence felt very badly treated. It wasn't until 1977, when the Times Literary Supplement published a symposium on the most over and under-rated writers of the century and two contributors named her in the second category - the only living writer to be so distinguished - and her next novel was published before the year was out. She was widely interviewed, appeared on Desert Island Discs, and was the subject of a tv film. She died in 1980. An Unsuitable Attachment was finally published in 1982.
Dramatised by Jennie Howarth. Ten episodes. Theme tune Magic Moments, Perry Como
Narrator ..... Penelope Wilton
Penelope ..... Sophie Thompson
Sophia ..... Lucy Akhurst
Ianthe ..... Raquel Cassidy
Mervyn ..... Stephen Critchlow
Mark ..... Martin Ball
Rupert ..... Ben Crowe
John ..... Tom Andrews
Sister Dew ..... Angela Curran
Lady Selvedge ..... Joanna Wake
Mrs Grandison ..... Frances Jeater
Edwin ..... Robin Bowerman
Basil ..... Joe Coen
Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 4, 7:45pm Monday 26th April 2010
Categories:
Drama, Relationships & Romance
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2012
Outside of bodily harm, I could not be forced to decide which Barbara Pym novel is my favorite. At this point, I haven’t read them all – and finding them in the great Northwest Territory is harder than you think. I’ve done okay but I may have to force myself upon the dictates of online shopping to obtain the rest, but I will – I will not quaver in my quest to finish every last novel she wrote.
Again my undying gratitude to Library Thing and the Barbara Pym group there, I will continue on in my endeavors but I “chart the course with (some) regret.” Once I’ve read them all, well I’ll read them again – yes of course I’ll read them again and find something new but…alas.
An unsuitable Attachment, this novel is a novel of relationships, that wouldn’t appear to be well, good ideas – and what is so fine about the novel, it makes no judgment either way. After “things,” are settle the author leaves us to think what we might. Will older and younger persevere? Was the relationship forged for her house and “nice things?” Will he finally get her attention without making her cry? All the awful clucking and raised eyebrows were given full vent, marriage, like the stork persevered and everyone went home nodding or shaking their heads.
No sage thoughts, really just wonderful surprises, shocks and out right laughter.
And getting us there was Ms Pym’s genius and oh (I know I know I’ve said this before) that it took me so long to find her! She epitomizes what I envy in a writer, especially a woman – her point is made that often there are no answers to life’s questions but that does not mean that women need buckle to convention. Independence is a viable way of life, a pleasant, peaceful, way of life that loneliness need not intrude upon.
Again my undying gratitude to Library Thing and the Barbara Pym group there, I will continue on in my endeavors but I “chart the course with (some) regret.” Once I’ve read them all, well I’ll read them again – yes of course I’ll read them again and find something new but…alas.
An unsuitable Attachment, this novel is a novel of relationships, that wouldn’t appear to be well, good ideas – and what is so fine about the novel, it makes no judgment either way. After “things,” are settle the author leaves us to think what we might. Will older and younger persevere? Was the relationship forged for her house and “nice things?” Will he finally get her attention without making her cry? All the awful clucking and raised eyebrows were given full vent, marriage, like the stork persevered and everyone went home nodding or shaking their heads.
No sage thoughts, really just wonderful surprises, shocks and out right laughter.
And getting us there was Ms Pym’s genius and oh (I know I know I’ve said this before) that it took me so long to find her! She epitomizes what I envy in a writer, especially a woman – her point is made that often there are no answers to life’s questions but that does not mean that women need buckle to convention. Independence is a viable way of life, a pleasant, peaceful, way of life that loneliness need not intrude upon.
July 7, 2013
*Really 3.5 stars.
"Faustina looked up from her saucer, her dark face made all the more reproachful by its beard of milk" (72).
"To love one's neighbor, she thought as she trudged resolutely up the Finchley Road, must surely often be an effort of the will rather than a pleasurable upsurging of emotion" (75).
"God is content with little, she told herself, but sometimes we have so little that it is hardly worth the offering" (100).
"If only one could apply the same tests to people, she thought, and of course in a way one did; but as life went on this kind of choice came to be a luxury--one took what came one's way" (101).
"Faustina was in her basket by the boiler, looking understandably complacent" (102).
" 'It reminds me of one of those great red signs you sometimes see in London--TAKE COURAGE--have you noticed them?'
" 'Yes,' said Ianthe, 'I believe it's a kind of beer--but how many people must have been strengthened and comforted by seeing that message shining out into the night'" (154).
"A woman is apt to worry, perhaps unnecessarily, about such things, for a man will interpret what she writes in his own way and it is almost certain to be not the way she intended" (162).
"Then she realized that he was smiling at her indulgently and it suddenly occurred to her that he was one of those men who imagine that all women are running after them" (166).
"Somehow it had not seemed a promising start to an affair, though it might well have provided a solid basis for marriage" (174).
" 'But do people respect each other's opinions in cases like this, unless they happen to agree with their own?'" (223).
" 'How dreadful we are basically in our so-called civilised society,' he added complacently" (254).
"Faustina looked up from her saucer, her dark face made all the more reproachful by its beard of milk" (72).
"To love one's neighbor, she thought as she trudged resolutely up the Finchley Road, must surely often be an effort of the will rather than a pleasurable upsurging of emotion" (75).
"God is content with little, she told herself, but sometimes we have so little that it is hardly worth the offering" (100).
"If only one could apply the same tests to people, she thought, and of course in a way one did; but as life went on this kind of choice came to be a luxury--one took what came one's way" (101).
"Faustina was in her basket by the boiler, looking understandably complacent" (102).
" 'It reminds me of one of those great red signs you sometimes see in London--TAKE COURAGE--have you noticed them?'
" 'Yes,' said Ianthe, 'I believe it's a kind of beer--but how many people must have been strengthened and comforted by seeing that message shining out into the night'" (154).
"A woman is apt to worry, perhaps unnecessarily, about such things, for a man will interpret what she writes in his own way and it is almost certain to be not the way she intended" (162).
"Then she realized that he was smiling at her indulgently and it suddenly occurred to her that he was one of those men who imagine that all women are running after them" (166).
"Somehow it had not seemed a promising start to an affair, though it might well have provided a solid basis for marriage" (174).
" 'But do people respect each other's opinions in cases like this, unless they happen to agree with their own?'" (223).
" 'How dreadful we are basically in our so-called civilised society,' he added complacently" (254).
February 27, 2009
My sixth Barbara Pym book this year. I'm not giving it full marks because it was a little 'twee'. While predictably romantic, there still was a certain 'who's going to marry who' at the end. Typical of Pym, however, she likes to explore some 'taboo' topics (well, at least taboo for her and her time) such as the whole cross socio/economic theme (marrying outside one's class, etc). I still laughed at parts (like the Irish priest on the plane to Rome who kept saying "did ye see the little bottles"?). Faustina, the cat, was rather interesting and seemed to play a role throughout (albeit passively) which was something new for Pym. I could see how she couldn't get this book published, however. It probably wasn't deep enough and might have been a bit soppy for the 50s/60s but given that this rejection lead to an absence of publications for years it does seem really sad. Its almost Austenesque that her work has only come back into fashion over the past few years.
November 29, 2016
It is a nice love story. I would like it much more if some scenes had been longer, more developed.
A humor is here, but rather little. I have some difficulties in thinking of this book as a funny. Nonetheless, there are amusing moments.
Most of all I see the potential in Pym's book. As I see this novel isn't considered as one of her best. So, I will try in the future her other books.
A humor is here, but rather little. I have some difficulties in thinking of this book as a funny. Nonetheless, there are amusing moments.
Most of all I see the potential in Pym's book. As I see this novel isn't considered as one of her best. So, I will try in the future her other books.
January 2, 2023
I got my copy of this off Ebay and the spine is peeling like paint, it’s all over my sheets and my hands. This was the Pym that Jonathan Cape rejected, sending her into the wilderness, and to be honest I don’t really understand why because this is as good as any of her other books. The scene where John kisses Ianthe made me laugh so much I had to put the book down and go and make a cup of tea to calm down, which in itself is such a Barbara Pym thing to do. I enjoyed this a lot although I didn’t love it as much as I loved Green Leaves, and I can’t really put my finger on why. I think I’ve only got posthumous releases left to read now, and then I might start re reading them all again because to be honest, I just love her. Good old Babs!
August 2, 2023
Barbara Pym (1913-1980)
An advertising blurb on the front of the new edition suggests a comparison to Jane Austin.
Not really.
One of Pyms minor characters in this book says he's like "a dog returning to his own vomit"..Not very Austin-y.
What we do have is a comedy set in a far away Britain with slightly questionable characters...who mention black people but don't really appear...
It doesn't sound like it...but I do enjoy Pyms book...excellent character studies...lots of slightly off clergy... genteel ladies.....and a few not so genteel ladies.
An advertising blurb on the front of the new edition suggests a comparison to Jane Austin.
Not really.
One of Pyms minor characters in this book says he's like "a dog returning to his own vomit"..Not very Austin-y.
What we do have is a comedy set in a far away Britain with slightly questionable characters...who mention black people but don't really appear...
It doesn't sound like it...but I do enjoy Pyms book...excellent character studies...lots of slightly off clergy... genteel ladies.....and a few not so genteel ladies.
March 23, 2024
I liked this one, possibly not quite as much as some of her others, but her writing, characters, and the ambience she creates are always worth it!
October 8, 2019
Passing Ianthe's house on her way home she now saw that this marriage was inevitable - it had to be. The lemon leaves had been unwrapped and there were the fragrant raisins at the heart.
An Unsuitable Attachment was to be Barbara Pym's seventh published novel until, fatefully, it was rejected by her publisher (Jonathan Cape) in 1963, and by several others. The successful novelist - who had recently had all of her works republished and was picking up steam amongst English librarygoers - was left to 14 years as a relative unknown. After her miraculous "rediscovery" in 1977, Pym published three more novels. Attachment was one of another three published after her early death in 1980.
My paperback (Grafton) edition has a foreward by Philip Larkin which, sadly, is not in my hardcover (Dutton) edition. Larkin, a longtime friend and penpal of Pym's, admits that this is not her strongest work. And, indeed, it isn't. The "unsuitable attachment" at the heart of the novel emerges rather slowly, before suddenly feeling like a foregone conclusion. And while there is much of Pym's typically astute character observation, the book doesn't sparkle with the vim and vigour of - frankly - all of her earlier novels (including her then-unpublished first, Crampton Hodnet).
Perhaps this is because Pym - 50 years old when she finished this novel - was drifting from her "early" and "middle" stages as a writer into her "late" period. Her subsequent novels have a darker quality, are certainly less outright comedic, and this feels like an awkward transition, a writer trying to navigate their preferred brand even as their mind and artistry have moved elsewhere. I found myself laughing less frequently, and underwhelmed by the marriage of Sophie and Mark (after the successful investigations of happy-but-bittersweet-in-a-typically-English-way marriages in Jane and Prudence and especially A Glass of Blessings, one feels as if Pym doesn't quite get to the nub of this one), as well as by the character of Penelope as a whole - who should surely be at the heart of things.
Nevertheless, we only have 12 full-length Pym novels (alongside the miscellany of shorter writings) and it's our duty to cherish every one. I shall do so! There are plenty of neat little moments, twists, and historical insights to this bygone age that shouldn't feel so far away. This is still satisfying Pym for those of us who enjoy the complete canon of works, but truthfully would only rank as two-stars outside of the world of Pymheads, I'm afraid. I would suggest new readers leave it until near the end of their journey.
An Unsuitable Attachment was to be Barbara Pym's seventh published novel until, fatefully, it was rejected by her publisher (Jonathan Cape) in 1963, and by several others. The successful novelist - who had recently had all of her works republished and was picking up steam amongst English librarygoers - was left to 14 years as a relative unknown. After her miraculous "rediscovery" in 1977, Pym published three more novels. Attachment was one of another three published after her early death in 1980.
My paperback (Grafton) edition has a foreward by Philip Larkin which, sadly, is not in my hardcover (Dutton) edition. Larkin, a longtime friend and penpal of Pym's, admits that this is not her strongest work. And, indeed, it isn't. The "unsuitable attachment" at the heart of the novel emerges rather slowly, before suddenly feeling like a foregone conclusion. And while there is much of Pym's typically astute character observation, the book doesn't sparkle with the vim and vigour of - frankly - all of her earlier novels (including her then-unpublished first, Crampton Hodnet).
Perhaps this is because Pym - 50 years old when she finished this novel - was drifting from her "early" and "middle" stages as a writer into her "late" period. Her subsequent novels have a darker quality, are certainly less outright comedic, and this feels like an awkward transition, a writer trying to navigate their preferred brand even as their mind and artistry have moved elsewhere. I found myself laughing less frequently, and underwhelmed by the marriage of Sophie and Mark (after the successful investigations of happy-but-bittersweet-in-a-typically-English-way marriages in Jane and Prudence and especially A Glass of Blessings, one feels as if Pym doesn't quite get to the nub of this one), as well as by the character of Penelope as a whole - who should surely be at the heart of things.
Nevertheless, we only have 12 full-length Pym novels (alongside the miscellany of shorter writings) and it's our duty to cherish every one. I shall do so! There are plenty of neat little moments, twists, and historical insights to this bygone age that shouldn't feel so far away. This is still satisfying Pym for those of us who enjoy the complete canon of works, but truthfully would only rank as two-stars outside of the world of Pymheads, I'm afraid. I would suggest new readers leave it until near the end of their journey.
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