Academic Question - Softcover

Barbara Pym (1913-80) was born in Shropshire and educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. When in 1977 the TLS asked critics to name the most underrated authors of the past 75 years, only one was named twice (by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil): Barbara Pym. Her novels are characterised by what Anne Tyler has called 'the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life'.

Pym's reputation will not be enhanced by the publication of this edited first draft of a novel from her "silent years." Set in a provincial university, the story is narrated by Caro Grimstone, the dissatisfied wife of Alan, a rising anthropologist. Caro unwittingly becomes the means by which Alan dishonestly obtains a manuscript that will both advance his reputation and refute the findings of a respected, elderly colleague. Around this academic misdemeanor, the Grimstones and a cast of unrealized academic eccentrics revolve until the whole is resolved in a literal burst of fireworks. Absent is Pym's genius for creating characters whose concerns, no matter how trivial, engage the reader. Her fans, however, will probably demand the book. Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.