Barbara Pym



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Barbara Pym (Britain, 1913)

"Some Tame Gazelle" (1950) +

synopsis forthcoming

"Excellent Women" (1952) +

synopsis forthcoming

"A Glass of Blessings" (1958)

L'azione si svolge sotto Natale in un milieu di cattolici ferventi che costituiscono una comunità molto unita. Wilmet Forsyth è una giovane moglie, sposata a Rodney, che non ha nulla da fare. Cattolica, frequenta assiduamente la chiesa di Father Thames, che ha appena assunto un nuovo assistente, Father Ransome. Wilmet è immersa nell’ambiente ecclesiastico, perché anche Rodney lavora al Ministry. Wilmet è colpita da Piers Longridge, il fratello un po’ scapestrato, e ancora scapolo, dell’amica Rowena, a sua volta sposata a Harry (sia Rowena sia Wilmet conobbero i loro futuri mariti in Italia). Piers è un uomo colto, ma anticonformista, che ha tentate diverse carriere e adesso ha deciso di dare lezioni di portoghese. Ne parla alla suocera Sybil e insieme decidono di iscriversi. Rowena ha tre figli, mentre Wilmet non ne ha nessuno. L’amica Mary Beamish è l’esatto opposto di Wilmet, sempre attiva e creativa. La vita vuota di Wilmet contrasta con quelle piene delle amiche. Wilmet va a pranzo con Piers, dalla cui personalità sembra soggiogata, e questi ricambia mandandole un romantico regalo. Nel frattempo fra Mary e Father Ransome, o, meglio, Marius, giovane attraente, cresce l’amicizia e l’intimità, soprattutto dopo l’infermità dell’anziana Mrs. Beamish, madre di Mary. Alla morte della madre Mary decide però di entrare in un convento. Wilmet scopre, con suo disappunto, che il romantico regalo non le era stato inviato da Piers, ma da Harry, da sempre invaghito di lei. Ed è Rowena stessa a svelarglielo. Wilmet trova una scusa per passare con l’amica a trovare Piers, ma Piers è assente e nessuno sembra sapere esattamente cosa faccia. Quando, due settimane dopo, è lui a farsi vivo, Wilmet si precipita a pranzo con lui. Il fatto che Rodney sia sempre così freddo e prevedibile, incapace di slanci emotivi, rende Wilmet ancor più irrequieta, e ancor più suggestionabile dalla personalità misteriosa di Piers. A forza di investigare e di accettare i suoi inviti, riesce a penetrare molti di quei misteri. In particolare conosce l’uomo con cui Piers condivide l’appartamento, Keith, Capisce così che in realtà Piers è un omosessuale e che il suo umore allegro non è dovuto all’aver incontrato lei, Wilmet, ma lui, Keith. È mortalmente umiliata dall’aver solo pensato, e con gioia, che lui fosse innamorato di lei. Mary confida a Wilmet di aver ricevuta da Marius una lettera in cui le professa l’intenzione di andare a Roma. Mary e Marius si stanno, di fatto, convincendo a vicenda che non sono votati alla vita ecclesiastica. Inevitabilmente Marius finisce per chiedere Mary in moglie. E la brutta Mary si fa consigliare da Wilmet su cosa rispondere. Persino la suocera, Sybil, annuncia delle nozze, con il vecchio spasimante Arnold Root. Ciò comporterà un trasloco, perché Rodney e Wilmet dovranno cercarsi una casa altrove. Wilmet è quasi spaventata dall’idea di dover vivere da sola con il marito. Anche il progettato viaggio in Portogallo per provare il portoghese va a monte. Father Thames, ormai troppo anziano, ha deciso di ritirarsi a vivere in una villa italiana. Di colpo Wilmet sente che il mondo le sfugge. Tutti questi cambiamenti sembrano togliere significato alla sua vita, sempre più vuota e sempre più passiva. Tutti sembrano essere amati e corrisposti, mentre a lei non rimane altro che l’affetto freddo e un po’ burocratico di suo marito. L’ultima sorpresa, e umiliazione, per Wilmet è apprendere dal marito stesso che si era mezzo infatuato di un’attraente collega. Mentre lei era concentrata sulla sua avventura immaginaria, il marito era molto più vicino di lei ad averne una reale. Wilmet si renda così conto di non essere nulla di speciale, di essere soltanto una persona come tante, e di dover imparare ad apprezzare ciò che ha: un marito fedele e una vita tranquilla.

Her novels were rejected by publishers for 15 years before "Quartet in Autumn" (1977) + was finally published, perhaps her best novel. The novel follows four elderly workers who are about to retire, focusing mainly on the two women, and in particular one of the two, the one who has never been in love, never been married, never been a socialite. She has lived a quiet and unremarkable existence. Her job only existed for her: when she retires, nobody is hired to replace her. She lived in the shadow of her childhood friend, assuming that they would retire together in the countryside. By the end of the book she has grown up and is now capable of her own decisions. In practice, the novel is a "coming of age" novel, except that the protagonist is not a child or a teenager but an elderly woman.

Marcia, Letty, Norman and Edwin are four elderly lonely coworkers, first showed as they spend their lunch break at the library. Letty is the only one who has a keen interest in books, formerly novels, now biographies. The four share the same office, each living alone and about to retire. Edwin is a widower with a daughter, and spends his spare time helping the local priest. Norman visits his brother in law Ken. Norman's sister (Ken's wife) died. Marcia wonders what will happen to her body when she dies, since she has no close relative. Norman is afraid of falling into poverty. Letty remembers she never married and never had much from life. Marcia is visited by a young volunteer, Janice, sent to make sure that she's ok after breast surgery. Spring comes and Marcia witnesses a wounded man taken away in an ambulance. Norman is angry at everything. Letty observes young lovers in a park doing things she never did. Edwin is planning his summer holidays. Letty normally travels with her widowed childhood friend Marjorie. Letty visits Marjorie in the countryside village where she has a cottage and is surprised to see that Marjorie started seeing the vicar, David, a much younger man. Marcia rejects Janice's help again, and secretly goes to see the hospital surgeon, Mr Strong, of whom she is infatuated, and then she stalks his house. Marjorie marries David. Letty had been living with the assumption that she and Marjorie would share the cottage when they retired but now Marjorie suggests that Letty takes a room in a nursing home. Letty however prefers to remain in London. A new event changes her plans again: her landlady sells the home to a Nigerian priest, Olatunde, whose family is too noisy for her, and in any case all the other tenants move out. Not only her routine is altered forever, but Letty is virtually homeless and has no relatives who could take her in. Marcia, who has no desire for company, is afraid that Letty will want to move in with her. Janice still visits Marcia to make sure she's ok. Marcia has a passion for tinned food. Edwin looks for a room for Letty among his parishoners and finds one with a churchwoman, Mrs Pope.

When Christmas comes, Norman spends the day with Ken and his girlfriend Joyce, and Edwin visits his daughter and gets busy with church events. Letty is ready to spend the Christmas by herself for the first time because for the first time Marjorie doesn't invite her, but her old landlady Mrs Pope decides they should have dinner together. Marcia is invited to dinner by her neighbors Priscilla and Nigel but Marcia is a difficult guest and Priscilla is relieved when she leaves.

Edwin attends the memorial for a colleague who died and wonders what his own memorial will be like when he dies. Letty and Marcia retire, and the company organizes a little farewell party. Nobody knows what their job was, and in fact they are not being replaced. Their department is being slowly dismantled as employees retire.

Marcia spends her first day of retirement tidying up her house. Letty, who only has a room in someone else's apartment, spends her first day of retirement at the library. trying to find interesting books to read. The social worker Janice keeps visiting Marcia, who keeps being ungrateful and unfriendly. Letty sends a card to Marcia inviting her to get together, but Marcia doesn't even reply. Marcia is becoming more and more asocial. Letty is visited by Marjorie who announces her wedding. Edwin and Norman invite the "girls" to lunch. Letty is happy to attend. Marcia initially wouldn't want to, then she shows up and she shocks the others with her appearance: her hair has not been done in a while and her clothes are weird to the point that Letty feels embarrassed of sitting at a restaurant table with her. And Marcia is impolite with them. Later Marcia follows Letty at the library for the sole purpose of returning a milk bottle that Letty forgot to dispose of (something that has bugged Marcia for years), something that Marcia could have disposed of herself, and something that Letty doesn't even remember ever having. Marcia is clearly losing her mind. Back home she misses her dead cat and goes out in the backyard looking for its grave. Not finding it because it's overgrown with weeds, she grabs a spade and starts digging, alarming her neighbors Priscilla and Nigel, but only to give up and return inside. Letty, instead, wants to be more social and more helpful. She joins a church as a volunteer to sort out clothes for refugees.

One day Norman mechanically takes a bus towards Marcia's house and looks for it until he finds it. From a distance he sees Marcia walk out and is shocked by how old she suddenly looks. Janice, who is there to see Marcia, notices him and confronts him to make sure he is not a burglar. Norman walks away. Later, Marcia tells Janice that she saw Norman but wants nothing to do with her old colleagues.

Marjorie tries again to convince Letty to move to the countryside but Letty is terrified and even offended when she sees the conditions of the local nursing home. Marcia, meanwhile, is losing her mind: she rambles on erratically when a doctor examines her, forgets to feed herself and she is still infatuated with her surgeon Dr Strong. She walks in front of his house and spies as guests arrive for an evening party. She returns home tired and weak. The following day a concerned Edwin and his friend the priest pay a visit to Marcia at the same time that Janice arrives for her usual visit. They found the malnourished Marcia sitting in a trance state and call an ambulance. At the hospital Marcia finally sees Dr Strong again but can't even talk. Her final regret is that she didn't confront Norman when she saw him spying on her from across the street. She dies a few days later, all alone, with no next to kin. The funeral is attended by Letty, Edwin, Norman, Janice and Priscilla. Norman is surprised to learn that Marcia bequeathed her home to him. So there was something between them, although always unspoken. Norman can't decide if he wants to move in or sell the place. Letty receives a phone call from Marjorie: David has broken the engagement because he has fallen in love with, of all the people, the warden of the nursing home. Letty rushes to visit Marjorie in the countryside and Marjorie hints that, being alone again, she's now willing to let Letty move in with her, but now Letty is not so sure. Marjorie tells Letty to invite Norman and Edwin to visit her in the countryside. Letty is amused at the idea that Marjorie might be curious about the two men, unlikely to get romantically involved and unlikely to like countryside living. Letty tells Edwin and Norman that she, herself, may remain in London after all. She spent her life being nobody and trailing Marjorie, but now she has grown up.

"The Sweet Dove Died" (1978) +

synopsis forthcoming

"A Few Green Leaves" (1980)

synopsis forthcoming


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