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The Testing of Barbara Pym London, the Wilderness Years, and the Rewards of Age
Author
Title
The Testing of Barbara Pym [electronic resource] : London, the Wilderness Years, and the Rewards of Age / by Emily Stockard.
ISBN
9783031396670
Edition
1st ed. 2023.
Publication
Cham : Springer Nature Switzerland : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
Physical Description
1 online resource (XVI, 237 p.)
Local Notes
Access is available to the Yale community.
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Summary
The Testing of Barbara Pym, a companion volume to The Making of Barbara Pym (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), completes a comprehensive analysis of Pym's novels and her life, focusing on her complex view of the necessity of change at both the individual and cultural levels. Newly published archival material supports this treatment of Pym's vision of a changing world - a vision premised upon the principle of continuity, a linking together of past, present, and future. In her novels published from 1955-1980, beginning with Britain's emergence from post-war austerity, Pym portrays, in an optimistic fashion, several changing aspects of British culture: expansion of the suburbs, acceptance of homosexual men, erosion of the class system, inclusivity in the Anglican Church. But with these changes, new strains emerge as well; the principle of continuity undergoes radical testing and is then emphatically reasserted. Likewise, despite upheavals to established patterns in her life, chiefly the inability to publish her work, Pym persisted in cultivating such elements of continuity as she could, an effort rewarded, while she was in rural retirement, by a return to the publishing world. Thus, in both Pym's novels and her life, continuity survives the duress of testing circumstances. Emily Stockard is Professor of English, Florida Atlantic University, USA, and author of The Making of Barbara Pym: Oxford, the War Years, and Post-war Austerity (2021).
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Format
Books / Online
Language
English
Added to Catalog
November 02, 2023
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Less Than Angels: Discontents, Detachment, and Discontinuities
Chapter 3: A Glass of Blessings: Crossing the Boundaries Between Elegance and Excellence
Chapter 4: No Fond Return of Love: Unlikely Continuities
Chapter 5: Struggle for Continuity During the "Wilderness Years" (1963-1977)
Chapter 6: An Unsuitable Attachment: A Redefinition
Chapter 7: The Sweet Dove Died: Discontinued Friendships and the Arrested Life
Chapter 8: Life Goes On: Continued Sustenance
Chapter 9: Strands of Change and Quartet in Autumn: The Limits of Continuity
Chapter 10: Continuity Regained: Village Life and "Rediscovery"
Chapter 11: A Few Green Leaves: Looking to the Future
Chapter 12: Epilogue: Last Respects.
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