A Success Story

Abstract

The first thing to be said about the life and work of Barbara Pym is that it is a success story. After a slow beginning she was able to publish her work, and had appreciation for her first six novels — to which I shall refer as the ‘canon’. Thereafter came rejection, and years in the wilderness, the first threat of cancer and a major operation; but, in the long remission that followed, her name came back into a revived literary reputation more considerable than she had ever enjoyed, and she was to bring out her strongest novel, Quartet in Autumn. Her last years were passed in happy retirement in a country village with a much loved sister, and in contentment at being rediscovered.