The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym

Starred review from May 23, 2022
Byrne (Kick: The True Story of JFK’s Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth) captures in this insightful biography the life of British author Barbara Pym (1913–1980), drawing extensively on Pym’s correspondence, diaries, and notebooks to illustrate how her novels reflected the social and political changes of her era. Byrne vividly recounts Pym’s childhood in rural Shropshire, her transformative years at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, in the 1930s, where there were strict rules governing women’s behavior, and WWII, when she “flirted with Nazism.” In the 1950s, Pym published her first novels to excellent reviews, but in the ’60s she was dropped by her publisher out of fear her “novels of quiet female independence” were becoming too old-fashioned. Pym’s literary reputation was resurrected in the late ’70s when she published what Byrne calls “her true masterpiece”: The Sweet Dove Died. Byrne does a great job probing Pym’s relationships, especially her friendship with Oxford classmate and lifelong correspondent Robert Liddell, who “cajoled, nagged and encouraged, and... persisted in believing in Pym’s potential as a published writer.” This attentive, lively biography casts a well-deserved spotlight on a writer whose “reputation is secure, but only among a minority of readers.”

Starred review from April 1, 2022
A detailed, definitive reconstruction of the British novelist's life and career. In her latest, acclaimed literary biographer Byrne delivers a buoyant account of the life of Barbara Pym (1913-1980), taking her title from the one Pym gave her own diaries, a wealth of previously unmined material. Recasting Pym's life as a picaresque novel, Byrne proceeds in chapters titled, for example, "In which Fr�ulein Pym falls for a Handsome Nazi" and "Miss Pym the Novelist takes Tea with the Distinguished Author Elizabeth Bowen in the Company of Several Homosexuals." Pym's gift for writing was matched by her gift for living, and she funneled into her novels her experiences at Oxford in the 1930s (a chauvinist world, where she nonetheless had a blast); in Nazi Germany (late in grasping what was going on there, she made a timely and full recovery); and as a Wren and a censor in World War II. "She was one of the most liberated, inde-pendent women of her time," writes Byrne. "Ever since Oxford, she had been sexually active and unashamed of being so. One of her friends explained: 'You see, Barbara liked sex.' Nor did she feel the need to settle down to a conventional married life, despite several offers." From her teen years, she had a knack for romantic obsession; her two novels about women in love with gay men are closely modeled on her life. Byrne is brilliant in her descriptions of Pym's relationships: with her sister Hilary, whom she predicted in her first novel she'd grow old with, and did; the Oxford friends and flames she kept all her life; and Philip Larkin, her greatest supporter, though they didn't meet in person for 15 years. Byrne's accounts of the novels will add to anyone's reading list, and longtime fans will want to revisit her oeuvre--as Larkin and other friends did, several times. Infused with the high spirit and humor of its subject, a gift to fans, novices, and aspiring writers. Pym would be thrilled.

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