British Author Challenge April 2024: Barbara Pym & Anthony Trollope

Barbara Pym was born on 2 June 1913 in Oswestry, Shropshire. She attended St Hilda's College, Oxford and received a degree in English Language and Literature in 1934. During World War Two Pym worked for the Censorship Department and later joined the Women's Royal Naval Service.

After the war Pym worked at the International African Institute and became the assistant editor Africa, its scholarly journal. She submitted stories to magazines for many years before her first novel, Some Tame Gazelle, was published in 1950.

Pym wrote five more novels before changing literary tastes found her unable to secure publication; she published nothing between 1962 and 1977, until an article in the Times Literary Supplement sparked a renewal of interest in her work. She died on 11 January 1980.

Selected works
Some Tame Gazelle
Excellent Women
Less than Angels
A Glass of Blessings
Quartet in Autumn
A Few Green Leaves

Anthony Trollope was born on 24 April 1815 in London. He attended Harrow School and Winchester College.

In 1834 Trollope became a clerk at the Post Office, although he did not distinguish himself in the role. Despite his subpar work, he was appointed a postal surveyor's clerk in Ireland, a job that required a great deal of travel. Trollope filled the many hours he was obliged to travel by train for his job with writing his earliest novels. He had his first great success in 1855 with The Warden, the first in what would become The Barsetshire Chronicles.

He returned to England in 1859, where he continued both to write and work for the Post Office; he continued his postal work until 1867, when he felt the revenue from his writing was sufficient to offset the loss of the pension he would have received if he had continued to work until he was sixty.

Trollope became a popular and prolific writer of his age; he wrote forty-seven novels, nearly as many short stories, and several works of non-fiction. He died on 6 December 1882.

Selected works
The Barsetshire Chronicles
The Palliser Novels
The Way We Live Now
An Eye for an Eye
He Knew He Was Right
Miss Mackenzie

Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/324

>1 amanda4242: I have read all of Barbara Pym's novels, and plan to re-visit Quartet in Autumn (my favorite) and perhaps one more.

>2 amanda4242: For some years now I have been reading Trollope's novels. I started with the Barsetshire books, continued with the Pallisers, and then went back to the beginning to read all the rest of his novels in publication order.

I have 13 left to read (of his 47) and up next for me is often considered his greatest work The Way We Live Now, which I will read (at least start) in April. At 800+ pages, it may run into May.

Miss Mackenzie is a fun book, about a middle-aged spinster who finds out she is destined to inherit a fortune and suddenly has 3 suitors to contend with. It's also a manageable length.

Another sentimental favorite of mine is The Three Clerks, about 3 young men starting out in their careers. It's thought that Trollope modeled at least one character after his own early working life.

Anyone wanting a more serious read might try Castle Richmond, one of the few contemporary novels of the 1850s that deals with the Irish famine of the late 1840s. Trollope was working in Ireland at that time and writes from his own experience of the Great Hunger.

Trollope also wrote many short stories, if you're looking to read something a bit shorter than a novel.

I am also reading Trollope's works in order with the group reads. I may go back and pick up one of the ones I missed, either La Vendee or The Macdermots of Ballycloran.

I'll be reading Less than Angels by Barbara Pym.

I checked out my library for books by Pym-- nothing. I am on the fence about Trollope

I have pretty much read all of Pym but still have a lot of Trollope to read, so I will be reading An Eye for an Eye in April.

>3 kac522: The only Trollope I've read is The Way We Live Now; it will never make my list of favorite books, but I liked it enough to be interested in reading a bit more of him.

>5 catseyegreen: Pym's A Glass of Blessings is on sale for $2.99 at the moment.

https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/a-glass-of-blessings/9781453279601

>8 amanda4242: >4 cbl_tn: >6 alcottacre: A Glass of Blessings was my choice for the month.

Which Trollope do you all highly recommend?

>9 m.belljackson: My favorite is Barchester Towers, but you really need to have read The Warden first. I loved The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire almost as much, but it does need to be read after the other Barsetshire novels.

Framley Parsonage is another favorite. It's in the Barchester world, but I think it could be read as a standalone, as could Doctor Thorne, although if you think you will eventually read them both then you should read Doctor Thorne first. I also very much liked Can You Forgive Her? It was my first Trollope, and it's the only one I've read twice.

As for the standalone novels I've read so far, I am partial to He Knew He Was Right and Rachel Ray. I also second kac522's recommendations of Miss Mackenzie and The Three Clerks.

>10 cbl_tn: Thank you. Abe has Can You Forgive Her - first edition and signed for only $1,006.69...and they charge $30 for Shipping!

Instead, I reserved The Warden and Can You Forgive Her for around $5.00 each.

>11 m.belljackson: Sounds like a bargain! ;-)

>8 amanda4242: thank you for that tip, I was able to get a copy.

I’ve never read anything by Barbara Pym, so I’d like to try some of hers.

US Kindle sale: Barbara Pym's Some Tame Gazelle is $2.99 today.

https://www.amazon.com/Some-Tame-Gazelle-Virago-Classics-ebook/dp/B00AW54D8I/ref...

I finished Trollope's An Eye for an Eye this afternoon and while certainly not his best work (I second the recommendation of the Barsetshire novels), I did not find it a bad read. I gave it 3.75 stars.

Excellent Women is an excellent book! I'll definitely be reading more Pym.

>17 amanda4242: Pym was one of my LT discoveries, one of the best!

Finished Jane and Prudence, author’s third book. It isn’t Excellent Women.

The Warden arrived - Pym's A Glass of Blessings rated 3 stars.

>20 m.belljackson: I think that is the Pym novel I like least. I hope later this week to start my re-read of Quartet in Autumn, one of my favorites, about 4 elderly friends.

I finished Trollope's longest work The Way We Live Now. The book starts out following Lady Carbury, a mediocre novelist with little money who is attempting to get good reviews for her books and get her son and daughter into advantageous marriages. The book slowly shifts focus to the great financier Augustus Melmotte, whose background and source of great wealth are a mystery. (From what I've read, Melmotte's portrait was a conglomeration of real-life men of wealth during the Victorian era.) The more that is revealed about Melmotte, the more I disliked him. Trollope can often portray unlikable characters but still get me to have pity or sympathy with them (Louis Trevelyan in He Knew He Was Right, for example), but not here.

Trollope's intent, I think, was to portray a society that has become so corrupt that it has lost all sense of honesty and integrity. Laudable aims, but overall I can't say that I enjoyed this book very much. There really wasn't a character that I liked or even appreciated, except possibly Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's distant relation) and to a lesser extent (because they were very minor characters) Mr Breghert, the Jewish banker. and Mr Broune, Lady Carbury's friend. This was a disappointment for me. At some distant time I may re-read it, and perhaps knowing the outcome I will better appreciate what Trollope was trying to do.

>21 kac522: The Warden marched up to 4!

>23 m.belljackson: And I hope you will move on to Barchester Towers, which has more of Mr Harding and his "air" cello ❤️, along with many new characters to love (and despise--looking at you, Mr. Slope!).

>24 kac522: The air violoncello was a highlight.

Maybe Barchester Towers will have answers for the mysteries noted in my Review.

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

The women are mostly unrealistic and the men are completely insufferable.

>26 amanda4242: There are plenty of insufferable men in Trollope's novels, but George Vavasor is just plain evil, matched only by Robert Kennedy, who shows up in a later book in the Palliser series.

I finished re-reading Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym (1977). I started reading Barbara Pym in 1987 based on my mom's recommendation, and I'm so glad I did.

The story, contemporary to the 1970s, is about four elderly single people--Letty, Marcia, Edwin and Norman--who all work in the same London office and are approaching retirement. Their contact with one another is almost entirely at the office. They maintain a courteous distance and each one is a bit odd in their own way. When Letty & Marcia decide to retire, the shift in relationships and what the future looks like for each of the "quartet" is the focus of the novel.

Pym's gently funny and wry observations of older people alone and how they are perceived by others are spot-on. Each has their irritating quirks, but Pym gives them sympathetic and universal appeal, too, as they struggle to do the right thing and maybe find that life still has possibilities ahead. A gem.

I finished Less than Angels a few days ago. I like that most of Pym's novels exist in the same universe, and that characters reappear in subsequent novels, along with allusions to the themes of earlier novels.

Finished The Warden and I liked it!

The May thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/360372

>24 kac522: yep, I agree :-). I did love the air Cello too and all the intricacies of church life and small town affairs. This was my first Trollope, and eventually I have to catch up.