Academic Question (Windsor Selections) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Barbara Pym (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1987 | Series: Windsor Selections

A delightful comedy of manners with a touch of mystery, An Academic Question is prime Barbara Pym territory. In a provincial university town Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes the unwilling accomplice to her husband Alan's ambitions. When she volunteers as a reader to a blind, esteemed anthropologist, Alan seizes the opportunity to steal his papers - research that could both advance his reputation while refuting the findings of a respected colleague.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Pym's reputation will not be enhanced by the publication of this edited first draft of a novel from her "silent years." Set in a provincial university, the story is narrated by Caro Grimstone, the dissatisfied wife of Alan, a rising anthropologist. Caro unwittingly becomes the means by which Alan dishonestly obtains a manuscript that will both advance his reputation and refute the findings of a respected, elderly colleague. Around this academic misdemeanor, the Grimstones and a cast of unrealized academic eccentrics revolve until the whole is resolved in a literal burst of fireworks. Absent is Pym's genius for creating characters whose concerns, no matter how trivial, engage the reader. Her fans, however, will probably demand the book. Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Chivers Press (November 10, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862202175
• ISBN-13: 978-0862202170
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,038,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not her best, May 11, 2000

By 

Kathy Housley - See all my reviews

This review is from: AN Academic Question (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read all of Barbara Pym's published works and I find that this is one of her weaker offerings. In this book she leaves her spinsters and has a married woman with a child for her heroine. She doesn't seem comfortable with this heroine. The scenes with the child are a little stilted. She doesn't seem as real or as interesting as Mildred of "Excellent Women" or even Wilmet of "A Glass of Blessings" her other married heroine. But, as a fan I enjoyed the book. It was interesting to see her outside her usual cast of characters. There are some really good parts, especially those dealing with the academics where she is on familiar ground.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Quick, but depressing read, August 23, 2009

By 

iris flannery (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AN Academic Question (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a rigidly light-hearted portrayal of a woman, Caroline, trying to figure out what she should be doing. Married to an academic, and dissatisfied with being a housewife she attempts to fill her time by reading to residents at a retirement home. Her husband becomes very interested in the individual that Caroline is reading to, and steals a manuscript to further his research.

The cynical disrespect and disregard that Caroline, her husband, and all the characters exhibit for ethics or pretense of social feeling is no doubt intended to amuse. Since her best friend is a hedgehog-fancier one cannot help but imagine that this is supposed to be a comedic story. Perhaps it is the distance in time (the book was published posthumously in 1986), but rather than humorous the characters are repellent, the plot depressing, the racism irritating. This is the type of book that might be interesting when published, but is quickly outmoded.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An old man with a box, March 19, 2005

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: AN Academic Question (Plume) (Mass Market Paperback)

Professor Maynard always gave a party at the beginning of autumn. Caroline Grimstone, Caro, is the narrator of the book. She is married to Alan and has a four year old daughter, Kate. The university had grown up from a local technical college. Crispin Maynard heads Alan's department.

The Pym voice is fully present in this work, notwithstanding the fact that Hazel Holt used two drafts to make a coherent whole of this posthumous work. A mother and son couple, Coco, (Corcoran), and Kitty Jeffreys are friends of Alan and Caro and also attend the party. Coco is a research fellow in Caribbean Studies. Crispin is an historian and Alan an anthropologist, and both men are specialists in the study of pre-literate peoples. Iris Horniblow is someone who is new in the department and Caro wonders if Alan is interested in her. Dolly Arborfield is a friend and the sister of Kitty Jeffreys. Her interests run to old books, junk, and animals. In her sixties, it seems that Dolly has rather lost contact with people.

Through Dolly Arborfield, Caro pursues good works by going to an old peoples' home, Normanhurst, to read to a missionary living there. The paper read is one authored by Crispin Maynard. The missionary, Mr. Stillingfeet, has a box of papers that even Crispin Maynard has not seen. In a Henry James-like plot, Caro and Alan distract the old missionarya day prior to his death with a bag of crisps while Alan gains entry to the box. Later, Caro, a volunteer at the university library, has to find a way to secrete the manuscript in the librarian's office. Alan, an up and coming academic, uses the information gained in a piece for a scholarly journal. It turns out that Crispin knows what has transpired, at least sort of. There is the suggestion in the book that Crispin would have used the advantage gained from seeing the papers had he been in Alan's shoes.

What Caro really thinks of the matter is not fully disclosed. Everything is treated in a tone of irony. This is a very good, and completely modern, book.