Civil to Strangers [Paperback]

Barbara Pym (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1989

Here is vintage Pym--a warm, witty slice of uniquely rural English life, meticulously written and spiced with Pym's keen social observations and her band of hilarious, eccentric characters.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Pym (1913-80) was born in Shropshire and educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. When in 1977 the TLS asked critics to name the most underrated authors of the past 75 years, only one was named twice (by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil): Barbara Pym. Her novels are characterised by what Anne Tyler has called 'the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life'. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From AudioFile

Understated and proper, maintaining unflappability no matter what's roiling beneath the surface--that's the way of the British and the way of a Barbara Pym story. And that's what we get from Gretel Davis, narrator of CIVIL TO STRANGERS, a posthumously published volume comprising a novel, three novellas, four short stories, and an autobiographical essay on Pym's writing career. Using well-sharpened insight and description, Pym whittles away at mundane lives to reveal the drama beneath the soul-squelching compromises that got the characters where they are. Understated yet full of possibility, Davis's tone seems right for the deceptive simplicity of Pym's stories. T.F. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 388 pages
• Publisher: Plume (January 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452261384
• ISBN-13: 978-0452261389
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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