Crampton Hodnet [Paperback]

Barbara Pym (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

This is a wonderfully accomplished farce beginning with the joke of using her own name in the title (Barbara Mary Crampton Pym). From that point she sails off into a wickedly comedic farce, focusing- in recognizingly "Pym" fashion- on the unsuitable romantic entanglements of a curate and a pretty young girl, both of whom live in the same rooming house, and a starry-eyed university professor and his female student.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barbara Pym, who died on January 11, 1980, spent the last few years of her life in an Oxfordshire village, sharing a small cottage with her sister. In 1977, after sixteen years in the wilderness she published QUARTET IN AUTUMN. It was treated as a major literary event, as was her next novel, THE SWEET DOVE DIED.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Moyer Bell (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559212438
• ISBN-13: 978-1559212434
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the funniest of Pym's novels; a real delight, July 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Crampton Hodnet (Paperback)

"Crampton Hodnet," a novel of Oxford, entertains and amuses in a way few books do. Miss Doggett, the upright spinster who entertains hapless Oxford youths at tea parties in her dark North Oxford home; Jessie Morrow, her companion (who reappears later in "Jane and Prudence"); their curate lodger, the vicar and his wife, Miss Doggett's cousin, the academic Francis Cleveland, his vague but charming wife Margaret, Francis's brilliant student, Barbara Bird, and many others enrich the cast of an enchanting novel The plot is more vigorous than in some of Pym's later works, and one laughs from beginning to end. Treat yourself some rainy afternoon.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book ever written, well it might be, who knows, November 12, 2004

By 

Crampton "Hodnet" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crampton Hodnet (G.K. Hall large print book series) (Unbound)

I completely disagree with the 'one star' reviewer. He or she hit the nail on the head with the observation that it was completely unfair that the 36 year old curate gets a nineteen year old girl while the 36 year old woman is an isolated spinster. That's exactly what is great about this book. The observation that a talented, kindly, humorous, intelligent woman is socially 'worthless' compared to a fairly buffoonish man of a similar (middle) age is one of the things that makes this book brilliantly -- not exactly dark, but certainly unwavering. And Pym's lovely, detailed, understated style makes every page an incomparable treat. Incomparable, because Pym's literary gift doesn't shout at you -- I don't know why she wrote, but you don't get the impression it was with Proustian status in mind, thank goodness. Or maybe with literary status in mind, but the thought must have been accompanied by the sort of self awareness that few people possess -- I don't -- that allows them to thwart their desire to impress and instead lets them simply impress through their service (in this case, to the reader). I can't describe the richness of her style, but it is incredibly evocative without ever distracting from the narrative of her story. She combines Colette's facility with detail with the humility of -- a popular novelist? I love Barbara Pym's books and I am so grateful to her for writing them. I recommend that every woman read them, and every man who likes reading too.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Think of this as the BEST one!, March 15, 2001

By 

Catherine Weaver (Long Island City, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crampton Hodnet (Paperback)

Though always insightful and just stunningly human, Barbara Pym's novels do tend to blur into one another, fraught as they are, with spinsters and vicars who take tea on rainy days and wonder about what is "suitable." But this one stands out.

Oh sure, there's a vicar and a tender young curate and a couple of spinsters and lots of tea and a few unsuitable dresses, comments, situations, and even romances; but in this, Barbara Pym's first novel, the characters are funnier, and the farce is one shade broader.

Think of this as the BEST one. That will help you sort it out.