A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym [Hardcover]

Hazel Holt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1991

This official biography of Barbara Pym, the writer, describes her upbringing in Oswestry and her life in Oxford. The author talks about the successes as well as the dark years in the writer's life when she was unpublished.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Well-written and filled with new details about Barbara Pym's private life as well as her published and unpublished writings, this biography by Pym's literary executor is the first complete life of the once-ignored and now widely read British novelist, who died in 1980. Those familiar with A Very Private Eye , the collection of Pym's diaries and letters published as a quasi-autobiography, will find this book a supplement to it. From a vast archive of private papers Holt has gleaned nuggets that add to the overall picture we have had of Pym without significantly changing it. She is a pleasure to know, a woman with great verve in youth who became more involved in literary endeavors as she withdrew from the romantic entanglements that crowded her early years; the passion and fantasies evident in her correspondence make her a figure to be envied for her freedom from stultifying conventions, an ironic counterpoint to the "excellent women" of much of her fiction. But this compelling biography does not lessen the need for an objective look at the novelist's life by a biographer unassociated with her estate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (March 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525249370
• ISBN-13: 978-0525249375
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a splendid background for Pym's splendid work; biography, July 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym (Hardcover)

The restraint and economy with which the author approaches her subject only enhance the richness of the work. With a wealth of detail,Hazel Holt sets the jewel of Pym's works in the setting of her life. For example, paraphrasing: "Hilary and I reckoned up the reasons people had left our parish church: Rome, Death, and Umbrage. Umbrage, of course, removed the greatest number." Those who have enjoyed Pym's work would do well to read this book before other secondary sources.