Quartet in Autumn [Paperback]

Barbara Pym (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1986

This is the story of four people in late middle-age - Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia - whose chief point of contact is that they work in the same office and they suffer the same problem - loneliness. Lovingly, poignantly, satirically and with much humour, Pym conducts us through their small lives and the facade they erect to defend themselves against the outside world. There is nevertheless an obstinate optimism in her characters, allowing them in their different ways to win through to a kind of hope. Barbara Pym's sensitive wit and artistry are at their most sparkling in "Quartet in Autumn". 'An exquisite, even magnificent work of art' - "Observer". 'Barbara Pym has a sharp eye for the exact nuances of social behaviour' - "The Times". 'The wit and style of a twentieth century Jane Austen' - "Harpers & Queen". 'Barbara Pym's unpretentious, subtle, accomplished novels are for me the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past 75 years ...spectacular' - "Sunday Times". 'Very funny and keenly observant of the ridiculous as well as the pathetic in humanity' - "Financial Times".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Quartet in Autumn is one of the books Pym wrote during the 15 years when no one would publish her, and perhaps the same kind of balance between hopelessness and inner strength helped shape this novel's story about four friends in an office nearing the age of retirement. They are people who have lived unspectacularly, but who have conjured a sense of themselves from the quartet's unity. Things start to change when two of them retire. Pym maps this ordinary strangeness of life with her particular genius for brilliant psychological insight and quiet humor that never strains for effect. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

When the Times Literary Supplement asked critics to name the most underrated authors of the past 75 years, only one was mentioned twice: Barbara Pym. Barbara Pym wrote nine novels, including An Unsuitable Attachment, Quartet in Autumn and The Sweet Dove Died. She died in 1980. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Perennial (October 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0586050337
• ISBN-13: 978-0586050330
• ASIN: 0060970316
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,481,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was amazed, March 15, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Quartet in Autumn (Plume) (Paperback)

Every Barbara Pym novel is excellent. And, from most of them, you know what to expect: spinsters and curates and cakes and jumble sales.

But this one is about four people, old, and getting older, each one, in their own way. And this one is not just excellent: it is amazing.

The arch gaze which Pym usually trained on comfortable, mundane, church society, is, in Quartet, focused upon eccentricity: the growing manifestation of uniqueness which signifies old age. With a sensitivity which is unusual in the literature of any age, let alone that of this century, Pym follows the meanderings of her protagonists' minds,through their every day activities. Gradually, she derives an astounding narrative about the development of individual perspectives as they are colored by time.

It's a slow novel, a careful one, and one which turns Barbara Pym's penchant for wry insight into a sympathetic tribute to the human psyche.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No unremarkable lives., March 9, 2006

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Quartet in Autumn (Plume) (Paperback)

Quartet in Autumn was Pym's 7th published work (although it was actually written after The Sweet Dove Died). It was the first novel to be printed following the 1977 Times Literary Supplement article which led to a resurgence of interest in her work by the publishing industry. In that article, poet Philip Larkin nominated her as the most under-rated novelist of the century.

While today Pym may be more well known, she still is not nearly as widely read as she deserves. And that's really a pity, because I would be hard-pressed to come with a novelist who I would rate more highly.

Quartet in Autumn is a portrait of aging. More than that, however, it is also a book that uses aging as a lens to zoom in on the lives of four apparently unremarkable people. Almost more than in any other one of her novels, Pym reminds us that everybody has a story and that the story does not end or stop changing until their death. As usual, her gaze as an author is unflinching and unsentimental-- her characters are neither romanticized nor judged. She is a masterful writer, and her smooth clear style is at its best in these pages.

I would put Quartet in Autumn up there with Pym's best work-- in the same category as The Sweet Dove Died and Excellent Women. It should appeal both to established Pym fans and to readers new to her work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Are No Longer Young and Not Quite Old..., December 2, 2010

By 

A. Anderson "Book Person" (Chico, Califiornia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quartet in Autumn (Plume) (Paperback)

It would be hard to overpraise this book.

It is the early 1970s in London and the four co-workers are nearing retirement. They are in office jobs so meaningless that,once they have retired, they will not be replaced--a lovely, heartbreaking metaphor that is just one of notes that grace this spare tale. Nothing about them is extraordinary. Another reviewer complains that the characters are not fully developed -- but I thought that the lack of the fullness of character was yet another metaphor. Character is not always expressed by exposing the thoughts of the figures: actions, choices, clothes, meals --everything contributes to knowing something more about each of the men and women in the story. They are English from a time when that meant one was reserved, undemonstrative, and self contained, and the very opposite of the flashy times in which they find themselves. They do not expose themselves and are never on display. But the reader comes to know them well.

Marcia moves towards madness as her quirks harden into unreality. Edwin tries to arrest time, and change, by trying to stay within the timeless rhythms of the Church. He is disconcerted to find that the the Church is changing. Norman (who might fairly be called the least developed of the protagonists) is angry--a grumpy old man who does not quite know why he is unsettled. And Letty (whom my imagination thought was Pym's picture of herself)in her very quiet and polite way may have found what are, to her, wings. For at least three of the Quartet, change is not obvious. It is not 'edgy' or trendy or even much affected by the rest of the world. They follow personal, quiet and generally unheralded journeys. Much like yours and mine.

As one ages, the world changes without one quite noticing it--details are different, the frames of reference moved and, unless a sharp eye is kept, the idea of what is considered normal becomes a trifle alien. Pym captures the sense of alienation that arises merely from living longer. For a while there, I thought it would become depressing (especially to me, at my age)but -- perhaps because the characters do not wallow in their fates -- the result is a soft, individual, important redemption. These people are not writ large, but are sized exactly as you and I might be, if truth were told. The plot is there,and there are foreshadowing hints, all quietly and powerfully done. There is a tremendous sense that Pym is telling the truth through a clear, astonishingly perceptive and occasionally amused eye.

A word about the writing. When a writer can evoke scene, character and context with a minimum of adjectives and, in a few lines, complete a picture that tells the reader all the writer intended, that is craft. The reader has the sense that the book is not a sentence longer or shorter than it needs to be. Pym's point of view is not at all condescending but she doesn't miss much, either, and conveys it so cleanly and clearly that the reader is pulled effortlessly along. I finished the book satisfied -- and it was not until I thought about it a bit that I realized I should be in awe of Pym's combination of insight and control. I read the book in a few hours but I suspect it will take me longer the next time I read it. If you love to read writing -- and especially if you are no longer young (and not quite old), you will love this book.