The Testing of Barbara Pym: London, the Wilderness Years, and the Rewards of Age

Acknowledgments
Contents
About the Author
Chronology
Chapter 1: Introduction
	References
Chapter 2: Less Than Angels: Discontents, Detachment, and Discontinuities
	Anthropological Perspectives
	Continuity in the Suburbs
	Continuous Fragmentation and the Case of Tom Mallow
	Catherine and Deirdre: Recovered Continuities
	The Neglected Riches of Home
	References
Chapter 3: A Glass of Blessings: Crossing the Boundaries Between Elegance and Excellence
	Pym and the World of Male Partnerships
	Social and Ecclesiastical Expansions
	Elegance and Its Discontents
		Rocky Napier and Spring-Time Discontents
		Piers Longridge: The False Promise of Another Spring
	Mary Beamish and Expanding Roles
	Renewed Continuity in Rodney and Wilmet
	References
Chapter 4: No Fond Return of Love: Unlikely Continuities
	Unlikely Continuities and Persistent Patterns
	Dulcie and Viola: Surprising Actions and Comic Endings
	References
Chapter 5: Struggle for Continuity During the “Wilderness Years” (1963–1977)
	Personal and Professional Lives Intertwined
	The Shifting Literary World
	Continuous Effort
	“How Can One Be Different?”: The Drabble Experiment—An Academic Question
	A Narrowed Role Considered
	References
Chapter 6: An Unsuitable Attachment: A Redefinition
	Marriage as Continuity
	The New Man
	Class and Color in Draft
	The Limits of Revision
	References
Chapter 7: The Sweet Dove Died: Discontinued Friendships and the Arrested Life
	Richard Roberts
	The Original Vision
		Philip Larkin as Editor
		Before the Canvas Was Cut
	The Sweet Dove Died: The Arrested Life
	References
Chapter 8: Life Goes On: Continued Sustenance
	Robert Liddell and Greece
	Robert Smith
	Hazel Holt
		“Editor Pym” at the International African Institute
		Posthumous Continuity
	Philip Larkin
		The Marketplace, Modernism, and Pym’s Readership
		The Pym Influence
	References
Chapter 9: Strands of Change and Quartet in Autumn: The Limits of Continuity
	Church and City
	Failing Health
	Village Life in Retirement
	Quartet in Autumn: The Limits of Continuity
		Towards an Austere Style
		Narrowed Lives
		Contentment and Isolation
		Death and Continuity
	Artistic Continuity
	References
Chapter 10: Continuity Regained: Village Life and Rediscovery
	Rediscovery
	The Booker Prize and Other Accolades
	Countryside and Church: Continuity Re-established in Oxfordshire
	References
Chapter 11: A Few Green Leaves: Looking to the Future
	Notes on Village Life, Past and Present
	A Few Green Leaves
		Documenting Change
		Documenting Discontents
		The Elusive Past and Persistent Present
	Looking to the Future
	References
Chapter 12: Epilogue: Last Respects
	References
Index