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Shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize 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… (més)
dmenon90: Theme of people aging together though not by choice, their eccentricities, their thoughts and of course the ever-present reminder of death. Also, the English-ness!
Una autora anglesa poc valorada al seu temps. Ens explica la vida de dos homes i dues dones que treballen en una oficina i les dones es jubilen i expliquen la seva vida. L'he trobat poc interessant encara que molt ben escrita, es llegeix molt fàcil però és una novel.la totalment plana. Expresa molt bé la societat anglesa del segle passat. ( )
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
That day the four of them went to the library, though at different times.
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Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
How had it come about that she, an English woman born in Malvern in 1914 of middle-class English parents, should find herself in this room in London surrounded by enthusiastic shouting, hymn-singing Nigerians? It must surely be because she had not married. No man had taken her away and immured her in some comfortable suburb where hymn-singing was confined to Sundays and nobody was fired with enthusiasm. Why had this not happened? Because she had thought that love was a necessary ingredient for marriage? Now, having looked around her for forty years, she was not so sure. All those years wasted, looking for love! The thought of it was enough to bring about silence in the house and during the lull she plucked up the courage to go downstairs and tap — too timidly, she felt —at Mr Olatunde’s door. ‘I wonder if you could make a little less noise? she asked. ‘Some of us find it rather disturbing.’ ‘Christianity is disturbing,’ said Mr Olatunde.
She had always been an unashamed reader of novels, but if she hoped to find one which reflected her own life she had come to realise that the position of an unmarried, unattached, ageing woman is of no interest whatever to the writer of modern fiction.
Letty stood looking out at Holmhurst [retirement home] ... Three old ladies - an uncomfortable number, hinting at awkwardness - were walking slowly round the garden. There was nothing particularly remarkable about them except their remoteness from any kind of life.
Marcia went into the garden and picked her way over the long uncut grass into the shed where she kept milk bottles. These had to be checked from time to time and occasionally she even went as far as dusting them. Sometimes she would put one out for the milkman but she mustn't let the hoard get too low because if there was a national emergency ... there could well be a shortage of milk bottles.
So many things seemed to come in plastic bags now that it was difficult to keep track of them. The main thing was not to throw it away carelessly, better still to put it away in a safe place ... So Marcia took the bag upstairs into what had been the spare bedroom where she kept things like cardboard boxes, brown paper and string, and stuffed it into a drawer already bulging with other plastic bags ... Marcia spent a long time in the room, tidying and rearranging its contents. All the plastic bags needed to be taken out of the drawer and sorted into their different shapes and sizes, classified as it were.
Darreres paraules
Informació del coneixement compartit en anglès.Modifica-la per localitzar-la a la teva llengua.
But at least it made one realise that life still held infinite possibilities for change.
Shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize 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
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Biblioteca llegada: Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym té una Biblioteca llegada. Les Biblioteques llegades són biblioteques personals de lectors famosos, introduïdes per membres de LibraryThing del grup Legacy Libraries.
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Barbara Pym centenary: No Fond Return of Love and Quartet in Autumn
