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A Few Green Leaves
Barbara Pym
I finished reading the final novel of Barbara Pym. I ran across a 1977 reference to her in which Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil selected her as the most underrated novelist of the previous 75 years. My library had only the ebook of A Few Green Leaves so I gave it a try.
Well, it was one of the best new reading experiences I have had for years. What a marvellous novel it is!
The setting is a small Oxfordshire English village next to an empty manor house. Other landmarks are a Mausoleum, a Deserted village, a group of newer houses, the Church and the Rectory, The characters are mainly the kinds of people one would expect in that environment and the same applies to the events in the story.
The plot develops largely through conversation pieces in which relationships are defined with a beautiful sensitivity. Pym’s characters often have flaws and limitations but they are never treated with a rough irony or sarcasm. She makes use of multiple points of view and one gets to know the villagers and feel their pleasures and disappointments. Of course, Emma is the main character and her back story and relationships form an important part of the plot but she too is a part of the village and in a very real sense the village itself is a main character in this book.
Like Jane Austen, to whom she is often compared, Barbara Pym writes High Comedy which treats a small section of human society. She is not concerned with political events but does convey the spirit of humanity with sensitivity, beauty and wisdom.
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