WRITER

Barbara Pym

1913 - 1980

Photo of Barbara Pym

Icon of person Barbara Pym

Barbara Mary Crampton Pym (2 June 1913 – 11 January 1980) was an English novelist. In the 1950s she published a series of social comedies, of which the best known are Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958). In 1977 her career was revived when the critic Lord David Cecil and the poet Philip Larkin both nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Barbara Pym has received more than 434,317 page views. Her biography is available in 19 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 18 in 2019). Barbara Pym is the 6,241st most popular writer (down from 5,069th in 2019), the 5,272nd most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 3,971st in 2019) and the 596th most popular British Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 430k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 42.46

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 19

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.14

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.55

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Less than angels
Anthropologists, Fiction, Fiction in English
1955
Excellent women
Single women, Fiction in English, Self-esteem in women
The lightly satiric focus is on loneliness bravely borne, the bearing-up being done by that excellent woman Mildred Lathbury, a 30-something spinster in the lingering post-WWII rationing of the early 1950s. Living in suburban London and on the fringes of academia, she becomes embroiled with the vicar, the neighbors, the neighbors' lodgers, and a few hopeless (and one rather intriguing) gentleman friends. Dryly, wryly funny, with a riveting sense of place, time, and character. (Part of the synopsis comes from the online Kirkus Review.)
1952
A glass of blessings
Fiction, Married people, Fiction in English
**From Amazon.com:** **Barbara Pym’s early novel takes us into 1950s England, as seen through the funny, engaging, yearning eyes of a restless housewife** Wilmet Forsyth is bored. Bored with the everyday routine of her life. Bored with teatimes filled with local gossip. Bored with her husband, Rodney, a civil servant who dotes on her. But on her thirty-third birthday, Wilmet’s conventional life takes a turn when she runs into the handsome brother of her close friend. Attractive and enigmatic, Piers Longridge is a mystery Wilmet is determined to solve. Rather than settling down, he lived in Portugal, then returned to England for a series of odd jobs. Driven by a fantasy of romance, the sheltered, naïve Englishwoman sets out to seduce Piers—only to discover that he isn’t the man she thinks he is. As cozy as sharing a cup of tea with an old friend, A Glass of Blessings explores timeless themes of sex, marriage, religion, and friendship while exposing our flaws and foibles with wit, compassion, and a generous helping of love.
1958
An Unsuitable Attachment
Fiction, Married women, Mate selection
This wry comedy of manners—Barbara Pym's seventh novel and the last one she wrote before a fifteen-year silence when she gave up writing novels altogether, a hiatus broken only in 1977—is set in the Parish of St. Basil's Church in a slightly unfashionable quarter in London. The vicar, Mark Ainger, his wife Sophia, her sister Penelope, a new arrival to the parish named Rupert Stonebird, and a gentlewoman named Ianthe Broome fret over improbable attachments and embark on a holiday to Rome that will prove decisive to them all
1982
Quartet in autumn
Middle-aged persons, Fiction in English, Fiction
1977
Jane and Prudence
Female friendship, Fiction, Single women
The setting of this very funny novel, one of Barbara Pym's earliest, is an English village, where Jane's husband is the newly appointed vicar, and where Prudence will pay Jane a visit and find herself courted by a fatuous young widower. Prudence, at twenty-nine, has achieved nothing in life but a dull research job in London and a string of dud affairs; Jane, now in her forties, was Prudence's tutor at Oxford. Jane cheerfully concedes that she is an incompetent housewife, but she hopes that the move to a rural parish may transform her into a Trollopean vicar's wife, as well as a crafty matchmaker. There are many comic complications as Jane learns that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as does housewifery.
1953

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Barbara Pym ranks 6,241 out of 7,302. Before her are Linda Maria Baros, Gyrðir Elíasson, Thomas Hughes, Ronald Firbank, Dan Abnett, and William Empson. After her are Stig Claesson, Helen Bannerman, Alfred Domett, Thomas Heywood, Swami Rama, and Andrew Vachss.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1913, Barbara Pym ranks 384. Before her are Ed Czerkiewicz, Fritz Fromm, Bill Thompson, Heinrich Keimig, Harry Voigt, and Noah Beery Jr.. After her are Eleanor Holm, Odd Frantzen, Jack Fairman, Julie Gibson, Roger Laurent, and Norman Dello Joio. Among people deceased in 1980, Barbara Pym ranks 284. Before her are Shohachi Ishii, Gumercindo Gómez, Rachel Fuller Brown, Pietro Genovesi, Tryggve Gran, and Marion Zinderstein. After her are Lillian Randolph, Elliott Nugent, Barney Bigard, Lucy Morton, Carmel Myers, and George Tobias.

Others Born in 1913

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Others Deceased in 1980

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Barbara Pym ranks 5,272 out of 8,785. Before her are Maurice Norman (1934), Donald Burgess (1933), Calvert Vaux (1824), Jeremy Hunt (1966), Donald Dewar (1937), and George Goulding (1884). After her are Jonathan Riley-Smith (1938), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (1993), Nigel Short (1965), Helen Bannerman (1862), Fiona May (1969), and Alfred Domett (1811).

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Barbara Pym ranks 596. Before her are Mary Lamb (1764), Max Hastings (1945), Thomas Hughes (1822), Ronald Firbank (1886), Dan Abnett (1965), and William Empson (1906). After her are Helen Bannerman (1862), Alfred Domett (1811), Thomas Heywood (1574), R. C. Sherriff (1896), Dorothy Richardson (1873), and Derek Taylor (1932).

British born Writers

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