Barbara Pym’s The Sweet Dove Died: Sexual Assault assuaged by flowers? Robin Joyce Barbara Pym’s novels are a never-ending source of social commentary. The Sweet Dove Died , in its depiction of sexual assault is of particular interest at the…
Tag: Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym: Some Glimpses From Behind her Fiction
WHN Admin. Barbara Pym’s novels provide a social history of the period over which she wrote from the 1920s to 1980. [1] Quotes from Pym’s diaries, notebooks and letters provide the background to her fiction and reminders that she…
Ethical Fiction: Essential? Desirable?
Robin Joyce Part 2 Is ethical fiction ever irrelevant? While an initial response could be ‘Of course fiction should be ethical. Writers should not encourage racism, sexism or classism. They should not give credibility to unethical behavior.’ However, what…
Blue Plaques: But How Many for Women?
Well deserved, but badly neglected. Women’s absence from the Blue Plaques that adorn buildings and, at times, road or pathways, is again being questioned. Some women, such as Julie Harper, are choosing their own method of giving women of note…
Barbara Pym: A Quiet Social Historian
Barbara Pym’s novels provide a social history of the period over which she wrote from the 1920s to 1980. ‘Young Men in Fancy Dress’, written when she was sixteen, inspired by the 1920s, is unpublished. Unlike the novels that follow…