A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym - 1958 - 256 Pages

 A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym - 1958 - 256 Pages 

The Barbara Pym Society - your first Resource 

“The Pulley”

BY GEORGE HERBERT

When God at first made man, 

Having a glass of blessings standing by, 

“Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can. 

Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie, 

Contract into a span.” 

So strength first made a way; 

Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure. 

When almost all was out, God made a stay, 

Perceiving that, alone of all his treasure, 

Rest in the bottom lay. 

“For if I should,” said he, 

“Bestow this jewel also on my creature, 

He would adore my gifts instead of me, 

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature; 

So both should losers be. 

“Yet let him keep the rest, 

But keep them with repining restlessness; 

Let him be rich and weary, that at least, 

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness 

May toss him to my breast.” 

Works by Barbara Pym I have so far read 

Some Tame Gazelle - 1950

Excellent Women - 1952

Jane and Prudence - 1953

Earlier in the month I acquired four more of her novels, in Kindle Editions, for $1.95 each.  Besides Jane and Prudence, t A Glass of Blessings, Less Than Angels and No Fond Return of Love.

Barbara Pym 

Born - June 13, 1913 - Oswestry, England

Died - January 11, 1980 - Oxford, England 

Barbara Pym is among the best chroniclers of a now lost, maybe lost when she was writing, world of curates, vicars and women whose lives are bound up the social world of post World War Two England, with rationing, the return of service men and endless meeting for tea. No one has children out of wedlock, of course. Many have small “private incomes”.

The more I read of the work of Barbara Pym, the deeper my appreciation becomes.  I know of no other writer who makes such brilliant usage of adverbs in describing the manner in which a characters says something, revealing much about their feelings.  The people in her novels read classic English fiction and poetry.  A Glass of Blessings is a marvelous working out of the meaning of George  Herbert’s poem, from which the title derives.  Perhaps in 1953 her readers could be expected to know the poetry of Herbert.  

How can one not love this description:

“Evidently Mr Bason had been watching for our arrival in a rather Cranfordian way.”, or maybe imaging a World where people would understand this.

The novel is narrated by a woman, married to a civil servant.  They since marriage  have lived in the house of her mother in law, a long time widow.  She and her closen friend were in The Wrens together in World War Two, serving in Italy, before they found husbands.  Now she she mostly socializes with others from her Parrish.  Having Tea is a very big part of Life.  Clerics are of course very important.

The narrator has an interest in a man, I wondered if anything Will come ftom it.  He teaches Portuguese and she and Sybil, her mother in Law, take classes, thinking about a holiday in Portugal.  The man is a serious drinker, who has not done well with his past work.  

I really liked her  treatment of older women.

A lot  happens in the plot line with numerous exciting turns.

I will next read her Less Than Angels on my read through.

Mel u

The Reading Life