- Jane and Prudence
Infobox Book |
name = Jane and Prudence
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =Barbara Pym
cover_artist =
country =United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre =Novel
publisher =Jonathan Cape
release_date = 1953
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 222 pp (hardback edition)
isbn = ISBN 9781844084494 [Reprinted by Virago on 6th December, 2007]
preceded_by =
followed_by ="Jane and Prudence" is a
novel byBarbara Pym , first published in 1953 and according to the novelistJilly Cooper her finest work “ full of wit, plotting, characterization and miraculous observation" ["If you want a great read Barbara Pym will fix it"- article in "Seven" p3,Sunday Telegraph Issue 2,425 (dated3 December 2007 )]Plot summary
The book details the period in Nicholas and Jane’s life when they take over a new parish in an (anonymous) English village and encounter Fabian, who Jane decides will make an excellent husband for Prudence [For an evaluation of this setting see "Chapter 4 Jane and Prudence" in "Reading Barbara Pym" Donato,D. Ch 4 pp81-101 Maddison, N.J Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003 ISBN 0838640958] . Prudence has an imponderable attraction to her older and completely impervious employer, the head of an unspecified academic foundation. There is, however, competition for Fabian - another spinster in the parish who seeks escape from lowly paid work as a companion to an elderly relative. It is for Fabian to make his choice between the two women…
Characters
*"Jane" a good hearted Vicar’s wife in her 40th year
*"Nicholas", her mild mannered husband
*"Flora", their despairing teenage daughter
*"Prudence" 29 a beautiful and elegant spinster [A good analysis of her inner qualities is found in "Barbara Pym and Anthony Trollope: Communities of Imaginative Participation" Heberlein,K.B in "Pacific Coast Philology", Vol. 19, No. 1/2 (Nov., 1984), pp. 95-100]
*"Fabian", a vain and self-obsessed widower
*"Miss Doggett", a tyrannical old lady
*"Miss Morrow", her outwardly meek but calculating companion [These last two characters resurface inCrampton Hodnet where they are ensconced in academicOxford -article "The importance of literature in the novels of Barbara Pym" Ackley,K.A pp33-46 in "All this reading: the literary world of Barbara Pym" Lenckos,F.E./. Miller,E.J.(Ed) Maddison, N.J Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003 ISBN 0838639569]Footnotes
External links
*http://www.st-gabriels.com
*http://www.barbara-pym.org
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