Barbara Pym centenary: No Fond Return of Love and Quartet in Autumn

As it's Barbara Pym's birthday in June - there are two books to read during the month. No Fond Return of Love and Quartet in Autumn. I will also be reading A Very Private Eye too.
Do we need two seperate threads - or will one thread for the two books do - I can change it if people want two seperate threads.

I'm happy with one tho I don't mind if people want two!

I've got Quartet in Autumn in my TBR pile. I think I will bump it up for Babs's b-bday.

Either way works for me.

What Robert said.

Ok fine : ) we'll stick to this thread then. I can't decide which to read first I have read both before - No Fond Return of Love might be my favourite or at least one my top Pyms.

Happy with one thread - but so far I dont' have a copy of either book. I've been keeping an eye out for them and have collected several more for later in the year, but I'll have to order these specially...

Starting No Fond Return of Love a day early.

I've started No Fond Return of Love and, being a proofreader and bibliography person myself, have been shrieking and hooting with laughter - so much so that my other half remarked, calmly, at breakfast, "It's a book for monkeys, then?"

#9 :D does he know how funny he is at times?

#10. Not sure. I am on at him to read a Pym, though ...

Finished No Fond Return of Love. My review:

Dulcie Mainwaring and Viola Dace become friends of a sort at conference for editors and indexers. They look into the background and family connections of handsome lecturer Aylwin Forbes.

I would like Dulcie's life, though I suppose her investigations would be a lot easier and a lot less fun in the days of Google. Nice little snippets to bring us up to date with Wilmet and her social circle and Deidre and the anthropologists

I finished No Fond Return of Love this morning over a lazy breakfast. Will update my review later when I have chance

My review of Quartet in Autumn:

We follow Edwin, Letty, Marcia and Norman, four office workers who are approaching retirement age, before and after Letty and Marcia actually retire.

There were some laugh out loud moments such as the lunch the four of them have together after Letty and Marcia retire, but on this reading as I get within shouting distance of their age I found it pretty grim reading.

My tea party was just myself and Barbara Pym with some lovely tea of course. I spent the day reading NFRoL & QiA, which were 3 1/2 & 4* reads for me respectively. I quite enjoyed my day and hope the rest of you did as well.

I read No Fond Return of Love last year but am still rereading. It must be because I'm doing the odd index and stuff from home myself.

I was also really amused reading about Dulcie researching someone she'd met in the library - how much easier those of us with mild stalking tendencies have it these days, with Facebook etc. I think Pym would have enjoyed the internet.

Loved No fond return of love but I've just had to push myself through the end of Quartet in Autumn and found it SO depressing! I kept having to remind myself that self-employed editors don't really retire ...

OK, so traumatised was I by my reading of Quartet that I had to do my review there and then. Here it is: http://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/book-reviews-57/

I note that you also mentioned the use of reference books in the way we might use Google! Presumably Pym didn't really retire apart from her day job, and the time before she became ill must have been quite a good point in her life, as she began to be rediscovered (although of course I haven't read the bio so this is speculation).

I'm reading a book by a travel writer who was born in 1931, and continues to travel and write about it at 81, so if you want to read about an exciting old age, I really recommend Dervla Murphy - this is the 4th book I'm actually reading by her, of the others, Silverland is especially fantastic (and she was about 75 then).

I love Dervla Murphy, I've read loads of hers, and yes, I don't mind reading about old age, it's this depressing loneliness (not aloneness, which is different) and fading which is so draining ...

I also love Dervla Murphy. Have not read Silverland though.

I agree with you as I,too am approaching that age but it does end on a positive note and perhaps the lesson is to allow people into our lives even if they are not family. I tried to read this novel when I was younger but could not relate to it sadly now I can.

I finished and REVIEWED NFROL. I loved it and am so glad I finally discovered Pym.

I'm about halfway through No fond return, and enjoying it every bit as much as the other Pyms I've read so far. Dulcie's snooping is hilarious ... just imagine how she would use and abuse google, facebook, etc were she a character today!

That's funny Claire. I thought the same of Dulcie when as I was reading it. :-)

This is my second reading of No Fond Return of Love, and it's still my favorite (although Some Tame Gazelle and Excellent Women give it a run for its money). Pym seems to me to be at the peak of her form, and somehow at her most Pym-like. She seems to know and be comfortable with Dulcie in a way that she doesn't and isn't with Wilmet, for example. Maybe it's just that I have an image of Pym herself, and I like best the characters that most conform to that image.

Now reading (or re-reading I should say) - Quartet in Autumn -and I think I may like it better this time round - though haven't had time to get far with it yet.

I'm finding Quartet a bit grim, though I think my position in retirement, if there is such a thing in nearly 25 years' time, will be a bit different - these women presumably retired at 60 - women's retirement age in the Uk at the time was 5 years earlier than for most men. I'm not single, and I'm quite good at being very idle and whiling away my time reading and messing about online!

I finished No fond return... and enjoyed it, although for me it wasn't quite as good as Some tame gazelle or Jane and Prudence. I loved Dulcie's blatant stalking, but also her self-awareness which kept her from being ridiculous. Of the secondary characters, Senhor McBride-Pereira was delightful and Paul Beltane rather sweet. The jumble sale scene was one of my favourites.

I haven't managed to get hold of Quartet in autumn, but that's okay as it means that after this year I will still have a new-to-me Pym to read!

I loved Quartet in Autumn. Here is my review

Haven't read No Fond Return of Love yet. Have placed an order at my local library.

I finished and REVIEWED Quartet in Autumn. It's my favorite so far. 5 stars

The stark contrast between Quartet in Autumn and No Fond Return of Love affirms the depth of Pym's talent. NFROL is light and humorous, sweet in parts and and consistent with Pym's themes on academia and marraige and unmarried women. It is a total pleasure to read. QIA, however, is dark -- dealing with issues we might try to ignore, such as of aging and loneliness, health and dementia, and ultimately death. It is not a comfortable read, like most Pym. It forces an introspection on our resposnsibility towards each other and a recognition of the real relationships that exist among "acquaintances" and "work buddies" and the depth and importance of these connections. It is also my favorite so far.

I didn't get to either of the June reads, and I have just gone through the comments above without reading any of the reviews. I think I will put NFRL high on my list and Quartet rather farther down. My husband involuntarily retired a little over a year ago, and there's no guarantee I won't be put in the same position before I'm ready, so I think I need a little distance from that one.

Interestingly, having finished The Sweet Dove Died I can now see the melancholy of Quartet in its place in Pym's oeuvre and I think more kindly of it.

July thread (The Sweet Dove Died) is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/155963

I have been completely hopeless this year with the Barbara Pym reading challenge. I did read quite a bit of her work for the first time last year and the year before and was delighted to discover her. So I'm jumping in now half way through the year and catching up on the ones I haven't read. I'm afraid I wasn't that impressed with No fond return of love.I found it almost too weird and far fetched. Not that one wants to take Pym's books seriously; one delights in their nonsense. Only this was a bit too much really. I liked the minor characters more than the major characters so maybe that had something to do with it. It does have one of the best opening lines in a novel though I must say.

In the middle of No Fond Return of Love and laughed right out loud when Viola discovers Some Tame Gazelle on Dulcie's bookshelf!

Yes, I thought that bit was cute :)

Just finished No Fond Return of Love. My favorite scene had to be the cemetery--where they're totally overwhelmed with all those stones to try to find the Forbes. How many zillions of times have I done the same thing in my genealogy searches! And I agree that Pym seems so skillful in this book--the people are delightful, the twists and turns and crazy situations aren't over the top to me--just funny! And I was amused at how at the end she compared Dulcie to Fanny in Mansfield Park. We don't think Austen is far-fetched when Edmund finally "finds" Fanny, do we--and so why shouldn't Aylwin "find" Dulcie? But then it IS far-fetched, which I think is brilliant. Makes us look at what we take for granted in a new light.

This is my favorite book so far. And I've altered my schedule of reading the books based on when they were written, rather than when they were published. So Quartet in Autumen will be coming (for me) sometime in the fall. I think it may feel right then.