Some Tame Gazelle

Barbara Pym's first novel offers a self-assured slice of small-town life as it takes us into the lives of two sisters living in post-World War II England Belinda and Harriet Bede live together in a small English village. Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with Henry Hoccleve-the poetry-spouting, married archdeacon of their church-for thirty years. Belinda's much more confident, forthright younger sister Harriet, meanwhile, is ardently pursued by Count Ricardo Bianco.

Although she has turned down every marriageable man who proposes, Harriet still welcomes any new curate with dinner parties and flirtatious conversation. And one of the newest arrivals, the reverend Edgar Donne, has everyone talking. A warm, affectionate depiction of a postwar English village, Some Tame Gazelle perfectly captures the quotidian details that make up everyday life.

With its vibrant supporting cast, it's also a poignant story of unrequited love. One of my favorites Pym novels . . . Pym's fans will feel completely at home when they step into the Jane Austen-like lives of Harriet and Belinda Bede. -The Christian Science Monitor Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was a bestselling and award-winning English novelist.

Her first book, Some Tame Gazelle (1950), launched her career as a writer beloved for her social comedies of class and manners. Pym is the only author to be named twice in a Times Literary Supplement list of the most underrated novelists of the century. She produced thirteen novels, the last three published posthumously.

Her 1977 novel Quartet in Autumn was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.