An Academic Question - Softcover

Pym, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1603811788 ISBN 13: 9781603811781

Publisher: Coffeetown Press, 2013

Synopsis

Caro is the wife of Dr. Alan Grimstone, a lecturer at a provincial university in a West Country town in England. She knows her circle believes that she should be doing more with her life. She is the mother of a young daughter but relieved to be able to leave the girl in the care of an au pair. Her one selfless act--reading aloud to a former missionary at a rest home--is sullied when she allows her husband to 'borrow' some of the old gentleman's papers in order to get the better of a colleague. Caro's sister is a social worker disinclined towards marriage and children, but is she happy? Despite appearances, Caro is content enough. Until she learns that that her husband Alan has a wandering eye. What is happiness? The knowledge that one is loved? Academic renown? Or is it friendship with eccentric friends and the sight of the first crocuses of spring or the Virginia creeper in autumn? Barbara Pym completed the first draft of her satirical "Academic Novel" in 1970, ten years before her death. It was first published posthumously in 1986, thanks to her friend and biographer Hazel Holt.

About this title

Book Description:

*Another delightful comedy of manners from Barbara Pym.

From the Back Cover:

'She is the rarest of treasures; she reminds us of the heartbreaking silliness of everyday life' Anne Tyler

In a provincial university town Caro Grimstone, a dissatisfied faculty wife, becomes the unwilling accomplice to her husband Alan's ambitions. When she volunteers as a reader to a blind, esteemed anthropologist in a nursing home, Alan seizes the opportunity to steal his papers - research that could both advance his reputation while refuting the findings of a respected colleague. A delightful comedy of manners with a touch of mystery, An Academic Question is prime Barbara Pym territory.

'Authentic Pym, with the true depth of exuberance in it . . . As readable and characteristic as any in the Pym canon' John Bayley, London Review of Books

About this edition

• Publisher: Coffeetown Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1603811788
• ISBN 13: 9781603811781
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 170