Product Description
Between the amorous antique dealer Humphrey and his good-looking nephew James glides the magnificent Leonora, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. Can she keep James in her thrall? Or will he be taken from her by a lover, like Phoebe ...or Ned, the wicked American? 'A highly distinctive and - ultimately - charitable novel' - "Financial Times". 'Faultless' - "Guardian". 'Her Characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly' - "Observer". 'A coldly funny book' - "Sunday Telegraph". 'Highly distinctive ...the critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym's too long neglected gifts have not been wrong' - "Financial Times". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Gets better on the second reading
I have all of Barbara Pym's books and have read most more than twice. The first time I read it, this was not one of my favorites. In fact, I barely liked it. But I just read it again and found that I enjoyed it much more this second time. Much more. I'm still not sure that I like the uncertain ending, but perhaps it does work after all. After "A Glass of Blessings" this may be my favorite Pym...and that's a surprise to me.

More than Jane Austen
I've only recently been introduced to Barbara Pym (when I came across a reference to her made by Eudora Welty) and was amazed to see a whole industry of interest' around her. There seems to be a flurry of references to her as a `sort of Jane Austen of today', which on one level can be seen as true. Certainly Pym's work seems to overload with references to Anglican churchgoers, tea, spinsters, the weather and middle class English vacations but I've found Sweet Dove Died as being more `tragic' and less comic than a few of the other Pym novels that I've read.
I think previous readers have outlined the story line sufficiently so I won't get into that. How biographical Sweet Dove Died probably deserves more emphasis when reading the book. We know that Pym endured a serious of unsuccessful romances as well as years of literary rejection so the tragic element of the book could well be seen as a reflection of her life. That said, I can't comment on whether Leonora Eyre is a parallel of Pym. Leonora is cold, selfish, vain, a narcissist, possessive and a snob but Pym attacks the themes as being much like the reality of middle age. Leonora represents one of the directions an aging, (unmarried) woman's (or man's) life could take (as depressing as that could well be): concern with aging and preoccupation with possessions. That said, there are more positive `middle age' characters in the book that could be seen as influential role models of reality: Miss Caton, Rose Culver and cousin Daphne (even `Ba'). More than anything Sweet Dove Died demonstrates Pym's dangerously sharp insight into human behavior which makes her a new favorite of mine. I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.

The pleasures of possession
Written during her "wilderness years" between the early 1960s and her critical rediscovery in 1978, THE SWEET DOVE DIED is one of Barbara Pym's darkest novels but also one of her finest. The fortyish protagonist, Leonora Eyre, is wealthy, elegant, and beautiful; she is also unmarried and idle, and fills her days doing little other than attending to her own minor pleasures, primarily acquiring Victoriana. At an auction she meets Humphrey, an antique dealer, and his nephew James, whom is young, single, handsome, and very impressionable. Leonora schemes to make James another of her acquisitions, while the sixtyish Humphrey makes plans of his own concerning Leonora; complicating matters even further are the dowdy Phoebe, who also longs for James, and the malicious young American literature professor Ned.

This novel returns Pym to her concern with the relations between unmarried straight women and men of alternative sexualities, first explored in her A GLASSFUL OF BLESSINGS; it is, I think, an even finer work than that previous novel, and casts a much colder eye towards its subject. Almost all the characters are petty, spiteful, snobbish and materialistic: Leonora is the worst among them (with the exception of Ned), but Pym's achievement is to make her readers care about her protagonist despite her selfishness and her self-deludedness. In its own way this book is something of a minor masterpiece; it brings off its story absolutely perfectly.

Entanglements
The definition of entangle is to write or knit together confusedly.This rather describes the progress of the characters in Barbara Pym's THE SWEET DOVE DIED.

Humphrey Boyce has an antiques shop.James, his orphaned newphew, commences to work at the shop after finishing at Oxford.At an auction they meet Leonora Eyre.Later Humphrey plans to have lunch with Leonora who is in her fifties.This is a novel of manners and amusement.Leonora, whose dinner with a friend and two very young men is described as being disappointing, regrets that James is not present, too.She finagles the interactions with Humphrey to go back to the shop to see James and accepts a ride with James because conveniently he is going in the direction of her house.James is too young to assume that a woman living alone is to be pitied.

For Christmas Leonora receives a paperweight from Humphrey and a card from James.She puts James's card near her bedside table.After Christmas Leonora's new social life with Humphrey and James picks up again.When the shop is the subject of a burglary Leonora sends flowers.Through various machinations she actually sends James's young woman friend to Majorca, but she cannot best a male friend Ned who, for a time, captures James's attention.

I am certain Barbara Pym has been compared to Jane Austen many times.Clearly the thrust of their works differ.Barbara Pym is not concerned with setting up a young person for life in some sort of matrimonial arrangement.Nevertheless, the means used, the comedy, the irony, the light touch and excellent writing are similar."A sweet dove died" comes from a Keats poem.

Newly hooked on Barbara Pym
This was the second Barbara Pym book I have ever read and it confirmed to me that she is greatly underrated as a writer. Though not perhaps as brilliantly comic as Excellent Women, Sweet Dove Died is gently satirical in the most delicious way. The type of woman she deals with is, this time, the affected 'lady of a certain age', rather than the humble and worthy types. One could almost imagine that this is how Madame Bovary may have turned out, had she had lived a city life. There is nothing prudish about Pym and readers today may be struck by how 'modern' she still appears, particularly in her depiction of the younger male characters in this novel. Greatly enjoyable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

delightful cookbook
I was thrilled to find a copy of this cookbook as it has recipes from several of Barbara Pym's novels.For instance, Poulet Nicoise is mentioned in Quartet in Autumn as is Oeufs Florentine.What a great idea to publisha cookbook for food mentioned in an author's novels.I can't wait to readher other novels and try the recipes from the cookbook.The recipe forPlum Jam on page 82 is delightful as supposedly Barbara was making plum jamwhen she received word that articles had been published about her novelQuartet in Autumn.Highly recommend this book for Barbara Pym fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Barbara Pym (1913-1980) wrote more than a dozen novels that reflect the life and manners of mid-twentieth-century Britain. Pym's subtle wit and irony infuse the common round of English drawing room comedy with an energy that validates the seeming trivia of women's lives. "Barbara Pym: Writing a Life" is about Pym and her novels and about the critical response to her work. Part 1 introduces all of Pym's novels, as well as fragments collected posthumously, in the order in which they were written, relating some of the events in her life-including the public reception of her work-to her themes in the novels. Part 2 is a study of the ten novels that Pym herself prepared for publication. It focuses on some of the autobiographical elements in the novels that Pym herself prepared for publication. It focuses on some of the autobiographical elements in the novels that derive from Pym's concerns about romantic love, the Church, and literature, and discusses some of the techniques Pym used in transmuting these concerns into fiction. Part 3 is a bibliographic essay that summarizes the critical issues that have come to bear on her work. Part 4 is a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. "Barbara Pym: Writing a Life" is designed to encourage the teaching of Pym's novels and to assist scholars in the critical study of the novels and of Pym's contribution to English literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the great prose stylists in English
One of the best novels by one of a handful of first-rate prose stylists in the English language. Pym is the most underrated fiction writer in English. She's brilliant, and very, very funny. ... Read more