Oooh, I do love Barbara Pym’s books and am steadily working my way, very enjoyably, through them all. Her turn of phrasing and the humour, though often mixed with sadness and poignancy, is just delightful! This is one of her earlier books and is set in the 1950s.
Oooh, I do love Barbara Pym’s books and am steadily working my way, very enjoyably, through them all. Her turn of phrasing and the humour, though often mixed with sadness and poignancy, is just delightful! This is one of her earlier books and is set in the 1950s.
Dulcie Mainwaring attends a conference regarding editing and proof-reading and indexing, after her fiance, Maurice, ends their relationship. She is an indexer and proof-corrector, and works from home. Viola Dace, who does research and has begun writing a novel, is in the room next door to Dulcie at the conference. Viola is dismissive of Dulcie, seeing her as ‘already halfway to being a dim English spinster’, and hopes that Dulcie won’t try to spend time with her at the conference. Viola has previously worked with Aylwin Forbes, who is the editor of a journal and is lecturing at the conference, and she is hoping that he will turn to her now his wife has left him. Dulcie thinks Aylwin is very good-looking, and begins to think she has slightly fallen in love with him. Ooooh, I am so envious of Dulcie’s job, it sounds perfect to me! And I don’t like Viola and how harsh she is (in her thoughts) towards Dulcie, part of me hopes she is rejected by Aylwin and taken down a peg or two! And there were some wonderful lines regarding the conference, it really was so funny to read, such as ‘Dulcie and Viola and two women in flowered rayon dresses sitting on the basket chairs, offering each other cigarettes and speculating about the hardness of their beds. It was not long before conversation petered out’, and ‘Dulcie was conscious of a tramping of footsteps past her door, almost as if the place were on fire and people were hurrying to safety…she realised that it was nothing more alarming than enthusiasm for early morning tea’, and ‘There are various ways of mending a broken heart, but perhaps going to a learned conference is one of the more unusual’. Pym just writes sooo wonderfully!
Back at home, Dulcie is preparing for her 18 year old niece, Laurel, to come and stay with her in London while she is undertaking a secretarial course. On a shopping trip to buy curtains for Laurel’s room, Dulcie sees Aylwin at the tube station but doesn’t speak to him. She also sees Viola on the same shopping trip, who invites Dulcie for a meal, Dulcie eagerly accepting this invitation though also recognising that Viola isn’t overly warm in issuing it. Dulcie also randomly discovers that Aylwin’s brother, Neville, is a vicar at a local church, and as she enjoys the challenge of researching information about people she determines to find out which church this is. Awww, bless her, she can’t help herself speculating about people’s lives, such as this Neville, I think she is really quite lonely, bless her. And I did chuckle at her observation of Aylwin ‘she noticed that he had been carrying an Evening Standard, and it gave her an insight into his character to see that he was the kind of person who bought an evening paper at lunchtime’, tee hee, I love it! However, I realise I’m not feeling the same bond with Dulcie as I have with some of the other characters in Pym’s other books, such as with Mildred in Excellent Women (which I am actually reading at the same time as this book, I’m having a splurge on Barbara Pym!), as it’s not written in the first person so it feels like we’re not getting Dulcie’s private thoughts and observations as much as if it was in the first person.
Laurel arrives to stay with Dulcie. She and the neighbour’s son, Paul, soon meet and are attracted to each other. Viola phones Dulcie up out of the blue saying she has had a disagreement with her landlady and asking if she can stay with Dulcie for a couple of weeks. Dulcie is surprised but says yes. Dulcie then goes to Viola’s for the meal she had invited her to, but she can see that Viola hasn’t made much effort with the food. They talk about Aylwin, who lives nearby and who emerges from his house as Viola walks Dulcie to the bus stop, he walks with them briefly and then feels inhospitable for not inviting them in for a drink. Hmmm, I wish Dulcie would drop Viola really, I feel Viola is at worst just using Dulcie or at best doesn’t appreciate or value her, and Dulcie is likely to get hurt or taken advantage of. However, perhaps I am worrying too much, Dulcie has obviously coped in the world up to this point, and indeed she had a fiance, so perhaps she’s not as sad and lonely as I think she is, and she seems to gain in some way from this relationship with Viola, although I think this gain is mainly just gathering information about people, like they are subjects in her indexes!
Dulcie goes to look at Aylwin’s mother-in-law’s house, where Aylwin’s wife Marjorie is now living after their separation, as she has discovered the address by looking in the telephone directory, admitting to herself that she has enjoyed the researching aspect of this. There is a jumble sale happening at the house in aid of the church organ, so she feels to her great delight that she can justifiably enter and talk to both the mother-in-law and Marjorie. Not long after she leaves, Aylwin arrives with flowers for his wife but then doesn’t enter the house due to the jumble sale. He is unsure then what to do with the flowers so takes them to Viola (at Dulcie’s house, where she is now staying) as a thank you for her volunteering to do the indexing of his book. He meets Laurel there, and she thinks he is good-looking. Omg, I can’t believe how far Dulcie will go with her research! Although I guess she isn’t doing any harm and it entertains her, though I feel sad for her that she has nothing much in her life to entertain her, that she must seek entertainment from others but is just an onlooker in their lives and not really interacting with them.
Dulcie receives an invitation to a viewing at the gallery where Maurice (her ex-fiance) works, she initially thinks she won’t go but Viola is keen to go and talks Dulcie into it, Dulcie also thinking that Maurice may not even still work there. However, Maurice is at the gallery and comes over to Dulcie to say hello. Dulcie finds that seeing him again brings back lots of the hurt she felt at him breaking off their engagement, even though as time has passed she has convinced herself they wouldn’t have been suited and that it was for the best for it to end. Viola and Maurice chat, and afterwards Viola displays surprise that Dulcie had been engaged to such a good-looking man, which causes Dulcie further pain. Grrrr, Viola is so careless of Dulcie and her feelings! And it does feel strange having a Pym character who has been engaged, as most are usually single and always have been single and seem likely to always stay single.
Dulcie visits her Aunt Hermione and Uncle Bertram to deliver their Christmas presents, they are siblings who frequently bicker. She was also prompted to visit them from having learnt that Neville’s church is near their house, and she plans to treat herself by trying to find the church. She does find the church and goes in, and is immediately intrigued when Neville’s housekeeper arrives to lock up and refers to some trouble, Dulcie wonders if this trouble is between Neville and a lady of his congregation, particularly as there was a lady crying in the church when she arrived. She later shares all of this with Viola, who seems uninterested, but Dulcie explains to her that this is like a kind of game to her, and admits to herself that it seems ‘so much safer and more comfortable to live in the lives of other people, to observe their joys and sorrows with detachment as if one were watching a film or a play’ and also that ‘People blame one for dwelling on trivialities…but life is made up of them, and if we’ve had one great sorrow or one great love, then who shall blame us if we only want the trivial things?’. Dulcie suggests to Viola that they invite Aylwin to dinner, in her eagerness to try and find out more about Neville, though she suggests they can pretend the dinner is to talk about indexes. She then wonders if she needs to invite another man in order to balance numbers, and Viola suggests Maurice. Oh dear, I worry that Dulcie will get hurt by having Maurice in her life again. And although Dulcie seems to be heartily enjoying herself with this research, my heart did bleed for her when she identified that observing others living their lives feels safer than taking part in life herself, that seems so very tragic, bless her, but very insightful of her to identify this too, and I feel I can understand better now why she is doing this, why she is investing so much of her time with all this seemingly unnecessary and pointless research about other people. I am liking Dulcie more and more. And I can’t help loving the fact that all this research about the location of a church and the location of Aylwin’s mother-in-law and the other things that Dulcie researches, has to be done so painstakingly with telephone directories, etc. I know the internet is an amazing and wonderful tool and can give us information in an instant which I am very grateful for, but I can’t help thinking that the results of her research must have meant more to Dulcie and been so much more fulfilling because she had to work hard at it, checking and double-checking and being patient when a lead fizzles out and then trying again from another angle, rather than picking up your phone wherever you may be and after just one or two clicks you’ve got the information. It kind of makes me wistful for the time of telephone directories!
It is the evening of the dinner party at Dulcie’s house, and both Aylwin and Maurice have arrived. Dulcie brings up the subject of Neville, but Aylwin doesn’t give any information apart from saying that Neville has been rather troublesome lately and his mother has had a good deal to put up with. Aylwin flirts with Laurel. Maurice tries to kiss Dulcie, saying that perhaps the breaking off of the engagement was a mistake. She tells him that it was for the best and that they wouldn’t have been happy together and it is too late now. She wonders afterwards that because he had broken off the engagement saying that he was unworthy of her love, does this mean that he now considers himself worthy of her love, or does it mean that he thinks her standards are now less high. Tee hee, I couldn’t help chuckling, though with sadness and poignancy, at Dulcie’s thoughts about how Maurice may now view his worthiness or unworthiness to her love, sigh. She is really very intelligent and intuitive, which makes it even sadder that people don’t see this or appreciate it. And how wonderfully Pym does this poignancy, she really tugs at your heartstrings!
Laurel moves into a flat in her friend Marian’s building. This building is close to Aylwin’s house and he watches Laurel most mornings at the bus stop but can’t think how to speak to her, but eventually they get off the same bus together at the end of the day and he invites her in for a drink. His mother-in-law then unexpectedly arrives asking him what he proposes to do about Marjorie. He asks her what he can do about Marjorie, seeing as she left him, and asks why Marjorie didn’t come there to speak to him herself. He ends up suggesting that she and Marjorie might like to stay at his mother’s hotel in Taviscombe that Easter. He later takes Laurel out to the theatre and kisses her. Meanwhile, Paul is beginning to feel neglected by Laurel so she determines to spend more time with Paul while Aylwin is away in Tuscany. Also Viola has met Bill Sedge and begun a relationship with him, he is the Austrian brother of Dulcie’s aunt’s cook. Oh dear, all these relationships seem to be getting quite complicated. And I did chuckle at the awkwardness of Aylwin’s mother-in-law turning up just when he wanted to impress Laurel! Serves him right, I don’t like him with Laurel.
Dulcie and Viola go to Neville’s church but he isn’t there and they discover he has gone to stay with his mother at her hotel in Taviscombe. They decide to also go and stay at the hotel. What?! This is getting crazy surely, how far is Dulcie going to take this ‘research’?! And at what point does it border on stalking, tee hee? To actually go and stay at the hotel of a man’s mother, a man you haven’t even met…! And omg, Marjorie and her mother may well also be there too. I can just see mess and confusion ahead, although also a great deal of amusement for the reader!
Dulcie and Viola go to stay at the hotel in Taviscombe. While there, Dulcie becomes intrigued by Aylwin and Neville’s parents and their history. She learns that their father was the younger son of a family of status who lived at the local castle, and he was cut off from his inheritance because he married the owner of a local hotel, and she spends time searching the local cemetery for his grave. Meanwhile, Majorie and her mother arrive at the hotel, which causes some embarrassment for Dulcie as they both remember her from the jumble sale, and Viola also fears things could be awkward if Marjorie recognises her as the woman she saw kissing Aylwin which prompted her to leave him, however Marjorie doesn’t seem to recognise Viola. Also, Aylwin has returned from Tuscany and has decided to see Majorie to sort things out but is told by a neighbour that Marjorie and her mother are away, so he guesses that they’ve gone to his mother’s hotel in Taviscombe, so decides to also go there himself. Oh god, now Aylwin is going to the hotel as well! What will he think to find Viola and Dulcie there?! And I’d forgotten about the jumble sale and Marjorie and her mother having seen Dulcie before, how odd it must seem to them to then see her there in Taviscombe! It’s all just getting so complicated, tee hee! But so funny too!
Aylwin and Marjorie and her mother meet in the library of the hotel, while Dulcie is bending down looking at the books so is hidden by the shelves. Dulcie is very embarrassed to be there overhearing their conversation but feels she cannot draw attention to herself by getting up and leaving. Aylwin tells them that he has met someone, though he says it is very early on the relationship, and that he will file for divorce. He leaves the library, and Dulcie manages to sneak out as Majorie is weeping and her mother is abusing Aylwin to her. Dulcie goes for a walk on the front wondering who the woman is that Aylwin is referring to, then bumps into Aylwin who recognises her, and he is then horrified to realise that this must mean Viola is also at the hotel. He speaks to Dulcie about his feelings for Laurel, and she is horrified that the woman is Laurel and tells Aylwin that he is far too old for her, going on to ask him why he doesn’t just pick a more suitable wife and someone who could appreciate his work and help him with it and who is nearer to his own age. She later questions herself whether she is in love with Aylwin, or just infatuated with him like the lady at the church was with Neville. Omg, omg, omg, it’s like a comedy on the stage with people coming on from stage left as others exit stage right and you’re just waiting for the point when they inevitably eventually bump into one another and you’ve kind of got your hands over your eyes cringing with embarrassment for them all! And noooo, Dulcie, you can’t be in love with Aylwin, you can’t lower yourself to such a man, I won’t have that! But I did chuckle at her observation when she bumped into Aylwin on the seafront that it was ‘rather odd that he should have remembered his mackintosh after what must surely have been a rather upsetting scene…but perhaps his early upbringing in Taviscombe had made it automatic’. So deliciously funny!
Things move on with many of the relationships, as Viola gets married to Bill, Marjorie begins a relationship with a man she met on the train home from Taviscombe, Aylwin proposes to Laurel and is rejected, and Dulcie’s Aunt Hermione marries her local vicar. Phew, quite a lot going on there! But I’m relieved that both Viola and Laurel are over Aylwin.
Aylwin suddenly decides (using Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park book as guidance, with Edmund realising at the end of the book that Fanny is the woman for him instead of Mary Crawford) that Dulcie is the woman for him!! The book ends as he reaches her front door armed with flowers. Omg, omg, omg, omg, so did she agree to a relationship with him or not?!! That is sooo mean to leave us wondering! Surely she said no to him, surely, surely surely, please, please, please!
This is such an enjoyable book, although surprisingly different from her others (well, the others I have read so far) in a few ways, such as it not being in the first person and also having quite the cliffhanger at the end. As always, there are funny bits in the book (some extremely funny bits!) but also sad bits that touched my heart, and also bits that made me cringe with embarrassment for the characters! The scenes at the conference and at the hotel in Taviscombe made me laugh out loud, mostly because of people being thrown together and struggling to get along and trying vainly to make awkward small talk.
I ended up changing and changing my mind about Dulcie and her life as the book went on, whether she was to be pitied or not. Part of me thought she was a sad and lonely and unfulfilled character, with her almost living in a fantasy world and becoming obsessed with Aylwin and Neville Forbes. But then part of me felt she was content in this obsession, busily doing her research about them and finding out facts, and I admired her self-awareness in what drove her to do this and also what she gained from it. I also felt protective of her and worried that other people were going to hurt her, but then felt she didn’t need my protection (!) as she was quite capable of seeing people for what they are and recognising their motives. I think she is a far stronger and self-sufficient person than I first assumed, and again this strikes me as being slightly different to the other books I’ve read with characters which I most definitely feel pity for. I am intrigued why Pym didn’t write the book in the first person from Dulcie’s point of view, there must have been a reason for this and I wonder what this says about what Pym felt about Dulcie and what she wanted the reader to feel about her. I think my conflicting feelings about her are perhaps due to me not feeling as connected to her as I would if the book was written from her point of view, but then perhaps it would have been difficult to keep that cliffhanger mystery at the end if we had access to all of Dulcie’s thoughts.
And of course, I’m left wondering and wondering if she ended up with Aylwin! Throughout the book, she did question herself about her feelings for both Aylwin and Neville and whether she was falling in love with them or infatuated with them or annoyed by them, seeming to feel all three things at different times and regarding both of them! And I can’t decide, if she did end up with Aylwin, whether they would be happy together. I’m tempted to think that Aylwin wouldn’t have valued or appreciated her and would just have used her as a glorified secretary to index his books and would cheat on her with other women, but maybe he really had matured and was ready to settle with someone who seems more suited to him than Marjorie or Laurel, and he himself seemed to think their relationship was likely to succeed purely because he felt that Dulcie wasn’t suitable for him. And inevitably I am torn with what I want for Dulcie, I don’t like to think of her continuing life alone, keeping herself safe and detached by observing others and being satisfied with just the trivial things in life (as she said of herself), so perhaps a relationship with Aylwin would be the better option. And yet of course, there’s also Neville who also seemed quite interested in her as well, so if she was to be with one of the brothers then there’s also the question of which one would be the most suitable for her.
As always, there are sooooo many lines in the book that made me smile or that touched my heart, and I couldn’t help jotting them down:
‘Had he…seized her in his arms in some dusty library in a convenient corner by the card index catalogues one afternoon in spring?…How irritating it sometimes was, the delicacy of women!’.
‘Her own greatest pleasure in life was a tricky item of classification or bibliographical entry’.
‘Life’s problems are often eased by hot milky drinks’.
‘A little group of women, wearing hats, came in with the self-conscious air of people who have risen early from their beds to go to church, and now hope, though very humbly, for a breakfast they feel they have earned’.
‘Dulcie lived in…undoubtedly a suburb (but) “Harrods do deliver”, as her next-door neighbour so often repeated’.
‘She did not care for men, with their roughness and lack of daintiness, though the clergy were excepted, unless they smoked pipes’.
‘One did not go out to see people for the sake of a meal, she told herself stoutly, thinking of all the things she disliked most, tripe, liver, brains, figs, and semolina’.
‘Of course there should have been wine and a lovingly prepared dressing of oil and vinegar, but Dulcie drank orange squash and ate mayonnaise that came from a bottle’.
‘Dulcie suddenly wished that she had brought her knitting. There was that look about Viola that presaged the outpourings of confidences’.
‘It was sad, she thought, how women longed to be needed and useful and how seldom most of them really were’.
“People always know where they are with me” she would say rather smugly, it never occurred to her that people might not always want to know such things’.
“Perhaps you will join us one day”…in the rather perfunctory tone in which social invitations not meant to be accepted are sometimes issued, and to which the only suitable reply is a murmur’.
‘She had not come up to expectations, like a character in a book who had failed to come alive, and how many people in life, if one transferred them to fiction just as they were, would fail to do that?’.
‘The silence in the room was broken only by the sound of water being poured out into glasses, perhaps the most dismal sound heard on an English holiday’.
‘People were…just sitting with that air of hopeless resignation that people on holiday so often seem to have’.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful genius! I just adore Barbara Pym! I will continue with my reading of her books, but I am tempted to go for Some Tame Gazelle next as I loved it that Pym actually placed this book on the bookcase at the hotel in Taviscombe, that was a lovely cheeky touch! A Glass of Blessings also sounds fun, as does Less Than Angels. And of course, I now have to re-read Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, not just because it’s a wonderful book but also to try and look for any possible clues as to what Dulcie’s response was to Aylwin, but if I take that book as an indication then that means that they marry…is this what happened with Dulcie and Aylwin? I wish wish wish I knew! But I’ve just thought about whether the title of the book might be significant, ‘No Fond Return of Love’, so does this indicate that Dulcie doesn’t return Aylwin’s love…??
