An Unsuitable Attachment

by Barbara Pym

Paperback, 1986

Status

Available

Genres

Publication

Harpercollins (1986), Paperback

Description

Owing a debt to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Barbara Pym's An Unsuitable Attachment is an elegant and witty comedy of manners from an acclaimed author who Philip Larkin called 'the most underrated novelist of the century'.'I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym' - Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club'The day comes in the life of every single man living alone when he must give a dinner party.'The parish of St Basil, on the fringes of North Kensington, is all of a flutter due to the arrival of Rupert Stonebird, a most eligible bachelor, in the neighbourhood. The local matchmakers are sure he will make a suitable husband for the vicar's wife's sister, Penny, or perhaps for local librarian Ianthe Broome?But Ianthe is in danger of forming a most unsuitable attachment to her new library assistant, John, a man of questionable background with not a penny to his name . . .'Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure' - Jilly Cooper, author of The Rutshire Chronicles… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member lauralkeet

This was a most satisfying read, full of what Barbara Pym does best: satirizing the public and private lives of England's "excellent women." Sophia Ainger is a vicar's wife in a parish in a somewhat dodgy part of London. When she's not supporting her husband's work, she's arranging suitors for her

younger sister Penelope. There's a comforting predictability to church work:
Ianthe Broom, Daisy Pettigrew, Sister Dew, and one or two others whose names she could never remember, now sat down round the table and began to discuss the final arrangements for the bazaar, which had always been exactly the same and always would be, except that from one year to another a pint more or less of milk might be ordered for the teas. (p. 53)

Sophia is also slightly obsessed with her cat, Faustina, who is always in the background engaging in typical feline behavior:
Her tone was a little agitated for she had also just seen Faustina mount the refreshment table and pick her way delicately among the dishes of cakes and savouries, sniffing the air, ready to pause and pounce when she came upon something that took her fancy. (p. 60)

Sophia finds sympathetic company in Daisy Pettigrew and her brother Edwin, who run a cattery. But when conversation lags or gets awkward, Sophia fills the gap by comparing Faustina to various humans, or wondering aloud what Faustina is doing at that moment. This never seems to help matters, but it made for amusing reading.

Then there's Ianthe Broom, a 30-something unmarried daughter of a curate. She works in a library and recently moved into the parish. Most consider her past her prime, but Sophia is concerned about her competing with Penelope for male attention. Ianthe is oblivious to all of this; she's not looking for a mate, and values her independence. She is both surprised and flattered when a male colleague begins paying attention to her. But is he suitable? Or will others judge her?

A church-sponsored trip to Rome puts everyone out of their element. This heightens anxieties, but new experiences also offer opportunities for self-discovery. Ianthe and Penelope both return to England with a better understanding of what they want from life and their relationships.

Pym's world is familiar to anyone who has ever been involved in church committees, and she simultaneously respects and pokes fun at this slice of society. Sophia's "crazy cat lady" personality made me laugh out loud on several occasions. And so, for that matter, did Faustina (especially since I had a cat in my lap most of the time when I was reading this book)!

I've read most of Barbara Pym's books, and enjoyed them all. An Unsuitable Attachment is now one of my favorites.

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LibraryThing member Kasthu

An Unsuitable Attachment is Barbara Pym at her best, with all the elements that make one of her novels so good. Set in the parish of St. Basil’s in London (although it feels small village-ish), this is a romantic comedy about a vicar and his wife, her sister, an anthropologist, and a

“gentlewoman.” The book is punctuated by a lovely springtime trip the characters take to Rome.

This novel is vintage Pym: “genteel” ladies and spinsters, and a gentle romantic comedy set in a parish community. It’s funny and sharp, and the characters are very much in Barbara Pym’s style. Ianthe Broome is one of the independent “excellent women” that Pym writes so well about; Rupert Stonebird is an anthropologist whose single status makes him a victim for the matchmaking ladies of the parish (but the reader has a sneaking suspicion that he’s a bit of a cad). Even Faustina, Sophia Ainger’s cat, is a character unto herself (although I felt her emotional dependence on the cat was a little disturbing sometimes). The romance aspect of the book takes a back seat to the characters, which is just as well considering that the characters are so strong.

I loved the fact that this novel was set, albeit briefly, in Rome; some of the comments that some of the narrow-minded characters make are hysterical (since Pym has a habit of mercilessly poking fun at people). An Unsuitable Attachment is classic Barbara Pym, and probably one of my favorites by her.

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LibraryThing member thorold

This is the novel that was rejected by Pym's publishers when she submitted it to them in 1963, marking the start of the long gap in her literary career (she finally got going again with Quartet in Autumn in 1977). The book was published posthumously in 1982.

The action centres around an

Anglo-Catholic church in suburban North London. There are all the familiar Pym elements - clergymen, librarians, anthropologists, teashops, jumble sales, etc. The "unsuitable attachment" that is nominally at the centre of the plot is barely even sketched in - Pym has much more fun sending up the everyday details of her characters' lives than dealing in banal romance. Philip Larkin comments in his introduction that the title might just as easily refer to the relationship between the vicar's wife, Sophia, and her cat Faustina, as to that between Ianthe and John.

In the middle of the book, practically the entire cast go on a trip to Rome, and we have all sorts of ludicrous glimpses of the English abroad, 1960s style. Pym is enjoying herself so much here that we even get an explicit Firbank reference thrown in.

The book as published clearly has its faults, and it isn't likely to do much for you if you're after a good soppy love story, but there is a good deal of pleasure here for the rest of us.

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LibraryThing member Cariola

Another delightful amusement from Barbara Pym, mildly exposing the foibles of English society ca. the 1960s. Like so many of Pym's novels, An Unsuitable Attachment focuses on a vicar, his cat-devoted wife, her unmarried-but-still-hoping sister, and their quirky parishoners. These include a bachelor

anthropologist (whose colleague, Everard Bone, familiar to readers of Excellent Women, makes a brief appearance); a curate's daughter and librarian who everyone has resigned to spinsterhood; a blustery, egotistical head librarian who still lives with his mother; a vetrainarian and his slightly batty sister; a middle-aged woman who delights in bringing food to the unwell; and a handsome but impoverished young man. Full of matchmaking and mistaken intentions, An Unsuitable Attachment is another tour de farce not to missed by Pym fans.

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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd

Although it does have some amusing moments, this is not, in my opinion, up to Barbara Pym's usual standards. There isn't a sympathetic character in it...not even one you can feel sorry for without liking very much. I just didn't like or care about any of them, and the men were so uninteresting I

had trouble keeping them straight. Everyone seems to want to love (notice I don't say "love" actually) the wrong person, but the opportunities for humor and insight that ought to provide are mostly missed here. Even Rome comes off a bit tired and uninspiring in this book. Perhaps Pym was bored...she did apparently stop writing for years after this book was published. Much as I love her, I think she laid an egg with this one.
October 2013

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LibraryThing member skwoodiwis

Outside of bodily harm, I could not be forced to decide which Barbara Pym novel is my favorite. At this point, I haven’t read them all – and finding them in the great Northwest Territory is harder than you think. I’ve done okay but I may have to force myself upon the dictates of online

shopping to obtain the rest, but I will – I will not quaver in my quest to finish every last novel she wrote.
Again my undying gratitude to Library Thing and the Barbara Pym group there, I will continue on in my endeavors but I “chart the course with (some) regret.” Once I’ve read them all, well I’ll read them again – yes of course I’ll read them again and find something new but…alas.
An unsuitable Attachment, this novel is a novel of relationships, that wouldn’t appear to be well, good ideas – and what is so fine about the novel, it makes no judgment either way. After “things,” are settle the author leaves us to think what we might. Will older and younger persevere? Was the relationship forged for her house and “nice things?” Will he finally get her attention without making her cry? All the awful clucking and raised eyebrows were given full vent, marriage, like the stork persevered and everyone went home nodding or shaking their heads.
No sage thoughts, really just wonderful surprises, shocks and out right laughter.
And getting us there was Ms Pym’s genius and oh (I know I know I’ve said this before) that it took me so long to find her! She epitomizes what I envy in a writer, especially a woman – her point is made that often there are no answers to life’s questions but that does not mean that women need buckle to convention. Independence is a viable way of life, a pleasant, peaceful, way of life that loneliness need not intrude upon.

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LibraryThing member veracite

Barbara Pym writes of such restrained, easily embarrassed but never willing to show it people. Ianthe's almost hardly there love story enthralled and everyone else was five parts funny and one part tender.

LibraryThing member CateK

Spare, understated writing, which adds power to statements like this:

"She sat humbly in the cold church, making some effort to get into the right mood for the service. God is content with little, she told herself, but sometimes we have so little that it is hardly worth the offering."

LibraryThing member thatotter

Usually I feel it's essential for a writer to have respect for his/her characters, even if they are ridiculous. But here, I feel like Pym had too almost much respect for her characters--she seemed so sympathetic toward and interested in the trivia of their rather pathetic lives.

There were a few

quotes from the novel that I enjoyed, such as:

From Mervyn, the catty librarian: "Why is it, I wonder, that when books have things spilt on them it is always bottled sauce or gravy of the thickest and most repellent kind rather than something utterly exquisite and delicious?"

And from Sophia, the cat-obsessed vicar's wife: "I feel sometimes that I can't reach Faustina as I've reached other cats."

If the book had been more like this all the time, I would have enjoyed it much more. But in fact, it was mostly fussy and staid, and so dated I wanted to cringe at times.

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LibraryThing member pgchuis

I'm reading these in the order the were written, and this is more amusing and less melancholy than other recent ones. Unusually it features a trip to Italy.

I found this thought-provoking. If John and Ianthe are indeed the unsuitable attachment (as opposed to Sophia and Faustina), John is a far

better man than the ineffectual Rupert. At one point John's behaviour is a little on the persistent side, but Ianthe seems to find this acceptable and John is direct, devoted and whole-hearted. Rupert is far more of a typical Pym male character - dithery and with little capacity for love.

Sophia's affection for and attentions to Faustina are surely intend to be because she and Mark have no children, although I do not recall this being spelt out. I found her a sad character. I hope Penelope doesn't settle.

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LibraryThing member DrFuriosa

The entanglements of love and desire in a small parish is both amusing and ridiculous. Pym is a master of uncovering the best and worst in human nature.

LibraryThing member ivanfranko

Well worth the read for its wit and sharp understanding of people who dither over their sheltered lives. Accurately sketches the scrimping timid attitudes of the traditional Anglican world of the 1960's. Ms Pym does not hold back exposing the ridiculous self-talk and projected thinking of her

characters as they strive to do the right thing to others, but not necessarily to themselves.
I liked it so much I just bought another two Barbara Pym reprints from Virago Press.

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LibraryThing member almin

It's Barbara Pym...I'm just glad I still have more of her novels to read.

LibraryThing member therebelprince

Passing Ianthe's house on her way home she now saw that this marriage was inevitable - it had to be. The lemon leaves had been unwrapped and there were the fragrant raisins at the heart.

An Unsuitable Attachment was to be Barbara Pym's seventh published novel until, fatefully, it was rejected by her

publisher (Jonathan Cape) in 1963, and by several others. The successful novelist - who had recently had all of her works republished and was picking up steam amongst English librarygoers - was left to 14 years as a relative unknown. After her miraculous "rediscovery" in 1977, Pym published three more novels. Attachment was one of another three published after her early death in 1980.

My paperback (Grafton) edition has a foreward by Philip Larkin which, sadly, is not in my hardcover (Dutton) edition. Larkin, a longtime friend and penpal of Pym's, admits that this is not her strongest work. And, indeed, it isn't. The "unsuitable attachment" at the heart of the novel emerges rather slowly, before suddenly feeling like a foregone conclusion. And while there is much of Pym's typically astute character observation, the book doesn't sparkle with the vim and vigour of - frankly - all of her earlier novels (including her then-unpublished first, Crampton Hodnet).

Perhaps this is because Pym - 50 years old when she finished this novel - was drifting from her "early" and "middle" stages as a writer into her "late" period. Her subsequent novels have a darker quality, are certainly less outright comedic, and this feels like an awkward transition, a writer trying to navigate their preferred brand even as their mind and artistry have moved elsewhere. I found myself laughing less frequently, and underwhelmed by the marriage of Sophie and Mark (after the successful investigations of happy-but-bittersweet-in-a-typically-English-way marriages in Jane and Prudence and especially A Glass of Blessings, one feels as if Pym doesn't quite get to the nub of this one), as well as by the character of Penelope as a whole - who should surely be at the heart of things.

Nevertheless, we only have 12 full-length Pym novels (alongside the miscellany of shorter writings) and it's our duty to cherish every one. I shall do so! There are plenty of neat little moments, twists, and historical insights to this bygone age that shouldn't feel so far away. This is still satisfying Pym for those of us who enjoy the complete canon of works, but truthfully would only rank as two-stars outside of the world of Pymheads, I'm afraid. I would suggest new readers leave it until near the end of their journey.

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