Quartet in Autumn: Amazon.ca: Barbara Pym: Books

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Quartet in Autumn is one of the books Pym wrote during the 15 years when no one would publish her, and perhaps the same kind of balance between hopelessness and inner strength helped shape this novel's story about four friends in an office nearing the age of retirement. They are people who have lived unspectacularly, but who have conjured a sense of themselves from the quartet's unity. Things start to change when two of them retire. Pym maps this ordinary strangeness of life with her particular genius for brilliant psychological insight and quiet humor that never strains for effect. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

This is the painfully real story of four aging office workers who lead lonely, pointless lives but who, nevertheless, move us in subtle ways. We care about Edwin, Norman, Letty and Marcia because Pym makes them so human, so fallible, so quixotic and so vulnerable. Life is not kind to the mediocre. Elizabeth Stephan gives a solid reading without attempting to dramatize characters or add much vocal variety. Her reading fits the mood of the story, the essential sameness of people and their routines. Worthy if not wonderful. D.L.G. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Deeply depressing!, April 12 2009

By	Phoebe (Montreal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quartet In Autumn (Paperback)

The saddest and bleakest of all Pym's fiction, "A Quartet in Autumn" cast a pall over my day. While her other novels enable me to see the humor and irony in everyday life, I found this book too depressing to enjoy. With a central character who, apparently, starves herself to death, the novel brings insight into the lives of very lonely people, but it is too dark a vision for my taste.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable amazing novel, Feb 2 2009

By	L. Winkler "AllNightReader" (Regina Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Quartet In Autumn (Paperback)

This is the darkest of Pym's books, written when she was older and perhaps, wiser. It doesn't have the funny, frivolous tone of the earlier works. The writing is spare and to the point. It describes the lonliness and lack of connectedness of four office workers about to retire; most of them without family or close relatives. Most of them are socially disfunctional, and at at least one of them, is actually mentally ill (Marcia). There is a disturbing undertone of loss and failure, yet it is also a story of human dignity and survival. These people are survivors in spite of all that happens to them. There is commentary here about the social service network and how it fails people, the failure of the Church to help meaningfully (Father Gellibrand) and the distance between friends. At the end there is a modest sense that these people will do the best they can with the circumstances they find themselves in, and we wish them well. Pym had survived cancer and a stroke before she wrote this and I think her experiences contributed profoundly to this book.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A critical look at how we treat the elderly in today's world, Dec 19 2003

By	Monika "equestrienne_23" (Davis, California) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Quartet In Autumn (Paperback)

What happens to people as they grow older in a society that does not value the elderly? This is the critical question Barbara Pym addresses in her novel, Quartet in Autumn. She takes us into the lives of four aging co-workers on the brink of retirement; they are no longer of use to anyone and their department will be phased out as soon as they leave the company. Marcia, Letty, Edwin, and Norman are all alone, without friends or relatives to care for them in their later lives. Each of them is terribly lonely, yet they are too stubborn and ashamed to turn to one another for friendship.

The novel is moving, and sometimes downright scary. Indeed, Pym shows us that such a fate could easily belong to anyone in today's society. She makes it readily apparent that the resources and aid available to the elderly are insufficient. Few people truly care what happens to those who are no longer of any great use to the modern world. It is a bleak prospect, and this book serves as an important warning. The book is also hopeful, however. Ultimately the main characters do manage to reach out to one another, and this is heartwarming. It shows us the value in cultivating relationships with others.

I read Quartet in Autumn for a women's studies course, and while it is not particularly exciting or enthralling, it is quite thought-provoking. It's an easy, short read (roughly 200 pages), and uses plain, to-the-point language. Pym really pares it down to the issues at hand and throws in no extraneous fluff. I would recommend this work to just about anyone (regardless of age - it's message is equally important to the old and young alike). It raises awareness of a very important, yet seldom looked at aspect of the social world of today.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars An uncompromising, simply rendered description of modern
...society in the late 1970's in London. The "quartet" is four older middle-class, working people, two women and two men around the age of sixty. Read more

Published on Jan 24 2003 by jenniferbraun

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting quiet book. Unusual and not for everyone
I was the only member of my book club who liked this. I felt it was an interesting book if for no other reason than the illustration that sometimes what DOESN'T happen is as... Read more

Published on April 8 2002 by Alicia Cathers

5.0 out of 5 stars I was amazed
Every Barbara Pym novel is excellent. And, from most of them, you know what to expect: spinsters and curates and cakes and jumble sales. Read more

Published on Mar 16 2001 by Catherine Weaver