Abstract
‘What a good thing there is no marriage or giving in marriage in the after-life’, remarks Jane Cleveland in Jane and Prudence (1953); ‘it will certainly help to smooth things out’ (p. 214). The war of the sexes goes on continually in Barbara Pym’s novels, with men apparently winning it at some moments, women at others. ‘As an anthropologist’, Rupert Stonebird in An Unsuitable Attachment (1982) knows ‘that men and women may observe each other as warily as wild animals hidden in long grass’ (p. 13, opening paragraph).
Perhaps the time will come when one may be permitted to do research into the lives of ordinary people. …
(No Fond Return of Love, p. 18)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Barbara Brothers, ‘Women Victimized by Fiction’, in Twentieth-Century Women Novelists, ed. Thomas F. Staley (London: Macmillan, 1982) pp. 69, 71.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1987 Dale Salwak
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Halperin, J. (1987). Barbara Pym and the War of the Sexes. In: Salwak, D. (eds) The Life and Work of Barbara Pym. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08538-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08538-5_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-08540-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-08538-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)