Some Tame Gazelle
was the first novel by Barbara Pym, called “the novelist most touted by
one’s most literate friends” by the New
York Times Book Review. Begun by Pym when she was a student at
Oxford before World War II, it is remarkably polished for a first
novel, as well as remarkable for Pym’s ability to get into the head of
a 50-something spinster.
Unmarried sisters Belinda and Harriet Bede live together in an English
village. Both of their lives focus on clergymen. Timid, kindly Belinda
has nourished an unrequited love for married Archdeacon Hoccleve, vicar
of the local church, since their college days. She excuses his defects,
which include boring his parishioners by quoting poetry and complaining
about overwork but doing very little. Clothes horse Harriet, brasher
than her sister, has been devoted to a string of young curates who
arrive to assist at the church. The latest, Edgar Donne, is dull and
awkward, but no matter; Harriet is drawn to his role.
Neither Belinda nor Harriet agonizes about the inappropriateness of
their attractions. Toward the end of the book Belinda does sense that
her neighbors see her as pathetic, but she rationalizes about needing
to love someone. In later Pym novels, the situation of unmarried women
of a certain age will seem sadder. Some
Tame Gazelle ends with the Bede sisters contentedly holding on
to their impossible passions.
Interestingly, by the time Pym reached the Bedes’ age, she was
unmarried and living with her sister in a village in Oxfordshire.
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