Book 3 of the 2026 Read Your Hoard Challenge
I have enjoyed every Barbara Pym novel that I have read to date. This was her very first and already she demonstrates her sharp observations of people, especially relations between the sexes. Belinda Bede is Pym's alter-ego and Harriet is her sister's. I believe that the real life sister did get married and widowed, but this was written to imagine them as spinsters in their fifties.
Many of the characters in Some Tame Gazelle are based on Pym's friends and relatives. Archdeacon Hoccleve is the fictional representation of a former lover who was willing to sleep with Pym but married another woman. Pym managed to stay friendly with the couple, but Belinda's unrequited love for the Archdeacon comes into sharper focus with this knowledge. She uses her claws gently with his depiction. Apparently her circle of friends and acquaintances recognized him and themselves and were highly entertained.
Even in this very first book, there are some references to anthropology. Bishop Grote, who is home from the mission field, gives a lantern slide presentation about the African people among whom he works. Pym was an assistant editor of an anthropological journal and she incorporates this expertise neatly into her writing.
I enjoyed Excellent Women and Less Than Angels so much that I bought a stack of Barbara Pym novels during Covid, but I got distracted by other books and never read them. This is the year that I fix this omission and I am ever so glad that this was such an enjoyable start to the project.
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