“A Glass of Blessings” by Barbara Pym - review

“A Glass of Blessings” by Barbara Pym:

Barbara Pym was an English writer who died in 1980 and was best known for her social comedies Excellent Women and A Glass Of Blessings. Her career suffered a long stretch of oblivion after her publisher dropped her quite brutally after her sixth novel. It was revived, though by the praises of the historian and biographer Lord David Cecil and the celebrated poet Philip Larkin who both claimed her to be the most under-rated writer of the century. Her novel Quartet in Autumn was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1977.

In A Glass of Blessings, first published in 1958, the central character and narrative voice is Wilmet Forsyth, the often self-absorbed, attractive thirty-three-year-old wife of a civil servant who lives a well-to-do, comfortable life and slowly becomes bored with the leisure of it. As befits her class and status, she simply does nothing and when not out lunching  or shopping with a woman friend she occasionally, at the instigation of her mother-in-law Sybil, an eccentric agnostic, dry-humored person in whose house she and her husband reside, does “good works“ at her parish of St. Luke.

One day she secures the vacant job of the housekeeper for the clergy house for a former colleague of her husband, a Mr. Bason, who had to resign his former job in the ministry, and thus  becomes drawn into the social life, the secrets and foibles of the congregation of the parish. Mr. Bason is a kleptomaniac who is drawn to all things beautiful and steals, albeit only for a couple of days, the precious Fabergé egg of one of the pastors. In the end, he leaves the clergy house to run an antiques shop in Devon that serves teas in the season which proves to be Heaven for him.

She also supports her mousy friend Mary, who, after the death of her mother, goes to live for a trial period in a convent but in the end decides against the life of a nun and marries the attractive Father Ransome.

Wilmet herself is attracted to Piers, the not-so-well-doing brother of her close friend Rowena but must discover in the end that his romantic attractions lie more with a beautiful, black-haired  lower-class-man with whom he shares an apartment. She receives a painful lesson when Piers mentiones that Wilmet might be too circumscribed by her own ‘narrow select little circle’ and might be one of those who are ‘less capable of loving their fellow human beings.’ 

Her mother-in-law late in life, decides to marry again and Wilmet and her husband Rodney are forced to look for a new home where Keith, the lover of Piers, is very helpful in choosing furniture and interior design. The move brings Rodney and Wilmet closer together while at the same time troubles are resolved for some of the other characters.

Despite the surface triviality this is a book with a darkly serious undercurrent about class and morality, often spiced with bracingly bitter remarks. The characters, a parade of minor egotists and misfits, are beautifully sketched and despite all the deficiencies of Wilmet’s personality one cannot help but like her. There is a lot of interesting, sharp observation about the self-centred pomposity of men and for that time (1958), a fresh outlook on gay relationships.

This is a restrained, delicate, low-key novel, not very plot-driven but vivid and engaging for its characters and their inner monologues. Rules are a main theme. Wilmet, stuck in her class and as that a perfect mirror of distinct English society, is always wondering about whether she can do this or that, or what people might think. Her life seems to be constructed of rules that ought better not be broken. Another recurring theme is the home which people try to find and build for themselves. She for Rodney and herself, Piers for him and his boyfriend, Mary for her and her future husband, Mr. Bason for a little while as the manager of the clergy household and also the retiring pastor who secures a villa in Italy for himself after he quits the service of the church.

A Glass of Blessings is written in a gentle and affectionate tone and moreover, is blessed with a small cast of gay male characters, quite a rare thing from this time period. 

A mild, warming and delightful little novel.

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