SOURCE: "A Few Words about Barbara Pym," in The Sewanee Review, Vol. 98, No. 1, Winter, 1990, pp. 75-87.

In the following essay, Moseley provides a critical overview of Pym's fiction through discussion of her recurring preoccupation with unmarried women, the Anglican church, English literature, anthropology, and weak men.

Thinking about Barbara Pym's present state of renown reminds me of the character in one of Kingsley Amis's novels who occupies himself in trying to understand his liking for women's breasts: "I was clear on why I liked them, thanks, but why did I like them so much?" Those who like Barbara Pym like her so much that perhaps some attempt to explain why is in order. As late as 1977 she was completely obscure. Now Eudora Welty, Anne Tyler, and Mary Gordon, among others, name her as a favorite writer. Scholarly writers regularly link her casually with Jane Austen. A Barbara Pym...