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cariola119
, November 29, 2009
(view all comments by cariola119)
One of Pym's earliest novels, Crampton Hodnet doesn't quite equal No Fond Return of Love; still, it is delightful and shows the promise of what's to come. Set in Oxford, it's not quite what I would call an academic novel; the university is more of a background for the novel's tighly knit social world. One of the main characters, Francis Cleveland, is a professor of sixteenth-century English poetry, and although a number of his students (notably a young woman named Barbara Bird) and colleagues figure into the story, the novel focuses not on academic rivalry but--like most of Pym's work--on the relationships and distances between family members, friends, and neighbors.
Pym is a master of the light touch, particularly when she makes her readers privy to the thoughts and observations of her characters. For example, when Margaret Cleveland notices that her husband (who has taken Miss Bird to tea and sent he a bouquet of lilies--without telling his wife) looks unwell, her immediate question is:
"Have you got indigestion?"
"I don't think so," he answered shortly.
"Then it must be the effect of the British Museum," she said.
That was exactly it, thought Francis, suddenly blaming it all on the British Museum. Everyone knew that libraries had an unnatural atmosphere that made people behave oddly. He felt that he had somehow made a mess of things this afternoon. But of course he was not used to dealing with situations like this; he had no practice. He had wasted his time in libraries, doing research about things that were no good to anybody. He thought of his companions in the Bodleian: Arnold Penge, Edward Killigrew, Professor Lopping . . . They wouldn't have done any better either. Probably not as well. This thought was some consolation to him, and he began to feel quite pleased with himself.
Or this little gem of an observed conversation. The aged Miss Doggett and her companion, Miss Morrow, discuss her grandneice Anthea's having made "a good impression" on her boyfriend's mother, Lady Beddoes:
"I believe she is very easy to get on with," said Miss Morrow.
"Well, she has that graciousness of manner that one would expect," said Miss Doggett, who did not somehow like the idea of her companion's finding someone of Lady Beddoes's position 'very easy to get on with.' "You see, Anthea is really nobody on her mother's side," she went on, "and even the Clevelands can hardly compare with the Beddoeses."
"But Anthea is such a sweet girl," protested Miss Morrow. "Anyone would like her. And Lady Beddoes's father was only an English professor teaching in Warsaw. She told Anthea."
"Miss Morrow, I don't think you understand these things," said Miss Doggett.
"No, I don't think I do,"said Miss Morrow humbly.
"It would be a splendid thing for Anthea, really splendid," purred Miss Doggett. "I wouldn't have thought she had so much sense."
But sense is just what a girl in love doesn't have, thought Miss Morrow, who didn't understand such things.
The Crampton Hodnet of the title is a nonexistent village created by the new young vicar, Mr. Latimer, to explain a suspicious absence; he claims to have been called to give a sermon in place of an ailing friend. It's the first of many lies, untold truths, and misunderstandings at the heart of the novel. Pym excels here, as in her other novels, at the little dramas in the lives of seemingly little people.
Overall, Crampton Hodnet is a charming novel that I read with a continual smile on my face.
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