A Few Favorite Pym Quotations

(chosen by her Internet fans)

From "No Fond Return Of Love"

"Research with a good-looking man. That's an enviable lot." (Miss Jessica Foy)

"You were lucky to find [a poet] so obscure that not even the Americans had done him. It's quite serious, this shortage of obscure poets." (Miss Foy)

"I imagine few tasks more distasteful than making an index for someone for whom one no longer cares." (Dulcie Mainwaring)

"After breakfast is always an awkward time in a hotel. So much work goes on it makes one feel guilty." (Dulcie)

 

From "Excellent Women"

I began piling cups and saucer on to a tray. I suppose it was cowardly of me, but I felt that I wanted to be alone, and what better place to choose than the sink, where neither of the men would follow me? (Mildred Lathbury)

"They've moved me to a new office and I don't like it at all. Different pigeons come to the window" (William Caldicote)

The burden of keeping three people in toilet paper seemd to me rather a heavy one (Mildred Lathbury)

I suppose an unmarried woman just over 30, who lives alone and has no apparent ties, must expect to find herself involved or interested in other people's business, and if she is also a clergyman's daughter then one might really say that there is no hope for her. (Mildred Lathbury)

 

From "Jane and Prudence"

Miss Doggett again looked puzzled; it was as if she had heard that men only wanted one thing, but had forgotten for the moment what it was.

"I should have liked the kind of life where one ate food flavoured with garlic, but it was not to be" (Jane Cleveland)

 

From "Less Than Angels"

'I'm not one of those excellent women, who can just go home and eat a boiled egg and make a cup of tea and be very splended,' she thought, 'but how useful it would be if I were!' (Catherine Oliphant)

 

From "A Glass of Blessings"

"Now,Geoffrey," [Father Thames] called out, "how would you like to be a server?" Geoffrey looked sheepish and murmured something to the effect that he would not like it very much. He managed to make his escape while Father Thames was being buttonholed by an elderly woman of the type that always seems to waylay the clergy in porches and doorways.

 

From "A Quartet in Autumn"

Back in the office, Edwin, who had a sweet tooth, bit the head of a black jelly baby. There was nothing racist about his action, or his choice. It was simply that he preferred the pungent liquorice flavour of the black babies.

 

This bit is a little too long, but how better can you describe Pym's attitude towards her characters?

updated 12-02-01