An Academic Question (Virago Modern Classics #491)

By: Barbara Pym and Hazel Holt

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Synopsis: A small English community is thrown into a hilarious uproar in this delightful comedy of manners from the acclaimed Man Booker prize-nominated author. Caroline (Caro) is the wife of Dr. Alan Grimstone, a lecturer at a provincial university in a West Country town in England. She knows her circle believes that she should do more with her life. She is the mother of a young daughter, but happy to leave the girl in the care of an au pair. Her one selfless act—reading aloud to a former missionary at a rest home—is sullied when she allows her husband to “borrow” some of the old gentleman’s papers in order to get the better of a colleague. This seemingly small act sets in motion a series of academic and amorous rivalries that will touch a surprisingly large number of lives in this bright, witty, and perceptive novel. Barbara Pym completed the first draft of her satirical “Academic Novel” in 1970, ten years before her death. It was first published posthumously in 1985, thanks to her friend and biographer Hazel Holt.