A Glass of Blessings is the May read for members of the Librarything Virago group who are taking part in the Barbara Pym centenary read-a-long – due to my birthday reading project in May I decided to read it early. A Glass of Blessings is one of the ten Pym novels I had read before – but I have to say I hadn’t remembered much about it. I have heard a few people say that it is their favourite Pym novel, and although it isn’t my favourite, I enjoyed it enormously. It feels very much like a quintessential Pym novel – so therefore for a Pym fan – what’s not to like?
“Oh Wilmet, life is perfect now! I’ve got everything that I could possibly want. I keep thinking that it’s like a glass of blessings – life, I mean…”
“That comes from a poem by George Herbert, doesn’t it?” I said. ‘When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by …”
“But don’t forget that other line … how when all the other blessing had been bestowed, rest lay in the bottom of the glass…
In ‘A Glass of Blessings’ we are back in the familiar parochial territory that we first encountered in Some Tame Gazelle, Jane and Prudence and Excellent Women. Wilmet Forsyth is our narrator, in her early thirties; she is a nicely mannered well-dressed attender of high Anglican services. She lives in her mother-in-law’s house with her husband Rodney in a respectable suburb of London. Not having really very much to do, Wilmet likes to believe she is able to do good to others, accompanying her mother-in-law to The Settlement – an institution of some unspecified charitable kind – where the exceptionally good, but rather drab Mary Beamish is often to be found. However Wilmet is bored, her husband is slipping into comfortable middle-age – a little fatter and balder than when she had first met him, with his job in The Ministry that he disappears to each day. Wilmet contents herself with the company of three local unmarried priests – helping with the search of a new housekeeper for the clergy house, introducing them to Bason who had previously worked at The Ministry with her husband – a job Bason had proved unsuited for.
“Now’ said Mr Bason moving us on like a guide. ‘I think we might take the merest peep in Father Thames’s study. I expect you would like to see that.’
He had already opened the door before we could express any opinion and I crept forward rather guiltily as if expecting some kind of retribution to fall on me.
The first impression was of a rather crowded museum, for there seemed to be a great many objects arranged in glass-fronted cabinets and on the mantelpiece. The room was dominated by an enormous desk of some rich-looking wood. This rather surprised me, for I had not hitherto had the impression that Father Thames was the scholarly type of clergyman; though, on thinking it over, I supposed that every parish priest must have a large desk, if only to answer his correspondence and prepare his sermons.”
Also providing a welcome distraction – which starts to almost become a rather unsuitable infatuation – is Piers Longridge – the rather unsuccessful brother of Wilmet’s best friend Rowena. Piers works as a proof reader – and teaches Portuguese at night classes that Wilmet and Sybil –her mother-in-law decides to attend.
Wilmet is a likeable character although she seems quite vain, constantly examining herself and her motivations, she often sees herself as not being quite as good as she might be. Wilmet often fails to understand the people around her including her husband and especially Piers, her imagination really running away with itself at times. As the novel progresses Wilmet begins to learn something about love and her relationships with the people in her life, beginning to appreciate the friendship of Mary Beamish rather more than she had done previously. Sybil provides a lively contrast to her daughter-in-law – living life to the full, springing a surprise of her own in the end and proving that she at least has a positive attitude to life and the living of it.
Readers of previous Pym novels will be delighted with the references to characters from Excellent Women and Jane and Prudence – there is even a passing mention of Archbishop Hoccleve from Some Tame Gazelle. I was rather delighted that Wilmet and her friend Rowena had once nursed tender feelings for Rocky Napier. Pym’s wonderfully dry humour and keen observation help to recreate this world that must now surely be gone forever – if it ever really existed, yet it is a world I feel perfectly happy in.
A Glass of Blessings is definitely up there with Excellent Women and Some Tame Gazelle for me. I love Wilmet who – a bit like Mildred in EW – thinks she can sort out everyone else’s lives, but fails to see what is going on in her own. Wilf and Keith may be somewhat camp characters but their little idiosyncracies are as touching as they are entertaining, and Piers is a very convincing character – someone who has had a fairly easy life and intends to keep it that way. The scene in which he and Wilmet walk by the river and pass the Harrods Furniture Depository (?Repository?) is both funny and poignant.
I too love the way in which BP brings characters from other novels into her books – it’s lovely to see the wonderfully dreadful Rocky through other eyes.
One of Pym’s best. Which is your favourite? (I think EW does always win for me. There is something subtle about Mildred that even Wilmet and Belinda don’t quite match.)
Thank you for your thoughts. I think my favourites are Jane a Prudence and No Fond Return of Love, though I suppose that could change after this year of reading.
I’m coming terribly late to Barbara Pym – have just picked up Excellent Women from the library to see what all the fuss is about. I’m enjoying reading everyone’s centenary thoughts as I go.
really hope you enjoy Excellent Women, it’s very typicalofPym anda great one to start with.
I loved this one (as I did the first three)! Great improvement over Less Than Angels which I couldn’t read more than a few pages of.
Funny how several people seem to have not got on too well with Less than Angels.
I will read this more closely when I’ve read the book – because I trust your judgements on Pym to be very sound!!
ooh thank you Karen – goodness that’s something to live up to : )
Is Less than Angels the one with the boring writer living with the tedious boy? I didn’t like that one either – something I find very hard to say about any of Pym’s novels.
I must recommend also the Pym biography ‘A Very Private Eye’ by Hazel Holt – it’s fascinating. We saw film of Hazel and Barbara at the 2012 Pym conference in Harvard – and also film of Hazel now (she’s a successful writer of ‘cozy’ mysteries) – it was wonderful.
Rosemary
Yes that is Less than Angels : )
I have read the Hazel Holt biography A Lot to Ask, and have recently ordered a copy of A very Private Eye – which I believe is the letters and diaries.
Oops, I had them the wrong way round – have read both of them, the Hazel Holt more recently (though still ages ago). Both great.
I think this is one of the ones that I haven’t read, so I should pull it off the shelf; you make it sound every bit as good as the others.
I enjoyed this so much. There is something of Emma in Wilmet, in that we see she is deluding herself, and we are amused by it. I wonder if Pym saw Wilmet as a heroine whom no one but herself would like? I liked Wilmet despite her foolishness; absolutely loved Sybil and Keith. I’m enjoying the year of reading Pym so much Ali, thanks for flagging it up! Caroline
🙂 so glad you are enjoying Pym. If you are on FB you can join the virtual tea party group we’re getting ready to celebrate 100 years on Sunday
http://www.facebook.com/groups/176112579206554/
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