A Glass of Blessings Barbara Pym
published 1958
[excerpt] [Narrator Wilmet lives with her husband, and her
mother-in-law Sybil. Professor Root is Sybil’s great friend]
I remembered that Professor Root was to take Christmas
dinner with us, and the thought depressed me rather. Nevertheless when the time
came and I saw the interesting-looking little parcel he had brought for me I
felt more warmly towards him, and began to look forward to the time when we
should open our presents.
The little parcel turned out to be a charming early
Victorian mourning brooch, a lock of auburn hair delicately framed in gold. I
was delighted with it. ‘I hope you are not superstitious – and perhaps some
relic connected with death is not the happiest of thoughts for this time. But I
believed it was the kind of thing you might like, and certainly it seems to be
appropriate to your own style of beauty, which, if I may say so, is happily not
quite of this age,’ said Professor Root, flushing a little as he hurried over
these last words.
We had all been drinking champagne, otherwise I suppose he
would not have had the courage to say what he did. I was touched by his
compliment and the tears came into my eyes. ‘I think it’s charming,’ I said,
‘and just the kind of thing I like best.’ I was curious to see what his present
for Sybil would be, for she was in some ways so very unfeminine that I always
found it difficult to know what to get for her. But Professor Root’s choice of
a warm mohair stole seemed brilliant, and Sybil was obviously very pleased with
it. I tried to imagine Professor Root going into a shop and buying it, but this
was difficult and I concluded that his sister or housekeeper must have chosen
it for him.
comments: It's been a very Barbara Pym year for me, as I attended and spoke at the Barbara Pym Society's annual conference this summer. So it seemed only right to close up my Xmas entries with one last look at this marvellous book. (And I still haven't dealt with the mysterious little box Wilmet receives anonymously...)
Mourning brooches have had their own post
before now, having featured in Mrs Oliphant’s book Phoebe
Junior. I cheerfully stated then that they were all hideous, and
I’m not sure I’m changing my mind. And yet, at the same time you can see that
it might be a careful and charming present: and Wilmet is delighted. Good for
her.
The stole is obviously for the mother-in-law but this picture (from Free Vintage Knitting Patterns) is very much how I imagine Wilmet.
She is an excellent and wholly unusual heroine – deeply
unaware in some ways, but very realistic in others. (I love her admitting to warming towards the Professor just because of the idea of a gift). She has a very pre-feminist
life: well-off, with a not very exciting but reliable husband. She likes her
living situation very much, but doesn’t have quite enough to do, and looks as
though she may be heading for trouble. What does she really know about her
friend’s brother Piers? I loved this bit of conversation with him:
‘Wilmet… your name is so sad,
and you so gay and poised.’
I liked this description of
myself and longed for him to say more. ‘Did you know that my name came out of
one of Charlotte M. Yonge’s novels?’ I asked him. ‘My mother was very fond of
them. But why do you think it sad?’
‘Because it seems to be
neither one thing nor the other,’ he said, rather mysteriously.
[I am always ready to collect Charlotte M Yonge references
– see
this post, and also this Agatha
Christie item for some showing-off by me. Wilmet appears in
Yonge’s novel The Pillars of the House.]
This is a strange, intricate book, and one you can
re-read easily. It also follows the church year (in a very Pym-ish way) so you
know there will be Christmas, and then Easter.
I have read it many times, and no doubt will do so again.
Each time I reread a Pym, I decide that one is my favourite, so this one is my
favourite at the moment.
The blog did a deep dive into mourning 18 months ago, and this book featured then with a lilac coat. And there are other Pym posts all over the blog. … and then Wilmet and Keith had their ownposts.
Mourning brooches really don't seem the sort of thing you'd get/give for Christmas, but somehow, it works here, Moira. I do like Wilmet's character just from what you've shared, so it's interesting to see the events from her point of view. This isn't the first time I've thought that I really ought to read some Pym!
ReplyDeleteI think you'd probably like her, Margot
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ReplyDeleteWilmet appreciates Professor Root's thoughtful and appropriate choice of a present for her, and yet assumes that he wouldn't be capable of making an equally appropriate choice for Sybil, whom he must know much better!
ReplyDeleteHair jewellery is on the border between mourning and memorial/sentimental jewellery - the loved one whose hair it contained or was made from might be dead, but didn't have to be. I've read of brooches, which, as far as can be established, contained locks of hair from all a woman's children, some or all of whom could be very much alive; just as a modern mother might get tattooed with all her children's names, I suppose.
EF Benson's Lucia often wears a brooch containing a lock of Beethoven's hair (although Benson mentions that the original lock of hair fell out and was lost some time ago, and she quietly replaced it with a lock of her husband's, which is much the same colour).
Sovay
And I've just looked at the "Phoebe Junior" post, which features a brooch just like the ones I've read about (with locks of hair from all the children)!
DeleteSovay
Not necessarily hair!
DeleteFord Madox Ford, I think, mentions an old lady with a strange odour about her. After her death it transpired she wore a locket containing the stub of a cigar smoked by Franz Liszt.
- Roger
Could it be that Wilmet herself was so baffled by Sybil that she couldn't imagine what kind of gift Sybil would like? Kind of a look-and-learn situation. And was Lucia's lock of Beethoven's hair genuine, or maybe just palmed off on her as real?
DeleteI love Lucia and Beethoven's hair. I would guess not authentic at all, even before the substitution.
DeleteCigar stub is a horrible idea.
I don’t think Wilmet could claim she finds Sybil that much of an enigma, if she believes that Prof. Root’s sister or housekeeper could understand her well enough to pick the right present! I suspect she may simply not have made the effort in the past - I like Wilmet more than I used to but she can be very self-centred and inclined to expect everyone to make life easy for her.
DeleteLucia: she already has the brooch when we first meet her, but I think when she acquired it she DID believe it was Beethoven’s hair; however that could be because she really wanted it to be, not because there was any hard evidence that it was …
Sovay
I dont know how Pym makes Wilmet so un-annoying....
DeleteNowadays there could be a DNA test to check
A Glass of Blessings is my favourite, I think, followed closely by Excellent Women. Yes, what an extraordinary life Wilmet leads. She appears to do almost nothing! All the household stuff is managed by Sybil. She is rather naive, and also rather spoilt? - for want of a better word - I mean she is almost like a child of the household rather than an adult woman and yet I like her very much. She fails to understand what is going on with Sybil and Professor Root as she fails to understand various other situations in the course of the novel. There is is much gentle comedy in this and it is never unkind. I love it. Chrissie
ReplyDeleteExactly, you put it so well. I try to work out what it is about Wilmet, how Pym draws her so beautifully, and I can never quite pin it down. We have seen so many rich entitled women in novels, but what she does with Wilmet is something quite different.
DeleteFor a start, I always think I would really like her if I knew her.
Yes, I have been wondering about this. I have just had another go at Angela Thirkell and it's no good. The snobbery is too much for me. And yet Barbara Pym does not annoy me in that way. Pym herself was not from a VERY posh background and had to earn a living all. I think Wilmet is likeable because she makes mistakes about people, and realises that they are mistakes and that the joke is on her. She doesn't think she is morally superior to other people. Chrissie
DeleteYes, excellent description of Wilmet. And she is aware that other people do not have such an easy time as she does, and tries to be kind.
DeleteI would say Pym has an awareness of class differences and uses them for humour and plot, but she doesn't think upper class people are actually better - which Thirkell most certainly does.
Susan D here:
DeleteBoth of you have hit upon an important concept about portraying sympathetic characters. "She doesn't think she is morally superior to other people," and "Pym has an awareness of class differences and uses them for humour and plot, but she doesn't think upper class people are actually better." Thanks.
Mourning jewelry couldn't really be very bright and cheery given the situation, to the Victorians anyway! At least Wilmet's present is delicate and not like some monstrosities I've seen online. I wonder if she had to pretend it came from a lost loved one of her own--or would it have been Not Done to ask about it? I've read that in our Civil War, soldiers gave locks of hair to their sweethearts in case they never came back home. Was that also done by British soldiers too?
ReplyDeleteLocks of hair certainly frequently exchanged. I have just been reading a book where someone is under the death penalty, and there is a determination to get a lock of his hair before he dies.... it is very creepy
DeleteBy the late 1950s it seems likely that Wilmet’s brooch would have been accepted simply as an unusual antique, and she wouldn’t have been expected to claim any personal connection with it.
DeleteThe lock of hair from the executed criminal reminded me of all those creepy superstitions surrounding execution victims - the Hand of Glory as featured in “Surfeit of Lampreys”, one of the Hampton house-party guests in “Love in a Cold Climate” bemoaning the loss of her authentic lucky shred of hangman’s rope (“Mrs Thompson too, did I tell you?”), and a Thomas Hardy story called ‘The Withered Arm’ which gave me nightmares.
Sovay
Yes, all so creepy. Hand of Glory turns up in Harry Potter too.
DeleteI was thinking about the Nancy Mitford moment too! 'Roly will never win the National now' - that always stuck in my mind. That poor woman is dead, and that might be bad luck for Roly....
Professor Root somewhat unexpectedly buying the mohair stole reminds me of Inspector Parker going shopping in Paris to buy something for his unmarried older sister (in Clouds of Witness). "He remembered that a learned judge had one day asked in court what a camisole was, and recollected that there had seemed to be nothing particularly embarrassing about the garment when explained. He determined that he would find a really Parisian shop, and ask for a camisole." Or less successfully, Matthew Cuthbert trying to buy Anne of Green Gables the dress with puffed sleeves, and ending up with twenty pounds of brown sugar and a garden rake.
ReplyDeleteI had no recollection of the Clouds of Witness moment, it is excellent! I did a post on bloodstained tweed from that book, I should've done camisole. Funny detail about the court.
DeleteOh Matthew - our hero. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be charmed by him and the quest for the puffed sleeves, makes my cry every time. Two very early entries on the blog.
That photo is so Wilmet! The other day I was pondering Piers' comment about her name, neither one thing nor the other, which I've never understood. Perhaps he doesn't really mean anything.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It wouldn't surprise you if Wilmet kept thinking about something that Piers meant nothing by, a throwaway remark. But I do kind of see what he means - it's not Wilma, nor Winifred, nor Wilhemina.
DeleteAnd then I think of Winston Churchill, who on hearing of an MP called Bossom, said 'he is neither one thing nor the other'....
Not Will, and not Met? When I first read it, not being acquainted with C. M. Yonge or the name from any other context, I wondered if he meant it wasn't either a man's name or a woman's; or that she's very feminine but the name not so much. I suppose I might have thought of the Willamette River, in Oregon, but locals pronounce that Will-AM-ette so it never crossed my mind as an alternate spelling.
ReplyDelete