Quartet in Autumn (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Barbara Pym
- First Published: 1977
- Type of Work: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: the early 1970s
- Setting: London, England
- Principal Characters: Letty Crowe, Marcla Ivory, Edwin Braithwaite, Norman
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: 1970’s, Social issues, Alienation, Friendship, Social work, England or English people, Cancer, Death or dying, London, Single people, Widows or widowers, Loneliness, Work or workers, Employment or employees, Eccentrics or eccentricities, Old age or elderly people, Retirement, Aging, Office employees
- Locales: London, England
The Novel
From the first page of Quartet in Autumn, the reader enters the separate, solitary lives of the four main characters. Although they spend most of their waking time together, working at dull office tasks, each one has chosen to live alone, pursuing different routines based on long-standing habits. Treating each character as equal in importance and interest, the author passes in and out of their thoughts, conversations, and activities, sometimes doing so within the same paragraph. Moving from one to another and back again in a closely textured pattern, Barbara...
[The entire page is 2600 words long]
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