The Sweet Dove Died

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ – Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals ‘Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.’ The lives of Humphrey and James Boyce, a seasoned antique dealer and his good-looking nephew, are changed for ever when the elegant Leonora Eyre glides into their bustling Bond Street salesroom, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. An impassioned bid lands her a coveted book and two equally enthralled companions. As the enigmatic Leonora navigates these relationships, others are drawn into her mysterious and intoxicating web, and a world of human complexities and simmering desires is exposed. Pym brings her unique voice to this darkly comic exploration of love, loneliness and jealousy. ‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ – Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club ‘Faultless’ – The Guardian ‘Her characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly’ – The Observer ‘A coldly funny book’ – The Sunday Telegraph ‘The critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym’s too long neglected gifts have not been wrong’ – Financial Times

‘Barbara Pym is one of my most favourite novelists. Few other writers have given me more laughter and more pleasure’ – Jilly Cooper, author of Rivals ‘Life is cruel and we do terrible things to each other.’ The lives of Humphrey and James Boyce, a seasoned antique dealer and his good-looking nephew, are changed for ever when the elegant Leonora Eyre glides into their bustling Bond Street salesroom, delicate as porcelain, cool as ice. An impassioned bid lands her a coveted book and two equally enthralled companions. As the enigmatic Leonora navigates these relationships, others are drawn into her mysterious and intoxicating web, and a world of human complexities and simmering desires is exposed. Pym brings her unique voice to this darkly comic exploration of love, loneliness and jealousy. ‘I'm a huge fan of Barbara Pym’ – Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club ‘Faultless’ – The Guardian ‘Her characters are all meticulously impaled on the delicate pins of a wit that is as scrupulous as it is deadly’ – The Observer ‘A coldly funny book’ – The Sunday Telegraph ‘The critics who have recently insisted on Miss Pym’s too long neglected gifts have not been wrong’ – Financial Times

An acidly funny novel about a woman who falls for a much younger man by one of Britain's great writers of social comedy, now back in print. A lesser-known, darker sister to Barbara Pym's Excellent Women . The Sweet Dove Died is one of Barbara Pym's last novels, in which her work took on a new, keen edge. It is about a woman's attachment to a man much younger than herself. Beautiful and self-absorbed, Leonora Eyre has a passion for collecting Victorian objects and is coolly indifferent towards everything outside of her fastidious, elegant existence. When she is courted by Humphrey, a widowed antiques dealer, she disdains his advances, preferring rather the attentions of his twenty-four-year-old nephew, James. Leonora's possession of James is challenged, however, first by Phoebe, a bookish young woman his own age, and then by the suave and seductive Ned, a visiting American professor with whom James quickly becomes infatuated. Pym's sharp eye for comedy and shrewd observation of English manners are on full display in this finely wrought novel of love, loss, and all the hopes and disappointments that befall the human heart.

An acidly funny novel about a woman who falls for a much younger man by one of Britain's great writers of social comedy, now back in print. A lesser-known, darker sister to Barbara Pym's Excellent Women . The Sweet Dove Died is one of Barbara Pym's last novels, in which her work took on a new, keen edge. It is about a woman's attachment to a man much younger than herself. Beautiful and self-absorbed, Leonora Eyre has a passion for collecting Victorian objects and is coolly indifferent towards everything outside of her fastidious, elegant existence. When she is courted by Humphrey, a widowed antiques dealer, she disdains his advances, preferring rather the attentions of his twenty-four-year-old nephew, James. Leonora's possession of James is challenged, however, first by Phoebe, a bookish young woman his own age, and then by the suave and seductive Ned, a visiting American professor with whom James quickly becomes infatuated. Pym's sharp eye for comedy and shrewd observation of English manners are on full display in this finely wrought novel of love, loss, and all the hopes and disappointments that befall the human heart.