Some Tame Gazelle

Some Tame Gazelle is Barbara Pym's first novel, originally published in 1950.

Some Tame Gazelle

First edition
Author	Barbara Pym
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Comedy
Publisher	Jonathan Cape
Publication date	1950 (1st edition)
Media type	Print (hardbound)
Pages	252 (1st edition)
OCLC	7094635

The title of the book is taken from the poem "Something to Love" by Thomas Haynes Bayly.[1]

Plot summary

The novel details the lives of two sisters, Belinda and Harriet Bede, both spinsters in their fifties. University-educated Belinda is in love with the local Archdeacon, with whom she studied English poetry many years ago, but who is now married. Harriet, her more attractive sister, is constantly pursued by an Italian count, but she is more interested in the young curates who come to work in the village. During the course of the novel, both Belinda and Harriet meet various men who may be a potential love match. However they must also consider the conflict between entering into marriage at last, or remaining in their comfortable existences.

Publication history

Pym initially wrote Some Tame Gazelle in 1935 while studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford. However the novel was rejected by several publishers including Jonathan Cape and Gollancz [2]. Cape expressed interest in Pym's writing, however, and encouraged her to make some alterations to the text and consider re-submitting [3]. Pym's friend, the up-and-coming literary critic Robert Liddell provided detailed criticism of the novel to assist with edits [4].

World War II interrupted Pym's budding literary career, and she finally revised the novel to the point where it was accepted by Cape in 1950 [5]. The novel sold 3,544 copies in Great Britain by the end of the 1950s, which was not a bestselling figure but was reasonable for a debut novelist [6]. Among the titles Pym considered was Some Sad Turtle [7] and The Well Tam'd Heart [8].

The novel was first published in the United States by E.P. Dutton in 1983. In 2012, the novel was released as an audiobook by Hachette, read by Patience Tomlinson. Some Tame Gazelle was published in Italy as Qualcuno da amare (Someone to love) and in France with the title literally translated as Comme une gazelle apprivoisée.

Reception and analysis

The novel received several positive reviews. The Manchester Guardian called it "an enchanting book about village life" while Antonia White reviewed the novel for the New Statesman[9]:

(Pym) keeps her design so perfectly to scale, and places one mild tint in such happy juxtaposition to another that this reader ... derived considerable pleasure from it.

It has been considered a remarkable first novel, because of the way in which the youthful Pym -- who began the book while she was a student at Oxford, in the early 1930s -- imagined herself into the situation of a middle-aged spinster, living with her sister in the country.[10]. The poet Philip Larkin regarded Some Tame Gazelle as Pym's Pride and Prejudice [11]

Many of the characters in the book are based on Pym's own circle, as she pictured them in twenty or thirty years' time. The two heroines, Belinda and Harriet Bede, are Barbara herself and her sister, Hilary. Archdeacon Hoccleve, a married clergyman for whom Belinda has long nurtured a passion, is believed to be based on Pym's first love, Henry Harvey.[12] In the course of the book, both sisters receive proposals of marriage which they feel obliged to reject, partly because they are not attracted to the men in question, but mainly because they are so used to living together and have become devoted to one another. In fact, Pym and her sister did end up living together in a quiet village in Oxfordshire.

Pym's friend, the British writer Robert Liddell, appears in the novel in the guise of Dr. Nicholas Parnell.[12]

Another character, Count Ricardo Bianco, is based on the real-life count and academic, Roberto Weiss. [13]

Connections to other novels

Pym's characters often recur in minor roles. Harriet Bede reappears in An Unsuitable Attachment, in which Count Bianco's death is also reported, and Archdeacon Hoccleve is featured in Excellent Women and A Glass of Blessings.

Adaptation

Some Tame Gazelle was adapted as a radio play by BBC Radio 4 in 1995 with Miriam Margolyes as Harriet and Hannah Gordon as Belinda [14].

Notes

1. Bayly, Thomas Haynes, Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems, London: Richard Bentley, 1844
2. Pym, Barbara (1984). A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (ed. Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym). New York: E.P. Dutton. p. 56. ISBN 0525242341.
3. Pym 1984, p.60
4. Holt, Hazel (1990). A Lot to Ask: A Life of Barbara Pym. London: Macmillan. p. 57. ISBN 0525249370.
5. Holt 1990, p.145
6. Holt 1990, p.194
7. Pym 1984, p.52
8. Holt 1990, p.57
9. Holt 1990, p.155
10. Barbara Pym Society
11. Holt 1990, p.219
12. Long, Robert Emmet (1986). Barbara Pym. New York: Ungar. p. 8. ISBN 0-8044-2545-0.
13. May, Radmila (Feb 1, 1996), "Barbara Pym in Henley", Contemporary Review
14. BBC Radio Times