Talk:No Fond Return of Love

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Articles about novels need to describe the plot well enough to understand the story. Who are the key people, who falls in (or out) of love with whom, and how, and what way, and how does it all end. This is the basics. We dont write teasers. DGG ( talk ) 16:34, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

First insertion of the author herself?

Chapter 12 of 'Jane and Prudence':

'Aren't you Miss Barbara Bird? said a tall, youngish woman with large eyes and prominent teeth, addressing Jane.

 ...
 The woman then gave her name, which was unknown to both Jane and Miss Bird, and the titles of the two novels she had published, neither of which seemed familiar.

The tall woman sounds like Barbara Pym.Snugglepuss (talk) 20:48, 16 May 2020 (UTC)

Interestingly in the original draft of 'Jane and Prudence', Pym made it clearer, since the author said that her first novel was called "Some Tame Something"! But I suppose she decided it was a bit too on-the-nose. I think later in her life she would have been clearer. The Cardigan Kid (talk) 01:49, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

The books that include 'Some Tame Gazelle' are not observed by Dulcie in a guest house, but by Viola in the bathroom at Dulcie's house on the day she moves in. Snugglepuss (talk) 21:41, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

If I can reply to myself, I've fixed this. Snugglepuss (talk) 18:52, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Plot summary

It isn't Dulcie who is described as 'ordinary-looking and unaccompanied', but the novelist who has dinner at The Anchorage, the guest house in Taviscombe that Dulcie and Viola stay at for one night before moving on to Eagle House. This is probably Barbara Pym herself. It is The Anchorage that has a 'bright Christian atmosphere', not Eagle House. Snugglepuss (talk) 21:35, 23 May 2020 (UTC)