Something Else Very Barbara Pym: Cultural Criticism in Quartet in Autumn

In this article-providing both historical context and critical analysis-I challenge the popular line of scholarly thought that has for years maintained that Miss Pym is not an "issues" writer. I specifically employ Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (1977) and Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (1981)-recognized classics of twentieth-century cultural criticism-to show how Pym, in her last novels, independently arrives at many of the same conclusions for which Berry and MacIntyre are celebrated. It is my further contention that one need not disagree with Lord David Cecil's assessment of Pym's novels as superb "examples of high comedy," to also include her among the relevant cultural critics of her time.