The Sweet Dove Died

The Sweet Dove Died - Paperback

$16.95
$16.95
Skip to product information
The Sweet Dove Died
  • The Sweet Dove Died
The Sweet Dove Died - Paperback

The Sweet Dove Died - Paperback

by Barbara Pym
$16.95
$16.95

Book Overview

by Barbara Pym (Author), Susie Boyt (Introduction by)

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.

Author Biography

Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was born in Shropshire and educated at Oxford. After serving in the censorship office and the Women's Royal Navy Service during World War II, she worked at the International African Institute in London and served as an editor of the journal Africa until her retirement in 1974. She wrote her first novel, Some Time Gazelle, in the 1930s. It took many years to find a publisher. Five more novels appeared in the fifties and early sixties, and then, though she never stopped writing, sixteen years passed before the publication of her late masterpieces, Quartet in Autumn, The Sweet Dove Died, and A Few Green Leaves (published posthumously).

Susie Boyt is the author of seven novels and the memoir My Judy Garland Life, which was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize, staged at the Nottingham Playhouse, and serialized on BBC Radio 4. She has written about art, life, and fashion for the Financial Times for many years and recently edited The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories by Henry James.
Number of Pages: 240
Dimensions: 0.6 x 7.6 x 4.8 IN
Publication Date: September 16, 2025
ISBN9781681379753
Author Barbara Pym
PublisherNew York Review of Books
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedSeptember 2025
LanguageENG- English
Pages240
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Fiction Humorous Women

1% fer Each of the Seven Seas

Every purchase sends 7% of our profits to The Ocean Cleanup. No fine print, no opt-in — just how we sail.

Whoever Ye Be, Welcome Aboard

Queer lit, music, art, philosophy, fiction — stories for every kind of soul. Come as ye are, matey.

More by Barbara Pym

No Fond Return of Love

No Fond Return of Love - Paperback

No Fond Return of Love - Paperback

By Barbara Pym

About Barbara Pym

Barbara Pym (1913-1980) was a bestselling and award-winning English novelist. Her first book, Some Tame Gazelle (1950), launched her career as a writer beloved for her social comedies of class and manners. Pym is the only author to be named twice in a Times Literary Supplement list of "the most underrated novelists of the century." She produced thirteen novels, the last three published posthumously. Her 1977 novel Quartet in Autumn was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

You may also like