Some Tame Gazelle is Barbara Pym

Barbara Pym

Barbara Mary Crampton Pym was an English novelist. In 1977 her career was revived when two prominent writers, Lord David Cecil and Philip Larkin, nominated her as the most underrated writer of the century...

's début novel

Debut novel

A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...

, first published in 1950. It is considered a remarkable first novel, because of the way in which the youthful Pym - who began the book while a student at Oxford before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 - imagined herself into the situation of a middle-aged spinster, living with her sister in the country.

Plot summary

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, and 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. 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, Barbara and her sister did end up living together in a quiet village in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

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Barbara Pym's friend, British writer Robert Liddell

Robert Liddell

Robert Liddell was an English literary critic, biographer, novelist, travel writer and poet. He was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, and educated at Haileybury School and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. During the years 1933 to 1938 he was employed at the Bodleian Library as an assistant in...

, appears in the novel in the guise of Dr. Nicholas Parnell.
Another character, Count Riccardo Bianco, is based on the real-life count and academic, Roberto Weiss

Roberto Weiss

Roberto Weiss was an Italian-British scholar and historian, specialist in Italian-English cultural contacts during the period of Renaissance period and Renaissance humanism.-Early life:...

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