Jane and Prudence
By: Barbara Pym ; introduced by Jilly Cooper
Series: Virago modern classics; Virago modern classics
Publisher: Virago
Published: 2007
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781844084494
Subjects: Spouses of clergy; Single women; Female friendship; Fiction
Description: Prudence pays Jane a visit in an English village where Jane's husband is the newly appointed vicar, and finds herself courted by a fatuous young widower. Prudence, at twenty-nine, has achieved nothing in life but a dull research job in London and a string of dud affairs; Jane, now in her forties, was Prudence's tutor at Oxford. Jane cheerfully concedes that she is an incompetent housewife, but she hopes that the move to a rural parish may transform her into a Trollopean vicar's wife, as well as a crafty matchmaker. There are many comic complications, as Jane learns that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as does housewifery.