A Glass of Blessings (1958)

Wilmet Forsyth is a 1950s housewife in her early 30s. Mildly disappointed with her aimless existence, she gets more involved with her parish, wards off clumsy advances from a friend's husband, and fancies herself in love with the friend's brother, Piers.

The more times I read this book, the more I dislike Wilmet. She really is a terrible snob. For me, it's the minor characters that make this book come alive, plus the little tidbits of information about characters from previous books. ( )

"Oh Wilmet, life is perfect now! I've got everything that I could possibly want. I keep thinking that it's like a glass of blessings - life, I mean..."
"That comes from a poem by George Herbert, doesn't it?" I said. 'When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by ..."
"But don't forget that other line ... how when all the other blessing had been bestowed, rest lay in the bottom of the glass...

In ‘A Glass of Blessings’ we are back in the familiar parochial territory that we first encountered in Some Tame Gazelle, Jane and Prudence and Excellent Women. Wilmet Forsyth is our narrator, in her early thirties; she is a nicely mannered well-dressed attender of high Anglican services. She lives in her mother-in-laws house with her husband Rodney in a respectable suburb of London. Not having really very much to do, Wilmet likes to believe she is able to do good to others, accompanying her mother-in-law to The Settlement – an institution of some unspecified charitable kind – where the exceptionally good, but rather drab Mary Beamish is often to be found. However Wilmet is bored, her husband is slipping into comfortable middle-age – a little fatter and balder than when she had first met him, with his job in The Ministry that he disappears to each day. Wilmet contents herself with the company of three local unmarried priests - helping with the search of a new housekeeper for the clergy house, introducing them to Bason who had previously worked at The Ministry with her husband – a job Bason had proved unsuited for.
“Now’ said Mr Bason moving us on like a guide. ‘I think we might take the merest peep in Father Thames’s study. I expect you would like to see that.’
He had already opened the door before we could express any opinion and I crept forward rather guiltily as if expecting some kind of retribution to fall on me.
The first impression was of a rather crowded museum, for there seemed to be a great many objects arranged in glass-fronted cabinets and on the mantelpiece. The room was dominated by an enormous desk of some rich-looking wood. This rather surprised me, for I had not hitherto had the impression that Father Thames was the scholarly type of clergyman; though, on thinking it over, I supposed that every parish priest must have a large desk, if only to answer his correspondence and prepare his sermons.”
Also providing a welcome distraction – which starts to almost become a rather unsuitable infatuation – is Piers Longridge – the rather unsuccessful brother of Wilmet’s best friend Rowena. Piers works as a proof reader – and teaches Portuguese at night classes that Wilmet and Sybil –her mother-in-law decides to attend.
Wilmet is a likeable character although she seems quite vain, constantly examining herself and her motivations, she often sees herself as not being quite as good as she might be. Wilmet often fails to understand the people around her including her husband and especially Piers, her imagination really running away with itself at times. As the novel progresses Wilmet begins to learn something about love and her relationships with the people in her life, beginning to appreciate the friendship of Mary Beamish rather more than she had done previously. Sybil provides a lively contrast to her daughter-in-law – living life to the full, springing a surprise of her own in the end and proving that she at least has a positive attitude to life and the living of it.
Readers of previous Pym novels will be delighted with the references to characters from Excellent Women and Jane and Prudence – there is even a passing mention of Archbishop Hoccleve from Some Tame Gazelle. I was rather delighted that Wilmet and her friend Rowena had once nursed tender feelings for Rocky Napier. Pym’s wonderfully dry humour and keen observation help to recreate this world that must now surely be gone forever – if it ever really existed, yet it is a world I feel perfectly happy in. ( )

"Oh Wilmet, life is perfect now! I've got everything that I could possibly want. I keep thinking that it's like a glass of blessings - life, I mean..."
"That comes from a poem by George Herbert, doesn't it?" I said. 'When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by ..."
"But don't forget that other line ... how when all the other blessing had been bestowed, rest lay in the bottom of the glass..." (loc 3996)

Barbara Pym novels have been my "comfort read" of choice for several years. After all, what could be more cozy than life revolving around tea drinking and church activities in a quaint English village? When Open Road Media asked if I'd like to review their recently released e-book of A Glass of Blessings, I jumped at the chance.

From the opening paragraph, I was transported to familiar Pymsian surroundings and settled in to enjoy my visit. Before long, however, it became apparent that this story might be something a little different. Pym's characters in A Glass of Blessings display the expected entertaining array of human foibles, but Wilmet Forsyth is deeper and more complex than other Pym heroines. She is immensely likable, yet I often found myself growing frustrated with her. Over the course of the novel, Wilmet gains significant personal insights that eventually allow her to forge stronger relationships with both family and friends.

A Glass of Blessings is my fourth, and new favorite, Barbara Pym novel, but I imagine some aspects must have shocked her readers in 1958. Kudos to Open Road Media for releasing the ebooks in time for Barbara Pym's Centenary and making her work available to a new generation of readers.

My rating:
4.5/5 stars

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(one of 24 books found today at 2nd hand shop...24 for $10!)

Blaise Pascal said the world is divided into two types of people: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous. Clearly into the first group do we designate Wilmet Forsythe, the first-person narrator of Barbara Pym’s "A Glass of Blessings." A faithful churchgoer to High Anglican services in London in the 1950s, she constantly hopes she’s doing something of value for other people, and doubts sometimes do creep in.

And here lies the genius of Barbara Pym: she can establish a character and give her a touching innocence but keep her musings so real and so honest, that she always compels our sympathy. Our love, even. She tells her story with a sly and subtle humor with the joke being at the heroine’s expense most of the time. If this reminds you of Jane Austen, you’re on the right track, but in Pym the internal dialog is more constant and vivid. In "Blessings," we become captivated by Wilmet, a pretty, fashionable housewife on the verge of turning 30. She brings a certain charisma or vivacity to her friends and acquaintances with the simple act of visiting. Her good will and well wishes are really just a bonus. She acknowledges her vanity – which she can hardly help, really – is in conflict with her charitable impulse, and tries always to favor her virtue. Thus we the glamorized readers are towed along the book’s character-driven plot with its gratifying outcomes. That’s the point with Pym: tag along behind the engine of the main character’s internal dialog and see where it takes us.

Open Road Media are re-releasing Ms. Pym’s oeuvre for e-readers this year, and I hope their effort spreads the word about Barbara Pym to the world again. Ms. Pym definitely deserves her reputation for gentility and wit, as well has her burgeoning standing in the pantheon of 20th Century novelists. This book contains not even a hint of a false note, nor a flagging moment, and even though the plot is straightforward, it does contain surprises.

If you haven’t experienced this artist, pick up (or download) "A Glass of Blessings" and introduce yourself to the bewitching and delightful company of Barbara Pym. You will be richer for it.

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