A Few Green Leaves

(On receiving a card from a man she once had a fling with:) "Emma stood fingering the card, wondering if there was any significance in the fact that he had chosen to send her a woodland scene. Could it be regarded as a subtle reminder of the time he had spend in the cottage in the woods? But men were not usually subtle in that way--women were too apt to read into their actions thing that were never even thought of, let alone intended." (Ain't that the truth?)

"Emma, sitting between her mother and Isobel, found herself wishing that she had a man with her, though the idea of the man being Graham did not appeal to her. Some nebulous, comfortable--even handsome--figure suggested itself, which made her realise that even the most cynical and sophisticated woman is not, at times, altogether out of sympathy with the ideas of the romantic novelist."


This is the romance novel for the cynical and sophisticated (and maybe slightly aging) woman. Emma is an older, minor anthropologist who moves to a small village to observe the social habits of the village. She participates in the village gatherings (most of which are organized around their low Anglican parish) and recounts them for the reader. Her mother, on the other hand, is a professor of Victorian literature, who sometimes wishes that her daughter had had a life a bit more like one of the characters in her books. There's just the merest little hint of romance in A Few Green Leaves, and most of that is organized by or at least narrated by Emma's mother. Of course, it's just enough for the cynical and sophisticated reader.


(Other Pym novels: Excellent Women and Quartet in Autumn)