The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym

She called her new man Lorenzo. She may just have liked the romantic sound of the name, but it is more likely that it was a reference to the Lorenzo of Edward Young’s epic poem, Night Thoughts, written in the 1740s, which she was ploughing through in her studies for the eighteenth-century literature paper. Throughout this rambling meditation on ‘life, death, and immortality’, the poet addresses his ‘Faithful Friend’, the dashing and dissipated Lorenzo, admonishing his faults and exhorting him to moral reform. By a curious coincidence (one of many in Pym’s life), she later discovered that Night Thoughts was one of her very own Lorenzo’s favourite texts.

His real name was Henry Stanley Harvey. He was not a Magdalen man, but was at Christ Church, the richest and poshest of the colleges. Henry’s tutor was C. S. Lewis: Pym had spotted him at Magdalen because that was where the future author of the Narnia books held his fellowship and gave his tutorials.

Henry was tall and movie-star handsome, with dark hair and hazel brown eyes. He had a fine pointed nose, which only added to his seemingly aristocratic look, and was always impeccably dressed. Like Rupert before him, he was fatherless and adored by his mother. Barbara most definitely had a type. Despite his air of superciliousness and arrogance, she detected a strain of vulnerability. Henry was not quite as dashing as Rupert, with his private aeroplane and Winchester background. He was a grammar school boy, whose father had been a surveyor. He was from a similar social class to Barbara, but as a boy with a doting mother and sisters, along with reckless good looks, there was a spoiled quality to his character. She was to capture this trait to perfection in her fictional counterpart.

She set out to discover more about this mysterious stranger. A good stalking ground was the English lecture room. Sure enough, she found herself sitting next but one to him. Perfect for more detailed observation. Barbara saw from the start a quality of cruelty in his demeanour: ‘He doesn’t like being observed but often looks at you in his malicious way.’ He had twinkling ‘(but not pleasantly twinkling)’ eyes, ‘like a duck’. She noted that ‘he walks swiftly, in his effortless yet affected manner’. She even took a survey of his small and mingy handwriting, which sloped to the left. He wrote on plain paper. Above all, she was struck by his mouth. ‘And what a mouth! He is able to curl it in the most fascinatingly repulsive sneering smile.’ She confided to her journal, ‘this diary seems to be going to turn into the saga of Lorenzo’.[3]

By the end of the month, Pym had found out his real name and that he was at glamorous Christ Church. She hoped he would be an entry into a new, more sophisticated circle. She stalked him in the Bodleian Library, observing his herringbone tweed grey overcoat and brown leather gloves, lined with lambs-wool. He made eye contact and passed the occasional sarcastic smile. But no more. She made sure to sit opposite his desk, which was usually littered with books. One of the books was one that she wanted, but she lacked the courage to ask him for it. He had a cold and a cough, ‘also a vaguely hectic flush – or was this my over-solicitous imagination?’[4]

During the last week of January, Pym saw a lot more of him in the library, where he was dishevelled and hectic, finishing an essay before rushing out to a tutorial. ‘We progress not at all,’ she wrote. In February, she saw him at a play in Christ Church, sitting with his friend, Robert ‘Jock’ Liddell, who was a New College man. Henry looked dashing in black flannel bags and a curious striped coat. She noticed his long, slender neck.[5]

Meanwhile another handsome Henry came into her life. His name was Henry (‘Harry’) Howard Harker. He was the son of a miner and a clever scholarship man. He was greatly attracted to the ever-smiling, fun-loving Pym and she might have done better to have chosen him. He invited her to tea and was kind and courteous. But her heart was firmly with the other Henry. She had found out that he was in his final year and she needed to move quickly: ‘In spite of being very conscious of each other, nothing seems to happen!’[6]

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