Teaser Tuesdays: Some Tame Gazelle

This week, in honor of Barbara Pym's birthday (she was born June 2, 1913 / and died in 1980) I thought it would be fun to take my teaser lines from one of her books. It's hard to choose -- I love everything she wrote. And it's very hard to limit myself to two sentences. So I'm just using the opening lines from her first book, Some Tame Gazelle:

The new curate seemed quite a nice young man, but what a pity it was that his combinations showed, tucked carelessly into his socks, when he sat down. Belinda had noticed it when they had met him for the first time at the vicarage last week and had felt quite embarrassed. Perhaps Harriet could say something to him about it. Her blunt jolly manner could carry off these little awkwardnesses much better than Belinda's timidity. Of course, he might think it none of their business, as indeed it was not, but Belinda rather doubted whether he thought at all, if one were to judge by the quality of his first sermon.

One of the most interesting things about the book is that even though it tells the story of two middle-aged spinster sisters and was published in 1950, Pym wrote it when she was quite a young woman -- in fact, she began writing it while she was still a student at Oxford in the 1930s. Many years later, she and her sister Hilary ended up living together in an arrangement similar to that of Belinda and Harriet Bede in the book. If you've never read anything by Barbara Pym and would like to sample something, Some Tame Gazelle is probably the most typical and accessible of all her works. And it's a lovely read.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Jenn at A Daily Rhythm. If you'd like to read more teasers, or take part yourself, just head on over to her blog.

And please feel free to leave me a link to your Teaser Tuesday post in your comment here.