Less Than Angels
A Novel
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3.7 • 22 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A tale of a woman’s romantic entanglements with two anthropologists—and the odd mating habits of humans—from the author of Jane and Prudence.
Catherine Oliphant writes for women’s magazines and lives comfortably with anthropologist Tom Mallow—although she’s starting to wonder if they’ll ever get married. Then Tom drops his bombshell: He’s leaving her for a nineteen-year-old student.
Though stunned by Tom’s betrayal, Catherine quickly becomes fascinated by another anthropologist, Alaric Lydgate, a reclusive eccentric recently returned from Africa. As Catherine starts to weigh her options, she must figure out who she is and what she really wants.
With a lively cast of characters and a witty look at the insular world of academia, this novel from the much-loved author of Excellent Women and other modern classics is filled with poignant, playful observations about the traits that separate us from our anthropological forebears—far fewer than we may imagine.
Customer Reviews
More or less angels!
While many of Barbara Pym’s novels revolve around Anglican Church village life or London districts and suburbs (also church-centric), Less Than Angels paints a sublime portrait of a archeologist-centric world...and a rather hilarious one at that. Published in England in 1955, and like so much of Pym’s writing, Less Than Angels is a finely crafted satire of manners, class, sex, love, prejudices, academia...much like an archeological study itself of a prosperous postwar era, with tiny, hard to erase crumbs of a Victorian past. The whole cast of characters are not fallen “angels”, but real, incredibly kind, thoughtful and often quite humorous angels, just with a very human patina.
I was so disappointed
I could not compel myself to feel for these characters. I saw it through to the end, but felt bored and sad.