A Glass of Blessings

A Novel

By: Barbara Pym

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

Barbara Pym's early novel takes us into 1950s England, as seen through the funny, engaging, yearning eyes of a restless housewife.

Wilmet Forsyth is bored. Bored with the everyday routine of her life. Bored with teatimes filled with local gossip. Bored with her husband, Rodney, a civil servant who dotes on her. But on her 33rd birthday, Wilmet's conventional life takes a turn when she runs into the handsome brother of her close friend. Attractive and enigmatic, Piers Longridge is a mystery Wilmet is determined to solve. Rather than settling down, he lived in Portugal, then returned to England for a series of odd jobs. Driven by a fantasy of romance, the sheltered, naïve Englishwoman sets out to seduce Piers - only to discover that he isn't the man she thinks he is.

As cozy as sharing a cup of tea with an old friend, A Glass of Blessings explores timeless themes of sex, marriage, religion, and friendship while exposing our flaws and foibles with wit, compassion, and a generous helping of love.

©1958, 1980, 2008 Barbara Pym (P)2020 Tantor

My favorite author

I’ve loved Barbara Pym for years. Excellent Women is my favorite, and I pleaded with Audible to find or make more Pym audio recordings. Imagine my delight when I found several recently. I used all my points to purchase the new Pym recordings. I had listened to a sample if Mary Sarah reading one or two and was concerned about her fake British breathy, oddly-phrased reading. Mary Sarah comes VERY close to making these recordings unlistenable— she’s absolutely horrible. I’ll try to persist as any other recordings are nearly impossible to obtain. But I must ask Mary, would finding out how the British pronounce “mass” be so difficult ?

Brilliant Barbra Pym; Perfect narrator

Barbra Pym's subtle, ironic, insightful comedies of manners are often just exactly what I need to read. Mary Sarah narrates this beautifully, adding her own measure to the art.

Terrible narrator for a wonderful book!

Once again, I found the narrator terrible and I can’t imagine why she was hired to narrate these wonderful Barbara Pym books.

Delightful, absorbing and insightful

Insightful and charming, another wonderful Barbara Pym novel, that so accurately reflects a time, place and strata in post WWII England. One of her very talented attributes is the seamless and usually very funny, or at a minimum, highly interesting, inclusion of small subplots and minor characters. The minor characters and their situation are highly memorable and absorbing. An example in this novel is the minor characters associated with St. Luke's, such as the young man obsessed with his car. One aspect I love about this novel is that the author's portrait of the main character is affectionate...in the hands of a less subtle novelist, she would probably be vilified and ruined. Highly recommended.

I know the narrator was terribly disappointing in some of the other Pym's, but she is better in this one, partly because her natural voice fits Wilmet, the main character.

Pleasant and relaxing story though with a horrible narrator

This narrator almost ruins the story- she has a strange sing-song lilt to her voice and her intonations make many declarative sentences sound like questions.
It is very unfortunate that she has apparently been chosen to narrate most of the work of Ms. Pym.