Editing Quartet in Autumn (section)

==Reception==
Combined with the media interest after the piece in ''The Times Literary Supplement'', ''Quartet in Autumn'' was a success, with almost universally positive reviews, including in ''[[The Guardian]]'' and ''[[The Sunday Times]]''.<ref>Holt 1990, p.260</ref> ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' considered the book "Terribly brisk, but very affecting".<ref>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/barbara-pym/quartet-in-autumn/ Kirkus Reviews, 1 August 1978, accessed 26 April 2020]</ref> The only publications to write mixed reviews were ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' and the ''[[New Statesman]]''.<ref>Pym 1984, p.307</ref> As this was the first time most American readers had heard of Pym, there was especial interest in her from American media outlets. ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' favourably reviewed ''Quartet'' alongside the earlier ''[[Excellent Women]]''<ref>[https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1978/11/09/ladies-in-distress/ Miller, Karl, ''Ladies in Distress'', New York Review of Books, 9 November 1978, accessed 26 April 2020]</ref> while ''[[The New York Times]]'' published a review entitled ''The Best High Comedy''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Glendinning |first=Victoria |date=1978-12-24 |title=The Best High Comedy |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/24/archives/the-best-high-comedy.html |access-date=2023-02-03 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In later years, ''Quartet in Autumn'' was described as "a small ironic masterpiece on the theme of aging".<ref>Carey Kaplan, ''Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe'', Routledge, 2013, [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Women_Writers_of_Great_Britain_and_Europ/oeFcAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=rejected+%22Quartet+in+Autumn%22&pg=PA370&printsec=frontcover p. 369]</ref> Many readers had commented on how true to life was Marcia's mental and physical deterioration in particular.<ref>Emily Stockard, ''The Testing of Barbara Pym'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Testing_of_Barbara_Pym/GtDeEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=rejected+%22Quartet+in+Autumn%22&pg=PA183&printsec=frontcover pp. 189-191]</ref>