Crampton Hodnet

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Crampton Hodnet is a novel by Barbara Pym, published posthumously in 1985. It was originally written around 1940. "Crampton" was the author's middle name.

[edit] Plot summary

The action takes place in a north Oxford suburb, some time before World War II. Miss Doggett and her companion Miss Morrow, characters who reappear in another Pym novel, Jane and Prudence, like to entertain students and young clergy. When an unmarried curate, Mr. Latimer, comes to lodge at their house, he sees the homely Jessie Morrow as a suitable potential wife, but she rejects his proposal, knowing that he has no real interest in her. Meanwhile, Miss Doggett's cousin, Francis Cleveland, contemplates an extramarital affair with one of his students, Barbara Bird, but returns disappointed to his wife Margaret.

In the book Crampton Hodnet is cited by Mr. Latimer as a village which he pretends he was visiting.