No Fond Return of Love Audiobook By Barbara Pym cover art

No Fond Return of Love

A Novel

 Preview

$0.00 for first 30 days

Try for $0.00
Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.

No Fond Return of Love

By: Barbara Pym
Narrated by: Mary Sarah
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Three lonely people come together in this poignant, witty novel of star-crossed romance from the New York Times best-selling author of Jane and Prudence.

After being jilted by her fiance, Dulcie Mainwaring despairs of ever finding true love. For a distraction, she goes to a publishing conference, where she meets Viola Dace, a dramatic woman who refuses to live without romance, as well as Aylwin Forbes, an editor whom Viola adores.

The fact that Aylwin is married doesn't stop Viola. When her amorous pursuit prompts Aylwin's wife to leave him, the academic heartthrob is wide open to Viola's romantic attentions. That is, until Dulcie's 18-year-old niece moves in with Viola, and the young girl soon catches Aylwin's roving eye.

Set in London in the early 1960s, No Fond Return of Love is a delightful comedy of manners that comes full circle as Dulcie discovers a love as unexpected as it is liberating.

©1961 The Estate of Barbara Pym (P)2020 Tantor Classics Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction Witty Heartfelt Romance
All stars
Most relevant  
Such a disappointment to listen to the same narrator as the narrator of Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym.

Please get a different narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wonderful story! The characters are very believable and captivating. They are fully developed along with the storyline. The story kept my attention and I found myself that I couldn’t put it down! EXCELLENT! But not fond of narrating.

Wonderful story!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Barbara Pym is my favorite author, and I was thrilled to see so many of her books finally available on Audible. I read the reviews about the dreadful narrator, but I thought how bad could it be? It’s painfully bad. I’m not English, but I’ve visited the U.K. and watch a lot of British TV. I don’t know what this accent is, but it’s deeply annoying. The reading is also bothersome in that the emphasis is often on the wrong word. Do yourself a favor and buy the book! It’s a gem. This audiobook version is appalling. The only comparison I can make is that of the Disney read-along books of my childhood when you turned the page when “Tinkerbell rings her little bell like this!”

Barbara Pym deserves better

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is one of my favorite novels but the narrator had a breathy lilting affected way of speaking that destroyed my pleasure in this book. I don't know that it's her fault; perhaps the studio director told her to talk that way. Julia Whelan is perfectly suited to narrate Pym's books, why not her Audible?

Terrible narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Long my favorite Barbara Pym..though Some Tame Gazelle may be tied...I cannot overstate how rich, delightful, insightful and absorbing this deceptively simple tale is. I love it madly! I adore Dulcie and her observations on the rest of the world and herself--both mild and disarmingly straight forward. ALL of the supporting cast (as with every Pym novel) is stunningly well depicted with minimal but perfectly selected words through behavior even more than description, in very small but extremely memorable scenes. Pym is a genius and I feel this book best exemplifies it.

And...just a super fun read!

Now...I am spoiled by years of listening to my Chivers Audio recording on cassette. I am so delighted to finally have this from Audible. But, though the new narrator is pleasant, Angela Pleasance gave perfect voice to all the odd and eccentric supporting cast in the book. This is especially true of whiny Viola Dace, gruff and indignant Grace Willington, odd Mrs. Beltane, and the very eccentric Mrs. Forbes, plus so very many more. I missed how Angela Pleasance voiced them so very much. The new narrator has a soft-spoken voice that is not suited. It is like having your mother read Harry Potter after hearing Jim Dale read it. And the chapter announcements...are meant to be quite comical? Or almost as if she is bored reading! At any rate, I have grown tolerant, on re-listening but it was a missed opportunity to bring these books to a wider audience. The overall book, well, nothing can mar its exquisite writing.

Delightful English novel of manners and life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
All of Pym's titles are read by Mary Sarah, a reader with a very pronounced Welsh accent. This might work for the Britisih, for whom Welsh speakers aren't unusual or foreign-sounding, but for the average American listener, she is very, very hard to follow. More to the point, a good reader would at least try to approximate the Oxbridge accent that most of Pym's main characters would naturally speak. A Welsh Dulcie Mainwaring just doesn't make any more sense than an Irish or Bostonian or Australian Dulcie Mainwaring.

A Welsh Reader?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Barbara pym is very funny and writes about the English middle class. This reader seems to have no idea of the humor and reads in a faky, simpering tone with the most startling , ludicrous mispronunciations that arrive thick and fast. She seems to be trying to do an English accent, but her mangling of English is spectacularly bad. Please get an English person with a sense of humor to read Barbara Pym’s work.

The brilliant writing and appalling reader

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is one of my favorite books, and the reader hurts my ears, particularly the sugary tone with which she announces each chapter.

Great book awful reader

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the story and writing Is excellent in general, although hated the ending . The male interest/character is an Ephebophilia which is disgusting and makes for an un-likable love interest. But the worst is the ridiculous narration. Hard to understand and just so put on... what accent is she even trying to achieve. Such potential for a good read...ended up total waste of tune and stressful to listen to.

Painful narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very disappointed. I’m not sure the narrator understands the humor and irony in B Pym’s writing.
If she does, it doesn’t come through. The voice doesn’t match the main character’s Dulcie’s personality. She does a bit better with the other characters. Affected and distracting. I couldn’t finish.

Narration fails Barbara Pym’s story and wit

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews