Plot Summary
Many of the characters in the book are based on Pym's own circle, as she pictured them in twenty or thirty years' time. The two heroines, Belinda and Harriet Bede, are Barbara herself and her sister, Hilary. Archdeacon Hoccleve, a married clergyman for whom Belinda has long nurtured a passion, is believed to be based on Pym's first love, Henry Harvey. In the course of the book, both sisters receive proposals of marriage which they feel obliged to reject, partly because they are not attracted to the men in question, but mainly because they are so used to living together and have become devoted to one another. In fact, Pym and her sister did end up living together in a quiet village in Oxfordshire.
Pym's friend, the British writer Robert Liddell, appears in the novel in the guise of Dr. Nicholas Parnell.
Another character, Count Riccardo Bianco, is based on the real-life count and academic, Roberto Weiss.
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