Crampton Hodnet is one of Pym's earliest novels, although it remained unpublished until late in her career. It introduces the characters of Miss Doggett and Jessie Morrow.

The novel is set in Oxford and follows the romantic asignations of several members of the small university-related community: a don who is dallying with a student (in a particularly absent-minded professor kind of way), the don's daughter, and a new curate who is young and unmarried. All the characters are shaped by their internal worlds, and all remain true to them. And, in the end, they all get what they deserve (both good and bad). Pym's psychological insight into her characters is masterful.

The book is laugh-out-loud funny and is a pure indulgence. Pym is a master of portraying hidden flirtations and surpressed emotions. But this is no mere romance novel. Pym is an excellent observer of human nature, and not all the couples in the book are happy at the end.

Here's a taste of Pym's prose (from p. 31):

But Mr. Latimer was glad when, by some movement of the crowd, he found hemself next to Miss Morrow. If he had analysed his feelings he would have realised that he turned to her with relief, as one does to a person with whom one need not make conversation. But there was no personal quality in his feeling for her. He regarded her simply as a man might regard a comfortable chair by the fire, where he can sit with his slippers on and a pipe in his mouth.

Miss Morrow felt this, but it did not worry her. Inanimate objects were often so much nicer than people, she thought. What person, for example, could possibly be so comforting as one's bed? And although she hardly dared to imagine that he thought as highly of her as of his bed, she was nevertheless conscious of a certain easy relationship between them which pleased her.