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Excellent Women (1952)

de Barbara Pym

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MembresRessenyesPopularitatValoració mitjanaConverses / Mencions
2,6421205,206 (3.97)1 / 634
"Excellent Women" is one of Barbara Pyms richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergymans daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those excellent women, the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighborsanthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next doorthe novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.… (més)
Afegit fa poc perinunonaizo, lschiff, biblioteca privada, sharishaw49, tcwLT, kakadoo202, strange_analyst, Kamazou, innominate
Biblioteques llegadesArthur Ransome, Barbara Pym
  1. 61
    Hotel du Lac de Anita Brookner (Miels)
    Miels: Similar themes and a the same lovely but understated quality to the writing. Both stories are told with wry humor. Both stories have an underlying sadness. (Though Brookner's book tends more to the melancholy side.)
  2. 72
    Orgull i prejudici de Jane Austen (carlym)
  3. 40
    Commonplace de Christina Rossetti (KayCliff)
    KayCliff: Considers the plight of spinsters
  4. 30
    Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day de Winifred Watson (Eat_Read_Knit)
  5. 00
    Lolly Willowes, or The Loving Huntsman de Sylvia Townsend Warner (carlym)
  6. 00
    Lady on the Burning Deck de Catherine Heath (KayCliff)
  7. 00
    Old Mrs. Camelot de Emery Bonett (MissWoodhouse1816)
  8. 00
    The Odd Women de George Gissing (potenza)
    potenza: Vastly different period and style, yet a similar thematic demographic
  9. 00
    Indelicacy de Amina Cain (potenza)
    potenza: As the the story progressed, I started to hear Barbara Pym. Something of similar sensibility on self and relationships and humor.
  10. 00
    Bird Cottage de Eva Meijer (potenza)
    potenza: Similarly independent protagonist, period, and setting. (Any Barbara Pym is a companion to Bird Cottage.)
  11. 01
    An Episode of Sparrows de Rumer Godden (BeckyJP)
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» Mira també 634 mencions

Anglès (117)  Francès (1)  Suec (1)  Tagal (1)  Totes les llengües (120)
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Somehow i was hoping for an accident and midnight burial in the backyard but it was just snipbits of spinster’s lives. ( )
  kakadoo202 | Sep 17, 2023 |
“I suppose it was cowardly of me, but I felt that I wanted to be alone, and what better place to choose that the sink, where neither of the men would follow me?”

What a wonderfully wry and humorous look into the mid-century British world of ‘excellent women' this turned out to be. Excellent Women are the quiet, spinsterish women who are depended on to keep the wheels of society turning but are never acknowledged for all they do. Do they ever give the men and 'not so excellent' women who take them for granted a second thought? Yes, they do, and those thoughts are what give this story about the mundane chores and conversations that make up the lives of excellent women a delightfully subtle bite.

There is so much going on beneath the surface of this short and, at first glance, simple book I think I could read it again and again and barely skim its surface. ( )
  wandaly | May 15, 2023 |
(2020 has become my year of rereading the novels of Barbara Pym, my favourite novelist - "favourite" in the sense of "speaks most to my soul", not as in "greatest" or "best"; I believe she would have appreciated the distinction. This is my revised review.)

Mildred Lathbury, the protagonist of Barbara Pym's most accessible novel, is - I think - often used as a stand-in for Pym herself, even though I can't quite imagine Mildred having some of Barbara's youthful indiscretions. Certainly, though, I sometimes feel I am Mildred... and I'm a thirtysomething male! Perhaps this is the success of Excellent Women.

The worlds of Barbara Pym novels are usually small; here, indeed, we centre around a youngish spinster, her vicar and his sister, and a collection of anthropologists who have spent so much time examining the practices of other cultures that they are loath to entirely commit to the standard practices of their own. Pym's insight is as sharp as a pin, and her wit stabs like one too.

I sometimes hear Pym compared to another classic 20th century Brit, Anthony Powell (whom she read frequently) but I think there is a clear difference. Powell's characters, in his legendary A Dance to the Music of Time sequence, seem to be in the process of realising that life isn't entirely the tea party privileged young white people are promised. Pym's characters, on the other hand, open the book already aware of this. It is our privilege to watch them deal with this understanding, and seek a way to move forward in spite of it. Mildred's feeling on having to share a bathroom with fellow tenants at her stage in life, for example, is not quite horror, it's just resignation with a hint of self-doubt, and an occasional flutter (usually suppressed) of hope for a better outcome in future.

Amidst the barbs and sighs of Pym's characters, we are witnessing a fantastic cultural document, an entire world unfolding before our eyes. And in every interaction, the missed moments, the unintentional disparagement, the self-doubt amplified into pain and suffering. Unusually for a Pym novel, Excellent Women is in the first person, meaning that we miss out on one of her most sublime talents, an almost post-modern approach to point-of-view, where the author flits disarmingly between characters, allowing us to adapt to one way of thinking before we are rudely reminded that what is logical to one person is absurdity to another.

"Bittersweet" is an easy adjective to describe the end of most of Pym's novels, but perhaps - like the post-war rationing English cuisine that fills her early books - the taste is better described as "tasty but practical". Not overly rich, sometimes making do with a substitute ingredient, and a cheap bottle of wine from the store down the street to go with one's solitary meal. But you know (most of the time) that things will feel a bit better in the morning, with crumpets and tea by the fire. ( )
1 vota therebelprince | May 1, 2023 |
The Queen of England died in the north-too-distant past, and I came across Barbara Pym in one of the articles I read about her life and, I suppose, English society in general. This book is said to be an updated Austen type comedy of manners. Given the setting (post WWII England) that is a bit of a stretch, but I do understand the comparison.

The book centers on a slice of the life of Mildred Lathbury, one of the title's 'excellent women' who are single and often overlooked for the important role they play in society. Mildred lives in a flat with neighbors Julian and Winifred Malory, and we are quickly introduced to the Napiers, new neighbors who become entwined in Mildred's life. We have access to Mildred's musings, so come to know her well.

The book is supposed to be a comedy of manners, but I did not find much amusing about it. I suppose that is because I live in such a different time, when single women often live rich and fulfilling lives. But back then, in post WWII England, things were quite different. I'm supposing that the male population was greatly reduced post WWII, and these sorts of stories about single women rang true. I felt that Mildred lived a happy enough life, but not particularly proactive about seeking her own happiness. Given the times, this doesn't seem unusual. But, for me, it's sad. ( )
  peggybr | Nov 30, 2022 |
I was glad that this picked up in atmosphere towards the end. Mildred Lathbury seemed so sad, not really happy with her circumstances. She seemed to perk up as time went by. There were some delightful moments. But this is not one with everything tied up in a bow at the end. ( )
  njcur | Sep 28, 2022 |
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Nom de l'autorCàrrecTipus d'autorObra?Estat
Barbara Pymautor primaritotes les edicionscalculat
Ashizu, KaoriTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Ford, JessieAutor de la cobertaautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Halligan, GeriNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Houweling, DjukeTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Kiely, OrlaDissenyador de la cobertaautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
McFarlane, DebraIl·lustradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Porte, SabineTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Schuman, JackieDissenyador de la cobertaautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Smith, Alexander McCallIntroduccióautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Uras, ElifTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Wilson, A. N.Introduccióautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Winkler, DoraTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Zulaika, JaimeTraductorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
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"'Dear Mildred, you must learn to feel like drinking at any time. I shall make myself responsible for your education.'" (Rocky Napier to Mildred Lathbury)
I suppose an unmarried woman just over thirty, who lives alone and has no apparent ties, must expect to find herself involved or interested in other people's business, and if she is also a clergyman's daughter then one might really say that there is no hope for her.
Let me hasten to add that I am not at all like Jane Eyre, who must have given hope to so many plain women who tell their stories in the first person, nor have I ever thought of myself as being like her.
I was helping Winifred to sort out things for the jumble sale. "Oh, I think it's DREADFUL when people send their relations to jumble sales," she said. "How CAN they do it?" She held up a tarnished silver frame from which the head and shoulders of a woman dressed in Edwardian style looked out. "And here's another, a clergyman , too." ... "It might almost be somebody we know," lamented Winifred. "Imagine if it were and one saw it lying on the stall! What a shock it would be! I really think I must take the photographs out - it's the frames people will want to buy." "I don't suppose their own relatives send them," I said comfortingly. "I expect the photographs have been in the boxroom for years and nobody knows who they are now." "Yes, I suppose that's it. But it's the idea of being unwanted, it's like sending a PERSON to a jumble sale - do you see? You feel it more as you get older, of course. Young people would only laugh and think what a silly idea."
Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing.
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"Excellent Women" is one of Barbara Pyms richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergymans daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those excellent women, the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighborsanthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next doorthe novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

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