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Title: Excellent Women (Penguin Classics)
ISBN: 014310487X
Author:
Barbara Pym
Publicate Date: 2006-12-26
Publish: 2006-12-26
List Price: $14.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $7.78
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.77
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.20
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Boring
This type of book does not show any excitement for me. I like books that are adventerous and contain historical facts.
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2: Charming Story
This easy to read story is quite entertaining and most enjoyable. It is a story of a single English woman and her reactions to new neighbors and new friends and how they influence her daily life.
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3: My first Pym; I'm hooked
I was introduced to Barbara Pym's work through a Shelfari group I belong to. Everyone in that group is just mad about her, so I felt inspired to read her too, to see what all the fuss was about.
Excellent Women is the story of Mildred Lathbury. Actually, the book isn't so much about Mildred as it is about the people around her; Mildred, one of the "excellent women," has a sharp eye for detail and a subtle kind of wit. Unmarried, she lives and works in London and is heavily involved in church activities. The other major characters are Helena and Rocky Napier, a couple whose relationship is on the rocks, as well as Everard Bone, a surly anthropologist. It's a novel of romantic misadventures, with lively characters. Although the setting is bucolic, and the humor so subtle that at times it can't be noticed, there's something wonderful about the way the characters interact with one another. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Pym's novels.
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4: Praise and a Warning
Barbara Pym is one of the funniest, most perceptive writers of the twentieth century. And Excellent Women, though not quite as good as the later Quartet in Autumn, is a spot-on comedy about an almost extinct personage: the gentlewoman spinster. Mildred Lathbury is a plain young woman--though "not at all like Jane Eyre, who must have given hope to so many plain women"--whose life consists of church jumble sales and of observing the drama of the lives of those around her. In this way, her character is reminiscent of Jane Austen's heroines Anne Elliot and Fanny Price, who are more often observers than actual actors in their own tales. In fact, it is with Austen that Pym is typically compared, especially on book jackets.
A word to the wise--don't read too much into the Austen comparison, especially if you're a lay reader. Pym certainly shares Austen's wit and discernment, yet I think most contemporary readers, whether they're willing to admit it or not, enjoy Austen mainly for the happily-ever-after love stories. If this is you, Pym probably isn't your cup of tea. Although her novels are classified as comedies, they are by no means light-hearted or romantic; "bleak" might be the best word to describe them. Even the modicum of happiness that her characters achieve is tempered by an awareness that nothing has really changed, and that life will continue to be full of Sisyphean labors like church meetings and anthropology papers.
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5: "Excellent Women" by Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym is as subtle and sharp as Jane Austen and gives an understated but accurate portrayal of what life must have been like for the single woman in the 1950's. Gentle humour suffuses the book with the characters springing to life in just a phrase or two. Each chapter ends gently with (what must have been for the suburban woman) a cliffhanger! Don't read all at once, but take in small doses and with relish.
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