Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (Review)

First Published in 1952.


Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym’s richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman’s 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 neighbors—anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door—the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

My Review:

This is my first novel by Barbara Pym. I did enjoy reading it. I love British literature. This book is set in 1950s England. The basic plot is set around the concept of excellent women. They are the women who are not married but are smart, supportive, repressed. The main character, Mildred Lathbury, is one of them. She is an only child of a clergyman. Her parents have been deceased and she is all alone except for friends. She is good friends with her vicar, Julian, and his sister Winifred. Winifred is another one of those excellent women. One day she gets new neighbors in her building, Helena and Rocky Napier. They are an unusual couple. Helena is an anthropologist. Rocky is in the military. They are opposites and fight often. Mildred gets drawn into their lives. They also help open her world. I loved the descriptions of people and surroundings in the book. The humor in it is understated. The situations Mildred finds herself in are interesting. I do not want to give away the whole plot but the ending fits the book.

Recommended.

Brittanie's Classics Club Reading List

I have decided to join something called The Classics Club. I have not been reading enough classics the past few years and I want to challenge myself to read more. My list has 100 books on it. The time limit is five years so starting 2017 and ending 2021. Some I have read before and its been so long I don't remember why I liked it so I want to reread and see if they are still favorites. I put in bold the ones that will be rereads for me. Some are books I never read in school but are wide read classics and I want to see what the fuss is about. Others are just books that the plots appealed to me. If you would like more information here is the link to the site. https://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com/

Alcott, Louisa May: Jo’s Boys
Alcott, Louisa May: Little Men
Alcott, Louisa May: Little Women
Austen, Jane: Emma
Austen, Jane: Lady Susan
Austen, Jane: Mansfield Park
Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey
Austen, Jane: Persuasion
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Love and Friendship
Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
Baker, Frank: Miss Hargreaves
Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan
Baum, L. Frank: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Bradbury, Ray: Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray: The Martian Chronicles
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights
Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Making of a Marchioness
Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
Burney, Frances: Evelina
Burns, Olive: Cold Sassy Tree
Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Cather, Willa: Death Comes for the Archbishop
Cather, Willa: My Antonia
Christie, Agatha: The Murder at the Vicarage
Collins, Wilkie: No Name
Collins, Wilkie: The Law and the Lady
Collins, Wilkie: The Woman in White
Connell, Evan: Mrs. Bridge
Dante: The Divine Comedy
de Cervantes, Miguel: Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield
Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol
Dickens, Charles: Great Expectations
Dickens, Charles: Oliver Twist
Dickens, Charles: The Pickwick Papers
Dickens, Monica: Mariana
Dickens, Monica: The Winds of Heaven
Downes, Mollie Panter: Good Evening, Mrs. Craven
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: A Study in Scarlet
Dumas, Alexander: The Count of Monte Cristo
Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
Eliot, George: Middlemarch
Ferguson, Rachel: The Bronte's Went to Woolworth
Fisher, Dorothy: The Home-Maker
Fitzgerald, F. Scott: This Side of Paradise
Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby
Forster, E.M.: Room With a View
Gaskell, Elizabeth: Mary Barton
Gaskell, Elizabeth: Cranford
Gibbons, Stella: Cold Comfort Farm
Graham, Winston: Ross Poldark
Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
Hemingway, Ernest: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hugo, Victor: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
Leroux, Gaston: The Phantom of Opera
Leverson, Ada: Love's Shadow
Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
Mackail, Denis: Greenery Street
Mankowitz,Wolf: A Kid for Two Fartherlings
Montgomery, L M: The Golden Road
Montgomery, L M: The Story Girl
Montgomery, L M: Pat of Silver Bush
Montgomery, L M: Mistress Pat
Montgomery, L M: Further Chronicles of Avonlea
Montgomery, L M: Emily Climbs
Montgomery, L M: Emily of New Moon
Montgomery,L M: Emily's Quest
Montgomery, L M: Blue Castle
Montgomery, L M: Magic for Marigold
Montgomery, L M: The Road to Yesterday
Montgomery, L M: Anne of Green Gables
Montgomery, L M: Anne of Avonlea
Montgomery, L M: Anne of the Island
Montgomery, L M: Anne of Windy Populars
Montgomery, L M: Anne's House of Dreams
Montgomery, L M: Anne of Ingleside
Montgomery, L M: Rainbow Valley
Montgomery, L M: Rilla of Ingelside
Montgomery, L M: Chronicles of Avonlea
Pym, Barbara: Excellent Women
Stevenson, D E: Mrs. Tim of the Regiment
Stevenson, D E: Listening Valley
Stevenson, D E: Celia's House
Stevenson, D E: The Baker's Daughter
Stevenson, D E: Miss Buncle Married
Stevenson, D E: Miss Buncle's Book
Stevenson, D E: The Two Mrs. Abbotts
Stevenson, D E: The Young Clemetina
Stevenson, D E: The Four Graces
Swift, Jonathon: Gulliver’s Travels
Tolkein, J.R.R.: The Hobbit
Tzsu, Sun: The Art of War
Verne, Jules: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Wells, H G: The Time Machine
Welty, Eudora: The Optimist's Daughter
Whipple, Dorothy: Greenbanks