Excellent Women and quiet wit: Barbara Pym rediscovered at Book Club

Eight of us met in Hanami on 13th May and discussed Excellent Women by Barbara Pym.

First published in 1952, Excellent Women was Barbara Pym’s second published novel and became one of her best-known works. It follows Mildred Lathbury, a sensible, observant unmarried woman living in post-war London, whose quiet life revolves around church activities, friendships and the small rituals of everyday society. Mildred becomes entangled in the affairs of her glamorous new neighbours, Helena and Rockingham Napier, and their circle, watching with dry amusement as marriages falter, affections shift and misunderstandings multiply. Through Mildred’s witty, understated narration, Pym explores loneliness, companionship, women’s roles and the hidden dramas beneath ordinary lives.

Nigel introduced it, saying he had first read it in the early 1980s, after the author had been rediscovered. The timing of her writing life was unlucky. In the 1940s and 50s she wrote several novels which were published by Jonathan Cape and well received, but to reducing sales. In 1963 the publisher rejected her latest novel, saying that her writing was too old-fashioned and readers were no longer interested in novels about "spinsters and vicars". But times changed, and in 1977 her cause was championed by Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil (two men, I'm pleased to note) and she had a resurgence of interest and publishing.

I thought it was of interest that (I assume by chance) we read it the month after Persuasion. There are certainly strong points of similarity between the authors. Both write about a limited world and social class, and with a pointed but gentle wit. (Wikipedia says that Philip Larkin described her book Some Tame Gazelle as Pym's Pride and Prejudice.) But there are marked differences between their worlds. Jane Austen wrote when middle-class women had no future except through marriage, a dominant theme in her plots. Pym's women work and generally support themselves, though not in affluence. Excellent Women is set a few years after the end of WW2, in a London still shabby and recovering. The excellent women are mostly unmarried, church-going and playing a quiet and conscientious part in their communities. Most of the men are entertaining but less admirable! We agreed she can depict flawed characters but she is never unkind to them. There was much discussion about the personalities, women's roles and different marriages. We all enjoyed and admired the book.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 10th June, and Lorna will introduce The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell.