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Excellent Women (Paperback)

by Barbara Pym (Author), Alexander McCall Smith (Introduction)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd (3 Sep 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1844084515
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844084517
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5,422 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > P > Pym, Barbara

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Product Description

Review

'One of the most endearingly amusing English novels of the twentieth century' Alexander McCall Smith 'One of the finest examples of high comedy' Lord David Cecil 'I don't think I've ever before recommended a novel as one that everybody will enjoy and yet - even with a certain assurance - I'm prepared to vouch for EXCELLENT WOMEN' Marghanita Laski, OBSERVER 'I pick up her books with joy, as though I were meeting an old, dear friend who comforts me, extends my vision and makes me roar with laughter' Jilly Cooper


Product Description

Mildred Lathbury is one of those 'excellent women' who is often taken for granted. She is a godsend, 'capable of dealing with most of the stock situations of life - birth, marriage, death, the successful jumble sales, the garden fete spoilt by bad weather'. As such, she often gets herself embroiled in other people's lives - especially those of her glamorous new neighbours, the Napiers, whose marriage seems to be on the rocks. One cannot take sides in these matters, though it is tricky, especially as Mildred, teetering on the edge of spinsterhood, has a soft spot for dashing young Rockingham Napier. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest and most touching.
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A marvellous book., 20 Dec 2002
This review is from: Excellent Women (Paperback)
Spinsters, vicars, and anthropologists. It doesn't sound very promising material, but this is one of the best Pyms. While being quietly funny (for instance, the moment when the heroine, having tasted beer for the first time in a pub, is disappointed because it tastes like dishwater), it nevertheless conveys the pathos of the lives of ordinary people like the vicar's unmarried sister, terribly distressed at the spite of his fiancee.
Mildred, the heroine, tells her story in the first person. She is a pillar of the parish who is drawn into the more exciting and dramatic world of her neighbours in the flat below, and then into anthropological circles. This last gives rise to a great deal of humour, as BP makes anthropology sound so ridiculous, if worthy.
One of the great things about BP is the way major charcters in one novel appear as minor characters in another; so, for instance, Allegra Grey is going to move to the parish of, so to speak, "A Glass of Blessings."
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Women, 22 Mar 2007
By A. Hope "bookcrossing ali" (Birmingham, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Excellent Women (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
I was recently reccommended Barbara Pym, by a friend who knew I had enjoyed similar books to hers. This is the first one that I have read. What a treat it was. They just don't write books like this anymore I'm sorry to say. Mildred is a sweet likeable character from another time - considered middle aged at just over thirty - and pitied for being unmarried. In it Barbara Pym seems to be raising the issue of how it is society measures a woman's usefulness - and suggests that "the excellent women" of the title are the ones that people so often depend upon, but never marry - a question which in itself dates the book I suppose - but at the time may have been true for some women at least. I will be reading more by this author soon.

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent reading of Pym's novel, 7 Oct 2000
By Lynette Baines (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Excellent Women: Complete & Unabridged (Audio Cassette)
This is one of Barbara Pym's finest novels, and one of her funniest. Mildred Lathbury, a spinster in her 30's is living in a flat in London after the Second World War. She works part time helping distressed gentlewomen, and is one of the "excellent women" who are involved in her local church. When new neighbours arrive, she is taken into a different world, where anthropologists discuss kinship diagrams, and charming Naval husbands take her out for a drink in the afternoon. At the same time, she is dealing with her friend Winifred, whose brother the vicar is taking too much of an interest in their new lodger,an attractive widow. Juliet Stevenson's reading of the novel is wonderful. She differentiates Mildred's irony from Winifred's almost puppy-like enthusiasm, and Helena Napier's sophistication from Everard Bone's pose of world-weariness with ease. An excellent recording.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not so dated ...
Initially seemed a lightweight book but a keenly observed and light-hearted look at the role of a certain type of woman in society - and still relevant.
Published 2 months ago by MR

3.0 out of 5 stars Re Excellent Women
The book arrived within the stated time. It was very well wrapped.
The condition was that of a book very well handled and read and I am happy to have it . Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. Marion Marshall

5.0 out of 5 stars "I was not really first in anybody's life. I could so very easily be replaced."
Sly and subtle, this comic novel by one of England's most under-recognized novelists depicts the life of its main character so poignantly that readers will find themselves as... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mary Whipple

5.0 out of 5 stars reminiscent of a gentler age...
Superb characterisation, witty, evocative prose..this is a positive jewel of a book. The delightfully witty observations of Mildred are a joy to read.
Barbara Pym? Read more
Published 11 months ago by kitkat40

5.0 out of 5 stars The antidote to "Desperate Housewives!"
Miss Mildred Lathbury, the central character, leads a simple, proper life of doing good. She lives alone in post-WWII London, her limited social life centers around church... Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2007 by stevieby

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