Excellent Women | Barbara Pym #ComfortRead

I'm struggling to write reviews at the moment (my Covid Chronicles posts are the writing exception), but I am slowly reading through a few books. One that I've just finished is Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym. It was her very first book published in 1950. I was curious to see what I had to say about her other books, that I had read quite a while ago. 

Turns out it was seven years ago!

I posted my first Barbara Pym review on the 4th June 2013. It was for Excellent Women, her second novel published in 1952. I give you a revised peek into a gorgeous book and a beautifully conceived reading week below.

I am a recent convert to the charming world of Pym.
By recent, I mean just 3 days ago! 

Barbara Pym has been on my radar for a while though. But it wasn't until I joined in The Classics Club Their Eyes Were Watching God sync reading two months ago that I made the first move. 

My copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the designer collection put out by Virago Modern Classics. I loved it so much (book and cover) that I researched to see what other titles were still available in the range.
Excellent Women was one of them...so I snapped it up.

It has been sitting on my bedside table for two months now tempting me with it's delicious cover by Orla Kiely. When I saw that Thomas at My Porch and Amanda at Fig and Thistle were hosting a Pym reading week in honour of her 100th birthday I saw it as a sign to finally give in to temptation. 

I'm so glad I did. 

Excellent Women has turned out to be a charming, drawing room period piece full of grace and at times, quite biting humour. 

I've seen many references that compare Pym's writing to Jane Austen.
As a long-time Austen fan I can see the similarities - the humorous observations, the details describing the lives of women in the particular period that the two women wrote of. But Austen's ability to weave her plot lines, dialogue and characters into such tight, dare I say, perfect stories is a stand out difference. 

Perhaps Mildred is the post war Charlotte Lucas with a choice of two Mr Collins'. Except Mildred, unlike Charlotte, has more options - Mildred does not have to accept Julian or Everard (if they ever make an offer that is). Mildred can work, she can be independent, she need never be a burden on siblings or nieces and nephews. 

I see Pym's gentle, everyday stories of 'good' women fitting more into the Anita Brookner and Alice Munro writing style.

All four authors share the ability to show us the quotidian events that affected their characters in the times that they lived. 

I keep coming back to this point, because I often read reviews that complain about the lack of feminist rhetoric in Austen and Pym in particular. But that's not the world their characters lived in. Their women were strong, intelligent (mostly) and loving (usually). Their opinions and ideas were based on the world they lived in. They accurately reflected their class, their education and their experiences. 

Mildred's gentle, loving church upbringing meant that she was never going to be one of the bra-burning generation. Some of the most poignant moments in Excellent Women are when Mildred is forced to come face to face with more modern ideas and people. She is the classic fish out of water. 

Mildred was part of that large group of women who remained unmarried after WWII due to the tragic loss of so many (marriageable) men. She worked, lived independently, dreamed her romantic dreams, but ultimately developed a pragmatic, busy and self-contained life to disguise any loneliness or despair that might have crept in. She accepted her lot in life with grace and forbearance.  

I lived a single, fiercely independent life for 18 years (before finding my very own Mr Knightley/Captain Wentworth). I know the joys and freedoms of single life and I also know it's downsides. I know the private deals you make with yourself.

Mildred's experience is authentically drawn by Pym. My heart aches for Mildred - her determination to make the best of things is heart warming and heart breaking in the same breath. 

There is definitely more Pym on my horizon.

And indeed there was!

An Academic Question on the 8th June 2013
Jane and Prudence on the 8th July 2013

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

Jane and Pru has all the trademark Pymesque qualities that I have come to know and love very quickly.

It's not as tightly drawn or poignant as Excellent Women, but bumbling curates, index cards and copious amounts of tea and cake can keep one amused for quite some time!

I've only lived in the UK for a short period of time, many years ago, so my knowledge of British men is limited, but I did meet several of the bumbling, helpless, hopeless men that populate Pym's novels. They do exist.

I am curious about all the other types of men though. Did Pym never meet any of them? Did she not find them as amusing perhaps?

Even though happily married now, I recognised a lot of myself in Prudence.
Not so much the endless flings (Pru is one of those people in love with the idea of being in love, who loves the beginning of a relationship more than the follow through).

But I did recognise the desire for freedom, bohemia and an intellectual life. In Pru it manifested itself in gorgeous house clothes, the Vogue style home furnishings and the self-consciousness of how her life might look to others.

Pym's characters are not always warm, lovable or even completely likable. Instead they are flawed, sometimes annoying, often irritating but 100% human.

I'm looking forward to my rereads of Pym. From everything I've read Pym grows on you with each reread. In this case, familiarity does not breed contempt.

An Academic Question by Barbara Pym

As luck would have it, one of the Pym books I placed on order earlier in the week (after enjoying Excellent Women so much) turned up at work this afternoon just as I was leaving for my 4 day long weekend.

The first thing I want to point out is that the only versions available in Australia are the 2012 Virago's with the covers as pictured.

I don't actively dislike these covers, but after my gorgeous Designer collection cover for Excellent Women and seeing Thomas' book cover post at My Porch (where he highlighted the fabulous cover collection designed by Jackie Schuman), I was left feeling somewhat disappointed.

Thomas poses the question that perhaps these new covers by Jessie Ford appeal to a younger audience.

After extensive research (ie chatting with my 19 year old colleague) whose immediate and unprompted response when she saw the book was "cool cover!" I can only assume that, yes, these new covers do appeal to a younger audience!

An Academic Question (1986) was published posthumously by Pym's friend & biographer, Hazel Holt who combined the various versions, notes and drafts left by Pym on her death in 1980.

All the usual Pymesque elements are at play in An Academic Question (cups of tea, gentle observation, biting humour, index cards and solitude). However this time we follow the day to day life of a married woman unsatisfied with her 4 yr child and household duties.

I've read many comments about how unsatisfactory this 'married with children' plot since Pym was obviously writing about something she was not familiar with herself!
This type of criticism gets up my nose for three reasons!!
1. Where would we be if authors had to restrict themselves to writing about what they know? We would have no historical fiction, no science fiction, no fantasy, no poetry, no magical realism.
2. Just because she was unmarried didn't mean that Pym's life was devoid of relationship experience or that she was somehow unable to use her sharp-eyed observational skills on the married couples in her circle.
3. As a teacher of 18 years I can assure you that there are many women who struggle to feel maternal instincts and who chaff at the whole domestic arrangement. Pym is simply writing a story about one of those women.

Now that I've got that off my chest, let me say that this story is not as enthralling as Excellent Women was. But there's enough there to keep me going until the finish.

Finally, a big thank you to Thomas at My Porch for hosting the Pym Reading Week. It has been entertaining and informative. My life feels richer for having discovered the world of Pym :-)

 

"The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasures like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard."

 

BARBARA PYM