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“The finest introduction to Barbara Pym” (The New York Times): a hilarious comedy of manners by the shrewdly observant British novelist often compared to Jane Austen
One of Barbara Pym’s richest and most amusing high comedies, Excellent Women has at its center Mildred Lathbury, 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.
Publisher : Penguin Classics
Publication date : December 26, 2006
Edition : Reprint
Language : English
Print length : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 014310487X
ISBN-13 : 978-0143104872
Item Weight : 6.4 ounces
Dimensions : 0.6 x 5.1 x 7.8 inches
Lexile measure : 940L
Customers say
Customers enjoy this British comedy of manners novel for its quiet humor and uncomplicated writing style, with one review noting how it looks keenly into the absurdities of everyday life. The book features excellent character development and is particularly appealing to female readers, with one review highlighting its sharp character sketches. While many find it a delightful read, others describe it as utterly boring.