Excellent Women

De: Barbara Pym

Narrado por: Jayne Entwistle

Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high comedies. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest.

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 whom men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors - anthropologist Helena Napier; Helen's 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.

©2016 Barbara Pym (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

At last a Barbara Pym

If you could sum up Excellent Women in three words, what would they be?

Funny, touching, smart.

What about Jayne Entwistle’s performance did you like?

Jayne Entwistle did an excellent job. Her voice was well suited to the book and she did a super job of distinguishing the characters by tone and accent.

Any additional comments?

I have read this book many times and listened to it as well in the old days when it was available on audio cassette. I was always hopeful that Audible would obtain the several titles written by Barbara Pym and I hope they soon add more. At least "Quartet in Autumn" and "Less than Angels" and "Some Tame Gazelle".

A special taste

If you know Barbara Pym, you will know that she writes about the lives of upstanding modest churchgoing women in postwar England to whom nothing very much happens. Within that understood framework, this book is exemplary, and the narration was perfect. I'd like to see more Pym on Audible.
This is not a book for those looking for action, romance or high drama, but it is written with an economy and sensitivity worthy of Jane Austen.

Meh...

This was a strange read, it's a lot to do about nothing. It was just a step into the everyday lives of a group of people that are connected by geography. I almost quit reading it several times but curiosity about the characters pulled me back in. A clean cozy with good narration.

Not a cozy little book

What a dreadful tale is told! Did those in Pym's contemporary readership see the tragedy written large in Mildred's life?

Pym has written a cautionary tale for spinsters of any period.

Kinda boring 💤

Very gentle comedy of manners. Had some good moments but very dated. But if you want a book your mind can wander from and not lose track of anything this is it.

I have enjoyed this program#

I love this reading more and more each time I listen. tactful, real experiences, and elegant. I love the funny embarrassing things we still do to this day.

I can’t wait until Audible makes more of Pym’s work available! 🌹

I loved this book and can’t wait to read more by Barbara Pym. While simmering in underlying satire, I also found it to be a wonderful, nuanced meditation of the inner life of the story’s central character, Mildred Lathbury. The author allows allows us to witness the heroine’s very gradual, but growing awareness of how she is perceived by others—and ultimately sees herself—within the allowances and constraints of her gender in mid-twentieth century London.

The narration by Jayne Entwistle was so good that I never sensed she was “narrating” the book at all. To me she WAS Mildred Lathbury.

Just Perfect.

I don't know what it was about this book that I loved so much! It was a simple narrative of the life of a 30-something spinster in post-war London. It was the first book in a long time where I couldn't wait to get back in my car so I could listen. A lot of reviewers compare her to Jane Austen but Barbara Pym has a writing style that is "easier" than Austen's; there are no huge twists of fate or romantic interludes. "Excellent Women" is unique and I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Rather a drudge

This book didn’t lead anywhere. It does have some dry humor and some descriptions that had me chuckling but it wasn’t worth my time and got me down. Mildred allows herself to be a drudge to all those around her. There is great value to serving others, but she allows herself to be imposed upon by others throughout the novel. I suppose that’s what the book is trying to portray - the plight of the unmarried woman. She would have been a more interesting character if she had interests of her own rather than just responding to everyone around her.

Excellent Book!

Pym's ability to weave vivid and living characters is simply amazing. You get drawn into this book like you are living along with Mildred. Larkin called Pym the most underestimated novelist of the century. Read this and find out why!