Excellent Women

The clothes worn by the women in this photo look exactly as I
imagine those worn by Mildred and her friends.

T

oday's offering for the 1952 Club, is Excellent Women by Barbara Pym, which is, as you might expect, an excellent book! The heroine (I will call her that, although I am certain it is not how she would see herself) is Mildred Lathbury, a 30-ish spinster who is a stalwart member of the local church, helping with teas, flowers, jumble sales, fetes and so on. She works part-time for an organisation which aids impoverished gentlewomen, which is, she tells us 'a cause very near to my own heart, as I felt I was just the kind of person who might one day become one'.

But Mildred's colourless life takes a turn for the better when Helena and Rockingham Napier move into the flat beneath her. When the two women first meet (by the dustbins in the basement), it is obvious that they are unlikely to become friends. Helena is 'fair-haired, and pretty, gaily dressed in corduroy trousers and a bright jersey'. Mildred is clad in a shapeless overall and an old fawn skirt, which draw attention to the fact that she is mousy and plain. And their outlook on life is also at a variance: Helena has no use for church, and no time for cooking and housework. An anthropologist, she is writing up her notes on kinship groups, following a research trip to Africa with a male colleague. Meanwhile, her naval officer husband has spent the last 18 months in a luxurious Italian villa looking after 'dreary' WRNS in 'ill-fitting white uniforms'.

When I was a child, women wore crossover overalls 
to to protect their clothes around the house. They were
 often made from old dresses, sometimes with sleeves, and 
were usually shapeless and faded,  with a tie round the waist.
(Pic of vintage overall pattern from Etsy site My Vintage Wish)

Rocky is charming, an educated, sophisticated man of taste, who puts people at their ease without even trying. I imagine him looking a bit like Montgomery Cliff in The Heiress (which is a travesty of Henry James' Washington Square, but nonetheless very enjoyable). Sensible Mildred feels the attraction, though she is aware he is frivolous, flirtatious and unreliable, totally unlike her friend the Vicar, Father Julian Malory. It might be supposed that Mildred and Julian are destined to marry - what could be be more suitable you ask yourself. But he falls for the charms of beautiful, sad-eyed widow Allegra Gray.

I think this advert, from 1951, has something of the feel 
of Rocky charming an adoring woman. (Pic from 
 https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1216651471/vintage-ad-1951-pacific-mills-mens-suit)

Much to her surprise, Mildred finds herself drawn into the Napiers' chaotic lifestyle, and meeting new people, including Helena's fellow anthropologist Everard Bone. Mildred decides she does not like him - she doesn't like fair-haired men, his nose is too pointed, and he seems to view the rest of the world (especially Mildred) with disdain. But, as we all know, couples who affect to dislike each other are generally hiding their true feeling...

Barbara Pym is often compared to Jane Austen, who once described her method of writing as being done with a fine brush on a 'little bit (not two inches wide) of ivory'. Like Austen, she portrays the everyday domestic details of life, showing us the concerns of ordinary people, and ignoring the bigger picture. You would hardly know Excellent Woman is set in the aftermath of WW2, but it's the small things in life that seem to affect people most. Pym is a very humorous writer - she's not laugh out loud funny, but she makes you smile, with the kind of quiet irony you might find in Austen novel. 

Take this sentence when Mildred admits: "I suppose an unmarried woman just over thirty, who lives alone and has no apparent ties, must expect to find herself involved or interested in other people's business, and if she is also a clergyman's daughter then one really might say that there is no hope for her."

 I love that - pure Austen I think, as is Mildred's wry observation that it's the unsuitable women that men fall in love with.

Stylish trousers and brightly coloured jumper,
like those worn by Helena.
(https://wearinghistoryblog.com)

Pym's books are comedies of manners, and this is no exception. She draws her characters with precision, placing them in a particular time, place and social strata. But while she pokes gentle fun at them, she is never cruel, inviting us to smile with these people rather than at them. There are far too many characters to mention them all, but I like the Vicar's sister Winifred, who looks after him, dresses in clothes from the church jumble sales, and keeps a battered copy of Christina Rossetti's poems by her bed. A hopeless (or perhaps that should be hopeful) romantic, she has never been in love, and no-one has ever loved her, but she is happy with her life. Then there is Mildred's old schoolfriend Dora Caldicote, a jolly hockey sticks sort of woman, who harbours the forlorn hope that her brother William will marry Mildred, even though he is obviously not the marrying kind.

There are some wonderful descriptions of social events, like the complexities of lunch at a self-service cafeteria, where the trays rattle along on a moving belt at terrifying speed and bewildered Mildred ends up with things she doesn't want and no saucer for her coffee. Talking of which, my local Co-op cafe provides a not-bad pot of tea, with a cup, but no saucer, so I know exactly how she felt!

I could go on and on saying how much I love this book, and what a marvellous writer Barbara Pym is, but to be honest it's difficult to know what to put in and what to leave out, because so many other people have expressed their thoughts so much better than I can. Just read the book - and if you've already read it, please read it again!

The 1952 Club runs all week, hosted by Simon at https://www.stuckinabook.com/, and Karen at https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.

My Virago edition has a lovely foreword by
Alexander McCall Smith, who is kind, warm and
generous in his appraisal of Barbara Pym.