'Anyone who has ever listened to the thump of a rejected manuscript descending cheerlessly on to the mat can take comfort from the roller-coaster career of Barbara Pym. Between 1950 and 1961 Miss Pym (1913–1980) had published six modestly successful novels with the firm of Jonathan Cape. Then, on 24 March 1963 — ‘a sobering fourth Sunday in Lent’ — came a bolt from the skies, in the shape of a letter from Cape’s editorial director, Wren Howard, turning down the seventh with the age-old publisher’s bromide that ‘in present conditions we could not sell a sufficient number of copies to cover costs’.
'There seems little doubt that this throwing over was the great trauma of Pym’s life, far more upsetting to her than the various relationships that punctuated her half-century of wistful spinsterdom, and a kind of King Charles’s Head to which she infallibly reverted in conversations with dinner guests or letters to literary chums. A vilely coloured milk jelly was even christened ‘Maschler Pudding’ in tribute to the Cape editor who had inspired Wren to pull the plug. Friends rallied round — Philip Larkin wrote personally to his own sponsor, Charles Monteith — but it took a top billing in the famous 1977 TLS symposium in which Pam was declared the most underrated writer of the century to bring her books back into print and secure a Booker short-listing for Quartet in Autumn.
'Interest in her novels was instantly revived, they were all republished, and she went on to publish several more. Tragically, she died not long after in 1980, at the early age of 66. At that time, I devoured all her novels, agreed wholeheartedly with Larkin and Cecil, and I have re-read them many times since. This review is going to be in part about my latest experience of re-reading Excellent Women– as ever, I have found new things in it!
'Excellent Women is set in post-war London and is the story of Mildred, a clergyman’s daughter, who lives in a flat in unfashionable Pimlico. Her spiritual (and social) life revolves round the nearby Anglo-Catholic church, St Mary’s (the incumbent is ‘Father’ Malory, who wears a biretta and is assumed, erroneously, to hold to the celibacy of the clergy). Into the flat next door move the Napiers, an exotic and wildly ill-assorted couple, the wife an anthropologist and her soon to be demobbed husband, a naval lieutenant with the reputation of ‘the most glamorous Flags in the Med’, fresh from organising the Admiral’s social life and putting Wrens in ill-fitting uniforms at their ease. They draw Mildred into a new world of learned society and lectures – a piquant contrast with church and sermons. One character links those two worlds – Everard Bone, Helena Napier’s research partner, unlike his atheistic colleagues a convert and a churchgoer, awkward and prickly, prone to turning up at inconvenient moments, and to bringing out the worst in the otherwise gentle and good-humoured Mildred – very unpromising hero material.
'This is a novel of relationships, of couples coming together and splitting apart, and sometimes coming together again. Capable, staunch Mildred behaves like and is believed by all to be a detached observer of all this but she isn’t – by subtle means in the narrative we find out how deeply she too is involved, and where her inner desires (ruthlessly suppressed) might be taking her. It is all so delicately done, and all of a piece with her character as an ‘Excellent Woman’. The world has put her in a particular box, but she stays there only by her own consent.
'The novel is short enough (and long enough – it knows not to outstay its welcome). All Barbara Pym’s early novels are brilliant – witty, deceptively profound, full of pin-sharp observation. Of them, the two that stand out for me are A Glass of Blessings and Excellent Women. What sets these two apart from the others is that they are both narrated by their heroines. This is what Barbara Pym does best of all – she has consummate mastery of the first person narrative. Also capricious, moody, witty, cruel, kind, snarky – no-one does camp better than Barbara Pym.'-- D. J. Taylor & Vulpes Libris
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Further
The Barbara Pym Society
'Very Barbara Pym'
'Excellent Women' @ goodreads
'Excellent Women', a Reader's Guide
'Philip Hensher toasts the novelist Barbara Pym'
Angry Birds'
'Barbara Pym and the New Spinster'
'The importance of being trivial : Barbara Pym's Excellent Women'
'Private Space and Self-Definition in Barbara Pym's Excellent Women'
'The Subversion of Romance in the Novels of Barbara Pym'
'Kindly Words and Spectacles: The Art of Barbara Pym'
'Marvelous Spinster Barbara Pym At 100'
'A Nice Hobby, Like Knitting: On Barbara Pym'
'Barbara Pym: The Other Jane Austen'
'Barbara Pym gets rediscovered — again'
'The Anglican Clergy in the Novels of Barbara Pym'
'The Blagger's Guide To: Barbara Pym'
'Barbara Pym: a woman scorned'
Buy 'Excellent Women'
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Extras
The Legacy of Barbara Pym
barbara pym slideshow
Barbara Pym's correspondence with her publishers
Kate Charles - At Ease With Ladies (A Talk on Barbara Pym)
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The Barbara Pym Cookbook
Barbara Pym's Victoria Sandwich
'Like many Barbara Pym fans, I have long owned The Barbara Pym Cookbook, published in 1988 by the late author’s sister, Hilary, and Honor Wyatt. And like many Barbara Pym fans, I have never dared cook from it. By the jacket copy’s own admission, this is “an armchair cookbook,” a collection of quotations from Pym’s novels and corresponding recipes—they make for excellent reading, but they don’t excite one to run to the kitchen. While minute meal descriptions are one of the great pleasures of the Pym oeuvre, many of the novels take place during the tyranny of postwar rationing. However enthusiastic and sophisticated a cook she may have been—and by all accounts she certainly was—Barbara Pym’s recipes are not necessarily calculated to appeal to the twenty-first-century palate. Or, at least to that of most of one’s guests. An Anna Karenina–themed feast, people can get into. Some Tame Gazelle? Maybe not so much.'-- Sadie Stein, The Paris Review
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What Barbara Pym Read
by Isabel B. Stanley
'The writings of seventeenth-century antiquarian Anthony a Wood were always on Pym’s bookshelf, and she turned to these “quaint and curious volume[s] of forgotten lore” throughout her life. Wood’s Athenae Oxonienses and History and Antiquities of Oxford, both published in the late 1600’s are depicted by Pym as the favorite books of the Rev. Thomas Dagnall in A Few Green Leaves; in fact Wood has become an obsession to Dagnall as has attempting to track down places Wood describes. Pym’s relationship to Wood in her own reading and in her fiction is typical of the use she makes of other obscure English authors: while she enjoys Wood herself, she recognizes that a modern-day clergyman (or any one else for that matter) should not be wrapped up in Wood to the neglect of other duties.
'Always a great eighteenth-century favorite with Barbara Pym for casual reading in search of unconsciously amusing lore was James Woodeforde’s Diary of a Country Parson which the worthy clergyman kept faithfully for forty-five years. Woodeford vouchsafes to his reader much about his eating habits, collecting tithes and dealing with his parishioners, and is at his best when unwittingly appearing pompous, righteous, or even kind. Using sources like Anthony a Wood and Thomas Woodeforde put Pym in the habit of looking for raw materials for novels in unlikely places such as The Church Times and Crockford’s Clerical Dictionary.
'An appreciative reader of the three Bronte sisters all her life, Pym was especially taken with Charlotte Bronte. She told Philip Larkin in a 1969 letter, “I get comfort from a re-reading of Anthony Powell and Charlotte Bronte (not Jane Eyre)”. More interesting than Pym’s non-attachment to Jane Eyre is her affection for Shirley. A novel that is little read in the twenty-first century, Shirley was a favorite with bright young girls early in the twentieth century, including Virginia Woolf, Vera Brittain and Pym. Charlotte Bronte calls her attractive, independent heroine Shirley Keeldar “the first blue stocking”. Shirley is the complete mistress of her fate, refuses to marry “good catches”, and finally chooses her own husband, all the while managing her large fortune which she will continue to control after her marriage. One can easily see how Shirley would appeal to young ladies of slender means and limited opportunity, beginning with Charlotte Bronte herself.
'George Elliot’s early work Scenes of Clerical Life was a book that Barbara Pym turned to throughout her life. A very slight work, Eliot’s Scenes contains vignettes of divines such as Mr. Crewe, “who was allowed to enjoy his avarice in comfort”; the Rev. Mr. Horn, “who was given to tippling and quarrelling with his wife”; the Rev. Mr. Tryon, the curate at “the chapel-of-ease on Paddiford Common.” A more important clerical model for Pym can be seen in the Rev. Edward Casaubon of Middlemarch.
'A minor Victorian who was a life-long influence on Pym was Charlotte Mary Yonge, author of The Heir of Redclyffe and The Daisy Chain, great favorites of Pym.
'A late Victorian influence on Pym can perhaps be found in Canon Chasuble of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Chasuble flirts with the estimable Miss Prism by employing slightly risqué classical allusions, then denying their import; like Chasuble, Archdeacon Hoccleve of Some Tame Gazelle employs literary allusions which allow him to get away with saying things he could not voice in a more straight-forward manner. Hoccleve’s allusions do not have sexual overtones, but are used to hector his congregation and its women. Wilde’s delightful name for Canon Chasuble is also typical of Pym’s interest in clergy names. She kept a list in her journal entitled “Gems from Crockford’s Clerical Dictionary” which included “the Rev. de Blogue (formerly Blogg)” and the organist of Bristol Cathedral, “A. Surplice Esq”. The Wilde whimsy can be seen in clergy names like Father Thames, Father Gemini, and Father Gellibrand.
'Another hardy perennial with Pym was E.F. Benson, the author of the six-book Lucia series. Lucia is the queen bee of the tiny hamlet of Tilling and marshals all of its inhabitants to participate in her Elizabethan fetes, evening soirees, and other social doings. The machinations of Benson’s Tillingites are more flamboyant than the activities in Pym’s books but both authors render their small worlds with great wit and charm.
'Pym retained a lifelong affection for the work of her fellow Oxonian Vera Brittain, who is best known for her autobiographical account of World War I, Testament of Youth. More important to Pym may have been Brittain’s best novel, An Honourable Estate, which contains both the feminist and pacifist themes for which she was famous. One character, Janet Rutherston, is crushed by her insensitive clergyman husband who expects her to have a baby every year against her wishes; in this affliction she is much like Ingeborg of The Pastor’s Wife, even though Janet is unique in her desire to be an activist for women’s rights.
'In a B.B.C. interview, Pym also mentions her debt to Ivy Compton–Burnett: “Another author I came across at this time was Ivy Compton–Burnett . . . Of course I couldn’t help being influenced by her dialogue, that precise, formal conversation which seemed so stilted when I first read it—though when I got used to it, a friend and I took to writing each other entirely in that style”. Pym had all of Compton–Burnett’s novels in her personal library.'
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Book
Penguin
'Excellent Women is probably the most famous of Barbara Pym's novels. The acclaim a few years ago for this early comic novel, which was hailed by Lord David Cecil as one of 'the finest examples of high comedy to have appeared in England during the past seventy-five years,' helped launch the rediscovery of the author's entire work. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a spinster in the England of the 1950s, one of those 'excellent women' who tend to get involved in other people's lives - such as those of her new neighbor, Rockingham, and the vicar next door. This is Barbara Pym's world at its funniest.'-- Penguin
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Excerpts
We were, superficially at any rate, a very unlikely pair to become friendly. She was fair-haired and pretty, gaily dressed in corduroy trousers and a bright jersey, while I, mousy and rather plain anyway, drew attention to these qualities with my shapeless overall and old fawn skirt. Let me hasten to add that I am not at all like Jane Eyre, who must have given hope to so many plain women who tell their stories in the first person, nor have I ever thought of myself as being like her.
"My husband will be coming out of the navy soon,’" said Mrs Napier, almost in a warning tone. "I’m just getting the place ready."
"Oh I see." I began to wonder what could have brought a naval officer and his wife to this shabby part of London, so very much the ‘wrong’ side of Victoria Station, so definitely not Belgravia, for which I had a sentimental affection, but which did not usually attract people who looked like Mrs Napier. "I suppose it it still very difficult to find a flat" I went on, driven by curiosity. "I’ve been here two years and it was much easier then."
"Yes, I’ve had an awful time, and this isn’t really what we wanted. I don’t at all like the idea of sharing a bathroom’ she said bluntly ‘and I don’t know what Rockingham will say."
Rockingham! I snatched at the name as though it had been a precious jewel in the dustbin. Mr Napier was called Rockingham! How the bearer of such a name would hate sharing a bathroom!
*
I thought I had better revive the conversation which had lapsed, so I commented on the animals’ heads in the hall, saying what fine specimens they were.
“My husband shot them in India and Africa,” said Mrs. Bone, “but however many you shoot there still seem to be more.”
“Oh, yes, it would be a terrible thing if they became extinct,” I said. “I suppose they keep the rarer animals in game reserves now.”
“It’s not the animals so much as the birds,” said Mrs. Bone fiercely. “You will hardly believe this, but I was sitting in the window this afternoon and as it was a fine day I had it open at the bottom, when I felt something drop into my lap. And do you know what it was?” She turned and peered at me intently.
I said that I had no idea.
“Unpleasantness,” she said, almost triumphantly. Then lowering her voice she explained, “From a bird, you see. It had done something when I was actually sitting in my own drawing room.”
“How annoying,” I said, feeling mesmerized and unable even to laugh.
*
Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought, as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, 'Do we need tea? she echoed. 'But Miss Lathbury...' She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. I mumbled something about making a joke and that of course one needed tea always, at every hour of the day or night.
*
Mimosa did lose its first freshness too quickly to be worth buying and I must not allow myself to have feelings, but must only observe the effects of other people's.
*
One wouldn't believe there could be so many people, and one must love them all.
*
"What will you do after we’ve gone?" Helena asked.
"Well, she had a life before we came," Rocky reminded her. "Very much so – what is known as a full life, with clergymen and jumble sales and church services and good works."
"I thought that was the kind of life led by women who didn’t have a full life in the accepted sense," said Helena.
"Oh, she’ll marry," said Rocky confidently. They were talking about me as if I wasn’t there.
"Everard might take her to hear a paper at the Learned Society," suggested Helena. "That would widen her outlook."
"Yes, it might," I said humbly from my narrowness.
"But then she would get interested in some little tribe somewhere and her life might become even more narrow," said Rocky.
We discussed my future until a late hour, but it was hardly to be expected that we should come to any practical conclusions.
*
My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the 'stream of consciousness' type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink. I felt resentful and bitter towards Helena and Rocky and even towards Julian, though I had to admit that nobody had compelled me to wash these dishes or to tidy this kitchen. It was the fussy spinster in me, the Martha who could not comfortably sit and make conversation when she knew that yesterday's unwashed dishes were still in the sink.
*
"You could consider marrying an excellent woman?" I asked in amazement. "But they are not for marrying."
"You’re surely not suggesting that they are for the other things?" he said, smiling.
That had certainly not occurred to me and I was annoyed to find myself embarrassed.
"They are for being unmarried," I said, "and by that I mean a positive rather than a negative state."
"Poor things, aren’t they allow to have the normal feelings then?"
"Oh, yes, but nothing can be done about them."
*
I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced.
*
The burden of keeping three people in toilet paper seemed to me rather a heavy one.
*
“I gather that she hasn't much money," said Julian, "so I hardly know what would be a fair rent to ask. I found I couldn't bring myself to mention it, and neither, apparently, could she."
"Well, really, I should have thought that would have been her first question," I said, thinking what a remarkable delicate conversation they must have had. "She can hardly expect to get three rooms for nothing. You must be careful she doesn't try to do you down."
"Oh, Mildred," Julian looked grieved, "you wouldn't say that if you had seen her. She has such sad eyes.”
*
p.s. Hey. ** Tosh Berman, Howdy, Tosh. Wow, I'm getting the picture. Did Kawabata actually write about Izu Oshima in his novels, by name or not? Are the other people staying there artists as well, just not writers? Questions, questions. Amazing is amazing. And you're getting the writing done that you hoped you would, I hope? ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Yeah, Rundgren is a very versatile and thoughtfully specific producer. I think he nailed the sound that the Dolls needed. I think Shadow Morton is one of rock's great geniuses based on his masterminding of the sublime Shangri-Las, and I do like the sound he gave to the second Dolls album, but it's a kind of culling of their actual sound. Like I said, if you want to tete-a-tete about the publishing stuff, just let me know. ** Marcus Whale, Hi, Marcus! Yeah, yeah, true and great what you said about exploitation films. Their internality can be pretty complex, it's weird. Thank you so much for going to see 'TVC' and for the good words. Funny, you caught the one really tumultuous performance and audience response, it seems. Gisele says that everything has fallen more into an expected place now. Anyway, like I think I said, it's a funny first work ours for you to have seen since it's so different from our previous stuff. Thank you! I would really love to see you poetry collection! How can do that? Tell me, tell me please. You're in LA! Uh, LA right now ... Unfortunately, it's too early for the spooky houses. They won't start popping up until early October. If I was you, and if I were there, I would ... well, I would definitely try to catch at least some of Christian Marclay's 24 film/piece 'The Clock', which is currently at LACMA. And, if still there, and if it's still up, see Chris Burden's final 'dirigible' piece. Get some fast Mexican food at Poquito Mas, the world's best fast Mexican food place. If you like roller coasters, do Magic Mountain. It has an amazing array of great coasters, including my favorite coaster in the world: Full Throttle. And they just opened the revamped Colossus coaster, Twisted Colossus, which is supposed to be insane. Hm, probably million other things I can't remember on this particular morning. Have fun! Love, me. ** Sypha, Hi. Sorry you've been feeling poorly. Summer colds are somehow the worst. The one day you went to NecronomiCon sounds super interesting even if I don't know most of the stuff you referenced, which, actually, only makes it more intriguing. Feel better! ** Bill, Hi, B. Yeah, the dots between 'Spiderbaby' and 'Foxy Brown' might take a psychic to connect. 'Sorceress' is just ridiculous in this very fun way. Up there with the most charmingly worst EFX ever. Did you squeeze out some Bill? ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. 'Pit Stop' is pretty terrific. Genre/B-movie to the teeth, but his best, directorial-wise, by a mile, I think. No, I was thinking an actual Mahler/disco mesh. Like ... more like that Pet Shop Boys quote: 'Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat.' I've been very, very interested to read Ta-Nehisi Coates. Exciting that you're writing on him, and I'll check out the linked piece. Everyone, Here's Mr. Ehrenstein: 'I'm writing an article for "Gay City News" about Ta-Nehisi Coates, who's not gay but far from narrow. Here's a recent "New York Magazine" piece about him.' ** Steevee, Hi. 'Coffy' is really worth seeing. I think it's pretty much easily the best of his Pam Grier films. And, like I said to David, 'Pit Stop' is a really sharply directed B-movie. If Xylouris White reminds you of a bit of both John Fahey and Derek Bailey, that's awfully intriguing. I was just reading yesterday that there's a lost album that was a collab. between John Fahey and Red Krayola. Man, I sure would have loved to hear what that sounded like. I've read a couple of confusingly positive reviews of that new Carly Rae Jepsen album, and ... I'm confused, ha ha. Thanks for the review link. Everyone, Steevee reviews the new Chinese trail documentary film 'The Iron Ministry'here. Go read, please. ** Alistair McCartney, Hi, Alistair! Hey, buddy! Things are very busy and very good with me, thanks. I'm pretty much equal parts excited and scared about our film's premiere. It'll be the first time to see it with an audience, and, yikes. It's really different than having a novel come out. A novel has a big, clean birth. With films, or with our film, it's this piece-by-piece roll out. It'll be born for Paris, or for people here who are interested, and then the exact same thing will happen over and over at other festivals. It's weird. It's more like the Gisele theater pieces' births, but, in that case, it's ultimately her work, and I feel a little distanced. With the movie, it's equally Zac's and my work, so it's more intense. Anyway, nervous but excited. You're in that the last fifth of your novel? Oh, that sounds very close to the finish line! And you're in the amazing tunnel vision phase. Is that not kind of the best thing about writing? We still plan to go to Australia, hopefully later this year. Stuff with the film and the early work on our next film ended up eating our summer entirely. But, yeah, can't wait. So great to see you! Love, me. ** H, Hi. 'Remember dead river'? Wow, that's quite a title. I almost never drink, but I think I would sip that thing. ** James, Hi. Yeah, most people know Hill's films but not his name. I counted myself among them until I made that post. Okay, about the date delay on the post. Thanks for letting me know. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! 'Pit Stop' might be good stoned. Well, any of his films, probably. Oh, yeah, no escape from the Trump phenomenon here. The French are utterly mind-boggled by everything about it from his support from potential voters to the extremely addicted American media. It's not doing the reputations and seeming mental health of Americans any favors, that's for sure. Lots of head-scratching analysis about it. Yeah, it's fascinating and horrifying. Just hoping it's the final act of self-destruction and the death knell of what the Republican party has let itself become. We'll see. Ultimate weirdness and kind of satisfying in the sense that it's all out in the very open now. Don't know. Man, the post you sent is incredible! It's going to be such a boon for my knowledge just in the backroom phase of rebuilding it. I'll set it up and let you know the launch date soon. Thank you so much! Wow! That's really great about what happened to the rough draft! I'm really, really glad it's on track again. Such a strange path, isn't it? So exciting. Writing is the best. Or I think it is. Have the awesomest Monday! ** Misanthrope, My guess is that Trump's hair is a really bad sculpture made of authentic ingredients from inside his actual head. Well, I don't know, I assume that prisoners are just like non-prisoners, and that twink prisoners just automatically get moved to the front of the conga line whether they did something 'horrendous' or just stole a bike. Get sleep. Sleep is the fetus-like stuff that makes you you. Or something. Thank you, man, about the value of the newbies. I do try. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Yeah, his stuff's like that. Shit, I need to go find 'Girl in a Band' and read it. My weekend was full of work I had to do plus weird weather that jolted from horribly hot to rainy/cold and Chipotle burritos and just stuff, the usual stuff. ** Okay. I'm spotlighting the wonderful Barbara Pam today. Have you read her? Really clever, darkish, sharply written novels that are a big pleasure. Have the pleasure. Thanks. See you tomorrow.