We all know them: those excellent women.  Churchgoing stalwarts, pillars of the community, hands in everyone else’s pies.  Mildred Lathbury is just one such excellent woman.  Mildred is a clergyman’s daughter in her early 30s, living in 1950s London.  Her neighborhood isn’t the best, but she’s found a niche in the All Souls parish, presided over by Father Julian Malory (with the help of his sister Winifred).  Mildred’s already-full plate becomes even more packed when new neighbors Helena and Rocky Napier move into her building and promptly involve her in their marital troubles.  Meanwhile, Father Malory has become engaged – just what he said he’d never do – and to a woman who rubs Mildred (and several of the other excellent women of All Souls) the wrong way.  And then there’s anthropologist Everard Bone, a new acquaintance through Helena, who seems at first to be stuffy and dull, but who might be more interested in Mildred than he seems.

At first, I thought of Mildred as something akin to a younger, urban Miss Read.  Mildred values her solitude and her routines, much like my favorite English schoolteacher.  And they share the same drily witty sense of humor.  (For instance, early on in the book, Mildred explains that she works part-time for a society to help aged gentlewomen who have come down in the world, a cause which is dear to her heart because she can see herself becoming one of them someday.)  But there are some key differences between Mildred and my beloved Miss Read.

For one thing, Mildred is much more of a joiner than Miss Read.  While Miss Read often finds herself pulled into church or community events, she often joins in reluctantly or restricts her participation to overseeing the children.  Miss Read does value her community and is happy to lend her considerable talents to projects as appropriate, but it’s not the be-all, end-all of her existence.  Mildred, however, defines herself based on her place in the hierarchy of excellent women.  She is constantly dashing off to church events or meetings with agendas like “decide about the Christmas bazaar.”  Miss Read would go slowly insane trying to keep Mildred’s schedule.

Another difference: Miss Read values not only her solitude, but also her singleness.  Over the course of twenty books, she is stalwart in her refusal to be drawn into any sort of matrimonial arrangements.  And not only does Miss Read not crave marriage for herself, but she loathes being involved in others’ marital disputes – most notably, those between the Garfields (better known as Amy and James) and the Mawnes.  Mildred, however, would not rule out marriage for herself, should the right man come along (although she’s remarkably dense about Everard, who seems pretty perfect for her) and even engages in some silly daydreaming about her married neighbor, Rocky Napier.  (And she’s a bit smug about her role as the comforter and tea-provider and general clearer-upper and letter-writer after Helena leaves Rocky.)  Mildred differs from Miss Read in that she does want to marry, and in the meantime, she almost gleefully adopts a role as local marriage-meddler.

Now, I don’t mean to compare Mildred with Miss Read either favorably or unfavorably, and nor do I intend to say that Excellent Women is better than the Fairacre books (or vice versa – although I think Fairacre seems a bit friendlier, not quite so catty, of a place).  I viewed Excellent Women through the lens of Fairacre because the writing styles are similar, the time setting is the same (at least for the early Fairacre books) and although the Fairacre folk are country-dwellers and Mildred and her compatriots live in London, I think these characters would find a great deal of familiarity in one another.  Anglophiles who enjoy fiction of a gentle persuasion, set in post-World War II England, will find plenty to smile over in Excellent Women.

Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym, available here (not an affiliate link) or support your local indie bookstore!

I read this book as part of the Classics Club’s Spin, and will be submitting my review for The Classics Challenge.