Invisible No More, Excellent Women: Messages of Early Feminism in the Works of Barbara Pym
Class | Registration opens 5/12/2025 9:00 AM
Each week, our small class will read several chapters of Barbara Pym’s novel, Excellent Women. In Pym’s novel, the Excellent Women are the smart, supportive, repressed spinsters who men take for granted. In keeping with the works of the middle-aged women in every Pym novel, we, too, will create our own English village and enjoy many cups of tea in some of our best teapots and cups; we will organize an in-class Jumble Sale and, of course, a flower show.
Class members will become “Pymian scholars“ and will recognize how in 2025 women are often invisible and ignored and disrespected. Class participants will look forward to reading Pym’s other novels!
Format: Each class participant will read the novel, Excellent Women, and be ready to analyze and discuss characters and the “busywork” of the Excellent Women in the chapters. Outside reading is voluntary and if willing, class members can report on what they learn.
Resources/Expenses: Excellent Women by Barbara Pym is available in paperback on Amazon used for $5.00 and up. Available in all the Providence libraries.
Lily Trayes
Lily Trayes has coordinated several literature courses at LLC. She is a member of The Barbara Pym Society and recently attended their 3-day conference in Cambridge, MA. Lily has all her Barbara Pym novels that she purchased in the 1970s.