Excellent Women, Barbara Pym, finished

It's very well-written. It's engaging for about two-thirds of the way. But in the end, it is way too schematic.  All the men are obtuse; all the excellent women (Mildred above all) are under-appreciated. The unworthy women (Helena) are over-valued by idiotic men.   Males eat the last bit of cake; talk about Mildred as if she weren't there; leave their dishes; invite her to dinner expecting her to cook; ridicule her choice of a restaurant; tell her she's sensible and then, a few minutes later, tell her that sensible women are boring, etc. etc.  Men who, at first meeting early in the novel, have some redeeming qualities, lose them all by the end. So, Mildred anticipates a bleak, single life--the only possible sane approach given the buffoonish nature of males
Playing cards with a stacked deck.