Nancy Mitford
Paperback | Pages: 468 pages Rating: 4.1 | 5177 Users | 452 Reviews
Be Specific About Out Of Books The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate
| Title | : | The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate |
| Author | : | Nancy Mitford |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 468 pages |
| Published | : | December 4th 2001 by Vintage Books USA (first published January 1st 1974) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Historical. Historical Fiction. Romance. European Literature. British Literature. Humor. Novels |
Representaion To Books The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate
Dulling, dulling! You must! Simply must read this! It’s just too unfair the way Nancy could write this! We do not all have such an excellent family for material. Did you know my dear that Nancy’s sister herself said she had no imagination? It’s too true, darling! Pursuit of Love was how she found out Nancy was sleeping with a Frenchman. The story is all rather sad you know, almost the ‘saddest story ever told’ by whats his name who has the name like an American car? No dear, nobody is named Chrysler. Because it is a horrid name- how could one saddle anyone- in any case! But one doesn’t speak of how horrid it is, you know it is darling. You fall in love with three different men who are completely wrong for you in completely different ways, but who have in common disrespecting you, ignoring you, treating you as a convenience, and not caring two pins for who you are, but all you can say is, ‘Oh they are simply awful’- which is also what one says about someone’s dress at a ball. Oh speaking of which my love did you see Sadie’s dress the other night? Head to toe lace and a train as if King Edward were going to appear with her hair dressed just to there- I pointed her out to Lady Corbett and she could only stare and no wonder what a dowd- Oh I am sorry darling, one must return to the plot...How does one express the pain and the shock that come with these moments in life that are truly traumatic in a childlike society where everything is deemed superlatively horrible or wonderful, with no shades of grey or graduating scales to make what is really horrible or wonderful seem that way? Is it really all the same? What does one say about a man who has groped an entire generation of aristocratic little girls, but who is firmly installed in that society, a friend to one of the most powerful ladies in England? One calls them “schtooopid,” if one has been groped, and if one is the mother of a girl who has and finds out about this (probably in gossipy conversation years later with a male family member), one treats it as any other piece of gossip, exclaims, “How awful he is!” and then one does precisely nothing. Men presented as charming and otherwise wonderful can sympathize with the man after one of the girls he lavished his “attention” on gets him to marry her for her money and connections. This world and the people in it, particularly the women, are not equipped to handle real life. Once these girls marry, probably unwisely at the age of 19 in order to prove their “spirit” against disapproving parents, they are expected to figure it out on their own. Unsurprisingly, most do not. In the Pursuit of Love Nancy Mitford romanticizes this, tying it into a lament for the fall of the aristocracy. The failure of these sheltered women to adjust to real life simply proves the superiority of a class that does not care for money as the bourgeoisie does. Linda represents an old style of politics as well, one which is “personal”- rather than the impersonal politics of the “masses” that communism represents. She critiques a coming world that cares for the fate of millions, but could not care less for the one person in front of them that they are behaving badly to every day because it is only the “mass” which matters. One of the ‘working’ men of the story says scornfully of his wife that, “you only care for personalities,” but this is obviously a virtue in Mitford’s eyes. She believes that through the loss of a ruling aristocracy one loses a sense of community, of the personal that used to give politics a grounding in reality that it gradually lost after the 1930s. This is a common refrain of aristocrats bemoaning the lingering death of their purpose and status across the first half of the 20th century. I am more in sympathy now, after the financial crash, than I would have been before for the idea of a society that should be grounded in things that are tangible, but it was a bit of a thin societal critique to carry me through an entire novella. I was much more interested in the one offered in Love in a Cold Climate where more of the ugly side of what happens to women as they age is discussed, and there’s a fascinating portrait of a societal ‘parasite’ who clearly makes a place for himself by being the lover of rich men and by acting as the original founding member of Queer Eye while around women. It’s a thin sheen of constant performance underpinned by a bitter, fragile, sad little person who can’t stand what one has to do to be surrounded by beauty. It is of course a type that has been endlessly repeated in media these days, but this is done in such a way that the wounds from the slings and arrows of fortune only show in the most indirect of ways until there are finally so many of them that the biggest wound is that they all become visible, if only for a moment.
However, I really have to say that there’s much more to this than the ‘serious’ bits underlying the structure. All of the above is hardly the point- well, it is, but it isn’t why you read this. You read this because of the captivating voice behind it. Mitford tells a story well, and underpins her critique of the loss of individuality by creating memorable characters who are fully fleshed out and who, what’s more, seem to work on being characters themselves. Matthew, the narrator’s bombastic, tempestuous, grumpy, racist, eccentric, homebody uncle is the most famous example of this. The escapades resulting from him or his reaction to each situation going on is almost invariably the funniest part of any point of the book, and I really would have preferred an entire book entitled the Adventures of Uncle Matthew. I cringed hearing Lady Montdore scolding and shrieking, I wanted to write Davey’s medical woes for fun by halfway through, and even the minor secondary characters’ lines just begged to be spoken out loud by actors versed in Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, and, if at all possible, teenage romantic comedies. The dialogue was excellent, the descriptions made me gleeful, and the narrator’s timid little place on the sidelines of it all allowed me a window through which I could watch it all in companionable, smiling silence (except when I wanted to shake her, which was a few times, but in a friendly sort of way). Mitford is an excellent example of why writers are advised to “write what you know,” because the depth of what she is able to deploy as a tossed off joke makes this book wonderfully rich, and makes it flow so naturally that there is very seldom a point that feels like a ‘natural’ place to stop, chapters or not. Or perhaps that was just what I told myself in order to have an excuse to spend another hour reading rather than rejoining the real world. I did not expect to like this, necessarily- it seemed like the sort of book that older rich ladies who have never worked a day in their lives read in order to relive their glamorous youth, or their daughters read in order to seem interesting or intellectual, or provide an opportunity to talk about how they are related to the Mitfords or know this delicious tidbit about them. But while I still believe it is all that, I did not feel as though I should not be reading this book, or as though I was alienated from the characters in any way. No, that’s not true, I was a bit alienated. But I enjoyed it, rather. It wasn’t in an off putting sort of way. I enjoyed my perch. Read it. You will too.
Specify Books During The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate
| Original Title: | The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate: Two Novels |
| ISBN: | 0375718990 (ISBN13: 9780375718991) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Out Of Books The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate
Ratings: 4.1 From 5177 Users | 452 ReviewsJudge Out Of Books The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate
This particular edition is two of Nancy Mitford's best known books in one. I really enjoyed the first story and didn't at all enjoy the second. The first story, The Pursuit of Love, was a witty, slightly naughty tale of Linda Radlett who pursues the greatest love of her life through several marriages and one lengthy affair. It was fun, entertaining, and quite compelling to follow Linda as she blundered through trying to find someone she could truly love and be loved by. Despite its sexistA classic of 20th century English literature and a glorious read. Captures the essence of English Society after WWI in the slightly crazy time before WWII. Shows how good writing can be, detailing the lives of two sisters from an upperclass family, and the very different choices that they made. Nancy Mitford based these two novels on her own family, and did it brilliantly. To see the full review, please go here:http://www.epinions.com/content_58364...This was also turned into a fairly good PBS
Every bit as funny, effortlessly cultured and filled with insights about politics and social class as you might imagine (presuming you've heard of Nancy Mitford). The Pursuit of Love, from 1945, shows her keen awareness of the U/non-U linguistic distinction well before she elaborated it in her famous 1954 Encounter article, "The English Aristocracy". The irascible country squire character (molded on her father) is scolding his sister about the "dreadful" middle-class education the teenage
This movie Love in a Cold Climate (2001 ) is available at You Tube.Cast:Elisabeth Dermot Walsh as Linda Rosamund Pike as Fanny Megan Dodds as Polly Javier Alcina as Juan Lopez Sara Weymouth as Polly's Nurse John Light as Christian John Hopkins as Robert Parker Zoe Waites as Lavender Davies Christian Coulson as Matt John Wood as Lord Merlin Daniel Evans as Cedric Samuel Labarthe as Fabrice Anthony Andrews as Boy Tom Ward as AlfredSheila Gish as Lady MontdoreRupert Frazer as Lord Paddington Alan
Dulling, dulling! You must! Simply must read this! Its just too unfair the way Nancy could write this! We do not all have such an excellent family for material. Did you know my dear that Nancys sister herself said she had no imagination? Its too true, darling! Pursuit of Love was how she found out Nancy was sleeping with a Frenchman. The story is all rather sad you know, almost the saddest story ever told by whats his name who has the name like an American car? No dear, nobody is named Chrysler.
Nancy Mitford is one of the greatest British writers. I love all her books (including her great historical bios), but those two, which follow each other, and tell the stories of the same characters, are especially wonderful. Based more or less loosely on Mitford's memories of her own family, they recreate an almost mythical (for today's readers) excentric England, but with more than just flair: there is a lot of emotion behind the humor and irony, and you can feel the torments and aches the
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