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The Folio Society (1993), Hardcover
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. Mitford's most enduringly popular novel, The Pursuit of Love is a classic comedy about growing up and falling in love among the privileged and eccentric. Mitford modeled her characters on her own famously unconventional family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin Fanny, who stays with them at Alconleigh, their Gloucestershire estate. Uncle Matthew is the blustering patriarch, known to hunt his children when foxes are scarce; Aunt Sadie is the vague but doting mother; and the seven Radlett children, despite the delights of their unusual childhood, are recklessly eager to grow up. The first of three novels featuring these characters, The Pursuit of Love follows the travails of Linda, the most beautiful and wayward Radlett daughter, who falls first for a stuffy Tory politician, then an ardent Communist, and finally a French duke named Fabrice.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member lanaing
This is a story of life. There is no great conclusion, no great climax. It just rolls along with the waves of life like the rest of us. The cast seems somewhat unoriginal: a discarded child, a delicate beauty, a crazy uncle, an uptight aunt, and a promiscuous mother. However, the story is told from
*Spoiler*
Linda, the aforementioned beauty, has terrible judgement when it come to men and love. It takes two marriages, one child, and many years to find her "true love." Unfortunately, she and her love have only a few short months of bliss. They die separated from each other: Linda in childbirth and Fabrice by the gestapo.
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a strange vantage point; it's almost a mix of a first- and third-person perspective. The narrator, Fanny, recounts the tale of her cousin Linda with little to no bias. Fanny casually mentions her marriage and children with no further explanation than her husband's name. It's unusual to find a story where the narrator is also one of the main characters, but whose life is not depicted.*Spoiler*
Linda, the aforementioned beauty, has terrible judgement when it come to men and love. It takes two marriages, one child, and many years to find her "true love." Unfortunately, she and her love have only a few short months of bliss. They die separated from each other: Linda in childbirth and Fabrice by the gestapo.
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LibraryThing member Widsith
After some of the books I have read recently – interesting ones, but with prose that's ranged from workmanlike to experimental – it was a huge pleasure to indulge myself with a writer that has such perfect mastery over her sentences. This sparkling, clear-sighted and unromantic romantic comedy
Like innumerable British comedies from Shakespeare to The Office, the humour is founded on class differences. In fact, not the least pleasure in The Pursuit of Love comes from its value as English social history: splenetic Uncle Matthew, in particular, is a wonderfully ogreish character, roaring around his country estate, hunting his children with hounds, and bursting into apoplexy if his daughters use such deplorably middle-class vocabulary as notepaper, mantelpiece, mirror or perfume. (Mitford is confident that discerning readers will know, without being told, that one must instead say writing-paper, chimneypiece, looking-glass and scent; and instead of spending a weekend at Alconleigh, you will be invited to spend ‘a Saturday to Monday’ there.)
Uncle Matthew is not a literary man – the only book he's ever read is White Fang – and I did enjoy the passage where he was dragged to a performance of Romeo and Juliet:
It was not a success. He cried copiously, and went into a furious rage because it ended badly. ‘All the fault of that damned padre,’ he kept saying on the way home, still wiping his eyes. ‘That fella, what's 'is name, Romeo, might have known a blasted papist would mess up the whole thing. Silly old fool of a nurse too, I bet she was an RC, dismal old bitch.’
Uncle Matthew is a thinly-disguised portrait of Baron Redesdale, Nancy Mitford's father, and it's tempting, though not quite possible, to read the whole book as a roman à clef. In fact, our heroine, Linda Radlett, is a kind of amalgam of all the Mitford sisters.
As the title suggests, the book is broadly about her search for love, and yet despite the witty tone and the extraordinary lightness of touch, the plot itself is shot through with flashes of cruelty and tragedy. Such things can be borne, though, the book suggests; and are even, perhaps, preferable to a life of uneventful blandness.
[T]hey could not stand boredom. Storms and difficulties left them unmoved, but day after day of ordinary existence produced an unbearable torture of ennui…
Linda seems on the verge of this with some of her unhappy relationships. I loved her failure to adapt to household domesticity:
‘But oh how dreadful it is, cooking, I mean. That oven – Christian puts things in and says: “Now you take it out in about half an hour.” I don't dare tell him how terrified I am, and at the end of half an hour I summon up all my courage and open the oven, and there is that awful hot blast hitting one in the face. I don't wonder people sometimes put their heads in and leave them in out of sheer misery.’
Laughter, once cultivated, is never far away in this book, or in the lives of its most appealing characters; and this is what allows you to cope with the many disasters that life is likely to throw at you.
The understated wit has been mistaken for lack of feeling, but the emotions are real and deep – what's carefully controlled is how we choose to talk about it. Even the book's cursory, tragic ending can be accepted (I say this as someone who hates unhappy endings), because it is so obviously done for the sake of neatness. And this is a very neat book – slim, fitted, elegant, really an unalloyed delight.
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is a little chef d'œuvre of wit and dazzling conversation, in which Mitford deploys the same mannered levity to write about great tragedy that she does to describe an amusing misunderstanding at a dinner party.Like innumerable British comedies from Shakespeare to The Office, the humour is founded on class differences. In fact, not the least pleasure in The Pursuit of Love comes from its value as English social history: splenetic Uncle Matthew, in particular, is a wonderfully ogreish character, roaring around his country estate, hunting his children with hounds, and bursting into apoplexy if his daughters use such deplorably middle-class vocabulary as notepaper, mantelpiece, mirror or perfume. (Mitford is confident that discerning readers will know, without being told, that one must instead say writing-paper, chimneypiece, looking-glass and scent; and instead of spending a weekend at Alconleigh, you will be invited to spend ‘a Saturday to Monday’ there.)
Uncle Matthew is not a literary man – the only book he's ever read is White Fang – and I did enjoy the passage where he was dragged to a performance of Romeo and Juliet:
It was not a success. He cried copiously, and went into a furious rage because it ended badly. ‘All the fault of that damned padre,’ he kept saying on the way home, still wiping his eyes. ‘That fella, what's 'is name, Romeo, might have known a blasted papist would mess up the whole thing. Silly old fool of a nurse too, I bet she was an RC, dismal old bitch.’
Uncle Matthew is a thinly-disguised portrait of Baron Redesdale, Nancy Mitford's father, and it's tempting, though not quite possible, to read the whole book as a roman à clef. In fact, our heroine, Linda Radlett, is a kind of amalgam of all the Mitford sisters.
As the title suggests, the book is broadly about her search for love, and yet despite the witty tone and the extraordinary lightness of touch, the plot itself is shot through with flashes of cruelty and tragedy. Such things can be borne, though, the book suggests; and are even, perhaps, preferable to a life of uneventful blandness.
[T]hey could not stand boredom. Storms and difficulties left them unmoved, but day after day of ordinary existence produced an unbearable torture of ennui…
Linda seems on the verge of this with some of her unhappy relationships. I loved her failure to adapt to household domesticity:
‘But oh how dreadful it is, cooking, I mean. That oven – Christian puts things in and says: “Now you take it out in about half an hour.” I don't dare tell him how terrified I am, and at the end of half an hour I summon up all my courage and open the oven, and there is that awful hot blast hitting one in the face. I don't wonder people sometimes put their heads in and leave them in out of sheer misery.’
Laughter, once cultivated, is never far away in this book, or in the lives of its most appealing characters; and this is what allows you to cope with the many disasters that life is likely to throw at you.
The understated wit has been mistaken for lack of feeling, but the emotions are real and deep – what's carefully controlled is how we choose to talk about it. Even the book's cursory, tragic ending can be accepted (I say this as someone who hates unhappy endings), because it is so obviously done for the sake of neatness. And this is a very neat book – slim, fitted, elegant, really an unalloyed delight.
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LibraryThing member mausergem
The novel is set in the late 1930's deals with a family of aristocrats in England. The Radlett family live in their country estate in Gloucestershire. The family consists of an ever increasing brood of kids but we follow the life of Linda. Linda, with her love for hunting and head strong attitude,
The writing is witty and satirical. It does not take itself too seriously and as our heroine wants to have a jolly good time so do we. It has moments of wisdom and melancholia but they are few and apt. A good read. Some may label it as chick lit but who cares. I enjoyed reading it and that's all that matters. A 4/5 starred read.
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goes through her life living just for the moment and almost instinctually. She falls in and out of love, marries several times and is happy and unhappy violently. The writing is witty and satirical. It does not take itself too seriously and as our heroine wants to have a jolly good time so do we. It has moments of wisdom and melancholia but they are few and apt. A good read. Some may label it as chick lit but who cares. I enjoyed reading it and that's all that matters. A 4/5 starred read.
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LibraryThing member eglinton
A delight. Mitford’s story, drawn from her own family reminiscences, sparkles and tinkles with humour and insight. It’s a concise package, with countless unforgettable scenes and descriptions: Uncle Matthew’s roaring and his entrenching tool; the child hunt; the Hons’ cupboard, warmed by a
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colossal boiler from the early days of central-heating, such as might have fitted an Atlantic liner; the narrator’s shiftless mother “the Bolter”; her cousin Jassy intent too on running away, and planning it: at the age of eight, she’s already saved enough money for a bed-sitting room in Clapham. Deft, meticulous writing, pure pleasure to immerse oneself in. Show Less
LibraryThing member CBJames
If, while driving through the English countryside, you spot two girls running across a field pursued by a pack of hunting dogs and a crotchety old man, don't be afraid. It's simply the Mitford sisters and their father, out for a bit of fun.
Hunting tomorrow, girls.
I've no idea if the hunting scene
The Mitford sisters were the "it" girls at one time. Four beautiful young women, wealthy, eccentric family, aristocratic. Jessica Mitford went on to become a successful journalist while Nancy Mitford wrote novels.
Nancy Mitford
Photo from Wikipedia
Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love deals with the life of Linda Radlett, her eccentric childhood, marriage and affairs set between the World Wars. But it's clearly the story of Nancy Mitford, novelized to protect the innocent, or maybe just the family.
Linda Radlett's life is one of scandal. She makes a bad first marriage, has a daughter she does not love, gets divorced, makes a second bad marriage and then finds true love with a Parisian known for a long string of affairs. But a scandalous life can make for entertaining reading, and the Mitford sisters never fail to entertain.
I admit I had several problems with the characters' snobbishness. Nancy Mitford is credited with coining the terms 'U' and 'Non-U' for upper class and not upper class. It's difficult to find a character in The Pursuit of Love who's not a snob. Even the communists look down on each other. But the novel's charm and the author's wit win the day. At her most heartless, Linda Radlett is an amusing character. Take for instance this passage where Linda tells her cousin why she dislikes her own daughter after discovering that the child is afraid of air-raids and is happy her father is sending her to America for safety:
"I'm in such a temper," she said, "I must talk to somebody. To think I ruined nine months of my life in order to have that. What do your children think about air-raids, Fanny?"
"I must say them simply long for them, and I am sorry to say they also long for the Germans to arrive. They spend the whole day making booby-traps for them in the orchard."
"Well that's a relief anyhow--I thought perhaps it was the generation."
Perhaps it was the generation. A generation of Mitfords.
Hunting tomorrow, girls.
I've no idea if the hunting scene
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in the opening chapters of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love is autobiographical, but I hope so.The Mitford sisters were the "it" girls at one time. Four beautiful young women, wealthy, eccentric family, aristocratic. Jessica Mitford went on to become a successful journalist while Nancy Mitford wrote novels.
Nancy Mitford
Photo from Wikipedia
Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love deals with the life of Linda Radlett, her eccentric childhood, marriage and affairs set between the World Wars. But it's clearly the story of Nancy Mitford, novelized to protect the innocent, or maybe just the family.
Linda Radlett's life is one of scandal. She makes a bad first marriage, has a daughter she does not love, gets divorced, makes a second bad marriage and then finds true love with a Parisian known for a long string of affairs. But a scandalous life can make for entertaining reading, and the Mitford sisters never fail to entertain.
I admit I had several problems with the characters' snobbishness. Nancy Mitford is credited with coining the terms 'U' and 'Non-U' for upper class and not upper class. It's difficult to find a character in The Pursuit of Love who's not a snob. Even the communists look down on each other. But the novel's charm and the author's wit win the day. At her most heartless, Linda Radlett is an amusing character. Take for instance this passage where Linda tells her cousin why she dislikes her own daughter after discovering that the child is afraid of air-raids and is happy her father is sending her to America for safety:
"I'm in such a temper," she said, "I must talk to somebody. To think I ruined nine months of my life in order to have that. What do your children think about air-raids, Fanny?"
"I must say them simply long for them, and I am sorry to say they also long for the Germans to arrive. They spend the whole day making booby-traps for them in the orchard."
"Well that's a relief anyhow--I thought perhaps it was the generation."
Perhaps it was the generation. A generation of Mitfords.
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LibraryThing member Cecilturtle
A charming look at love in all its manifestations, from romantic to bourgeois and finally to true love: Linda is constantly led by her many sweeping emotions. Mitford, however, looks at it from a detached, humorous yet sympathetic eye; never does the story through its many meanders turn to
A wonderful story
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melodrama or social judgements. The tale stays light and forgiving as it describes with a certain cynicism a now foregone society.A wonderful story
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LibraryThing member Bagpuss
I have had Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford on my wish list for some time. It features Fanny, the narrator of this book, but stands alone from this title. The BBC dramatised both The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate on TV in 2001 (Christmas, I think) under the title of the latter,
Fanny, who - as Linda wistfully and with a touch of jealousy likes to point out - has such “wicked parents”, lives with her Aunt Emily in the Cotswolds, but spends most of her time at Alconleigh in Oxfordshire, the large country home of her irascible but loveable Uncle Matthew, Aunt Sadie and various cousins – the Hons – who spend much of their time ensconced in the airing cupboard making plans against various perceived enemies - unworthy Counter-Hons - and dreaming of love. The novel follows the children of the family – Fanny and her Radlett cousins, and particularly Linda – in their pursuit of love…
This novel was a complete surprise to me. I didn’t expect it to be… well, such fun! It’s a brilliant satirical novel full of extraordinary characters. It’s totally un-PC by today’s standards and it’s just so funny – such a brilliant, irresistible tale of an eccentric English upper-class family.
It is not often I laugh out loud when reading a book, but I laughed more times than I can count whilst listening to this (and got some funny looks as a result!) – it made me want to go out walking just so I could listen to some more of it! Emilia Fox does such a brilliant job of narrating it.
I also cried. I won’t tell you when or why. If you’ve read the book then you’ll know, and if you haven’t then I don’t want to spoil a thing.
I’m a little disappointed to find that Patricia Hodge narrates Fanny in Love in a Cold Climate, although Emilia Fox is back narrating Don’t Tell Alfred, so that’s good. Hopefully Patricia Hodge will do an equally good job and I am definitely going to either read or listen to them!
If you like social history fiction with more than a touch of satire then I urge you to try this book. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I am sad that it has ended – I want more!
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but I must have been doing something else at the same time (probably surfing the internet!) as I have no recollection of it at all! I really should have paid more attention, although then again maybe not, as TV productions, with a few notable exceptions, are seldom as good as the book. Anyway, I digress…Fanny, who - as Linda wistfully and with a touch of jealousy likes to point out - has such “wicked parents”, lives with her Aunt Emily in the Cotswolds, but spends most of her time at Alconleigh in Oxfordshire, the large country home of her irascible but loveable Uncle Matthew, Aunt Sadie and various cousins – the Hons – who spend much of their time ensconced in the airing cupboard making plans against various perceived enemies - unworthy Counter-Hons - and dreaming of love. The novel follows the children of the family – Fanny and her Radlett cousins, and particularly Linda – in their pursuit of love…
This novel was a complete surprise to me. I didn’t expect it to be… well, such fun! It’s a brilliant satirical novel full of extraordinary characters. It’s totally un-PC by today’s standards and it’s just so funny – such a brilliant, irresistible tale of an eccentric English upper-class family.
It is not often I laugh out loud when reading a book, but I laughed more times than I can count whilst listening to this (and got some funny looks as a result!) – it made me want to go out walking just so I could listen to some more of it! Emilia Fox does such a brilliant job of narrating it.
I also cried. I won’t tell you when or why. If you’ve read the book then you’ll know, and if you haven’t then I don’t want to spoil a thing.
I’m a little disappointed to find that Patricia Hodge narrates Fanny in Love in a Cold Climate, although Emilia Fox is back narrating Don’t Tell Alfred, so that’s good. Hopefully Patricia Hodge will do an equally good job and I am definitely going to either read or listen to them!
If you like social history fiction with more than a touch of satire then I urge you to try this book. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I am sad that it has ended – I want more!
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LibraryThing member lamour
According to critic Rachel Cooke, this novel "is an entirely authentic picture of country house life in England between the wars, and will long be consulted by historians of the period". The story is told through the eyes of Fanny who is a cousin to Linda who the novel is really about. Linda was an
Her first marriage was against the advice of friends and both her family & the family of the groom. It didn't last long. Her next was to a Communist who was so focused on his politics, he had no time for a wife. Failure again.
The narrative is full of eccentric characters who express and hold unusual beliefs. The best example is Captain Warbeck whose main concern was his colon and diet. He was definitely ahead of his time for he sounded just like some of my health food addict friends. Through witty comments made by the characters, Mitford achieves her humour and satire about the life of these upper class snobs.
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emotional but high spirited child who frequently challenged her eccentric and cruel father. One way she did this was to release animals from his traps. He in turn used to exercise the hounds by having the children take the role of the fox.Her first marriage was against the advice of friends and both her family & the family of the groom. It didn't last long. Her next was to a Communist who was so focused on his politics, he had no time for a wife. Failure again.
The narrative is full of eccentric characters who express and hold unusual beliefs. The best example is Captain Warbeck whose main concern was his colon and diet. He was definitely ahead of his time for he sounded just like some of my health food addict friends. Through witty comments made by the characters, Mitford achieves her humour and satire about the life of these upper class snobs.
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LibraryThing member nosajeel
I read something that said that you either obsessively love Nancy Mitford or you despise her. I found myself somewhere in between, closer to love, wanting to read more, but very far from blown away. The comparison's to Jane Austen and Evelyn Waugh seem particularly far from the mark. As is the idea
The strength of The Pursuit of Love is several of the larger-than-life characters, especially the gruff, rural lord Uncle Matthew and his more sophisticated neighbor Lord Merlin, but many others as well. The particular elements of the story are engaging as well, but they do not completely fit together as a well constructed novel in the vein of Jane Austen or your typical chick lit. You followed everyone of the main character's love affairs with interest, but without any particular degree of passion or caring. And it certainly didn't end in the form of comedy.
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that it is witty, sophisticated mid-century chick lit.The strength of The Pursuit of Love is several of the larger-than-life characters, especially the gruff, rural lord Uncle Matthew and his more sophisticated neighbor Lord Merlin, but many others as well. The particular elements of the story are engaging as well, but they do not completely fit together as a well constructed novel in the vein of Jane Austen or your typical chick lit. You followed everyone of the main character's love affairs with interest, but without any particular degree of passion or caring. And it certainly didn't end in the form of comedy.
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LibraryThing member Smiler69
I'd been wanting to read something by Nancy Mitford for quite some time now, as her titles accumulate in my tbr and on my wishlist, and this classic of hers did not disappoint. This is a genre of novel I've discovered in the last year or so and have grown very fond of: the observation of an
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eccentric English family during the war by a female British author. The observer in this case is Fanny Logan, who's mother (known as "The Bolter") had Fanny at a young age and has no interest in mothering and is always busy scampering off somewhere with one of her many lovers or husbands. Fanny has been taken in by her aunt and uncle, the Radletts of Alconleigh, an upper class family with decidedly upper-crust concerns. Fanny is particularly fascinated with her beautiful cousin Linda, who discouraged from pursuing studies as were most young women of her time, takes to forging her love life with great gusto and inevitably ends up making a big muddle of it. I enjoyed the audiobook so much that I rushed ahead and purchased the ominbus edition containing the follow-up novel, Love in a Cold Climate. One of those books I'll very much look forward to rereading. Show Less
LibraryThing member patrickgarson
Nancy Mitford's semi-autobiographical Pursuit of Love is an interesting book, a kind of upper-class British farce with a streak of melancholia and shrewdness running underneath.
The Radletts are unconventional, even by the standards of literary interwar British aristocracy. Linda and cousin Fanny
I enjoyed this book. Fanny is an affectionate, yet discerning narrator - easily able to see the foibles in her family and just easily love them. This is not exactly a light comedy a la Heyer or Wodehouse - though it shares much of their arch tone. Nor is it Brideshead Revisited or similar deconstructions. In truth, it's a combination of the two, and it reminded me more than anything of Trollope in some ways - though it's much breezier and forthrightly humorous.
The book also covers a long period of time, beginning shortly after the end of WWI, and finishing around WWII's conclusion. Again, this passage of years is unusual for a comedic British novel, and it did lend the book a somewhat bittersweet edge. Underpinning Linda's romantic shenanigans is a story of frustration, disappointment, and in many ways ill-treatment. This - and Fanny's sideways acknowledgements of it - give the book a dissonant tone. It's not a bad thing, but it definitely breaks the novel out of genre, I feel.
For all this, one thing that's wholly unquestioned is class. Money is no object to the Radletts in the sense that it's not something to even be considered, ever - and the wads of cash financing their many adventures is never really considered nor commented on, but rather viewed as a natural state. It's an interesting ellipsis in an otherwise sharp-eyed book.
The Pursuit of Love is decidedly a pursuit - it's a fast-paced novel that gets through a hell of a lot in its 200-odd pages. With such slender demands on a reader, there's certainly enough here to justify a read.
The Radletts are unconventional, even by the standards of literary interwar British aristocracy. Linda and cousin Fanny
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spend their days dreaming of falling in love whilst Lord Radlett literally hunts them across the properties. As the years tick by, narrator Fanny loses her childish dreams, but Linda pursues them with a frenzy. I enjoyed this book. Fanny is an affectionate, yet discerning narrator - easily able to see the foibles in her family and just easily love them. This is not exactly a light comedy a la Heyer or Wodehouse - though it shares much of their arch tone. Nor is it Brideshead Revisited or similar deconstructions. In truth, it's a combination of the two, and it reminded me more than anything of Trollope in some ways - though it's much breezier and forthrightly humorous.
The book also covers a long period of time, beginning shortly after the end of WWI, and finishing around WWII's conclusion. Again, this passage of years is unusual for a comedic British novel, and it did lend the book a somewhat bittersweet edge. Underpinning Linda's romantic shenanigans is a story of frustration, disappointment, and in many ways ill-treatment. This - and Fanny's sideways acknowledgements of it - give the book a dissonant tone. It's not a bad thing, but it definitely breaks the novel out of genre, I feel.
For all this, one thing that's wholly unquestioned is class. Money is no object to the Radletts in the sense that it's not something to even be considered, ever - and the wads of cash financing their many adventures is never really considered nor commented on, but rather viewed as a natural state. It's an interesting ellipsis in an otherwise sharp-eyed book.
The Pursuit of Love is decidedly a pursuit - it's a fast-paced novel that gets through a hell of a lot in its 200-odd pages. With such slender demands on a reader, there's certainly enough here to justify a read.
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LibraryThing member jasonlf
I read something that said that you either obsessively love Nancy Mitford or you despise her. I found myself somewhere in between, closer to love, wanting to read more, but very far from blown away. The comparison's to Jane Austen and Evelyn Waugh seem particularly far from the mark. As is the idea
The strength of The Pursuit of Love is several of the larger-than-life characters, especially the gruff, rural lord Uncle Matthew and his more sophisticated neighbor Lord Merlin, but many others as well. The particular elements of the story are engaging as well, but they do not completely fit together as a well constructed novel in the vein of Jane Austen or your typical chick lit. You followed everyone of the main character's love affairs with interest, but without any particular degree of passion or caring. And it certainly didn't end in the form of comedy.
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that it is witty, sophisticated mid-century chick lit.The strength of The Pursuit of Love is several of the larger-than-life characters, especially the gruff, rural lord Uncle Matthew and his more sophisticated neighbor Lord Merlin, but many others as well. The particular elements of the story are engaging as well, but they do not completely fit together as a well constructed novel in the vein of Jane Austen or your typical chick lit. You followed everyone of the main character's love affairs with interest, but without any particular degree of passion or caring. And it certainly didn't end in the form of comedy.
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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
This lightly autobiographical comic novel focuses on the life of Linda Radlett and her family, as narrated by her cousin Fanny. Raised in a life of comfort in a large country aristocratic family, Linda marries young (her choice) to a stuffy banker with Nazi sympathies. After a few years, including
I found--at least the French aristocrat rescue--to be highly unrealistic. This book seems to me to be very much of its time--like the 1930's black and white movies with madcap heiresses. We only see Linda through the lens of Fanny, the more staid cousin, so in general we're not privy to her inner thoughts. Linda comes across as shallow, vapid, and amoral. Are we supposed to admire her? Or is she a stand-in for the decline of the British upper class?
The introduction to the volume I read said, "For some, Mitford's brazen indifference to big ideas, coupled with her minute attention to the sex and love lives of the privileged upper class, condemns this, and all her other novels, to inconsequentiality."
The writing wasn't bad, but the themes and the characters just didn't interest me. In my mind, I kept comparing Linda to Ursula, the heroine of Life After Life, who is a contemporary of Linda's. Linda is so much less interesting.
2 1/2 stars
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the birth of a daughter she abhors and utterly rejects, Linda leaves the banker for a scruffy, starving Communist involved in the Spanish Civil War. After a bit Linda tires of him, and leaves Spain for home. When she arrives in Paris, she discovers her train ticket has expired, and she has no funds to buy a replacement. Uncertain as to what to do she sits on her suitcase, fur coat trailing the ground and begins to cry. Of course she is immediately rescued by a French aristocrat who first puts her up in a luxury hotel, then in a sunny apartment with a prestigious address, who buys her jewels, furs and a couture wardrobe, and professes to be madly in love with her.I found--at least the French aristocrat rescue--to be highly unrealistic. This book seems to me to be very much of its time--like the 1930's black and white movies with madcap heiresses. We only see Linda through the lens of Fanny, the more staid cousin, so in general we're not privy to her inner thoughts. Linda comes across as shallow, vapid, and amoral. Are we supposed to admire her? Or is she a stand-in for the decline of the British upper class?
The introduction to the volume I read said, "For some, Mitford's brazen indifference to big ideas, coupled with her minute attention to the sex and love lives of the privileged upper class, condemns this, and all her other novels, to inconsequentiality."
The writing wasn't bad, but the themes and the characters just didn't interest me. In my mind, I kept comparing Linda to Ursula, the heroine of Life After Life, who is a contemporary of Linda's. Linda is so much less interesting.
2 1/2 stars
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LibraryThing member peptastic
I enjoyed this book immensely. I could easily see myself growing up in the Aconeligh family and being bullied by the other kids.We'd all fit right in with them.My own family loves our pets as deeply as poor Linda and her attempted suicide over her beloved lab.I think Nancy Mitford wrote the most
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realistic book about love to relate to my own life. They fell in love with the idea of people who never lived up to their expectations.It doesn't really matter in the end if you "wasted" your time liking the wrong guy for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member Dabble58
Anyone who hasn't had a glance at Nancy Mitford's books should stop what they are doing right now, find one, and go read it. It's almost impossible to describe the delight I had in reading this book, and I am ever grateful to my cousins for introducing me to it. Read it with tea or some stiff
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scotch. Show Less
LibraryThing member Disie35
One of my all time favorite books.
LibraryThing member mstrust
Narrated by cousin Fanny, this is the story of the wild Radlett children, but primarily that of dreamy romantic Linda Radlett. From childhood, to a teenage marriage, through travels and affairs, Fanny and Linda remain each other's confidants.
That seems like a too simple plot summary for a story
That seems like a too simple plot summary for a story
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that is funny and moving and so engaging. Show Less
LibraryThing member AmaliaGavea
Utter and absolute snoozefest
LibraryThing member missizicks
I wasn't sure about this at first. It took a while to get going. I found the characters too superficial and frivolous until Linda heads for France and is transformed. Then the superficiality made sense as context for such an alteration. I ended the book loving Linda. I enjoyed the way Mitford
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brought to life Linda's reluctant capitulation to love, and the way she becomes more solid as a result. The backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War provide a striking relief to the intensity of Linda's personal experiences. Show Less
LibraryThing member ffortsa
After I committed to reading [Love in a Cold Climate], I realized it was the second of a series of novels Nancy Mitford had written, so I started here with the first. It took a while for the story to capture me, but ultimately it was an amusing look at the life of the landed gentry between the
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wars, and especially the lives of women at this time. Ultimately, it is the story of Linda, who longs for romantic love with all the naivete of haphazard education and impracticality, along with her parents, siblings, and mentors. Her course is narrated by her cousin Fanny, who in contrast to her own abandoning gadabout mother has become practical, educated, resilliant, and happily married. Nevertheless, she loves Linda and portrays her with great sympathy as well as humor. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookomaniac
Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this book (because we're in the process of renovating our house), but it was so disappointing that I barely read 100 pages of it. It has the tone of a coming-of-age story, set in a rich aristocratic milieu in England in the interwar period. Through the eyes of the
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young Fanny, a relative left to her own devices by her parents, we get a picture of wealth, many hunting parties, and eccentric figures, but also the necessary portion of misfortune (especially via the niece Linda). I do notice the cynical-sarcastic tone with which the British aristocracy is portrayed, but nevertheless it didn't captivate me at all. I even found the almost complete lack of social focus striking. Show Less
LibraryThing member murderbydeath
My first Nancy Mitford read was Love in a Cold Climate and while I could recognise the talent in the writing, and enjoy the humor, I failed to see anything significant or profound in the story. That means this, my only other Mitford book, languished on the TBR for years. I finally picked it up a
Told in third person by a narrator that is the niece/cousin of the Radlett family, it chronicles the life of one of the Radlett daughters, second-oldest of 7 (I think), Linda. Linda is a delicate natured, highly emotional child who loves animals, in a family that is hilariously savage, headed by a father that is the very stereotype of landed gentry. As a teen she becomes highly romantic and impatient for her Grand True Love. Most importantly to her future, she is undereducated and naive, but kind, charming and pleasant.
Of the two books, this one is the most realistic; Linda is just as likely a character today as she was almost 100 years ago. I didn't read reviews of it before beginning it, but when searching for a synopsis I glanced over several that read of the tragic undercurrent of this book. On the face of it, I see why people claim this, but really, I can't see it. Linda herself would not see her life as tragic, and I"m not at all sure Fanny (the narrator) sees it either. Linda's life was not blameless, but Linda herself never thought it was, and undereducated or not, she owned her mistakes and would repeat them all given a choice, in the end. I admired her for that.
I could talk forever about this book, but I'll just wrap up with a note about the introduction to my edition, written by Hugo Vickers. In it he states that it is widely believed that this book is largely autobiographical, with Fanny, the narrator, being Mitford. I know nothing about Nancy Mitford save what he himself wrote in a quick biographical sketch, but based on this, I don't see it; she appears to have lived much more of Linda's life than the solid, quiet life of Fanny. Perhaps Mitford, as Fanny, was playing the omniscient observer of her own history, adding the ending she'd have preferred, over the one she ultimately got. I suppose that's what Vickers meant, but if it was, he didn't make that clear.
By far my favorite of the two books, this is engaging writing, amusing reading, and offers readers a depth of insight that will stay with them without weighing them down.
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couple of days ago. It is a significantly better book, in my opinion.Told in third person by a narrator that is the niece/cousin of the Radlett family, it chronicles the life of one of the Radlett daughters, second-oldest of 7 (I think), Linda. Linda is a delicate natured, highly emotional child who loves animals, in a family that is hilariously savage, headed by a father that is the very stereotype of landed gentry. As a teen she becomes highly romantic and impatient for her Grand True Love. Most importantly to her future, she is undereducated and naive, but kind, charming and pleasant.
Of the two books, this one is the most realistic; Linda is just as likely a character today as she was almost 100 years ago. I didn't read reviews of it before beginning it, but when searching for a synopsis I glanced over several that read of the tragic undercurrent of this book. On the face of it, I see why people claim this, but really, I can't see it. Linda herself would not see her life as tragic, and I"m not at all sure Fanny (the narrator) sees it either. Linda's life was not blameless, but Linda herself never thought it was, and undereducated or not, she owned her mistakes and would repeat them all given a choice, in the end. I admired her for that.
I could talk forever about this book, but I'll just wrap up with a note about the introduction to my edition, written by Hugo Vickers. In it he states that it is widely believed that this book is largely autobiographical, with Fanny, the narrator, being Mitford. I know nothing about Nancy Mitford save what he himself wrote in a quick biographical sketch, but based on this, I don't see it; she appears to have lived much more of Linda's life than the solid, quiet life of Fanny. Perhaps Mitford, as Fanny, was playing the omniscient observer of her own history, adding the ending she'd have preferred, over the one she ultimately got. I suppose that's what Vickers meant, but if it was, he didn't make that clear.
By far my favorite of the two books, this is engaging writing, amusing reading, and offers readers a depth of insight that will stay with them without weighing them down.
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LibraryThing member ben_a
A champagne cocktail of a book -- effervescent, delightful, and not too heavy. Mitford's style is marvelous. My mother and sister, I should note, found Linda fundamentally irksome.
LibraryThing member sometimeunderwater
Both cruel and charming in equal measure, sometimes at the same time.
LibraryThing member EPoliti
nice reading
Awards
Language
Original publication date
1945
ISBN
no ISBN
Local notes
Mitford's wickedly funny prose follows the romantic fortunes of Linda Radlett, who is relentless in her search for true love.