Love in a Cold Climate [Hardcover]

Nancy Mitford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1949

'How lovely - green velvet and silver. I call that a dream, so soft and delicious, too.' She rubbed a fold of the skirt against her cheek. 'Mine's silver lame, it smells like a bird cage when it gets hot but I do love it. Aren't you thankful evening skirts are long again?' Ah, the dresses! But oh, the monotony of the Season, with its endless run of glittering balls. Even fabulously fashionable Polly Hampton - with her startling good looks and excellent social connections - is beginning to wilt under the glare. Groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, fearsome Lady Montdore, Polly instead scandalizes society by declaring her love for her uncle 'Boy' Dougdale, the Lecherous Lecturer, and promptly eloping to France. But the consequences of this union no one could quite expect ..."Love in a Cold Climate" is the wickedly funny follow-up to "The Pursuit of Love" and explores the mystery of sexual attraction.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Entirely original, inimitable and irresistible -- Philip Hensher Spectator --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. Her childhood in a large remote country house with her five sisters and one brother is recounted in the early chapters of The Pursuit of Love (1945), which according to the author, is largely autobiographical. Apart from being taught to ride and speak French, Nancy Mitford always claimed she never received a proper education. She started writing before her marriage in 1932 in order 'to relieve the boredom of the intervals between the recreations established by the social conventions of her world' and had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945. After the war she moved to Paris where she lived for the rest of her life. She followed The Pursuit of Love with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography: Madame de Pompadour, first published to great acclaim in 1954, Voltaire in Love, The Sun King and Frederick the Great. As well as being a novelist and a biographer she also translated Madame de Lafayette's classic novel, La Princesse de Cleves, into English, and edited Noblesse Oblige, a collection of essays concerned with the behaviour of the English aristocracy and the idea of 'U' and 'non-U'. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972. Alan Cumming is an actor, director, producer, and writer. He has adapted several plays for The Royal National Theatre and starred as the Pope in his own adaptation of Jean Genet's Elle in New York. With Jennifer Jason Leigh he wrote and directed the film The Anniversary Party, which premiered at Cannes and won a National Board of Review award and two Independent Spirit nominations. He has written introductions and contributions for books on a range of subjects including Andy Warhol, nude photography and the AIDS crisis, and for publications such as Newsweek, BlackBook, Interview, Marie Claire, Contents, OUT Traveler, the Independent and House and Garden. His novel Tommy's Tale was published by Penguin in 2003. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; First edition (December 1949)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241903920
• ISBN-13: 978-0241903926
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lady Montdore finally finds the daughter she never had., September 15, 2006

By 

Paul Scott (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love in a Cold Climate (Paperback)

This is a fun, interesting novel that is not for anyone who does not love irony. It is perhaps best appreciated by people who may like Waugh (I think they were friends). Possibly if anyone likes Jan Austen, this novel will please you as well. The similarities to Austen are only in the stucture of certain scenes, and the happy, silliness of the plot wonderfully subverts Jane Austen. Its a really sad and comic look at love and women. It is perhaps mostly about the changing times for women of a particular class. The only reason I do not give it five stars is that I feel it ends too abruptly. But the last scene is magnificent. Look for the paralels between it and the last scenes of sense and sensibility. Its great!

This book is not for the girly, sentimental novel reading sort unless you have a good sense of humor.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Bonus, March 12, 2010

By 

Carbonbased "Carbonbased" (Pacific NW) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love in a Cold Climate (Kindle Edition)

The Kindle edition by Penguin Classics (ASIN: B002RI9YOQ) also contains the novels "The Pursuit of Love" and "The Blessing"

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern classic, June 29, 2010

By 

I. Sondel "I. Sondel - lover of the arts" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Love in a Cold Climate (Paperback)

On August 10th Vintage will reissue several classic novels by Nancy Mitford, including Love in a Cold Climate. Mitford was perhaps the brightest of the "Bright Young Things" immortalized in the fiction of Evelyn Waugh.

Originally published in 1949, Love in a Cold Climate is a comedy of manners that revolves around the naughty Polly Montdore, whose scandalous marriage left her disinherited, and her Canadian cousin Cedric Hampton, the heir apparent.

The action of both this and its prequel, The Pursuit of Love, run concurrently, taking place between the wars, with everyone's favorite cousin, Fanny Wincham, serving as impartial narrator.

Aside from an engaging storyline, tart wit and charming prose style, Love in a Cold Climate is of particular relevance to gay readers for the no nonsense presentation of the flamboyantly aesthetic Cedric, who is thoroughly and unrepentantly gay. He is a rather heroic character (not at all tragic like poor Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited and so many other gays of pre-Stonewall literature), possessed of great personal magnetism and self-esteem; and though his open homosexuality alternately shocks and delights society, he ultimately proves a great catalyst for happiness and reconciliation in the lives of those closest to him.