Unity Mitford: An Enquiry into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil [Hardcover]

David Pryce-Jones (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Dial Press (1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803788657
• ISBN-13: 978-0803788657
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,925,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She's a Rebel, September 24, 2004

By 

Boyd Rice (denver, co.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unity Mitford: An Enquiry into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil (Hardcover)

The Mitford bio Hons & Rebels was thusly titled for a reason. Many of the sisters WERE rebels. Unity rebeled against the conventions of her time. She took her pet rat to the debutantes ball, played 5 radios tuned to different stations simultaneously (turned up full blast), & generally did as she pleased. Had she not fallen in with Hitler, it's doubtful that anyone other than rabid anglophiles would know or care about her. BUT, had she not fallen in with Hitler it's also possible that she would be a feminist icon of sorts. This book captures Unity in all her paradoxical complexity. Hitler hated lipstick, yet Unity refused not to wear it in his presence. He hated women drivers, yet was delighted to see Unity zooming about Munich in her sports car. She was a unique woman who refused to bow down before anyone, up to & including her "idol", Hitler. Read this bio & you'll find a woman that, like most fascinating figures, was wildly out of step with the times in which she lived; & as a result will continue to be misunderstood by most. Nonetheless, it's a great read, however you feel about Unity and/or her politics.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accuracy in real life and reviewing, September 16, 2004

By 

NY Reader "NY Reader" (New York) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Unity Mitford: An Enquiry into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil (Hardcover)

Anyone who's read anything about the Mitfords knows that Unity was NOT the youngest. The youngest (and only-surviving) Mitford sister (as of 2004) is Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire. The birth order of the Mitford siblings was Nancy, Pam, Tom, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah.

Now -- about the Pryce-Jones book. I can understand why all the sisters, except Jessica, didn't want it published. Nancy was the only committed anti-Fascist among them and so dreaded family contention, that her book about Unity, Wigs on the Green, was never re-released for publication. Deborah also valued family harmony. The rest of them were, as Jessica (the Communist) says, basically sympathetic to the Fascists and were also anti-semites, in the old tradition of British aristocracy. Even Tom, who supposedly had Jewish clients as a lawyer, was, as his sister Diana pointed out, a paid-up member of the British Union of Fascists. Yecchh.

Nevertheless the book is a fascinating psychological study and worth reading for anyone who's interested in family, or social, pathology. What makes charming, funny, smart, gifted people willingly adopt such a hateful social philosophy?

The book may not provide the definitive answer to this question but it is somewhat enlightening about the pre-war social conditions in England and Germany and the mind-set of Nazi fellow-travelers. Unity may be an extreme case but her story is illuminating.

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wierd (but true) History: Debutante Hitler Groupie, September 14, 2000

By 

M. Barroll "(Peggy)" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unity Mitford: An Enquiry into Her Life and the Frivolity of Evil (Hardcover)

I read this book several years ago, when I became fascinated by the Mitfords. One sister, Nancy, wrote a couple of the most delightful comic novels ever, (Love in a Cold Climate, especially) largely revolving around the love life of the English aristocracy. Another sister married into the higher reaches of English aristocracy. One sister, Jessica, got involved in the Spanish Civil war, then moved to the US, became a communist party member, and wrote a best selling expose' of the funeral industry that even my conservative-republican father loved. Another sister, Diana, married the head of the British Fascist party a few years before the beginning of the Second World War.

The youngest sister, Unity, (Yes, I finally got to her!) hung out with Diana, teased Jessica, and ended up, as a teenager, loitering around Berlin in Hitler's known hangouts. She managed to get herself picked up by Hitler himself, who at that time, loved the idea of attaching an English Rose to his group. She went with the "inner circle" to various speeches; she was close friends with numerous vicious anti-semites, whom she seemed to find agreeable and sensible; and she publically argued for a German-English 'alliance' even as Germany invaded its neighbor states.

Apparently, the view we often get of England completely united against facism is not entirely accurate. There were a significant number of English people who thought Hitler was a good thing, and Jews were a big problem, and would have been happy to side with Germany. Unity's brother-in-law, Mosely, would appear to be the man Hitler would have chosen to run England for him if things had turned out differently. Unity's sister Jessica fear that Mosely's crowd was going to take over, and that is why she moved to the US. (Although I suppose we had the same sort of people in the US too ...)

Unity hung out in the thick of this group, and with the Nazi's themselves, and apparently had a marvelous time. She was treated like a Princess by the people who ran Germany (her life in England had been more troubled... She was something of a misfit.) She invited here parents to visit (more English aristocrasy) and they enjoyed meeting Hitler very much; thought he was a fine fellow.

Unity was not disillusioned with her choice until England actally declared war on Germany after the invasion of France. She was living in Berlin then, close to Hitler and his crowd, and she shot herself in the head when the announcement came. She survived, and Hitler himself arranged to have her sent back home to England through neutral Switzerland, where she lived out the rest of her life physically and mentally disabled.

I suppose I haven't really talked about the book. I can't swear as to whether or not it was well-written because I was so fascinated by the subject matter I didn't care. Very readable, though, as I recall. And it seemed to have a reasonable, relatively objective (or at least not vindictive) perspective on the politics and personalities involved.