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Loading... The Pursuit of Love (original 1945; edition 1991)by Nancy Mitford, Roland Pym (Illustrator)
Work InformationThe Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (1945)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Really fun read read that turns into a surprisingly moving read. The power and beauty of people being their unapologetic selves. Eccentric, selfish, funny, loving, and all too human. The manner in which the war alters the view is deftly and poignantly handled by Mitford. A smart and funny book that has something to say about our strange species. "‘Oh, don’t pity me. I’ve had eleven months of perfect and unalloyed happiness, very few people can say that, in the course of long long lives, I imagine.’ I imagined so too. Alfred and I are happy, as happy as married people can be. We are in love, we are intellectually and physically suited in every possible way, we rejoice in each other’s company, we have no money troubles and three delightful children. And yet, when I consider my life, day by day, hour by hour, it seems to be composed of a series of pinpricks. Nannies, cooks, the endless drudgery of housekeeping, the nerve-racking noise and boring repetitive conversation of small children (boring in the sense that it bores into one’s very brain), their absolute incapacity to amuse themselves, their sudden and terrifying illnesses, Alfred’s not infrequent bouts of moodiness, his invariable complaints at meals about the pudding, the way he will always use my tooth-paste and will always squeeze the tube in the middle. These are the components of marriage, the wholemeal bread of life, rough, ordinary, but sustaining; Linda had been feeding upon honey-dew, and that is an incomparable diet." for a while during reading I thought I wasn't really into it then I reached the end and realised it had really taken hold of me without realising. the doings of a bunch of very explicitly aristocratic aristocrats seems designed to turn me off but it's written well with a lot of dry humour. everything is treated with mockery but a sympathetic kind of mockery, one about how silly we can be but how that's how things are and we get on with it and it's ok. if that makes sense. i found the portrayal of communists pretty good on that count - affectionate mockery understanding. a pretty enjoyable book that i think will be a grower on my imagination over time one thing that really bothers me: what's the french guy's final written message say? it's just said that it's unreadable but there's no hint at all given of what it might be supposed to say or anything. maybe i missed an obvious joke or something. oh one big problem is it uses a good amount of untranslated French you can generally get the gist but it kind of sucks no reviews | add a review
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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. No library descriptions found. |
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