Love in a Cold Climate

This was a surprise. I was expecting something more Wildean or Wodehousean. Instead I got something funny and poignant. Mitford mixes insight into human character with gently mocking observations on her social class. It wasn't uproariously funny, but I laughed a couple of times. I enjoyed the observations made about love, marriage and family, and the acknowledgement that we put up with monstrous people within our closest circles in order to keep family life on an even keel. The families in the book might be exaggerated, and their social existence alien to most of us, but they face the same issues of being human as anyone else.

Trashily enjoyable, Love in a Cold Climate casts a delightfully cold and acerbic eye over aristocratic English society in the 1930s, aided by Mitford's deft (and often malicious) way with characterisation. I don't know that I would read much more of her work--Mitford is very much of her time with regards to certain, uh, social assumptions and stereotypes, and this is almost ridiculously frothy--but as a once-off read, it is a lot of fun.

A wickedly funny story about the aristocracy in the years between the wars before the decline of that echelon. Mitford's characters are delightfully eccentric. When heiress Polly marries someone regarded as unsuitable she is banished and the Montdores search out the next in line who is found in Nova Scotia, Canada. He turns out to be not a lumberjack but a colourful gay man. Just right. This was wonderful! I enjoyed it even more than The Pursuit of Love.

Some favourite quotes:
"Sea breezes, in so far as they are good for the complexion, were regarded by us as a means and not an end, for at that time it was our idea to live in capital cities and go to the Opera alight with diamonds, 'Who is that lovely woman?' and Nova Scotia was clearly show more not a suitable venue for such doings."

"Lady Montdore loved anybody royal. It was a genuine emotion, quite disinterested, since she loved them as much in exile as in power, and the act of curtsying was the consummation of this love. Her curtsies, owing to the solid quality of her frame, did not recall the graceful movement of wheat before the wind. She scrambled down like a camel, rising again backside foremost like a cow, a strange performance, painful it might be supposed to the performer, the expression on whose face, however, belied this thought. Her knees cracked like revolver shots but her smile was heavenly."

Fanny worried that Uncle Matthew, who brought her up, held little hope for Alfred, her new husband - "the fella reads books". show less

Reminiscent of Cold Comfort Farm, this satire of the snobbery and foibles of upper-class society is as delightful as it is wickedly delicious, with biting barbs and zestful zingers abound from its hilariously badly-behaved cast.

The highlights of the novel are definitely its fantastically self-absorbed characters: the narcissistic Suaveterre who ends everything he says with "isn't my English/poetry/taste exquisite", whose appearance allowed for one of the more outrageous, surprisingly sexy-for-1949, non-followed-up event the robbery which occurred because everyone assumed Suaveterre was prowling for sex, husbands just turned over mumbling "wrong room" while the wives tingled and waited; the bulldozing, passive-aggressive Lady Montdore show more with snobbish social aspirations is occasionally tripped up by her malapropisms whose best line has to be when she called Polly "you incestuous little trollop"; the lecherous Boy who is accepted for his lechery and does excellent needlepoint; the secondary characters who exclaims or is described thus "oh, what a pity it happens to be Davey's day for getting drunk."; Jassy and Victoria who are just all-round excellent trouble-making hyperactive effusive children.

As the scandalous event which is advertised so prominently in the blurb doesn't occur until halfway, it is best to not read the blurb at all and let the witty catalogue of disparagements of each character wash over you. Recommended if you enjoy comedy of manners where people are outrageous but no one really suffers for it. show less

Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford was a simple, charming story that started off with a delightful introduction written by Alan Cumming in which he sets the stage for the narrator, Fanny, to tell the story of the Hampton family, the perfect father, husband and host, Lord Montdore, his fearsome wife, Sonia, a social motivator who is looked up to by just about everyone, and their lovely daughter, Polly, an only child, who had been groomed her whole life to make the perfect marriage but instead throws herself away by declaring herself engaged to an undesirable suitor. Of course this unsuitable marriage clears the way for the arrival of Lord Montdore’s colourful heir, Cedric. We are lucky enough to be given a front seat in the show more drawing room in order to watch this family drama play out in this irresistible, witty satire on upper class society.

This was my first book written by Nancy Mitford, and I understand now that I have read this volume out of order and should have read The Pursuit of Love first, but this was such a fun read. The author effortlessly recreates the foibles of the English upper class of the 1930’s and obviously relishes pointing out each flaw or defect but always in a gentle sophisticated way. This was just the perfect book to curl up with on a winter’s afternoon and knowing that Nancy Mitford was a member of the very society that she is lampooning makes it all the more fun. show less

(37) This was a great little novel. I thought the characterizations were great and the subtle biting satire was brilliant. Fanny is the quintessential demure plain well-bred orphan cipher through which we see the lives of the Mondore family, English nobility between the 2 World Wars. Lady Mondore, a self-centered unapologetic snob, is doing all she can to make her only beautiful daughter Polly a good marriage. But Polly won't cooperate and has other shocking ideas of her own resulting in disinheritance. In comes the heir - Cedric Hampton - all I will say is hilarious. And Cedric and his ways are able to lay the hypocrisy bare.

I thought the writing was almost flawless. Some of the lines! - Polly like a cow who has been separated from show more its calf after her stillbirth. Acceptable solidarity with a child molester! Beyond the pale! But because of the ground work laid down by the author in terms of tone and norms (with the little Greek chorus of Jassy and Vict) the reader accepted this hook line and sinker. Is it even satire? Anyway, brilliant.

My only criticism is the ending was way too rushed - Cedric's illness, Polly's return and eventual disposition was 2 or 3 lines compared with lots of detail about seemingly mundane visits and dinner parties at the beginning. The pacing was definitely off for me and this prevented a higher rating.

I will definitely read the other related books by this author. Highly recommended for lovers of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Jane Howard, 'The Forsyte Saga,' Downton Abbey, etc. show less

Mitford’s own sensibility, at least in the narrating character's voice, may be rather dutiful and prim, but she is drawn, as who wouldn't be, to extravagant, eccentric rogues and show-offs. So here spoiled heiress Polly falls for the “Lecherous Lecturer”, whilst her mother, ruthless social climber Lady Montdore is captivated by a foppish New Worlder. As in “Pursuit of Love”, Mitford delights us with her gossipy, hilarious story, but still brimming with well-turned description and understanding of personality. The flavour of the decadent, class-ridden, unsustainable England of the interwar years, the clocks already ticking on its Waugh-Wodehouse presumptions, is well captured here. The flimsiness of this culture is evident in show more its very vogue words, that Mitford makes good use of: bogus, sick-making, S.A. (sex appeal), stuffing (scoffing, but perhaps also frowsting). And there’s plenty more esoterica to amuse or get you looking up references: strawberry leaves(?), a lady of Llangollen, the unforgettable “chubb fuddling”. show less