Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, 0140056963, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

A double dose of Mitford

What a lovely treat - this is a great volume full of the joyous observations, sharp humour and piquancy that make Nancy Mitford such a treat. And not too big for a handbag like some omnibuses!

Brilliant use of humour and satire - very enjoyable

I love the cutting way in which she lampoons the upper classes and yet still has an abiding affection for them. The bittersweet nature of her emotions colour both novels. I was devastated by the end of The Pursuit of Love and enjoyed Love in a Cold Climate much more. I don't care about the comma's - the books were stylish and fun to read.

A Literary Giant

Miss Mitford is quite frankly the most fascinating character to have lived in the twentieth century. She is a genius, and nothing short. Her books are perhaps not as stellar as her articles (which I highly recommend), but they are all masterpieces in their own original way.

The Pursuit of Love is her greatest literary endeavour, and it is my favorite novel ever. Others may lambast Miss Mitford for her attachment to the comma or her unfamiliarity with grammatical detail (e.g. Evelyn Waugh), but they fail to see the magic in her light, captivating style. She's telling a story, not writing a treatise, and she accomplishes her goal admirably.

I am on a quest to purchase every book this unforgettable writer ever wrote, every article she ever published. I was started on that quest by the Pursuit of Love. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Shakespeare. Austen. Mitford. That says it all.

Wicked Nancy -- long on character, short on plot

Recognized by most devotees of Nancy Mitford as her two best novels, Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate are irreverent and delightful evocations of English upper-class life in the first half of this century.

Miss Mitford was never strong on plot -- some of her lesser work are disastrous in this department -- but the characters are unforgettable: the sulphuric Uncle Matthew, the hypochondriacal Davey Warbeck, the effeminate Cedric remain in the reader's memory long after the inadequacies of the plots have been forgotten.

The Pursuit of Love is the stronger of the two works, not surprisingly as it is for all practical purposes autobiographical. The Alconleigh family, with its excesses of emotion, its spartan lifestyle and its lack of any apparently useful role in a modern society, is Nancy's own family to the life. And behind the bitter-sweet romance between Linda, the heroine, and her French lover lie Nancy's own, sadder relationship and her highly biased preference for France over England.

Love in a Cold Climate is a more uncertain work; there is an unexplored darkness in Polly's emotional waywardness which a better writer would have made more of; the plot seems aimless until the arrival of Cedric, and stops dead in the grand Mitford style at the book's conclusion. Once again, the work is saved by the characters -- the exuberant Alconleigh brood, the deliciously awful "hell-hag" Lady Montdore, and of course the startling and unforgettable Cedric.

Not great books, and occasionally something of a trial to readers who are distressed by Miss Mitford's attachment to the comma, they nevertheless remain deservedly popular among lovers of England who do not take life too seriously.

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