Love In A Cold Climate Tie In: Amazon.ca: Nancy Mitford: Books

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This is the classic comedy of upper crust English manners and mores on the subject of love between the Wars. Set in the privileged world of the country house party and the London season, "Love in a Cold Climate" is a delicious comedy of English upper-class manners between the wars. With a gallery of unforgettable characters, and in her distinctively witty style, Nancy Mitford exposes the eccentricities and foibles of the aristocracy in their pursuit of amusement, gossip - and love. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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First Sentence
I AM obliged to begin this story with a brief account of the Hampton family, because it is necessary to emphasize the fact once and for all that the Hamptons were very grand as well as very rich. Read the first page

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4.0 out of 5 stars Fanny-tastic!, Nov 15 2000

By

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love In A Cold Climate (Paperback)

I found this novel a teeny weeny bit disappointing after its superlative predecessor, 'the Pursuit of Love'. I think if I compare the two, I can see why - 'Pursuit' packs about ten novels worth of incident into its slim frame, as terse, fast, heartless and comic as 'Candide' (Mitford wrote a biography of Voltaire), full of gaps and tacit implications. 'Climate' goes back to those gaps and fills them in, following as it does relatively the same time span. This makes for a slower, more thoughtful book, which feels, on occasion, a little padded out. Similarly, both books take their cue from their heroine - 'Pursuit' is as lively, adventurous, funny and adorable as Linda; Polly in 'Climate', though beautiful, is as dull as people find her, and so, when she is in it, is her book.

I say this relatively of course; on any other terms, 'Climate' is a comic joy, full of two sublime new characters, Lady Montdore, the imperious snob, and Cedric, the stereotypical queen from untypical Nova Scotia. Add to these old favourites like Boy, Davey, and, especially, the immortal, phlegmatic Uncle Matthew; some choice set-pieces and an odd flash of the old callousness, and you have a real pleasure, especially in the second half. 'Climate''s breezy surface belies a real anger at the limited roles offered women.

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Amazon.com: 4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

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

By Paul Scott - Published on Amazon.com

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, Mar 12 2010

By Carbonbased "Carbonbased" - Published on Amazon.com

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, Jun 29 2010

By I. Sondel "I. Sondel - lover of the arts" - Published on Amazon.com

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.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 9 reviews 4.2 out of 5 stars