New Releases by Nancy Mitford

A hardcover omnibus of the comic masterpieces that made Nancy Mitford famous: madcap tales of growing up among the privileged and eccentric in England and finding love in all the wrong places. Nancy Mitford modeled the characters in her two best-known novels on her own famously unconventional family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin Fanny, visiting 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 are recklessly eager to grow up. 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. Love in a Cold Climate focuses on Polly Hampton, long groomed for the perfect marriage by her fearsome mother, Lady Montdore, but secretly determined to find her own path. Together these hilarious novels vividly evoke the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars. Everyman''s Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

This madcap masterpiece about growing up among the privileged and eccentric in England and finding love in all the wrong places is now the basis for a star-studded television series. Nancy Mitford modeled the characters in her best-known novel on her own famously unconventional family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin Fanny, visiting 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 are recklessly eager to grow up. 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. Her hilarious adventures vividly evoke the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars.

L’aventura de l’amor, la novel•la de més èxit que ha escrit, Nancy Mitford fa servir elements reals de la seva extravagant i famosa família per construir el relat. L’acció s’obre a la sala d’Alconleigh, la casa de camp dels Radlett. Davant dels nostres ulls van desfilant els diferents membres de la família: el malhumorat pare, Matthew, amb els seus esclats violents i còmics de còlera i els seus curiosos passatemps, com ara organitzar caceres en les quals les peces són alguns dels seus fills...; la mare absent i devota, Sadie; i els set fills que juntament amb la cosina Fanny formen una família estrafolària i divertidíssima. Però, en realitat, l’autèntica protagonista de la història és la jove Linda Radlett i la seva cerca permanent de l’amor. A través d’aquestes pàgines l’acompanyarem en la seva atzarosa aventura i coneixerem els diferents homes en què va creure trobar-lo. El text desplega el famós enginy satíric i l’extraordinària capacitat de l’autora per reconstruir l’ambient, la vida i les persones dels cercles aristocràtics anglesos d’entreguerres. Un llibre intel•ligent i divertit que ens pot agradar simplement pel que és, una novel•la vibrant i mordaç, però també perquè és un veritable tros de vida. «Traduïda impecablement al català per Dolors Udina, (...) amb sentit de l’humor britànic i una ironia audaç, Nancy Mitford escriu una mena de biografia de la seva família.»Montse Virgili (ARA Llegim) « Nancy ha escrit una novel•la plena de detalls exquisits sobre la vida familiar dels Mitford.»Evelyn Waugh « Fa un moment que he acabat L’aventura de l’amor i t’escric per dir-te que l’he gaudit molt. Has escrit un llibre que és realment un monument als nostres amics.»John Betjeman

In Highland Fling—Nancy Mitford’s first novel, published in 1931—a set of completely incompatible and hilariously eccentric characters collide in a Scottish castle, where bright young things play pranks on their stodgy elders until the frothy plot climaxes in ghost sightings and a dramatic fire. Inspired in part by Mitford’s youthful infatuation with a Scottish aristocrat, her story follows young Jane Dacre to a shooting party at Dulloch Castle, where she tramps around a damp and chilly moor on a hunting expedition with formidable Lady Prague, xenophobic General Murgatroyd, one-eyed Admiral Wenceslaus, and an assortment of other ancient and gouty peers of the realm, while falling in love with Albert, a surrealist painter with a mischievous sense of humor. Lighthearted and sparkling with witty banter, Highland Fling was Mitford’s first foray into the delightful fictional world for which the author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate later became so celebrated. With an Introduction by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey.

Cuando Grace y su hijo Sigi consiguen por fin, tras la separación provocada por la guerra, reunirse con su ilustre marido, Charles-Edouard, e instalarse en Francia, no sólo Nanny tiene dificultades para adaptarse a las costumbres del nuevo país. Grace pierde pie ante las elegantísimas mujeres francesas, y se ve sorprendida por un mundo de cotilleos, amantes y complicados affairs. Pero las sorpresas no acabarán ahí, más tarde descubrirá que su marido tiene tendencia a perseguir a cuanta mujer atractiva se cruza en su camino. Todo le hace pensar que su matrimonio está a punto de terminar y que seguramente sea el momento de volver a Inglaterra; será entonces cuando la «bendición», el pequeño Sigi, uno de los personajes más logrados de la autora, tome cartas en el asunto. Con su característica capacidad para la sátira Nancy Mitford reconstruye admirablemente el ambiente, la vida y las personas de los círculos aristocráticos de París y Londres. Más allá de sofisticados personajes, divertidas intrigas y el ritmo trepidante de unos diálogos mordaces, La bendición es también, como otras obras de su autora, la evocación de un mundo ya desaparecido. «Deliciosamente divertida.» Evelyn Waugh «Mitford derrocha ingenio y sentido del humor.» Fernando Castanedo, El País «Con higiénica inteligencia, Mitford se ríe de un mundo anclado en valores y gestos de otra época.» Adolfo Torrecilla, La Gaceta de los Negocios «Una vez leído un libro de Nancy Mitford es imposible escapar al embrujo que su prosa provoca en el degustador de un mundo que acaso ya no existe.» Ricardo Menéndez Salmón, El Comercio «Ácida perspectiva de los prejuicios sociales y la conjura de la inocencia.» El Faro de Vigo «Satítica y cercana, Mitford vuelve a cuativarnos con este divertido fresco de sofisticados personajes.» Telva «Resulta ser una lectura deliciosa, divertida, llena de esa ironía y malicia que tan bien sabía cultivar Nancy Mitford.» Ángels Balaguer, Prisacom

The inimitable Nancy Mitford’s account of Voltaire’s fifteen-year relationship with the Marquise du Châtelet—the renowned mathematician who introduced Isaac Newton’s revolutionary new physics to France—is a spirited romp in the company of two extraordinary individuals as well as an erudite and gossipy guide to French high society during the Enlightenment. Mitford’s story is as delicious as it is complicated. The marquise was in love with another mathematician, Maupertuis, while she had an unexpected rival for Voltaire’s affections in the future Frederick the Great of Prussia (and later in the philosophe’s own niece). There was, at least, no jealous husband to contend with: the Marquis du Châtelet, Mitford assures us, behaved perfectly. The beau monde of Paris was, however, distraught at the idea of the lovers’ brilliant conversation going to waste on the windswept hills of Champagne, site of the Château de Cirey, where experimental laboratories, a darkroom, and a library of more than twenty-one thousand volumes enabled them to pursue their amours philosophiques. From time to time the threat of impending arrest would send Voltaire scurrying across the border into Holland, but his irrepressible charm—and the interventions of powerful friends—always made it possible for him resume his studies with the cherished marquise.

When Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of Louis XV, no one expected her to retain his affections for long. A member of the bourgeoisie rather than an aristocrat, she was physically too cold for the carnal Bourbon king, and had so many enemies that she could not travel publicly without risking a pelting of mud and stones. History has loved her little better. Nancy Mitford’s delightfully candid biography re-creates the spirit of eighteenth-century Versailles with its love of pleasure and treachery. We learn that the Queen was a “bore,” the Dauphin a “prig,” and see France increasingly overcome with class conflict. With a fiction writer’s felicity, Mitford restores the royal mistress and celebrates her as a survivor, unsurpassed in “the art of living,” who reigned as the most powerful woman in France for nearly twenty years.

A “devastatingly witty” biography of Louis XIV and the Court of Versailles—at once a historical record of late 17th- and early 18th-century France and a gossip-filled narrative of lovers and rivals, artists and warriors (New York Times) The Sun King is a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV and Versailles, the opulent court from which he ruled. With characteristic élan, Nancy Mitford reconstructs the daily life of king and courtiers during France’s golden age, offering vivid sketches of the architects, artists, and gardeners responsible for the creation of the most magnificent palace Europe had yet seen. Mitford lays bare the complex and deadly intrigues in the stateroom and the no less high-stakes power struggles in the bedroom. At the center of it all is Louis XIV himself, the demanding, mercurial, but remarkably resilient sovereign who guided France through nearly three quarters of the Grand Siècle. Brimming with sumptuous detail and delicious bons mots, and written in a witty, conversational style, The Sun King restores a distant glittering century to vibrant life.

Publicada en 1935 en pleno ascenso del fascismo en Europa, Trifulca a la vista satiriza a los devotos seguidores del fascismo británico. La mimada Eugenia Malmains, una de las muchachas más ricas de Inglaterra, es una fiel seguidora del capitán Jack y sus camisas tricolores; el cosmopolita Noel Foster y su intrigante amigo Jasper Aspect van a la caza de una rica heredera; y Lady Marjorie, acompañada de su amiga Poppy, ha huido del revuelo provocado por la cancelación de su boda. Cuando estos personajes se unan a las fuerzas vivas locales de un recóndito pueblito inglés en una representación teatral, las tensiones entre fascistas y pacifistas explotarán. La animadversión que esta sátira del fascismo provocó en alguna de sus hermanas y las delicadas relaciones con ellas, llevaron a Nancy Mitford a prohibir que se reeditara esta novela, razón por la que ha estado fuera de la circulación durante más de setenta y cinco años, hasta que recientemente los herederos de la autora autorizaron por fin una nueva edición. «Por muy comprensibles que fuesen sus objeciones a reeditar la novela hace tres cuartos de siglo, hoy en día los admiradores de Nancy y todo el que sienta curiosidad por ese pedazo de la historia del siglo xx agradecerán su regreso a las librerías.» Charlotte Mosley, nuera de Diana, hermana de Nancy Mitford, es periodista y editora de varios volúmenes de correspondencia de la familia Mitford «Mitford derrocha ingenio y sentido del humor.» Fernando Castanedo (El País) «Una vez leído un libro de Nancy Mitford es imposible escapar al embrujo que su prosa provoca en el degustador de un mundo que acaso ya no existe» Ricardo Menéndez Salmón «Mitford tiene el ingenio y el don para resaltar lo absurdo de cada personaje.» The Times Literary Supplement «Irresistiblemente ingeniosa, Mitford fue una de las más agudas observadoras británicas de las costumbres sociales.» The New York Times

British high society, spy stories, and goofy religious cults are all gently mocked in this inventive, stylish satire. When the highly imaginative Lady Sophia Garfield discovers a nest of very real German spies in her home, nobody believes her. With her maid murdered and her beloved bulldog held hostage, she sets out alone to gain proof and, with time out for tea at the Ritz, save Britain.

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. Now an original series on Prime Video. “Mitford, describing in a tart and easy fashion the diverting activities of a titled English family, is mocking, good-tempered, and very funny.” —The New Yorker 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. Featuring an introduction by Zoë Heller.

The Blessing is one of Nancy Mitford’s most personal books, a wickedly funny story that asks whether love can survive the clash of cultures. When Grace Allingham, a naïve young Englishwoman, goes to live in France with her dashingly aristocratic husband Charles-Edouard, she finds herself overwhelmed by the bewilderingly foreign cuisine and the shockingly decadent manners and mores of the French. But it is the discovery of her husband’s French notion of marriage—which includes a permanent mistress and a string of casual affairs—that sends Grace packing back to London with their “blessing,” young Sigismond, in tow. While others urge the couple to reconcile, little Sigi—convinced that it will improve his chances of being spoiled—applies all his juvenile cunning to keeping his parents apart. Drawing on her own years in Paris and her long affair with a Frenchman, Mitford elevates cultural and romantic misunderstandings to the heights of comedy.

In this delightful comedy, Fanny—the quietly observant narrator of Nancy Mitford’s two most famous novels—finally takes center stage. Fanny Wincham—last seen as a young woman in The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate—has lived contentedly for years as housewife to an absent-minded Oxford don, Alfred. But her life changes overnight when her beloved Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris. Soon she finds herself mixing with royalty and Rothschilds while battling her hysterical predecessor, Lady Leone, who refuses to leave the premises. When Fanny’s tender-hearted secretary begins filling the embassy with rescued animals and her teenage sons run away from Eton and show up with a rock star in tow, things get entirely out of hand. Gleefully sending up the antics of mid-century high society, Don’t Tell Alfred is classic Mitford.

Nancy Mitford’s most controversial novel, unavailable for decades, is a hilarious satirical send-up of the fascist political enthusiasms of her sisters Unity and Diana, and of her notorious brother-in-law, Sir Oswald Mosley. Written in 1934, early in Hitler’s rise, Wigs on the Green lightheartedly skewers the devoted followers of British fascism. The sheltered and unworldy Eugenia Malmain is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of General Jack and his Union Jackshirts. World-weary Noel Foster and his scheming friend Jasper Aspect are in search of wealthy heiresses to marry; Lady Marjorie, disguised as a commoner, is on the run from the Duke she has just jilted at the altar; and her friend Poppy is considering whether to divorce her rich husband. When these characters converge with the colorful locals at a grandly misconceived costume pageant that turns into a brawl between Pacifists and Jackshirts, madcap farce ensues. Long suppressed by the author out of sensitivity to family feelings, Wigs on the Green can now be enjoyed by fans of Mitford’s superbly comic novels.

En A la caza del amor, su novela de mayor éxito, Nancy Mitford utiliza elementos reales de su extravagante y famosa familia para construir el relato. La acción se abre en el salón de Alconleigh, la casa de campo de los Radlett. Ante nuestros ojos van desfilando los distintos miembros de la familia: el malhumorado padre, tío Matthew, con sus violentos y cómicos estallidos de cólera y sus curiosos pasatiempos, como organizar cacerías en las que las piezas son alguno de sus hijos...; la ausente y devota madre, Sadie; y los siete hijos que junto a su prima Fanny forman una estrafalaria y divertidísima familia. Pero realmente es la joven Linda Radlett y su permanente búsqueda del amor el auténtico centro de esta historia. A través de sus páginas la acompañaremos en su azarosa conquista y conoceremos a los distintos hombres en los que creyó encontrarlo. El texto despliega el famoso ingenio satírico y la extraordinaria capacidad de la autora para reconstruir el ambiente, la vida y las personas en los círculos aristocráticos ingleses de entreguerras. Un libro inteligente y divertido, que, aunque pudiera gustar simplemente por lo que es: una novela vibrante y mordaz, es también un verdadero trozo de vida.

Nancy Mitford died in 1973 before she could write an autobiography. But she was one of the great letter writers of this century, and her sparkling correspondence to her famous family and to a wide circle of brilliant friends - Evelyn Waugh, Harold Acton, Robert Byron, Cyril Connolly, and Raymond Mortimer, among many others - sheds an extraordinary light on their lives and the times in which they lived. Novelist, biographer, and journalist, Nancy was born in 1904 into a family that seemed always to he in Britain''s headlines - and not only on the society pages. The eldest of Lord and Lady Redesdale''s seven talented children (writer Jessica Mitford among them), Nancy immortalized their family life in her first bestseller, The Pursuit of Love. Her natural wit, fed by the frivolous 1920s, was undimmed by her political coming of age in the 1930s, or the courage and stoicism of wartime London. At war''s end she moved to Paris, and her home there became "a congenial rendezvous of French and English letters", in the words of her friend Harold Acton. From this perch, Nancy wrote her daily correspondence, delighting in her adopted country and skewering pretension wherever she found it. Wildly funny and filled with outrageous gossip, Mitford''s letters detail not only the foolishness and foibles of London and Parisian society, but also the more tragic story of an unhappy marriage and her often anguished affair with "the Colonel", a leading member of de Gaulle''s government. Love from Nancy is the first published collection of Nancy''s correspondence. It draws on eight thousand letters spanning six decades, many dashed off with hardly a crossed-out word, all so full of verve that the writer seems to beat one''s elbow. It includes an important selection of letters to Evelyn Waugh, her close friend and literary mentor. Whether asking Waugh what Roman Catholics believe awaits them in heaven or soliciting Field Marshal Montgomery''s opinion of the latest Paris fashions, these letters give us Nancy Mitford at her provocative and teasing best.

Bloemlezing uit het journalistieke werk van de Engelse schrijfster (1904-1973)

Follows the romantic adventures of three young aristocrats in the decade between the wars.

Levensbeschrijving van de Pruisische vorst (1712-1786).