The Pursuit of Love

I loved this book. I appreciated the wit, the dry British humor and the wonderful character development, all coming from a writer with no literary education (i.e. not formally trained to write). It is clear that the novel was written during the war and not continuously. There is a great difference in the writing style between the first 180 pages and the last 20 --- most of the book is written in a light hearted way, whereas the reader can sense the worry and the gloom in the last 20 pages, which were possibly completed during the war (the book was first published in 1945, at the end of WW2). In the last 20 pages the characters simply change their behavior and the reader can immediately identify subtle remarks over the place of Britain in the world at that time and in that context; the author does spend time to discuss the major world events back then and the effort England/ the Allies made to turn around the events in WW2. Also interesting to see how different her point of view was from her sister's, Diana. Certainly worth a read.

This is a wonderful novel in a brittle midcentury manner. It reads quickly and well, highly articulated, rather bleak. I think it provides substantial insight into the mindset of the British upper class in the period within the world wars.

All of us must look within ourselves for the answer. Fanny and her cousin Linda and sisters found the Hon Closet and meet regularly. Jon's have titles and counter hons do not. However one may be declared a hon by the cousins. I read this book years ago but retread it after reading American Lady in which Nancy Mitford is described often. for years I hoped only to be a hon.Linda lives for love, and her lack of education and enforced lack of interests insure that love remains a central preoccupation. Her cousin Fanny narrates her study with wit and empathy. The false starts and the shame of an unfashionable frock are told with great understated humor. There are characters that we seem to know even in their absence. Fanny's mother is "The Bolter" who seems to run from every relationship and has left Fanny to be raised by her aunt. This book gives us the indelible description of new born baby as "the usual horrible sight of a screaming orange in a black wig." For poor Linda has married in haste, and after a tough pregnancy is not enchanted with her baby. Now doctors diagnosis this as postpartum depression, but for Linda, an aunt comments that she is too young to be taken with a child like an older woman. This book takes us to an earlier age when much of the commentary on life's challenges come from an aunt or a mother. They are cunningly portrayed, and despite the presence now of "experts", we continue to hear their words of wisdom or not so wisdom. Linda comes to love her baby but goes back to her search for love. World War II enters the picture and alters the world of the hons forever. This book takes us through the changes as our two young women try to make sense of their places in the bigger world outside the Hon closet. If you haven't read it, do it right away.

I'm not always a period piece person but gave this a try to follow up with the TV show with Lily James. This book is ok, I am still reading it, but not much happens, and the writing is nothing special. I have had no problem at all with the order or shipping of this book.

Nancy Mitford was a bright literary light who came of age between the two World Wars. Her large and wildly eccentric family has been renamed the Radletts and is the foundation for this opening installment of a trilogy dealing with an English family on the brink of WWII.The narrator is Fanny, a niece abandoned by her fun-loving parents who had no desire to be bound by a child. Her mother, always referred to as The Bolter, makes rare appearances in Fanny's life and none so significant as when she delivers the final line of this novel, one of the best I can recall to close out a tale.The characters and the story are seen through Fanny's eyes and she recounts their trials and tribulations with a frank and conversational tone that puts you firmly at home at Alconleigh, their cold and sparsely decorated ancestral home. Most notable amongst the characters is Linda, who flits from man to man in a self-centered and very worldly lifestyle that is both repelling and at the same time completely captivating. The terrifying Uncle Matthew is also notable for his harsh punishments and hatred of foreigners, but who suffers from a soft spot when it comes to his family and his beloved England.Beautifully drawn characters, exquisite writing, and hysterically funny scenes make this a gem of a novel that has withstood the test of time since its 1945 publication.

This book is a novel about the lives of English women who were born just before World War I and became adults in the 1920s. The young ladies Nancy Mitford writes about belong to the upper class of this period. The lower class were just the servents to this class and, as this book shows, not thought of or cared about by the 'Up Stairs' group. As this book shows, girls of this period were not hardly educated at all, and suffered their entire lives for it. This does not mean that this is a poorly written novel or not enjoyable. It is an excellant read and does a very good job of describing the lives of the upper crust people of this time. It is very entertaining and really deserves 4 !/2 stars. The only reason I do not give it 5 stars is that it does not come up to the best English novels, say Middlemarch. This book does get my highest recommendation, and I know of only a very few other books that tell of English life better than this one. You will be glad when you read this book.

This book is delightful. I laughed out loud several times and read the entire book in a day. I will definitely read the rest of the Mitford series.

I liked the fact that this used book (Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love) was in great condition and cost-competitive - sourced from Sweden. For those of us who love books - finding good used books makes them much more resource competitive as compared to online devices!

Mitford scrive un romanzo breve e piacevole, il cui argomento principale è l'amore. Scritto dal punto di vista di Fanny, la cugina della protagonista, che racconta la scoperta dell'amore, la voglia di innamorarsi, le amare delusioni e la vita coniugale in un Inghilterra degli anni '40.Non un libro particolarmente brillante, a mio parere, ma sicuramente interessante e piacevole da leggere.

Me ha gustado que se ha enviado en la fecha correcta sin ningun tipo de errores ni cambios.El libro es nuevo y estaba en perfecto estado incluso el paquete.

“The charm of your writing,” Evelyn Waugh once wrote to Mitford, “depends on your refusal to recognize a distinction between girlish chatter and literary language.”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.The book is centred around the eccentrics of aristocratic Radlett family and is told from Fanny's point of view, a cousin who spends most of her time with them. The tale follows beautiful and young Linda, the most whimsical and extravagant of the five Radlett children, in her pursuit of love. The book is hilarious in places but beneath the brittle surface of the novel’s wit there is something infinitely more melancholy at work – something that is apt to snag you and pull you into its dark undertow when you are least expecting it. I have seldom read books which look so simple and easy on the surface but tackle such depth, carry with them such observations that you would expect from the more 'serious' works. Mitford expunges the glitter to expose the terrible disappointments that are inevitable in life. Nevertheless, we are left with a feeling of optimism and faith.

Ce roman traite de la vie en Angleterre pendant et juste après la dernière guerre. Très intéressant mais l'Anglais est un peu désuet et parfois difficile à comprendre. Heureusement avec kindle dictionnaire sous la main!!!