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About ‘The Pursuit of Love’
The charming autobiographical novel whitewashing Nancy Mitford’s family history
‘Have you heard of the Mitford sisters?’ he asked me. We were having dessert by then, or pudding as I’m told the English upper classes call it.
I hadn’t heard of the Mitford sisters. He proceeded to make sure my ignorance was corrected.
‘The Mitford sisters were quite famous. One was a novelist. She wrote about U and non-U; the upper classes and the not-upper-classes. Another sister was in love with Hitler. A third ran off with Oswald Mosley, and the fourth became a Communist.’
I went home to discover The Pursuit of Love, a Nancy Mitford’s book, on the reading list for a reading group I’d signed up for. The novel, published in 1945, is known to be autobiographical.
While Fanny is its first person narrator, the story centres on Fanny’s cousin Linda. Throughout, Fanny is the boring sensible one, observing and recounting Linda’s pursuit of romantic love.
The novel opens with stories from Fanny’s childhood holidays at the country home of her Linda and her many siblings.
Linda’s father, Uncle Matthew, is an English Lord and an aristocrat, modelled on the author’s father, Lord Redesdale. Uncle Matthew is a comedic…
