The Pursuit of Love
Encyclopedia
The Pursuit of Love is a novel
by Nancy Mitford
, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars. Although a comedy
, the story has tragic overtones.
, home of her cousin and great friend, Linda, the main character in this book. The early chapters recount the Radlett children's bizarre upbringing, including their contrasting obsessions with hunting and preventing cruelty to animals, and the activities of their secret society, "the Hons." The Radlett daughters receive little in the way of formal education, and as Linda grows older she is increasingly consumed by her desire for romantic love and marriage. During her sister Louisa's coming out ball, Linda realizes that life at Alconleigh will never prepare her for the kind of social life that she desires.
Shortly after her coming out party, Louisa becomes engaged to John Fort William, a Scottish peer who is more than twenty years her senior. Linda remarks of Lord Fort William that "if he were one's dog, one would have him put down," but she is in fact deeply jealous of the fact that Louisa is getting married. Linda enters a period of depression, compounded by the fact that she has very little to occupy her time, and passes the day by playing solitaire. During this time she is rescued and mentored by the family's neighbor, Lord Merlin, who is a wealthy, charming aesthete with a great appreciation for social life and a large number of fashionable friends. It is through him that Linda first meets Tony Kroesig, an intelligent but dull and greedy banker, at her own coming out ball. Tony is a guest of Lord Merlin's whom Linda assumes to be one of his friends, not knowing that Tony was invited at the last minute as a "stopgap," and that as such Lord Merlin neither knows nor cares much about him. Lord Merlin leaves England shortly after the ball, and Linda is therefore unable to seek his advice during the months that follow. She and Tony fall in love, but their courtship is rocky from the start. Due to the Alconleighs' medieval standards of chaperonage, Linda and Fanny get into serious trouble after sneaking away to have luncheon with Tony and his friends in Oxford, an incident that serves as a foundation to Uncle Matthew's strong disapproval of Tony. Uncle Matthew also objects to Tony on the grounds that he is of German ancestry; this is no surprise given that Uncle Matthew's view is that all foreigners are fiends, especially Germans. When Linda and Tony become engaged, both of their families disapprove, but in the end they are married. Linda very quickly realizes that she has made a serious mistake, but she is able to keep up the pretense of having a happy marriage for several years. They have one child, Moira, to whom Linda takes an instant dislike. Linda almost dies during Moira's birth, and her doctors strongly advise her to have no more children. Moira is soon abandoned to the care of her paternal grandparents, who disapprove of Linda very strongly.
After nine years of marriage, Linda leaves Tony for Christian Talbot, an ardent Communist. Christian is kind but vague, and ultimately uninterested in individuals, preferring to focus on the plight of the workers. Linda's divorce and remarriage cause a rift between her and her parents, but their affection for her is too strong and after some months they reconcile. Linda and Christian go to France to work with Spanish refugees in Perpignan, where they meet Linda's old friend Lavender Davis, an earnest girl scout type who has become an extremely efficient public health and welfare worker. Spurred by their common interest in their cause, Lavender and Christian begin to fall in love, and Linda leaves Christian to return to England. On the way home she is waylaid, and accidentally meets Fabrice de Sauveterre, a wealthy French duke. Linda becomes his mistress and lives with him in Paris for eleven months. During this time she cultivates a great interest in clothes, which Fabrice encourages and finances, but most of her happiness is the result of the fact that she has finally found the love of her life. The couple is separated by the outbreak of World War II
. During Fabrice's one visit to England during the war, Linda becomes pregnant. After her house is bombed, she returns to Alconleigh where Fanny and her children, Louisa and her children, Emily, Davey, the Bolter and her new lover Juan (whom Uncle Matthew calls "Gewan") are living for the duration. Fanny and Louisa are also expecting babies, and Fanny and Linda both give birth to their sons on May 28th. Linda dies in childbirth, and Fabrice (a member of Charles de Gaulle
's resistance) is killed in the war at around the same time. Fanny and her husband adopt Linda's child and name him Fabrice.
Mitford wrote sequels to the novel, Love in a Cold Climate
(1949
) and Don't Tell Alfred
(1960
).
can be spotted reading the Vintage Books
omnibus edition of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate
in Sex and the City 2
.
A copy of the same edition can also be seen in Wes Anderson
's short film Hotel Chevalier
.
The title of the novel and Fabrice are referenced in Jamie Cullum
's song "Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down".
and WGBH Boston in 2001 as the two-part drama Love in a Cold Climate
. Tom Hooper
directed the screenplay adapted from the novels by Deborah Moggach
.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars. Although a comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, the story has tragic overtones.
Plot summary
The narrator is Fanny, whose mother ("The Bolter") and father have left her to be brought up by her Aunt Emily and the valetudinarian Davey, whom Emily marries early in the novel. Fanny spends much of her time at AlconleighAsthall Manor
Asthall Manor is a gabled Jacobean Cotswold manor house in Asthall, Oxfordshire. It was built in about 1620 and altered and enlarged in about 1916The house was the childhood home of the Mitford sisters.-History:...
, home of her cousin and great friend, Linda, the main character in this book. The early chapters recount the Radlett children's bizarre upbringing, including their contrasting obsessions with hunting and preventing cruelty to animals, and the activities of their secret society, "the Hons." The Radlett daughters receive little in the way of formal education, and as Linda grows older she is increasingly consumed by her desire for romantic love and marriage. During her sister Louisa's coming out ball, Linda realizes that life at Alconleigh will never prepare her for the kind of social life that she desires.
Shortly after her coming out party, Louisa becomes engaged to John Fort William, a Scottish peer who is more than twenty years her senior. Linda remarks of Lord Fort William that "if he were one's dog, one would have him put down," but she is in fact deeply jealous of the fact that Louisa is getting married. Linda enters a period of depression, compounded by the fact that she has very little to occupy her time, and passes the day by playing solitaire. During this time she is rescued and mentored by the family's neighbor, Lord Merlin, who is a wealthy, charming aesthete with a great appreciation for social life and a large number of fashionable friends. It is through him that Linda first meets Tony Kroesig, an intelligent but dull and greedy banker, at her own coming out ball. Tony is a guest of Lord Merlin's whom Linda assumes to be one of his friends, not knowing that Tony was invited at the last minute as a "stopgap," and that as such Lord Merlin neither knows nor cares much about him. Lord Merlin leaves England shortly after the ball, and Linda is therefore unable to seek his advice during the months that follow. She and Tony fall in love, but their courtship is rocky from the start. Due to the Alconleighs' medieval standards of chaperonage, Linda and Fanny get into serious trouble after sneaking away to have luncheon with Tony and his friends in Oxford, an incident that serves as a foundation to Uncle Matthew's strong disapproval of Tony. Uncle Matthew also objects to Tony on the grounds that he is of German ancestry; this is no surprise given that Uncle Matthew's view is that all foreigners are fiends, especially Germans. When Linda and Tony become engaged, both of their families disapprove, but in the end they are married. Linda very quickly realizes that she has made a serious mistake, but she is able to keep up the pretense of having a happy marriage for several years. They have one child, Moira, to whom Linda takes an instant dislike. Linda almost dies during Moira's birth, and her doctors strongly advise her to have no more children. Moira is soon abandoned to the care of her paternal grandparents, who disapprove of Linda very strongly.
After nine years of marriage, Linda leaves Tony for Christian Talbot, an ardent Communist. Christian is kind but vague, and ultimately uninterested in individuals, preferring to focus on the plight of the workers. Linda's divorce and remarriage cause a rift between her and her parents, but their affection for her is too strong and after some months they reconcile. Linda and Christian go to France to work with Spanish refugees in Perpignan, where they meet Linda's old friend Lavender Davis, an earnest girl scout type who has become an extremely efficient public health and welfare worker. Spurred by their common interest in their cause, Lavender and Christian begin to fall in love, and Linda leaves Christian to return to England. On the way home she is waylaid, and accidentally meets Fabrice de Sauveterre, a wealthy French duke. Linda becomes his mistress and lives with him in Paris for eleven months. During this time she cultivates a great interest in clothes, which Fabrice encourages and finances, but most of her happiness is the result of the fact that she has finally found the love of her life. The couple is separated by the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. During Fabrice's one visit to England during the war, Linda becomes pregnant. After her house is bombed, she returns to Alconleigh where Fanny and her children, Louisa and her children, Emily, Davey, the Bolter and her new lover Juan (whom Uncle Matthew calls "Gewan") are living for the duration. Fanny and Louisa are also expecting babies, and Fanny and Linda both give birth to their sons on May 28th. Linda dies in childbirth, and Fabrice (a member of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's resistance) is killed in the war at around the same time. Fanny and her husband adopt Linda's child and name him Fabrice.
Mitford wrote sequels to the novel, Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1949. The title is a direct quotation from George Orwell's novel Keep The Aspidistra Flying .-Plot summary:...
(1949
1949 in literature
The year 1949 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Arthur C. Clarke becomes Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts.*Bertrand Russell receives the Order of Merit....
) and Don't Tell Alfred
Don't Tell Alfred
Don't Tell Alfred is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1960 by Hamish Hamilton. It is the third in a trilogy centered around an upper-class English family, and takes place twenty years after the events of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate.-Plot:As in the previous novels,...
(1960
1960 in literature
The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*November 2 – Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case in the United Kingdom....
).
The Radletts
- Uncle Matthew, "Lord Alconleigh"; an eccentric, bullying patriarch who periodically uses bloodhounds to hunt his children across the Oxfordshire countryside. Despite his eccentricities, Uncle Matthew is nonetheless portrayed as a sympathetic character
- Aunt Sadie, an affectionate but somewhat ineffectual matriarch
- Louisa, the dependable, domestic eldest daughter
- Linda, beautiful and highly-strung, is the central character in The Pursuit of Love.
- Bob, the eldest son, is one of the few well-behaved Radlett children
- Jassy, Matt's inseparable friend, is perpetually saving up in order to run away from home
- Matt, Jassy's inseparable friend, eventually runs away from EtonEton CollegeEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
to fight in the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939... - Robin, the youngest son
- Victoria, the baby of the family, is born when the older children are entering their teens. An irrepressible child, she appears more prominently in the sequel, Love in a Cold Climate.
Other characters
- Fanny Logan, the narrator, is a cousin of the Radletts and Linda's best friend
- Fabrice de Sauveterre, a wealthy French duke, is Linda's final lover and the great love of her life
- Davey Warbeck, Fanny's uncle, is a distinguished writer and critic, but his greatest pleasure is his health, and he is continually finding new doctors who prescribe unusual remedies
- Emily Warbeck, Fanny's aunt, is Sadie Alconleigh's sister
- The Bolter, for whom no other name is given, is Fanny's mother and the youngest sister of Sadie and Emily. She is called the Bolter because of her many marriages
- Lord Merlin, a neighbor of Alconleigh and one of Linda's closest friends
- Tony Kroesig, Linda's first husband, is a banker and later a Conservative MP
- Sir Leicester Kroesig, Tony's father, is a banker and most often described as a "money-grubbing ass." He strongly dislikes Linda
- Moira Kroesig, Linda's child, whom Linda dislikes on sight
- Christian Talbot, Linda's second husband, is an ardent Communist
- Lavender Davis, another Alconleigh neighbor, is an old friend of Linda's, despite the fact that Linda never liked her very much
- John Fort William, Louisa's husband, is a member of the House of LordsHouse of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
- Alfred Wincham, Fanny's husband, is an Oxford don; the story makes very little mention of him
- Juan, the Bolter's Spanish lover, escaped from Spain with the Bolter early in the war. Although Juan speaks no English, Davey discovers that he is a cook, and he takes over the Alconleigh kitchen. Since he is also a master of the black market, the food at Alconleigh actually improves during his tenure
In popular culture
Carrie BradshawCarrie Bradshaw
Carrie Preston is the fictional narrator and lead character of the HBO sitcom/drama Sex and the City, portrayed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. She is a semi-autobiographical character created by Candace Bushnell, who published the book Sex and the City, based on her own columns in the New York...
can be spotted reading the Vintage Books
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
omnibus edition of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1949. The title is a direct quotation from George Orwell's novel Keep The Aspidistra Flying .-Plot summary:...
in Sex and the City 2
Sex and the City 2
Sex and the City 2 is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Patrick King. It is the sequel to the 2008 film Sex and the City, which is based on the HBO TV series of the same name....
.
A copy of the same edition can also be seen in Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials....
's short film Hotel Chevalier
Hotel Chevalier
Hotel Chevalier is a short film written and directed by Wes Anderson and released in 2007. Starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman as former lovers who reunite in a Paris hotel room, the 13-minute film acts as a prologue to Anderson's 2007 feature The Darjeeling Limited...
.
The title of the novel and Fabrice are referenced in Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.- Early...
's song "Love Ain't Gonna Let You Down".
Television adaptation
The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate were adapted by the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and WGBH Boston in 2001 as the two-part drama Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate (TV serial)
Love in a Cold Climate is a British television serial drama produced by the BBC in association with WGBH Boston, and first broadcast in two parts on BBC One on 4 and 11 February 2001...
. Tom Hooper
Tom Hooper (director)
Thomas George "Tom" Hooper is a British film and television director of English and Australian background. Hooper began making short films at the age of 13, and had his first professional short, Painted Faces, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1992. At Oxford University Hooper directed plays and...
directed the screenplay adapted from the novels by Deborah Moggach
Deborah Moggach
Deborah Moggach is an English writer. She has written sixteen novels to date, including The Ex-Wives, Tulip Fever, and, most recently, These Foolish Things. She has adapted many of her novels as TV dramas and has also written several film scripts, including the BAFTA-nominated screenplay for Pride...
.