What do You think about Love In A Cold Climate (2015)?
[7/10]In the introduction to the novel, Alan Cummings remarks on the fascination exercited by Nancy Mitford writing, as she is: throwing open the door at the zoo and letting us watch the animals. She is an insider in the exclusive circles of Britain's high society, she knows all the dirty little secrets and she has the wit, the talent to make us laugh out loud at their antics. What attracted me most though about her first book in this Radlett / Montdore setting is the human frailty and the limitations that belonging to this privileged class also imply, like the lack of prospects for girls who are denied a higher education and whose only purpose in life is to acquire a husband and to be decorative. Girls of her age, living at home, are hardly ever happy and Polly is a specially bad case because she has nothing whatever to do, she doesn't care for hunting, or parties, or anything much that I can see, and she doesn't get on with her mother. It's true that Sonia teases and lectures her and sets about it all the wrong way, she's a tactless person, but she is perfectly right, you know. Polly needs a life of her own, babies, occupations, and interests - an establishment, in fact - and for all that she must have a husband. Polly Montdore (comes from Leopoldina, an early illustration of her mother's royal ambitions) is not in the same class as the serial faller in love Linda Radlett. She is the most beautiful heiress of her generation, yet she apparently has little interest in dancing the social fandango. As readers, we don't get into her head to see what really drives her, what her dreams and expectations are until rather late in the novel. The narrator is the same level headed and enchanting Fanny, daughter of two wandering socialites who abandoned her as a child to be raised like a cuckoo by relatives. She ends up, not surprisingly, choosing stability and a quiet household over adventures and melodramatic liaisons, but she is a quick witted witness to all the events surrounding Polly's romantic life that are at the core of the present novel. As an minor bother, I was getting warmed up towards Polly as she started to show signs of independence from her overbearing mother, when the author dropped her and started to focus almost exclusively on said mother. Lady Montdore is another great example of Mitford bufoons who hide a tragic alienation : Love indeed - whoever invented love ought to be shot. exclaims the Dame as she finds out that Fanny intends to marry an Oxford don instead of an aristocratic ninny. For her, diamonds and social status are more important than feelings, probably the reason she has driven her daughter Polly away. Lady Montdore lives in bubble of self obsession, collecting deposed royalty, clueless about real life and social issues of her times. But she is fun to watch, especially after she meets Cedric, the cousin/heir from the colonies. My favorite scene is Lady Montdore getting into a huff with Fanny about literary talents: She remembered to ask for Mrs Dalloway before leaving, and went off with the book in her hand, a first edition. I felt sure that I had seen the last of it, but she brought it back the following week, saying that she really must write a book herself as she knew she could do much better than that. My least favorite scene of her illustrates her total lack of empathy and her callous nature (view spoiler)[ Polly has a miscarriage, and her mother tells her it is better that the poor child died at birth, then goes on to talk about the grandiose masked ball she gave in London (hide spoiler)]
—Algernon
As you can tell from the title - "Love in a Cold Climate" - this could be just another zombie novel where the narrator is surrounded by undead and evil monsters. However, the twist in this book is that the zombies are aristocrats in 1930's England.Innocent young Fanny is essentially an orphan (her parents are Eurotrash before there was the term "Eurotrash") who was abandoned to aunts and uncles who have palatial estates and nothing much to do except gossip and throw parties - a Republican (and Tory) nirvana. However, since laziness and living off other people equals good breeding in the upper class but are bad character traits in the lower classes, one must explain away the "foibles" of these aristocrats in order not to suffer cognitive dissonance and explode one's head (and become zombie hors d'oeuvres - pâté de foie brains). Fanny coolly narrates a tale of how these monsters live and breed.Consider Harvey "Boy" Dougdale. In our intolerant age, he would be jailed as a pedophile. Here he is tolerated because he is the brother-in-law of the Lord Montdore. He has a thing for young girls, in fact everybody knows about this thing and calls him the "Lecherous Lecturer". Whereas in East London this proclivity would get him lynched, here he is just given a nickname and allowed to be alone with young girls. One of whom, Polly, a pretty-zombie-in-training, has come out in society but doesn't play the "land-the-Baron" game because she has had a thing for Boy since she was abused as a young girl.But Polly and Boy are just the "Creatures from the Black Lagoon" compared to the Godzilla of this novel - Lady Montdore. This Queen snob alienates and mocks anybody she deems lesser than herself (the human race) and is obsequious to those who are Higher Royalty (Kings/Queens and that lot). She disowns Polly when she runs away with Boy (not that anyone could really blame her, but disowning DID make Boy more attractive). And then comes the last monster of the novel. Since Polly is disinherited from the spoils of the estate and Lord Montdore has no male heir, the resulting heir - a distant relation from Nova Scotia - must be found and become comfortable in the estate. Cedric is a hoot - as snobbish as Lady Montdore and as useless as any proper aristocrat, he soon latches onto Lady Montdore like an alien to Sigourney Weaver. Lady Montdore also has the opposite of gay-dar - she has absolutely no idea that the queen in her house is not herself and this makes some hilarious scenes. For instance Cedric picks up a truck driver and sets him up as a silver polisher (well, that's his cover...)I kept waiting for Cedric to unleash his monstrosity and devour the estate leaving the Montdores destitute, but I think this shows the period aspects of the book. Apparently homosexuality and campiness was monstrous enough in those days and Mitford didn't want to push it.
—Jim Leckband
Nancy Mitford recovers in Love in a Cold Climate characters and situations from her previous novel, The Pursuit of Love. The action takes place in this case, the splendid mansion of the Hamptons, house of the Lord and Lady Montdore. Lady Montdore, shining figure of the aristocracy of her time, is determined to organize the best marriage of her only daughter, Polly, but their manoeuvres crash one after the other, against the apparent lack of Polly interest in these issues. Surprisingly, given the prominent social situation of Polly Hampton, one of the most beautiful and rich young ladies of his generation, will be questioned by a resounding emotional case that upset all her family. The insight of the author to reconstruct the atmosphere of British aristocratic circles during the wars gives us, once again, the opportunity to spy on a now vanished world. But it is, above all, the famous satirical spirit of Nancy Mitford and her extraordinary ability to model characters and situations, which makes this book an exciting and entertaining novel.
—Luís Blue Yorkie
