Mitford only hints at this by showing how Polly is ostracised for breaking the rules of the marriage market.Īnd while marriage of the suitable kind is the bedrock of all gossip, Fanny’s marriage, to an impecunious Oxford don who mostly ignores her except when lecturing her about her fondness for gossip, is an afterthought. This might be because she is discreet, or it might be that her place among them is contingent on fitting in. She never confronts anybody even when the behaviour is outrageous. While others in the novel have no compunction about sharing their opinions, Fanny keeps her thoughts to herself. According to 1001 Books, this ‘sensible narrator’ Fanny who observes the goings-on, features in many of Mitford’s novels: she is both ‘in’ and ‘of’ this society but as one of the genteel poor (like the heroines of Austen novels) she is ‘not quite’ one of them because her expectations have to be lower in a status-layered society. What makes it enjoyable is the narrator privately lampooning the situation.

There really isn’t much more to it than that. Love in a Cold Climate is an unforgettable tale of the absurdities and obsessions of the elite. When Polly, a beautiful aristocrat, declares her love for her married, lecherous uncle – who also happens to be her mother’s former lover – she sparks off a scandal that has both disastrous and delicious consequences. Love in a Cold Climate is a wickedly funny satire, brilliantly lampooning upper-class society. ( 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, ABC Books 2006, p.450) Mitford’s novels, like those of Jane Austen, focus on the small social manoeuvrings of an exclusive family and their “set” like Austen, she uses fond but mocking satire to gently send up the family, even while encouraging the reader to care about its fortunes. I’m not sure that the novel would bear re-reading as Austen’s novels do, but FWIW this is what 1001 Books has to say: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die compares Nancy Mitford to Jane Austen. This was an enjoyable romp with which to end my reading year.

Love in a cold climate by nancy mitford