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On August 10th Vintage will reissue several classic novels by Nancy Mitford, including Love in a Cold Climate. Mitford was perhaps the brightest of the "Bright Young Things" immortalized in the fiction of Evelyn Waugh. Originally published in 1949, Love in a Cold Climate is a comedy of manners that revolves around the naughty Polly Montdore, whose scandalous marriage left her disinherited, and her Canadian cousin Cedric Hampton, the heir apparent. The action of both this and its prequel, The Pursuit of Love, run concurrently, taking place between the wars, with everyone's favorite cousin, Fanny Wincham, serving as impartial narrator. Aside from an engaging storyline, tart wit and charming prose style, Love in a Cold Climate is of particular relevance to gay readers for the no nonsense presentation of the flamboyantly aesthetic Cedric, who is thoroughly and unrepentantly gay. He is a rather heroic character (not at all tragic like poor Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited and so many other gays of pre-Stonewall literature), possessed of great personal magnetism and self-esteem; and though his open homosexuality alternately shocks and delights society, he ultimately proves a great catalyst for happiness and reconciliation in the lives of those closest to him.

The Kindle edition by Penguin Classics (ASIN: B002RI9YOQ) also contains the novels "The Pursuit of Love" and "The Blessing"

This is a fun, interesting novel that is not for anyone who does not love irony. It is perhaps best appreciated by people who may like Waugh (I think they were friends). Possibly if anyone likes Jan Austen, this novel will please you as well. The similarities to Austen are only in the stucture of certain scenes, and the happy, silliness of the plot wonderfully subverts Jane Austen. Its a really sad and comic look at love and women. It is perhaps mostly about the changing times for women of a particular class. The only reason I do not give it five stars is that I feel it ends too abruptly. But the last scene is magnificent. Look for the paralels between it and the last scenes of sense and sensibility. Its great! This book is not for the girly, sentimental novel reading sort unless you have a good sense of humor.

These are 2 delightful satires on the social life of the well-to-do English of the '30s and '40s. In PURSUIT Linda Radlett, brightest star in an unconventional upper class British family (based upon the author's own family), is hardly an admirable person. She is capable of saying cattily about her sister's older fiance, "Poor old thing, I suppose she likes him, but, I must say, if he was one's dog, one would have him put down." And she callously remarks about her own unloved baby, who is wailing, "Poor soul, I think it must have caught sight of itself in the glass."And yet she is a fascinating creature who somehow retains the reader's sympathy as she endures marriage to the ambitious scion of a dull banking family, struggles to adapt to life with a zealous communist lover, and at last finds true love with a worldly Frenchman, just as World War 2 is closing in upon them.Nancy Mitford's witty style captures perfectly the ambience of English social life during the '30s and into the early war years. However, the sharp, brittle satire does not disguise the author's affection for her family of fallible characters.In COLD CLIMATE Polly Hampton is a hypnotizingly beautiful woman, but to the dismay of her parents, she shows no interest in love or marriage--until she suddenly overwhelms a very recently widowed older kinsman (who is rumored to have been a lover of her own mother). Her parents, alienated from their only child by this unsuitable match, are now ready to meet their nearest male heir, Cedric Hampton (lately of Nova Scotia, now of Paris), who turns out to be a very handsome, but obviously gay, charmer, who transforms their lives. When a disillusioned Polly returns to England with her unhappy husband, an unusual, but not totally surprising, triangle ensues.Mitford's satiric skills are at their best in this sparkling novel. Especially effective are the characterizations of the blunt, self-centered Lady Montdore (Polly's mother), and the effeminate aesthete, Cedric. Lady Montdore's comforting words at the death of Polly's newborn baby: "I expect it was just as well. Children are such an awful expense nowadays." Such is the lady's habitual behavior, her daughter seems unmoved and hardly surprised at this remark. Narrator Fanny Logan Wincham and the Radlett family, from the earlier novel, also play an important part here.

I have read this book so many times that (unfortunately) I've practically memorized it. A previous reviewer notes that Mitford's works are "long on character, short on plot." I agree, and this aspect of her writing made it hard for me to get through this book on the first round. However, once you accept the fact that the plot is not the point, it doesn't really matter. I have re-read this book to tatters, not to (obviously) find out what happens, but to enjoy the atmosphere, characters, and dialogue. If you're someone who never re-reads books (what's the point when I already know what's going to happen?), you probably shouldn't bother with this one. Otherwise, dig in, but be warned that you could be at risk of becoming a serious Mitfordaholic.