Love in a Cold Climate

Love in a Cold Climate
By Nancy Mitford (254 pages)
Published by Vintage Books
Bookish rating: 4

I selected Love in a Cold Climate for the Reader's Ink book club for the month of April, seeing as how it was my month to choose and all. I wanted something quasi-obscure, a little historical, funny, not terribly long, and likely to be in most library systems. This book fit the bill.

First published in 1949, Love in a Cold Climate is told from the perspective of Fanny, who is distantly related to the Hampton family, an old, rich, titled group of dysfunctional and self-absorbed aristocrats. As Fanny spends time at Hampton, hanging out with her cousin Polly, she gets somewhat tangled in the drama of Polly's oh so shocking scandal: engagement to a creepy older man, who just happens to be here uncle. (But hey, it's the British aristocracy. Incest is charming, no?)

Much of the novel centers on the power struggles between Polly and her larger-than-life, power-hungry mother, Lady Montdore. The plot is perfectly fine, but what makes this novel so fun to read is that it's incredibly funny. Understated wit, perfectly timed snarkiness, and very fun characters make the plot secondary. Fanny wryly watches the drama of her silly family unfold, and reports back to us readers, with some of her own commentary. It was super fun--sort of gossipy but smartly witty, all at once.

This was my first literary romp with Nancy Mitford, and I'm definitely going to read more of her work, especially The Pursuit of Love (which technically precedes Love in a Cold Climate) and Don't Tell Alfred, which is also written from Fanny's point of view.

Recommended!