The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford 11 out of 10

 The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

11 out of 10

 

 

What a glorious magnum opus this is and furthermore, it comes as part of series of magnificent masterpieces that the under signed has been fortunate to read over the past few weeks, including Malice Aforethought http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/11/malice-aforethought-by-anthony-berkeley.html , The Uncommon Reader http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-uncommon-reader-by-alan-bennett-11.html the latter mentioning, among many phenomenal writers, Nancy Mitford and her resplendent novel.

 

The main character is Linda – soon to be portrayed by the ravishing Lily James in a series that had started filming at the beginning of the year, only to be delayed and postponed by the outbreak of the pandemic – although the story is told by her cousin, Fanny, the latter being abandoned by her mother, the Bolter, having thus the chance to grow among her cousins, in the mansion at Alconleigh, where Uncle Matthew Radlett is the supremo, a quite intriguing figure, the one is both charming and fierce and often repulsive, with his hatred of foreigners – they are all up to no good in his mind – albeit there are exceptions, for instance when Juan would arrive with the Bolter, once World War II will have been declared, the Spanish man will be in the graces of the aristocrat as his immense talent will have been proved.

One aspect that marks life in Alconleigh is the hunting of many animals, some of them helped by the children, who try and rescue them from the traps set around the property, even if there are pools of blood around and most often, they just release maimed quadrupeds or birds that will just die shortly after their brief respite – this was one part of the book that the under signed has not enjoyed and the fact is that the notion of hunting returns and we learn that it is in the blood of the Radletts and the killing of animals continues, even when Juan will use a catapult, considering that Uncle Matthew is determined to kill as many Germans as possible – on the first page we have the instrument with which quite a few have been killed in World War I – once they occupy England and they will need all the ammunition for that moment.

 

Linda is the central figure of the narrative – as Fanny explains – but one important reason why this is a genuine masterpiece is the multitude of dazzling personages that populate this blissful, amusing and tragic novel – not one, but two of the paramount characters die at the end – from the scary Uncle Matthew to the hypochondriac Davey Warbeck, through the weak and selfish Tony Kroesig and the communist Christian Talbot…the latter reminds one of the description given by George Orwell – was he the one associated with this insight – who said that the communist do not like the working class, they just hate the bourgeoisie and the others – something along these lines I guess

Tony Kroesig is brought at Alconleigh by Lord Merlin, who is just one of the enchanting aristocrats in the novel, a noble, erudite, distinguished bachelor, one who puzzles his community with Cocteau plays and Dada art, interested in the arts and culture – as opposed to Uncle Matthew and many, perhaps most of the other less educated figures – cultivating the society of men and women of letters, with an exquisite entourage, contacts in the highest spheres and also a very loyal, kind friend, always protecting his favorite, Linda….at one stage, after she had joined her second husband, Christian, at the camps for Spanish refugees from the Spanish Civil War, she disappears and Lord Merlin hires detectives and travels with Davey to Paris to see if she is in need of help, doing all to offer financial and any other help.

 

Linda is very attracted to the dashing, superior, audacious Tony – in spite or because her father, Matthew, Lord Alconleigh, thinks him inacceptable, just like any other foreigner… he divides them between the wags and the krauts, while the frogs are a little better, all foreigners are ghouls – and she pretends to her parents that she is going out for lunch with a friend, when instead she is taking Fanny – who is not considered an adequate chaperone and according to the rules of the day one was needed – and that will provoke the immense wrath of the lord, who sends Fanny away and punishes his daughter…however, there is a thin wedge to all this and Uncle Matthew was always prone to renounce the penalty with time.

His favorite daughter will eventually marry the son of a wealthy banker, contrary to the wishes of both families, and the marriage will not be a happy one, for the woman is interested in very different circles from the ones the Kroesigs want her to frequent and charm for the future of their son, and worse, she finds those boring and she escapes by chatting with the socialites that she has met through Lord Merlin and with time, she grows ever more estranged from her husband and alas her own daughter, Moira, the latter being pushed aside as dull, uninteresting, although later on, with some hindsight, the heroine would say that this detachment had been intended to avoid complications, for she must have known all along that she would leave Tony…

 

She is enchanted with Christian Talbot, a firm communist, the exact opposite of her first spouse, even if there are common traits, if placed in a mirror – if Tony loathes workers and will kill them if they try and get to his immense fortune, Christian is hateful of the rich and that does not exactly suit Linda, considering that she has a large family that would be targeted and she knows that the Radletts are not the anti –hons that the communists hate – and after she gets her divorce from her first husband, the heroine marries the communist and has to be in the company of the rather despicable – if you ask me – comrades.

These do not speak to each other, as Linda observes, they just make speeches to each other and there are other traits that do not render these figures likeable – well, for the under signed, who had been under their regime for twenty five years and will suffer for all his life the consequences…among them, we still have groups in power that are traced straight to that abominable regime, they are called the Red Plague and stupid people still vote for them, just like they cherish the very stable genius elsewhere.

Eventually, Linda will escape the spell of the communist – who is anyway interested in others only in the abstract, he is keen on mass suffering, but feels nothing for the real, palpable pain of real individuals and comes across as quite a villain…which is just right for a commie – and she will find the love of her life in the shape of a duke, the charming, sophisticated, refined, with savoir faire Fabrice de Sauveterre…