New Releases by Nancy Mitford

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. The Pursuit of Love, a Level 5 Reader, is B1 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing present perfect continuous, past perfect, reported speech and second conditional. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly. The Pursuit of Love is about the love adventures of Fanny Logan''s cousin, Linda Radlett, who is beautiful, brave and fun. Linda finally finds love and seems happy, but this is the 1930s and her country will soon go to war with Germany. What will happen to Linda then?

«... le sei sorelle Mitford divennero una leggenda tuttora venerata non solo in Gran Bretagna, per le loro vite sconvenienti, o politicamente riprovevoli, o per aver lasciato lettere, memorie, romanzi, di squisita intelligenza ... Tutta la famiglia estesa, con cugini e zii e cognati e suoceri e vicini, tutti nobilissimi, con casseforti piene di gioielli e non una sterlina da spendere per il riscaldamento, entra camuffata e affettuosamente vilipesa anche in “L''amore in un clima freddo”, dove a raccontare in prima persona gli incalzanti eventi della sconnessa famiglia Montdore è la debuttante Fanny». Natalia Aspesi

Nancy Mitford modelled the characters in her best-known novels on her own unconventional (and at the time of writing, notorious) family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin, Fanny (''the Bolter''s girl''), on one of her frequent visits to their country estate: Uncle Matthew the blustering patriarch, owner of that bloodied entrenching tool above the fireplace, who hunts his children with bloodhounds; vague Aunt Sadie, and six children recklessly eager to grow up. The Pursuit of Love is the story of Linda, the most beautiful and wayward of the Radlett daughters, who falls first for a stuffy Tory politician, then an ardent Communist (whom she follows to the Spanish Civil War), and finally a very wicked and irresistibly charming French duke. Love in a Cold Climate, again related by Fanny, focuses on Polly Hampton, long groomed for the perfect marriage by her fearsome mother, Lady Montdore, but secretly determined to pursue her own course.

A hardcover omnibus of the comic masterpieces that made Nancy Mitford famous: madcap tales of growing up among the privileged and eccentric in England and finding love in all the wrong places. Nancy Mitford modeled the characters in her two best-known novels on her own famously unconventional family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin Fanny, visiting their Gloucestershire estate. Uncle Matthew is the blustering patriarch, known to hunt his children when foxes are scarce; Aunt Sadie is the vague but doting mother; and the seven Radlett children are recklessly eager to grow up. The Pursuit of Love follows the travails of Linda, the most beautiful and wayward Radlett daughter, who falls first for a stuffy Tory politician, then an ardent communist, and finally a French duke named Fabrice. Love in a Cold Climate focuses on Polly Hampton, long groomed for the perfect marriage by her fearsome mother, Lady Montdore, but secretly determined to find her own path. Together these hilarious novels vividly evoke the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars. Everyman''s Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free cream-colored paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

«Lady Bobbin organizó el día de Navidad con la rigurosidad y la atención al detalle de un general que conduce a su ejército a la batalla. No dejó ni un momento de diversión al azar o a la imaginación de sus invitados, que recibieron sus órdenes en Nochebuena, órdenes que debían de ser obedecidas al pie de la letra bajo pena de muerte. Pero ni siquiera ella, por muy supermujer que fuera, pudo prevenir que el día quedara marcado por los enfados, el comer de más y una serie de sorprendentes sucesos.» "De una felicidad absoluta." Daily Mail "Una auténtica delicia del género humorístico." The Times

This madcap masterpiece about growing up among the privileged and eccentric in England and finding love in all the wrong places is now the basis for a star-studded television series. Nancy Mitford modeled the characters in her best-known novel on her own famously unconventional family. We are introduced to the Radletts through the eyes of their cousin Fanny, visiting their Gloucestershire estate. Uncle Matthew is the blustering patriarch, known to hunt his children when foxes are scarce; Aunt Sadie is the vague but doting mother; and the seven Radlett children are recklessly eager to grow up. The Pursuit of Love follows the travails of Linda, the most beautiful and wayward Radlett daughter, who falls first for a stuffy Tory politician, then an ardent Communist, and finally a French duke named Fabrice. Her hilarious adventures vividly evoke the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars.

Two sparkling comedies from early in the career of the beloved author of The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, here published in one volume with a new introduction from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres. • “Exuberant...enjoyable skulduggery and shenanigans.” —The New York Times In Christmas Pudding, an array of colorful characters converge on the hunt-obsessed Lady Bobbin’s country house, including her rebellious daughter Philadelphia, the girl’s pompous suitor, a couple of children obsessed with newspaper death notices, and an aspiring writer whose serious first novel has been acclaimed as the funniest book of the year, to his utter dismay. In Pigeon Pie, set at the outbreak of World War II, Lady Sophia Garfield dreams of becoming a beautiful spy but manages not to notice a nest of German agents right under her nose, until the murder of her maid and kidnapping of her beloved bulldog force them on her attention, with heroic results. Delivered with a touch lighter than that of Mitford’s later masterpieces but no less entertaining, these comedies combine glamour, wit, and fiendishly absurd plots into irresistible literary confections.

An entertaining royal biography of Prussian king Frederick the Great—a fascinating character with conflicting visions of authority and reform, power and art—from “one of Britain’s most piercing observers of social manners” (New York Times). The Prussian king Frederick II is today best remembered for successfully defending his tiny country against the three great European powers of France, Austria, and Russia during the Seven Years’ War. But in his youth, tormented by a spectacularly cruel and dyspeptic father, the future military genius was drawn to the flute and French poetry, and throughout his long life counted nothing more important than the company of good friends and great wits. This was especially evident in his longstanding, loving, and vexing relationship with Voltaire. An absolute ruler who was allergic to pomp, a non-hunter who wore no spurs, a reformer of great zeal who maintained complete freedom of the press and religion and cleaned up his country’s courts, a fiscal conservative and patron of the arts, the builder of the rococo palace Sans Souci and improver of the farmers’ lot, maddening to his rivals but beloved by nearly everyone he met, Frederick was—notwithstanding a penchant for merciless teasing—arguably the most humane of enlightened despots. In Frederick the Great, a richly entertaining biography of one of the eighteenth century’s most fascinating figures, the trademark wit of the author of Love in a Cold Climate finds its ideal subject.

Nancy Mitford recupera en Amor en clima frío personajes y situaciones de su anterior novela, A la caza del amor. La acción se traslada en este caso a la espléndida mansión de los Hampton, hogar de Lord y Lady Montdore. Lady Montdore, brillante figura de la aristocracia de su época, está empeñada en arreglar el mejor matrimonio para su hija única, Polly, pero sus maniobras acabarán estrellándose, una tras otra, contra el aparente desinterés de Polly en esos temas. Sorprendentemente la prominente situación social de Polly Hampton, una de las jóvenes más bellas y ricas de su generación, se verá cuestionada por un sonado affaire sentimental que convulsionará a toda su familia. La perspicacia de la autora para reconstruir el ambiente de los círculos aristocráticos británicos de entreguerras nos brinda, una vez más, la oportunidad de asomarnos a un mundo hoy desaparecido. Pero es, sobre todo, el famoso ingenio satírico de Nancy Mitford y su extraordinaria capacidad para modelar personajes y situaciones, lo que convierten a este libro en una emocionante y divertidísima novela. «La gracia de tu estilo se basa en tu renuncia a distinguir entre la cháchara femenina y el lenguaje literario.» Evelyn Waugh «Mitford derrocha ingenio y sentido del humor.» Fernando Castanedo (El País) «La descripción, ácida y despreocupada, del ameno bullicio de una familia noble inglesa es socarrona, alegre y muy divertida.» The New Yorker «Nancy Mitford es uno de esos lujos literarios que ya no se estilan.» Miguel Sánchez-Ostiz «Mitford tiene el ingenio y el don para resaltar lo absurdo de cada personaje.» The Times Literary Supplement

Londres, à la veille de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Lady Sophia Garfield rêve de devenir une belle espionne. Ne pouvant cependant passer son temps à démasquer des ennemis, Sophia exerce son sens patriotique dans les bureaux de l''hôpital Ste Anne, tout en conservant ses loisirs aristocratiques. Elle va ainsi régulièrement prendre le thé au Ritz, échafaude avec malice des plans pour séduire le fringant Rudolph Jocelyn et en éloigner sa rivale, la princesse Olga Gogothsky. Dans la lignée de Charivari, Nancy Mitford déploie un humour décalé et percutant, qu''elle distille savamment tout au long de cette fantaisie loufoque, qui accorde aussi toute sa place aux développements politiques internationaux cruciaux de l''époque.

Cuando Grace y su hijo Sigi consiguen por fin, tras la separación provocada por la guerra, reunirse con su ilustre marido, Charles-Edouard, e instalarse en Francia, no sólo Nanny tiene dificultades para adaptarse a las costumbres del nuevo país. Grace pierde pie ante las elegantísimas mujeres francesas, y se ve sorprendida por un mundo de cotilleos, amantes y complicados affairs. Pero las sorpresas no acabarán ahí, más tarde descubrirá que su marido tiene tendencia a perseguir a cuanta mujer atractiva se cruza en su camino. Todo le hace pensar que su matrimonio está a punto de terminar y que seguramente sea el momento de volver a Inglaterra; será entonces cuando la «bendición», el pequeño Sigi, uno de los personajes más logrados de la autora, tome cartas en el asunto. Con su característica capacidad para la sátira Nancy Mitford reconstruye admirablemente el ambiente, la vida y las personas de los círculos aristocráticos de París y Londres. Más allá de sofisticados personajes, divertidas intrigas y el ritmo trepidante de unos diálogos mordaces, La bendición es también, como otras obras de su autora, la evocación de un mundo ya desaparecido. «Deliciosamente divertida.» Evelyn Waugh «Mitford derrocha ingenio y sentido del humor.» Fernando Castanedo, El País «Con higiénica inteligencia, Mitford se ríe de un mundo anclado en valores y gestos de otra época.» Adolfo Torrecilla, La Gaceta de los Negocios «Una vez leído un libro de Nancy Mitford es imposible escapar al embrujo que su prosa provoca en el degustador de un mundo que acaso ya no existe.» Ricardo Menéndez Salmón, El Comercio «Ácida perspectiva de los prejuicios sociales y la conjura de la inocencia.» El Faro de Vigo «Satítica y cercana, Mitford vuelve a cuativarnos con este divertido fresco de sofisticados personajes.» Telva «Resulta ser una lectura deliciosa, divertida, llena de esa ironía y malicia que tan bien sabía cultivar Nancy Mitford.» Ángels Balaguer, Prisacom

The inimitable Nancy Mitford’s account of Voltaire’s fifteen-year relationship with the Marquise du Châtelet—the renowned mathematician who introduced Isaac Newton’s revolutionary new physics to France—is a spirited romp in the company of two extraordinary individuals as well as an erudite and gossipy guide to French high society during the Enlightenment. Mitford’s story is as delicious as it is complicated. The marquise was in love with another mathematician, Maupertuis, while she had an unexpected rival for Voltaire’s affections in the future Frederick the Great of Prussia (and later in the philosophe’s own niece). There was, at least, no jealous husband to contend with: the Marquis du Châtelet, Mitford assures us, behaved perfectly. The beau monde of Paris was, however, distraught at the idea of the lovers’ brilliant conversation going to waste on the windswept hills of Champagne, site of the Château de Cirey, where experimental laboratories, a darkroom, and a library of more than twenty-one thousand volumes enabled them to pursue their amours philosophiques. From time to time the threat of impending arrest would send Voltaire scurrying across the border into Holland, but his irrepressible charm—and the interventions of powerful friends—always made it possible for him resume his studies with the cherished marquise.

A “devastatingly witty” biography of Louis XIV and the Court of Versailles—at once a historical record of late 17th- and early 18th-century France and a gossip-filled narrative of lovers and rivals, artists and warriors (New York Times) The Sun King is a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV and Versailles, the opulent court from which he ruled. With characteristic élan, Nancy Mitford reconstructs the daily life of king and courtiers during France’s golden age, offering vivid sketches of the architects, artists, and gardeners responsible for the creation of the most magnificent palace Europe had yet seen. Mitford lays bare the complex and deadly intrigues in the stateroom and the no less high-stakes power struggles in the bedroom. At the center of it all is Louis XIV himself, the demanding, mercurial, but remarkably resilient sovereign who guided France through nearly three quarters of the Grand Siècle. Brimming with sumptuous detail and delicious bons mots, and written in a witty, conversational style, The Sun King restores a distant glittering century to vibrant life.

Paru en 1935, ce roman n''a pas été réimprimé pendant près de 70 ans. Ceci à la demande de Nancy Mitford elle-même, qui souhaitait mettre un terme à la brouille que sa publication avait provoquée avec ses soeurs. Unity et Diana lui reprochaient en effet la caricature à peine masquée qu''elle faisait du mari de Diana sous les traits du charismatique et très nationaliste Captain Jack. Car derrière ce qui est en au premier abord une comédie enlevée, portée par le meilleur de l''humour anglais, transparaît une critique mordante des mœurs de la bonne société britannique, sur fond d''avènement du fascisme.

Publicada en 1935 en pleno ascenso del fascismo en Europa, Trifulca a la vista satiriza a los devotos seguidores del fascismo británico. La mimada Eugenia Malmains, una de las muchachas más ricas de Inglaterra, es una fiel seguidora del capitán Jack y sus camisas tricolores; el cosmopolita Noel Foster y su intrigante amigo Jasper Aspect van a la caza de una rica heredera; y Lady Marjorie, acompañada de su amiga Poppy, ha huido del revuelo provocado por la cancelación de su boda. Cuando estos personajes se unan a las fuerzas vivas locales de un recóndito pueblito inglés en una representación teatral, las tensiones entre fascistas y pacifistas explotarán. La animadversión que esta sátira del fascismo provocó en alguna de sus hermanas y las delicadas relaciones con ellas, llevaron a Nancy Mitford a prohibir que se reeditara esta novela, razón por la que ha estado fuera de la circulación durante más de setenta y cinco años, hasta que recientemente los herederos de la autora autorizaron por fin una nueva edición. «Por muy comprensibles que fuesen sus objeciones a reeditar la novela hace tres cuartos de siglo, hoy en día los admiradores de Nancy y todo el que sienta curiosidad por ese pedazo de la historia del siglo xx agradecerán su regreso a las librerías.» Charlotte Mosley, nuera de Diana, hermana de Nancy Mitford, es periodista y editora de varios volúmenes de correspondencia de la familia Mitford «Mitford derrocha ingenio y sentido del humor.» Fernando Castanedo (El País) «Una vez leído un libro de Nancy Mitford es imposible escapar al embrujo que su prosa provoca en el degustador de un mundo que acaso ya no existe» Ricardo Menéndez Salmón «Mitford tiene el ingenio y el don para resaltar lo absurdo de cada personaje.» The Times Literary Supplement «Irresistiblemente ingeniosa, Mitford fue una de las más agudas observadoras británicas de las costumbres sociales.» The New York Times

Nancy Mitford’s most controversial novel, unavailable for decades, is a hilarious satirical send-up of the fascist political enthusiasms of her sisters Unity and Diana, and of her notorious brother-in-law, Sir Oswald Mosley. Written in 1934, early in Hitler’s rise, Wigs on the Green lightheartedly skewers the devoted followers of British fascism. The sheltered and unworldy Eugenia Malmain is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of General Jack and his Union Jackshirts. World-weary Noel Foster and his scheming friend Jasper Aspect are in search of wealthy heiresses to marry; Lady Marjorie, disguised as a commoner, is on the run from the Duke she has just jilted at the altar; and her friend Poppy is considering whether to divorce her rich husband. When these characters converge with the colorful locals at a grandly misconceived costume pageant that turns into a brawl between Pacifists and Jackshirts, madcap farce ensues. Long suppressed by the author out of sensitivity to family feelings, Wigs on the Green can now be enjoyed by fans of Mitford’s superbly comic novels.

A sparkling romantic comedy that vividly evokes the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars. Polly Hampton has long been groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, the fearsome and ambitious Lady Montdore. But Polly, with her stunning good looks and impeccable connections, is bored by the monotony of her glittering debut season in London. Having just come from India, where her father served as Viceroy, she claims to have hoped that society in a colder climate would be less obsessed with love affairs. The apparently aloof and indifferent Polly has a long-held secret, however, one that leads to the shattering of her mother’s dreams and her own disinheritance. When an elderly duke begins pursuing the disgraced Polly and a callow potential heir curries favor with her parents, nothing goes as expected, but in the end all find happiness in their own unconventional ways. Featuring an introduction by Flora Fraser.

In this delightful comedy, Fanny—the quietly observant narrator of Nancy Mitford’s two most famous novels—finally takes center stage. Fanny Wincham—last seen as a young woman in The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate—has lived contentedly for years as housewife to an absent-minded Oxford don, Alfred. But her life changes overnight when her beloved Alfred is appointed English Ambassador to Paris. Soon she finds herself mixing with royalty and Rothschilds while battling her hysterical predecessor, Lady Leone, who refuses to leave the premises. When Fanny’s tender-hearted secretary begins filling the embassy with rescued animals and her teenage sons run away from Eton and show up with a rock star in tow, things get entirely out of hand. Gleefully sending up the antics of mid-century high society, Don’t Tell Alfred is classic Mitford.

The Blessing is one of Nancy Mitford’s most personal books, a wickedly funny story that asks whether love can survive the clash of cultures. When Grace Allingham, a naïve young Englishwoman, goes to live in France with her dashingly aristocratic husband Charles-Edouard, she finds herself overwhelmed by the bewilderingly foreign cuisine and the shockingly decadent manners and mores of the French. But it is the discovery of her husband’s French notion of marriage—which includes a permanent mistress and a string of casual affairs—that sends Grace packing back to London with their “blessing,” young Sigismond, in tow. While others urge the couple to reconcile, little Sigi—convinced that it will improve his chances of being spoiled—applies all his juvenile cunning to keeping his parents apart. Drawing on her own years in Paris and her long affair with a Frenchman, Mitford elevates cultural and romantic misunderstandings to the heights of comedy.

De adellijke Fanny die zich als leraarsvrouw in Oxford gelukkig voelt, beschrijft met veel plezier en met scherpe pen de belevenissen van haar vriendin Polly die in het Londen van de jaren ''30 gaat debuteren.

When Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of Louis XV, no one expected her to retain his affections for long. A member of the bourgeoisie rather than an aristocrat, she was physically too cold for the carnal Bourbon king, and had so many enemies that she could not travel publicly without risking a pelting of mud and stones. History has loved her little better.Nancy Mitford''s delightfully candid biography re-creates the spirit of eighteenth-century Versailles with its love of pleasure and treachery. We learn that the Queen was a "bore," the Dauphin a "prig," and see France increasingly overcome with class conflict. With a fiction writer''s felicity, Mitford restores the royal mistress and celebrates her as a survivor, unsurpassed in "the art of living," who reigned as the most powerful woman in France for nearly twenty years.

Nancy Mitford died in 1973 before she could write an autobiography. But she was one of the great letter writers of this century, and her sparkling correspondence to her famous family and to a wide circle of brilliant friends - Evelyn Waugh, Harold Acton, Robert Byron, Cyril Connolly, and Raymond Mortimer, among many others - sheds an extraordinary light on their lives and the times in which they lived. Novelist, biographer, and journalist, Nancy was born in 1904 into a family that seemed always to he in Britain''s headlines - and not only on the society pages. The eldest of Lord and Lady Redesdale''s seven talented children (writer Jessica Mitford among them), Nancy immortalized their family life in her first bestseller, The Pursuit of Love. Her natural wit, fed by the frivolous 1920s, was undimmed by her political coming of age in the 1930s, or the courage and stoicism of wartime London. At war''s end she moved to Paris, and her home there became "a congenial rendezvous of French and English letters", in the words of her friend Harold Acton. From this perch, Nancy wrote her daily correspondence, delighting in her adopted country and skewering pretension wherever she found it. Wildly funny and filled with outrageous gossip, Mitford''s letters detail not only the foolishness and foibles of London and Parisian society, but also the more tragic story of an unhappy marriage and her often anguished affair with "the Colonel", a leading member of de Gaulle''s government. Love from Nancy is the first published collection of Nancy''s correspondence. It draws on eight thousand letters spanning six decades, many dashed off with hardly a crossed-out word, all so full of verve that the writer seems to beat one''s elbow. It includes an important selection of letters to Evelyn Waugh, her close friend and literary mentor. Whether asking Waugh what Roman Catholics believe awaits them in heaven or soliciting Field Marshal Montgomery''s opinion of the latest Paris fashions, these letters give us Nancy Mitford at her provocative and teasing best.