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Nancy Mitford The Autobiography Edited From Nancy Mitford's Letters
Nancy Mitford was witty, intelligent, often acerbic, a great tease and an acute observer of upper-class British idiosyncrasies. With the publication of "The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate" (advised by Evelyn Waugh), she became a huge bestselling author and has remained a household name ever since. A few years before she died, she had started to collect materi
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Published
2009
by Gardners Books
(first published January 1st 1975)
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Community Reviews
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Nancy Mitford could not be bothered with a daily journal.
However, she loved writing letters and they comprise the zesty
and memorable pate de foie of this biography. (The internet has
killed letter-writing; biographies in the future will be very
boring, I fear).
In the early '50s she adapted a French comedy, "The Little Hut," that ran for 3 years in London. The story of a husband who shares his wife with her lover when all are stranded on a tropical island, "Hut" dismayed Puritan theatre critics her ...more
However, she loved writing letters and they comprise the zesty
and memorable pate de foie of this biography. (The internet has
killed letter-writing; biographies in the future will be very
boring, I fear).
In the early '50s she adapted a French comedy, "The Little Hut," that ran for 3 years in London. The story of a husband who shares his wife with her lover when all are stranded on a tropical island, "Hut" dismayed Puritan theatre critics her ...more
Harold Acton and Nancy traveled in the same continental circles which they each grew into after the end of the Second World War - Nancy in Paris and Harold in Florence they have in common the total embrace of Europe not always natural to the English abroad, and so flow in a confluence of literary and aristocratic beau monde, but one that does not exclude large aesthetic and social-political sympathies. This Memoir was published just after her in 1973 and focuses on the years not chronicled in he
...more
This book is probably only for the truly Mitford-obsessed (=me). One of Nancy Mitford's closest friends quotes extensively from her correspondence to create a portrait of his friend. Despite my obsession, I found the book slow going at first, and nearly gave up. Glad I stuck with it, because it did get much more interesting as it went on. Some of the stuff about her biography of Frederick the Great was particularly amusing. Her attempt to understand his homosexuality was interesting in its matte
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After reading other biographies about the Mitford sisters, I decided to delve into one about Nancy. Harold Acton's biography was the perfect place to start, as it glosses over her childhood and delves more fully into her grown-up life.
Written from the perspective of one of her friends, Nancy's humor and vibrant personality truly shine through. Acton's portrayal of her allows the readers to see what attracted everyone from the Bright Young Things to literary types to older women to Nancy. The inc ...more
Written from the perspective of one of her friends, Nancy's humor and vibrant personality truly shine through. Acton's portrayal of her allows the readers to see what attracted everyone from the Bright Young Things to literary types to older women to Nancy. The inc ...more
I can't resist a book by or about Nancy Mitford, although this one did rather disappoint. The book was written by Harold Acton, a life-long friend of Mitford's. For someone new to Nancy Mitford, I expect this book would be a bit puzzling: Acton writes for those already "in-the-know" and I would have missed many of his references had I not already been familiar with the Mitford family. Nonetheless I enjoyed reading about Nancy from a friend's perspective. She still fascinates and entertains me wi
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Dec 13, 2010
Melee
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mitford-industry
,
memoir-bio
I had trouble reading this book. Something about the style it was written in was not very compelling. Most of the text seemed to be taken from Nancy's letters and maybe that was the problem; I felt it was kind of choppy.
Also, there were quite a few quotes or phrases in French and translations would have been helpful. (I can read French up to a certain point but I could only understood about half of what was said. I might have understood more but I didn't always want to sit there and laboriously ...more
Also, there were quite a few quotes or phrases in French and translations would have been helpful. (I can read French up to a certain point but I could only understood about half of what was said. I might have understood more but I didn't always want to sit there and laboriously ...more
Harold Acton's memoir of Nancy Mitford is a wonderfully personal remembrance of Mitford by one of her oldest friends. Acton worked from scads of her delightfully chatty letters and quotes liberally from them, so that it's as if Nancy herself wrote the memoir (which may have been partially Acton's aim, as she died before she could complete her autobiography). It's not nearly as complete a biography as those by Selina Hastings or Laura Thompson, but the quotations and personal anecdotes make it es
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Interesting seeing Mitford's life through Acton's eyes as well as her letters, but Acton doesn't seem very adept at weaving in his own point of view. Whenever he is talking about his own life or giving his own impressions, the writing seems awkward. Also it's oddly, and jerkily, repetitive--a line in one paragraph is repeated not-quite word-for-word a few paragraphs later.
Also he skated over certain areas of her life, sometimes coming up with kind reasons instead of actual ones. I understand the ...more
Also he skated over certain areas of her life, sometimes coming up with kind reasons instead of actual ones. I understand the ...more
I had a mixed response to this. Some of it zipped along, whilst other sections seemed to get bogged down with too much detail and I found myself skipping bits. Much of the text is drawn from her correspondence with families and friends so it is almost the memoirs she never got round to starting. It would have been helpful to have translations of the French sentences for those of us who can do little more than say hello and goodbye!
Nancy intended to write a memoir of her life in France after WWII. Harold Acton has tried to do it for her, using her own words as much as possible. He quotes extensively from her letters, adds commentary, anecdotes, reminiscences from her friends and relatives and factual details. Nancy's distinct voice speaks through her letters.
I did enjoy this. Harold Acton uses a large amount of quotes from Nancy's letters to her friends and family, and because of this you can really "hear" her voice throughout, she really comes alive. But I think the way they were used was slightly difficult - perhaps having quotes indented would have made it a lot easier to read.
The ability of the Mitford sisters to carry on a friendship through letters always amazes me. I wish I had the ability... Witty, caustic and occasionally controversial, Nancy Mitford's life was so unlike my own that it's a pleasure to look into another world..
Nancy wanted to write her own memoir but she got too sick. This book by her friend Harold Acton treats her more lovingly than her other biographies, and it has his detailed personal memories and insights that only someone close to her could include.
An affectionate biography of Nancy Mitford who was not as nice as she looked
Gossipy but warm. Something so comforting about the Mitfords.
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Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton was a British writer, scholar and dilettante who is probably most famous for being believed, incorrectly, to have inspired the character of "Anthony Blanche" in Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited (1945).
More about Harold Acton...
May 17, 2013 07:59AM
May 17, 2013 08:13AM