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Product Description
Product Description
Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh were two of the twentieth century's most amusing and gifted writers, who matched wits and traded literary advice in more than five hundred letters over twenty-two years. Dissecting their friends, criticizing each other's books and concealing their true feelings beneath a barrage of hilarious and knowing repartee, they found it far easier to conduct a friendship on paper than in person. This correspondence provides a colourful glimpse into the literary and social circles of London and Paris, during the Second World War and for twenty years after.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of those rare books that actually changes you slightly. You can feel Nancy Mitford's effervescent love of life and a man she was destined not to have (not Waugh, read the book). Waugh's bitter humour and at times almost violently zealous faith (ex-agnostics are always the worst, aren't they?) are transformed over time into the inconveniences of old age and the beginnings of uncertainty.
Waugh's characters are here, only slightly less alive for being real than they are in his retelling of them.
By Today's standards both Mitford and Waugh would be considered bigots, racists and terrible snobs - part of all that was wrong with old England. This book raises the possibility that we may have thrown the baby out with the bath water. There's another world here, another view altogether, and it's not all bad.
The book fulfills many functions. It's a record of the mid 20th Century English upper class from the viewpoint of the bohemian intelligentsia. It's a platonic love story. It's the tale of a life long friendship. It's about disillusionment. It's gossip. It is spiky, barbed argument and profound offence, but it's also tender concern and deep respect. It is two of the best and most difficult writers the world has ever produced writing personally and mostly honestly about what mattered to them. It's about writing paper and it's about the proper use of the word 'claim.'
"It is very degrading to be constantly in the company of of people you have to "make allowances for"" - this book is a break from them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a treat for lovers of those two classic writers and humourists, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. They wrote to each other for most of their adult lives, comparing progress on their latest books and giving real insight into the birth pangs of their literary progeny. To step inside their world and hear them discussing the writing of Pursuit of Love or The Ordeal of Gilbert Penfold and to note how carefully Evelyn Waugh analyses NM's writing and makes suggestions for tightening up her plots, is to have a preferential seat as we watch work in progress.
But not only do we gaze into their professional lives, we also learn something of their private lives as well - Nancy Mitford's close if sometimes uncomfortable relationship with her five sisters and Evelyn Waugh's cool attitude to his children and family life in general. We meet through them many of their famous and interesting contemporaries and see them through the far from objective eyes of these two interesting characters.
This book is a delight on all levels and congratulations are due to the editor, Charlotte Mosley, whose hard work leaves us with this alluring compilation.
But not only do we gaze into their professional lives, we also learn something of their private lives as well - Nancy Mitford's close if sometimes uncomfortable relationship with her five sisters and Evelyn Waugh's cool attitude to his children and family life in general. We meet through them many of their famous and interesting contemporaries and see them through the far from objective eyes of these two interesting characters.
This book is a delight on all levels and congratulations are due to the editor, Charlotte Mosley, whose hard work leaves us with this alluring compilation.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh are my favourite writers, but I put off reading this book for some time because collected letters generally don't appeal. Even with these two I took a couple of rests from the book before realising it was a lot more enjoyable than anything else I had to hand.
I would refute the charges of "bigot" and "racist" [see other reviews] where Nancy is concerned. She is totally non-PC in her letters, but then PC had not been invented. What shines through is her love of life and her enjoyment of people. She uses "jew" as a label without embarrassment, but she meets and warmly admires Decca's husband Robert Treuhaft.
Evelyn Waugh is a different case. His contempt for the lower classes, for example, is manifest, and is evidently rooted in his shame at not belonging to the upper. You can also understand why the fundamentalist approach to Roman Catholicism appealed to him - Waugh would have no problem with other people being damned for eternity, unless it was someone he particularly cared about.
Charlotte Mosley edits with a light touch. It was nice that she thoughtfully translated all the French phrases, as until recently editors from a certain section of society tended to assume everyone knew the language. The footnotes are copious and generally quite dull, but thank goodness they are placed at the end of each letter and not in an addendum.
Unlike the reviewer from The Independent, I didn't "rock with helpless laughter", but I was fairly consistently amused, and thanks to Nancy I have ordered several more books from Amazon, on the grounds that if she enjoyed them I probably will too.
I would refute the charges of "bigot" and "racist" [see other reviews] where Nancy is concerned. She is totally non-PC in her letters, but then PC had not been invented. What shines through is her love of life and her enjoyment of people. She uses "jew" as a label without embarrassment, but she meets and warmly admires Decca's husband Robert Treuhaft.
Evelyn Waugh is a different case. His contempt for the lower classes, for example, is manifest, and is evidently rooted in his shame at not belonging to the upper. You can also understand why the fundamentalist approach to Roman Catholicism appealed to him - Waugh would have no problem with other people being damned for eternity, unless it was someone he particularly cared about.
Charlotte Mosley edits with a light touch. It was nice that she thoughtfully translated all the French phrases, as until recently editors from a certain section of society tended to assume everyone knew the language. The footnotes are copious and generally quite dull, but thank goodness they are placed at the end of each letter and not in an addendum.
Unlike the reviewer from The Independent, I didn't "rock with helpless laughter", but I was fairly consistently amused, and thanks to Nancy I have ordered several more books from Amazon, on the grounds that if she enjoyed them I probably will too.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A polite exchange
I am a massive fan of the Mitfords and of their correspondence which has been superbly edited by Charlotte Mosley, however, this book is a light and easy read, quite possible to... Read more
Published 19 days ago by lyndsy
Transcending
I have a great interest in literature from the 40s and 50s but this full collection of correspondence between two great writers and personalities never appealed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Hannah
I SHRIEKED!
My Dear! Read them and shriek! You will SHRIEK! Honks Cooper, Ooofy Allbright (don't mention the hair do! Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2000
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