Wigs on the Green
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Product Description
Review
An intoxicating mix of pretty absurditites and farce (Time Out )
Revel in a slice of arcadian 30s silliness, preserved, as it were, in aspic....there are still plenty of jokes that raise loud, unforced laughter 75 years on...a satire on marriage, and a clear-eyed on at that (Guardian )
Revel in a slice of arcadian 30s silliness, preserved, as it were, in aspic....there are still plenty of jokes that raise loud, unforced laughter 75 years on...a satire on marriage, and a clear-eyed on at that (Guardian )
Product Description
Eugenia Malmains is one of the richest girls in England and an ardent supporter of Captain Jack and the Union Jackshirts; Noel and Jasper are both in search of an heiress (so much easier than trying to work for the money); Poppy and Marjorie are nursing lovelorn hearts; and the beautiful bourgeois Mrs Lace is on the prowl for someone to lighten the boredom of her life. They all congregate near Eugenia's fabulous country home at Chalford, and much farce ensues.
One of Nancy Mitford's earliest novels, Wigs on the Green has been out of print for nearly seventy-five years. Nancy's sisters Unity and Diana were furious with her for making fun of Diana's husband, Oswald Mosley, and his politics, and the book caused a rift between them all that endured for years. Nancy Mitford skewers her family and their beliefs with her customary jewelled barbs, but there is froth, comedy and heart here too.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I thought I would. But that's more due to expectations - I expected it to be a really biting, vicious, no-holds-barred satire on British Fascism in the 1930s.
Instead the satire is done in a more gentle, good-humoured way. Aside from the ending, which trailed off rather than ending with a bang, it's still quintessential Nancy Mitford. So thank goodness it's finally available after being out of print since the 1930s.
The introduction by Charlotte Mosley explains a lot: Mitford had to be careful not to libel her brother-in-law Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (with his `Blackshirt' followers - `Jackshirts' in the novel). The year before its publication, Mosley had won 5000 pounds in damages in a libel suit, so this was no idle threat.
Mosley states that Mitford had to excise material dealing with her character Captain Jack, modelled on Mosley: "Nancy refused to abandon the book but she did agree to remove nearly everything directly relating to Captain Jack - some three chapters altogether". Wigs on the Green would no doubt have been a lot less lightweight if they had been in it, and would also have been longer than 170 pages. I was left wondering whether Mitford may have been disappointed that she wasn't able to do more with the ripe-for-satire material that was available to her, if only family, politics and concerns about libel hadn't forced her to exercise caution, or remove parts of the book altogether.
There's still plenty of her trademark humour. For example, the beliefs of Lady Chalford, modelled on her mother, are described as follows: "She went to church herself, of course, feeling it a patriotic duty so to do, but she had no personal feelings toward God, whom she regarded as being, conjointly with the King, head of the Church of England." This is similar to a comment that Mitford made in an essay called `Blor', in which she wrote, "My parents were ultra-conservative and Church of England, with the emphasis on England. They went to church regularly, in order to support the State."
Her portrait of the under-educated, over-enthusiastic, fascism-obsessed Eugenia Malmains is also brilliant. It's not hard to see why her sisters Unity and Diana were not happy about the book. Mitford wrote to Diana that Wigs on the Green was "far more in favour of Fascism than otherwise", but I doubt anyone, including herself, believed that for a moment.
Instead the satire is done in a more gentle, good-humoured way. Aside from the ending, which trailed off rather than ending with a bang, it's still quintessential Nancy Mitford. So thank goodness it's finally available after being out of print since the 1930s.
The introduction by Charlotte Mosley explains a lot: Mitford had to be careful not to libel her brother-in-law Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (with his `Blackshirt' followers - `Jackshirts' in the novel). The year before its publication, Mosley had won 5000 pounds in damages in a libel suit, so this was no idle threat.
Mosley states that Mitford had to excise material dealing with her character Captain Jack, modelled on Mosley: "Nancy refused to abandon the book but she did agree to remove nearly everything directly relating to Captain Jack - some three chapters altogether". Wigs on the Green would no doubt have been a lot less lightweight if they had been in it, and would also have been longer than 170 pages. I was left wondering whether Mitford may have been disappointed that she wasn't able to do more with the ripe-for-satire material that was available to her, if only family, politics and concerns about libel hadn't forced her to exercise caution, or remove parts of the book altogether.
There's still plenty of her trademark humour. For example, the beliefs of Lady Chalford, modelled on her mother, are described as follows: "She went to church herself, of course, feeling it a patriotic duty so to do, but she had no personal feelings toward God, whom she regarded as being, conjointly with the King, head of the Church of England." This is similar to a comment that Mitford made in an essay called `Blor', in which she wrote, "My parents were ultra-conservative and Church of England, with the emphasis on England. They went to church regularly, in order to support the State."
Her portrait of the under-educated, over-enthusiastic, fascism-obsessed Eugenia Malmains is also brilliant. It's not hard to see why her sisters Unity and Diana were not happy about the book. Mitford wrote to Diana that Wigs on the Green was "far more in favour of Fascism than otherwise", but I doubt anyone, including herself, believed that for a moment.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Such a hoot. A really funny dig at fascisim in the Thirties. Great light reading. You'll want to read more Mitford!
Format:Paperback
In a letter to Evelyn Waugh, dated 8th November 1951, Nancy Mitford wrote "I'm in a great state about my early boooks. I think I told you Jamie came over specially to ask me for them to be reprinted, which softened me. Then I read them. Well "Wigs on the Green" which isn't too bad, I find, is a total impossibility. Too much has happened for jokes about Nazis to be regarded as funny or as anything but the worst of taste. After all, it was written in 1934, I really couldn't quite have foreseen all that came after".
What would have been a light-hearted comedy of upper-class manners, is tilted grotesquely by jokes about "Aryan children" and the beating up of political opponents. The author was right - this one should have stayed out of print.
What would have been a light-hearted comedy of upper-class manners, is tilted grotesquely by jokes about "Aryan children" and the beating up of political opponents. The author was right - this one should have stayed out of print.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wrong to call it a comedy!
Diana (Mitford) Mosley hated this book so I had to read it since everything that she hated is close to the truth. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Luthien Arnatuile
Socially sharp and very funny
I love Nancy Mitford's writing, and am so delighted that the powers that be have seen fit to republish her earlier works. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Try it!
Not a book I would have ever chosen myself but it was a choice from my book group.When I saw the author's name I thought vaguely "Fascism" & that I was going to hate it! Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mj KM Lowrie
Review
I have never really shared the popular view of Nancy Mitford's writing prowess. This particular novel suffers from being a very early one of hers - before she developed her later... Read more
Published 20 months ago by D. C. Davies
A 'curiosity'
I'm hugely fond of Nancy Mitford's later books, she was witty and observant and they are great comfort reads. Read more
Published on 9 May 2010 by S. Roberts
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