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Wigs on the Green [Paperback]

Nancy Mitford (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 4 Mar 2010

Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford is a hilarious satire of the upper classes.

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 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 Moseley, 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.

'Deliciously funny' Evelyn Waugh

Nancy Mitford was the eldest of the infamous Mitford sisters, known for her membership in 'The Bright Young Things' clique of the 1920s and an intimate of Evelyn Waugh; she produced witty, satirical novels with a cast of characters taken directly from the aristocratic social scene of which she was a part. Her novels, The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, The Blessing and Don't Tell Alfred, are available in single paperback editions from Penguin or as part of The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford which also includes Highland Fling, Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie. This edition of Wigs on the Green is introduced by journalist and editor Charlotte Mosley.

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Wigs on the Green + Don't Tell Alfred + The Blessing
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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (4 Mar 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0141047461
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141047461
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.2 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 149,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Authors

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Charlotte Mosley
Nancy Mitford

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 )

About the Author

Nancy Mitford (1904-1973) was born in London, the eldest child of the second Baron Redesdale. Her childhood in a large remote country house with her five sisters and one brother is recounted in the early chapters of The Pursuit of Love (1945), which according to the author, is largely autobiographical. Apart from being taught to ride and speak French, Nancy Mitford always claimed she never received a proper education. She started writing before her marriage in 1932 in order 'to relieve the boredom of the intervals between the recreations established by the social conventions of her world' and had written four novels, including Wigs on the Green (1935), before the success of The Pursuit of Love in 1945. After the war she moved to Paris where she lived for the rest of her life. She followed The Pursuit of Love with Love in a Cold Climate (1949), The Blessing (1951) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). She also wrote four works of biography: Madame de Pompadour, first published to great acclaim in 1954, Voltaire in Love, The Sun King and Frederick the Great. As well as being a novelist and a biographer she also translated Madame de Lafayette's classic novel, La Princesse de Clèves, into English, and edited Noblesse Oblige, a collection of essays concerned with the behaviour of the English aristocracy and the idea of 'U' and 'non-U'. Nancy Mitford was awarded the CBE in 1972.

Charlotte Mosley lives in Paris and has worked as a publisher and journalist. She is the editor of Love From Nancy: The Letters of Nancy Mitford, The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters and In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect, but worth reading 25 Nov 2010
By Judith Loriente
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars The author did not think this should be reprinted 22 Jan 2012
By Clive A. H. Still TOP 500 REVIEWER
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.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars HILLARIOUS READING 27 July 2010
By tiggy4toyah
Format:Paperback
Such a hoot. A really funny dig at fascisim in the Thirties. Great light reading. You'll want to read more Mitford!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars wigs on the Green
What a delightful book - I'm new to reading Nancy Mitford, but am completely smitten by her wit. It's so easy to buy Kindle books.
Published 3 months ago by ch
2.0 out of 5 stars an unpleasant curiosity
Nancy Mitford's early novels (i.e. before she found her 'voice' with "The Pursuit of Love") are not really very good; wannabe-Waugh, valuable only as indicators of their era and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. J. Whitford
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Less well known than the "Love in a Cold Climate" series and a bit controversial, I think that I liked this best of all of Nancy's books and am very pleased that it is... Read more
Published 5 months ago by S. Hugg
1.0 out of 5 stars Can Fascists be funny?
Wigs on the Green was Nancy Mitfords 3rd novel.
I came to it having enjoyed Love in a Cold Climate,Dont Tell Alfred,The Blessing etc which were all funny and full of endearing... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Hillyfields
3.0 out of 5 stars 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 19 months ago by Luthien Arnatuile
4.0 out of 5 stars 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 on 5 May 2011 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
4.0 out of 5 stars 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 on 21 Sep 2010 by Mj KM Lowrie
3.0 out of 5 stars 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 on 16 Sep 2010 by D. C. Davies
3.0 out of 5 stars 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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