Love in a Cold Climate: On Actually Reading the Novel

One is never quite sure
just what will happen next.

Though this collaborative blog borrows its title from Nancy Mitford's classic novel, Love In a Cold Climate, I must confess, in shocking fashion, that I had never read it. Until last week.

I had missed much. Mitford had a delightful comedic touch, alighting on topics such as class, snobbery, social relationships, longing and love in just the right manner. I was personally amused by the frequent reference to the reading of society magazines like Tatler and Bystander. Mitford seems half disdainful of them and half cognizant of the entertainment value therein for even the highest intellects (ahem, the Idle Historian definitely enjoys a dose of Tatler now and then...).

But surely the most hilarious descriptions in the novel take the form of blithe references to our homeland. A portion of the story centres on an heir from “the Colonies” (Nova Scotia in fact) by the name of Cedric. The man and the terrain from which he hails are variously described thus:

“Sad, isn't it, the idea of some great lumping colonial at Hampton!”

“...at that time it was our idea to live in capital cities and go to the Opera alight with diamonds, 'Who is that lovely woman?' and Nova Scotia was clearly not a suitable venue for such doings... Colonial we thought, ignorantly.”

“Montdore's lawyer has had the most terrible time getting in touch with her at all. Now fancy moving, in Canada. You'd think one place there would be exactly the same as another, wouldn't you?”

“Words dimly associated with Canada kept occurring to me, the word lumber, the word shack, staking a claim... How I wished I could be present at Hampton when this lumber-jack arrived to stake his claim to that shack.”

Of course Mitford's narrative is itself a spoof of the British aristocracy looking outwards, though the actual person of Cedric and the surprise he elicits somewhat confirms the validity of the stereotype of the “Colonial.” In the end, Cedric is no lumberjack. In fact, he is decidedly and grandly camp, sophisticated, cultured and civilized – a larger-than-life figure (who had long left Canada for France) who brings a breath of fresh air to the inhabitants of the rather stuffy and closed circle he finds himself within.

One will reveal no more. Read the novel. And then you will also realize the vital importance of the word “One.” 

Next up: Tracking down the BBC series from 2001.

@idlehistorian