The Blessing - Softcover

Mitford, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0307740838 ISBN 13: 9780307740830

Publisher: Vintage, 2010

Synopsis

The Blessing is one of Nancy Mitford's most personal books, a wickedly funny story that asks whether love can survive the clash of cultures.

When Grace Allingham, a naïve young Englishwoman, goes to live in France with her dashingly aristocratic husband Charles-Edouard, she finds herself overwhelmed by the bewilderingly foreign cuisine and the shockingly decadent manners and mores of the French. But it is the discovery of her husband's French notion of marriage--which includes a permanent mistress and a string of casual affairs--that sends Grace packing back to London with their "blessing," young Sigismond, in tow. While others urge the couple to reconcile, little Sigi--convinced that it will improve his chances of being spoiled--applies all his juvenile cunning to keeping his parents apart. Drawing on her own years in Paris and her long affair with a Frenchman, Mitford elevates cultural and romantic misunderstandings to the heights of comedy.

About this title

Review:

"A refreshment to the mind and the spirit. . . . Cunningly constructed, artfully written, and divinely farcical." --The New York Times Book Review

"Mitford tells her story with much wit, intelligence, and polish." --The Times (London)

"Deliciously funny." ---Evelyn Waugh

About the Author:

Nancy Mitford, daughter of Lord and Lady Redesdale and the eldest of the six legendary Mitford sisters, was born in 1904 and educated at home on the family estate in Oxfordshire. She made her debut in London and soon became one of the bright young things of the 1920s, a close friend of Henry Green, Evelyn Waugh, John Betjeman, and their circle. A beauty and a wit, she began writing for magazines and writing novels while she was still in her twenties. In all, she wrote eight novels as well as biographies of Madame de Pompadour, Voltaire, Louis XIV, and Frederick the Great. She died in 1973. More information can be found at www.nancymitford.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0307740838
• ISBN 13: 9780307740830
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256