"they lived in a world of superlatives"

When one doesn’t have air conditioning, the temps rise about 90, and the wildfire smoke descends from Canada, what else to do but turn on the fan, grab an iced tea, and cool off with a book like The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford.

“Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them."

Linda Radlett longs to marry the Prince of Wales. Growing up in the country with parents who disparage difference, a brood of younger siblings, and beloved cousin Fanny (who narrates the tale), Linda whiles away the hours playing solitaire or chatting in the airing cupboard waiting to meet the man of her dreams. And eventually, over the course of the novel, she meets three. The first supports her lifestyle as a bright young thing, the second dashes her hopes of being a do-gooder, and the third lavishes her with clothes and laughter. When the war begins, she flees Paris. When her house in Chelsea is destroyed in an air raid, she reluctantly finds refuge with the Radletts.

“We had never learnt to dance, and, for some reason, we had supposed it to be a thing which everybody could do quite easily and naturally. I think Linda realized there and then what it took me years to learn, that the behaviour of civilized man really has nothing to do with nature, that all is artificiality and art more or less perfected.”

This satire artfully captures the artificiality of not only the British upper class, but well, of all of us who live with privilege. Thanks to Emily Mortimer, this work from 1945, has been made into a Prime miniseries. If Sofia Coppola directed an episode of Downton Abbey written by Wes Anderson, it couldn’t be more charming than Mortimer’s adaptation.