A sequel to Mitford’s The
Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate has the same
narrator and many of the same characters. Instead of focusing on
the Radlett family, however, the latter novel features the
upper-class Hamptons (Lord and Lady Montdore), whose only child,
Polly, defies her parents and shocks everyone with her choice of
husband.
Polly, possessing great beauty as well as wealth, presumably
could have any husband she wants. She perplexes her mother, the
overbearing Sonia, by appearing to not want anyone. That is,
until her father’s sister dies and Polly proposes marriage to
the widower. Polly reveals that she has been in love with “Boy”
Dougdale since she was 14, despite his reputation for lechery
and past as her mother’s lover.
Mitford, unfortunately, treats Boy’s pedophilia lightly, but in
another regard she was open-minded for 1949. Cedric, a distant
relative of Lord Montdore who will inherit the estate now that
Polly is disinherited, is openly gay and charms everyone he
meets. He accomplishes the impossible, making over Sonia.
Narrator Fanny, a distant cousin of Polly’s, remains a
level-headed, witty observer of the exploits of her more
privileged relatives.
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