Love in a Cold Climate

Published in 1949, this novel is narrated by Fanny, who watches the Hampton family and the formidable Lady Montdore. The centre is Polly Hampton, whose beauty and apparent vacancy conceal a plan that shocks her parents: she means to marry Boy Dougdale, the older family hanger-on already known for chasing girls. The marriage wrecks Lady Montdore's ambitions for a great match and empties the house of its old order. A distant heir, Cedric, arrives from France and reshapes the household in another direction. Country-house weekends, London seasons, and English-French snobberies supply the comedy. It is a social novel about marriage as a family crisis, not a war book.

Bound in white cloth with a wrap-around illustration. Pale blue endleaves. Pale blue slipcase.