This title is presented with an Introduction by Kate Williams. Frederick II of Prussia attempted to escape his authoritarian father as a boy, but went on to become one of history's greatest rulers. He loved the flute, and devoted hours of study to the arts and French literature, forming a long-lasting but turbulent friendship with Voltaire. He was a military genius and enlarged the borders of his empire, but he also promoted religious tolerance, economic reform and laid the foundation for a united Germany. Nancy Mitford brings all these contradictions and achievements to sparkling life in an fascinating, intimate biography.

Frederick the Great

Biographies & Memoirs

Nancy Mitford

Leaders & Notable People

Vintage Classics

The meeting of Voltaire, successful financier, famous poet and troublemaker, and the enchanting amateur physicist and countess Emilie du Chatelet, was a meeting of both hearts and minds. In the Chateau de Cirey, the two brilliant intellects scandalised the French aristocracy with their passionate love affair and provoked revolutions both political and scientific with their groundbreaking work in literature, philosophy and physics. Nancy Mitford's account of the love affair of the Enlightenment is, in the author's own words, 'a shriek from beginning to end'.

Voltaire in Love

Arts & Literature

First published in 1954, this is an evocation of Louis XV's court at Versailles. The political and religious complications of the time are explained and put into context, while the complex characters are brought vividly to life.

Madame De Pompadour

Community & Culture

Penguin

With characteristically amusing malice, Mitford blends a comedy of manners with culture shock as Grace Allingham, a naive English rose, impulsively marries Charles-Edouard de Valhubert, a French nobleman with all his class's charm and decadence. Both are duped, however, by their son Sigismund -- the Blessing of the title -- a juvenile Machiavelli who mixes Gallic cunning with Saxon thoroughness to become one of Mitford's most memorable characters.

The Blessing (Import)

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Penguin Books, Ltd.

A sparkling romantic comedy that vividly evokes the lost glamour of aristocratic life in England between the wars.Polly Hampton has long been groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, the fearsome and ambitious Lady Montdore. But Polly, with her stunning good looks and impeccable connections, is bored by the monotony of her glittering debut season in London. Having just come from India, where her father served as Viceroy, she claims to have hoped that society in a colder climate would be less obsessed with love affairs. The apparently aloof and indifferent Polly has a long-held secret, however, one that leads to the shattering of her mother’s dreams and her own disinheritance. When an elderly duke begins pursuing the disgraced Polly and a callow potential heir curries favor with her parents, nothing goes as expected, but in the end all find happiness in their own unconventional ways. Featuring an introduction by Flora Fraser.

Love in a Cold Climate

The Best Novels of Nancy Mitford (The Pursuit of Love; Love in a Cold Climate; The Blessing; Don't Tell Alfred)

The Nancy Mitford Omnibus - Four Novels of Love and High Society

Penguin??Books

Love in a Cold Climate (Popular Penguins)

Noblesse Oblige

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Hamish Hamilton Ltd.

The Pursuit of Love

Christmas Pudding

Fig Tree

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Books by Nancy Mitford