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Title: The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell ISBN: 0-393-32414-1 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.04 (27 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Fascinating, Riveting Book
Comment: "The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family" tells the (true) story of the Mitford sisters, six beautiful and talented aristocratic young women who came of age in the interwar period.(There was a brother Tom who died during WWII. He does not play a major role in this book nor does it seem in their lives.)
These women lived, for the most part, amazing (though not admirable in all cases) lives: Nancy, the oldest, became a best selling novelist; Pamela, the "least interesting" (to the biographer and her family, though not necessarily the reader), lived a country life after a marriage to a brilliant man who married compulsively (six total); Diana, the society beauty, who left her husband for the fascist Oswald Mosley and who befriended Hitler; Unity, who became obsessed with Hitler and met him 140 times during a short period before WWII; Jessica, the rebel, who eloped at 18, became a communist, moved to the states, and became a best selling author on such topis as the funeral home industry; and Deborah, the youngest, who made the most brilliant marriage, to the future Duke of Devonshire.
This book details the eccentric but loving childhood of these sisters (though the father had murderous rages that seemed to have a lifelong impact on the children) and the diverse set of political causes and men that both brought them together and drove them apart over the years. Any book that affords the reader glimpses of Churchill as an uncle, Hitler as a "friend", Maya Angelou as an honorary "sister", is worth its price. Lovell presents her material in a straightforward manner. The book is thoroughly researched.
However, there are flaws. Lovell could probe further than she does into the psyches of the sisters. Three of them became obsessed with men in ways that bordered on the unhealthy and bizarre (Nancy had a lifelong infatuation for a count that would never marry her, the beautiful Diana dedicated her life to the unfaithful Mosley, and Unity's fixation on Hitler was downright psychotic.) And she lets Diana off the hook a bit too easily for her fascist and pro-Hitler views (Diana never repented.) She seems somewhat bewitched by Diana's external beauty-she met her at the age of 90--and doesn't focuse on the fact that it was external. (As obituary writers did this past summer after her death in August.)
Still it is a great read particularly for those fascinated by the British upper classes between the two wars.
Rating: 5
Summary: A readable and entertaining look at social history/biography
Comment: This carefully researched and constructed biography of the six Mitford sisters, Nancy, Pam, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah, and their brother, Tom, is a fascinating look not only of their lives but at the time in which they lived. The reader is drawn into the world of minor British aristocracy and is treated to characters who, although somewhat eccentric at times, seem much like people we know: Parents are well-intentioned if somewhat misled, children are willful and spoiled. Life, however, is frivolous and carefree in an increasingly dangerous and threatening world. It's easy to understand where Nancy got her sense of humor and her ability to write social satire -- it was bred into the bone.
It's also understandable (and not at all uncommon) that the older siblings found some measure of success while the younger ones behaved like the over-indulged, spoiled children they were and never seemed to cease to be.
The reader who remembers (and the student of) the early- and mid-20th century will recognize the famous names that wander through these pages with the infamous family: Aly Khan, Winston Churchill, Katharine Graham, Diana Cooper, Evelyn Waugh and more -- it's a star-studded group of friends, relatives and acquaintances that touch and often seriously influence the lives of the Mitfords.
I loved this book. The story is fascinating and almost surreal as it unfolds through the girls' schooling, debutante years and various adult exploits played against the backdrop of the developing World War and its aftermath. Lovell has done a superb job of presenting the zeigeist of their era and their lives in a readable and entertaining text.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Good Familial Portrait of the Wacky Mitford Family
Comment: I first read Jessica Mitford's "A Fine Old Conflict" when it was published in the early 1970's. It remained in my bookcase and I recently re-read it and also read "Hons (Daughters) and Rebels" which whetted my appetite for more information on what the sisters came to label as the "Mitford Industry". I then purchased "The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family".
I was not disappointed. I found The "Sisters" really enjoyable and well researched, and the photos excellent. There is much interesting information in the many footnotes, too.
Like Sydney said, "What a Set!"
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Title: The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate: Two Novels by Nancy Mitford ISBN: 0375718990 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 04 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford ISBN: 0575400048 Publisher: Indigo Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
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Title: The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters by Anne De Courcy ISBN: 0066210615 Publisher: William Morrow & Company Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Victoria's Daughters by Jerrold Packard ISBN: 0312244967 Publisher: Griffin Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell : Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia by Janet Wallach ISBN: 0385495757 Publisher: Anchor Books/Doubleday Pub. Date: 20 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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