If you have ever been exposed to the world of the British landed gentry (in books only, obv!), it is generally on the male side. The young lads attend a public school (such as Eton), go off to one of the Oxbridge colleges, and then emerge as captains of the Empire. The female side? Not even close.
My first exposure to their bizarre world was <i>Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford</i>, which I read and reviewed earlier this year. The Mitford sisters were six in number (there was an inconsequential boy), and what a diverse group they were. But they were all brilliant, beautiful, extremely wealthy, and victims of their upbringing. Their father let them learn to read, but since their value was to marry a wealthy and privileged man, not much else was really required, was it?
But to varying degrees, they resisted, became well read, and involved in the society of pre-WWII Britain, and Nancy ended up being the writer of the lot, at least fiction-wise. (Jessica was the non-fiction queen – <i>American Way of Death</i>, etc.). So the two books listed here are, from what I knew from Jessica’s telling, a very lightly fictionalized rendition of their early lives.
But what a tossup it was. Some did, indeed, find a congenial spouse and lead a contented life. But for many, they traded lovers as easily as their hats. As one observer puts it,
<i> sooner or later everybody in that set becomes the lover of everybody else, so that when they change their lovers, it is more like a cabinet reshuffle than a new government, Always chosen out of the same old lot, you see.</i>
Damn. That’ll leave a mark.