Nancy Mitford’s Pursuit of Love is slapped with a trigger warning by its own publisher with message at front of new edition noting it’s ‘depictions of prejudices’
- New edition of Nancy Mitford’s Pursuit of Love has been slapped with a warning
- Read more: How the Spanish Civil War brought out the idealism of aristocrats
A new edition of Nancy Mitford’s novel The Pursuit of Love has been slapped with a trigger warning by publishers.
The Pursuit Of Love was penned by the English author in 1945, and she went onto write two sequels, Love in a Cold Climate in 1949 and Don’t Tell Alfred in 1960.
However the original novel has recently been reissued by Penguin along with a cautionary note to warn readers of ‘depictions of prejudice’ within the pages.
According to The Telegraph, the warning in the new edition states: ‘In this book there are some expressions and depictions of prejudices that were commonplace in British society at the time it was written.
‘These prejudices were wrong then and are wrong today.’
A new edition of Nancy Mitford’s novel The Pursuit of Love has been slapped with a trigger warning by publishers
The warning goes on to add that publishers do not want to rewrite history, stating: ‘We are printing the novel as it was originally published, because to make changes would be the same as pretending these prejudices never existed.’
The novel, which was recently made into a popular series on BBC starring Lily James, follows the stunning daughter of a rich family who suffers a turbulent journey to finding her true love during the interwar years.
First falling for a snooty Tory politician, she then forms a romance with a stanch Communist, followed by a French duke.
Meanwhile her cousin Fanny Logan is keen to find a steady life by settling down with a reliable husband.
The pair’s varying views on love and relationships sees their lives head in different directions, at a time when the nation is becoming more and more politically divided.
While it’s unclear what controversial opinions the note is warning of specifically, the character of Uncle Matthew is often portrayed as a comically brutish and xenophobic war veteran.
With an intense dislike of foreigners, a draconian approach to childcare and an absolutely appalling attitude to women, Uncle Matthew, Linda’s father is as politically incorrect as he is bad-tempered.
In the novel Uncle Matthew beats his children, hunts them with his four magnificent bloodhounds, puts down their pets and neglects to give them any kind of formal education.
While it’s not clear what the trigger warning refers to, it is Uncle Matthew, who was played by Dominic West in the recent BBC adaptation
He refers to the French as ‘Frogs’ and says he hopes his family would fight to the death should any ‘bloody foreigners’ come to England.
The character was played by Dominic West in the recent BBC adaptation, and was in fact based on Nancy’s real father the Honorable David Freeman-Mitford, later 2nd Baron Redesdale.
In reality Lord Redesdale’s main aim concerning his daughters was to get them married.
None of the girls was sent to school as their father, ‘Farve’, David Freeman-Mitford, later second Baron Redesdale, didn’t think girls needed an education.
He even felt it might ruin any possible chances of them being wed.
Like Uncle Matthew, the Mitfords’ father was a world of manly pursuits, where ‘gurls’ were expected to marry a decent fellow who could handle a gun.
He was also known for his dislike of all things ‘foreign’, as portrayed by his character Uncle Matthew, after he lost a lung in the First World War.
He was a distinctive xenophobe, having come back from the First World War with a dislike of the French and a deep hatred of the Germans.
When not busy with the House of Lords, he would organise ‘child hunts’ over his Oxfordshire estate, in which his own children took part.
It is thought he would offer them a head start before setting loose the bloodhounds.
The Pursuit Of Love was penned by Nancy Mitford in 1945, and she went onto write two sequels, Love in a Cold Climate in 1949 and Don’t Tell Alfred in 1960
The update to the book comes weeks after Southern classic Gone With The Wind is was also given a trigger warning amid concerns over its depiction of 19th Century slavery.
Margaret Mitchell’s novel set in Georgia during the American Civil War has been a favourite for generations of book lovers since its publication in 1936.
It was memorably brought to the silver screen in 1939 starring Vivien Leigh as the southern belle Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable as her paramour Rhett Butler.
But publisher Pan Macmillan has now decided that readers could find ‘racist’ aspects of the era ‘hurtful or indeed harmful’, The Telegraph reports.
The novel follows the story of Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, as the confederate south went to war with the abolitionist north.
Irrepressibly spoilt but equally determined, the story follows Scarlett as she learns to survive and eventually falls for the charms of Captain Butler.
But Pan Macmillan’s latest version warns the novel has not been edited to remove objectionable content, unlike recent Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming books, while adding that this does not mean ‘an endorsement’ of the book.
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