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The Pursuit of Love
- Narrated by: Bessie Carter
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
One of the funniest, sharpest novels about love and growing up ever written, Nancy Mitford's classic is now major a BBC and Prime Video series directed by Emily Mortimer and starring Lily James, Andrew Scott and Dominic West.
'He was the great love of her life you know.'
'Oh, dulling,' said my mother, sadly, 'One always thinks that. Every, every time.'
Oh, the tedium of waiting to grow up! Longing for love, obsessed with weddings and sex, Linda and her sisters and cousin Fanny are on the lookout for the perfect lover.
But finding Mr Right is much harder than any of the sisters had thought. Linda must suffer marriage first to a stuffy Tory MP and then to a handsome and humourless communist, before finding real love in war-torn Paris.
Nancy Mitford's wickedly funny series continues in Love in a Cold Climate and Don't Tell Alfred.
Critic reviews
"Utter, utter bliss." (Daily Mail)
"A pleasure as intense as inheriting a perfect pearl necklace, or finding a silk dress in a vintage shop that fits like a glove." (Caitlin Moran, Harper's Bazaar)
"Peerless." (Zoe Heller)
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What listeners say about The Pursuit of Love
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ellen
- 29-06-21
An absolute Joy
This book is hilarious and also very sad in places absolutely loved it, far better than the recent tv series.
Absolutely recommend. The narration was perfect I just wish it had been longer.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Kima
- 10-01-22
Take out the bigotry and you have no book left
Before I write this review, I would like to mention that I understand that all human genes (that have ever been since any humans left the Rift valley in Africa) have always been over 99.95% exactly the same. So, when I hear a story (told by one type of culture) that is riddled with liable against every other culture in the world; it gets my back up just a tad. I am convinced that this book needs a re-write as a second option.
If a tabloid was to spread rumors and lies about one person, they can be sued, If an old book spreads lies about the culture, religion, socio-economics, clan or melanin of many types of people; at bare minimums a re-write is due which withholds these offensive sentiments. I am mostly open minded, if anything that was being said was actually true: Then I say keep it in the book. But unfortunately everything being mention is a form of lie, liable, degrading and berating untruth about "others"; in order to think themselves into feeling superior. A false fake phoney superior, fragile as broken glass.
This story, without all the bigoted lies, is just average; run of the mill, nothing special. Just a bunch of rich, prejudice protestant Brits living soft lives off the funds of their ancestors, which were most likely stolen from the lands of same other cultures they consistently disrespect.
They spend most of the story just looking down their noses from a false sense of superiority. In my humble opinion.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Isabel Birney
- 23-03-24
Funny, poignant, wise: a treasure of a book.
Jessica Mitford, one of Nancy's younger sisters, wrote a fragment of autobiography, Hons and Rebels which is a fascinating picture of pre World War II England. Nancy, the eldest of the Mitford sisters, grew up the the same family and in the same house as Jessica, and mined the same material for this fictional reworking of these eccentric characters and momentous events. Nancy's book is funnier, sadder, cleverer - a total delight. Read, or listen, to them both but not at the same time and see what you think of them both.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-02-24
Wonderful story and excellent narration
Nancy Mitford has a great sense of place and history as well as a wicked sense of humour. The story is both funny and sad and the characters are beautifully drawn. I loved it
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- Anonymous User
- 12-01-24
Inhaled it!
Sparkling prose, excellent narration, I inhaled this in four listens. The characters are so well drawn and the story flows so beautifully.
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- DeyaGold
- 06-12-23
Bessie Carter says the ‘N word’
I started listening ready for a book club meet in a couple of weeks and beyond horrified that the narrator confidently says the racial slur mentioned in the book. Unless you are a POC you will never understand just how exhausting and horrific it is to have these sorts of things pop up out of nowhere. It’s the sheer entitlement for me I am beyond disappointed in Penguin!
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- Jan
- 01-12-23
Just lovely
I loved the narration and the story. Especially as I know this to be almost a true story. Perhaps a better time in England? It certainly sounded as if it was.
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- Mrs J
- 10-10-23
A classic 20th century novel, reasonably performed
I read The Pursuit of Love a long time ago and recently listened to India Knight's modern re-telling Darling on Audible. A brave choice to re-tell a classic but it was brilliant and just perfectly narrated by Sophie Winkleman. I loved it so much I thought I would listen to the original. While I would say I did enjoy this, I'm afraid that, as other reviewers have said, it is let down by the narration which somehow doesn't capture the wit in the text. I mention Darling because I think it fair to say that I might not have been quite so critical if I had not just listened to Sophie Winkleman's superlative performance in Darling, which captures Mitford's spirit so much better. But this is an easy listen, if not a perfect adaptation.
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- Helen
- 30-09-23
Excellent narration
Brilliant story brilliantly read. Highly recommend to all. I love Nancy Mitford and so cleverly and thoughtfully narrated
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- Linda Glass
- 21-08-23
Loved it
Loved it - well performed and a facilitating look into the bright young things era. Saw parcelled with the stories of the Mitford sisters as written about by Jessica Mitford in Hons and Rebels.
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