Product Description

After the war, English rose Grace joins her dashing aristocratic husband, Charles-Edouard, in France. She is out of her depth among the elegant French women and when she discovers her husband's tendency to lust after pretty girls, it seems that all is over - until her son Sigismund steps in.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141121 in Books
• Published on: 1976-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Compulsory reading for all divorcing parents.
I enjoyed this book so much that I will definitely be reading it again. That's high praise-if we only have time to read 3000 books in the average life span, I don't want to waste time re-reading novels. This book is worth the sacrifice of something else.

Nancy Mitford is a fantastic writer. The novel is dedicated to Evelyn Waugh and there are similarities in writing style. The prose is lyrical, but funny and sarcastic. The difficulties of being an Englishwoman married to a Frenchman are hilariously described, particularly in relation to the different attitudes to extra-marital affairs.

The novel is set post-war and was written in 1951. There are some telling comments about the status of America in the post-war world. For example:
"But the Americans hate the people who were on their side in the war. It's the one thing they can never forgive..."

Nancy Mitford writes from a particular political standpoint and "The Blessing", the couple's son, Sigi, provides an example of the danger of manipulation as he aims to keep his parents apart.
He creates misunderstanding for his own ends in a very calculating way. There is a link between his behaviour and the manipulation that goes on between adults and countries. The novel isn't politically correct, it is of its time but still rings lots of bells now. Grace realises that she has to make compromises, her husband comes to appreciate her, but does all end happily ever after? That's the mystery.

Thoroughly modern and wonderfully funny
'The Blessing' is just that -- a wonderfully funny book that combines the elegance of post-war France with thoroughly modern wit and social perspective. Infidelity, devious plots, fashion and family dramas all combine beautifully in Mitford's playful and enduring novel. I've read it over and over, laughing every time.

Insiders Comic Guide to French Post War Aristocracy
Grace, an English country dwelling girl, falls for the dashing, witty, cultured Charles-Eduoard. Once married, and after a brief interlude (the second world war), they move to France where Grace learns that the French have there own way of doing things.......

This is a fantastic book - full of satire and the characters are filled out so much that even the most reprehensible ones are strangely alluring. A great read in true Mitford style.