MITFORD, Nancy (1904-73). The Pursuit of Love, London, 1945, 8vo, original blue cloth, dust-jacket by Roger Furse with price unclipped (jacket torn with slight loss). FIRST EDITION.

MITFORD, Nancy (1904-73).  The Pursuit of Love. A Novel. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1945, 8vo (184 x 120mm). Half title, title printed in red and black (printing crease to pp.61/62 only very slightly affecting legibility, a few isolated spots, very lightly browned throughout consistent with "War Economy Paper"). Original sky blue cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, blue dust-jacket by Roger Furse with the price of 8s. 6d. unclipped (some spotting to the front pastedown, the jacket torn at the head and foot of the backstrip with slight loss, corners frayed, a long tear to the fold of the turn in with only very slight loss, a few short tears or nicks, some repairs with adhesive tape to verso). Provenance: P. J. Armstrong (old signature on front free endpaper); some minor pencil bookseller's annotation. FIRST EDITION of the first novel in "The Radlett Trilogy" which was followed by Love In a Cold Climate (1949) and Don't Tell Alfred (1960). "[Nancy Mitford] published three novels before her first popular success, The Pursuit of Love (1945), in which the sensible Fanny, daughter of the irresponsible Bolter, describes the affairs of her six Radlett cousins, and in particular the progress of the lovely Linda through several marriages and passions to a premature death" (The Oxford Companion to English Literature, ed. Drabble, 1985).