THE STANLEYS OF ALDERLEY:
Their Letters Between
the Years 1851-1865,
edited by Nancy Mitford
Date of First Publication: 1939
Lady Stanley and her daughter-in-law corresponded daily and their letters give a fascinating glimpse of family life in early Victorian days. As Nancy Mitford writes in her introduction, ‘It is a picture of a world past and gone . . . it is an extraordinarily clear and detailed picture, and the portraits in it are those of real people, carefully drawn.’
CRITIQUE QUOTES:
‘The most authentic and the most scintillating picture of the Victorian world. How trite, feeble and misinformed all the familiar gibes against Victorianism are shown to be when matched with the truth.’
Times Literary Supplement
‘She told me tonight when she met him she was afraid something dreadful would happen, meaning he would kiss her which he has not yet ventured to do and that he called her Blanche, all of which she will get used to...
He wants us all to call him Airlie which makes Blanche and me shy, but he particularly dislikes B calling him Lord Airlie and she was afraid the first quarrel would be about ‘David’ [Lord Airlie’s Christian name] which she says she never could have stood.’