The Water Beetle

by Nancy Mitford, Osbert Lancaster (Illustrator)

Essays consider the author's childhood memories, trips to Russia and Greece, Scott's expedition to the South Pole, country house life in Ireland, and European history. "The nearest Nancy floated towards an autobiography." --Harold Acton

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Short Stories, British Literature

150 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Nancy Mitford, styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years. She was born at 1 Graham Street (now Graham Place) in Belgravia, London, the eldest daughter of Lord Redesdale, and was brought up at Asthall Manor in Oxfordshire. She was the eldest of the six controversial Mitford sisters.

She is best remembered for her series of novels about upper-class life in England and France, particularly the four published after 1945; but she also wrote four well-received, well-researched popular biographies (of Louis XIV, Madame de Pompadour, Voltaire, and Frederick the Great). She was one of the noted Mitford sisters and the first to publicize the extraordinary family life of her very English and very eccentric family, giving rise to a "Mitford industry," which continues.

Reviews

[She's So Novel! ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★

This turned out to be a challenging read - but not for the usual reasons. Shortly after I started, my battered copy disintegrated in my hands. I then found that two pages were missing from Blore, the short story about one of the Mitford nannies & a fascinating look at the Mitford household in general.

So what did my mother do all day? She says now, when cross-examined, that she lived for us. Perhaps she did, but nobody could say she lived with us. It was not the custom then. I think nothing in my life has changed more than the relationship with mothers and young children.In those days a distance was always kept. Even so she was perhaps abnormally detached. on one occasion Unity rushed into the drawing-room where she was at her writing-table saying, "Muv, Muv, Decca is standing on the roof - she says she is going to commit suicide!" "Oh, poor duck," said my mother, "I hope she won't do anything so terrible." and went on writing.

Detached indeed.

I'm sure this story would be a 5 ★ (Blore was probably a good reason why the Mitford siblings made it to adulthood) but can't rate it because of those missing pages.

All of the other stories were 5★ for me except for the sad tale of Augustus Hare. In Mitford's account he changes from a brutally ill treated child to an unpleasant adult. Mitfords telling is detailed yet oddly cold - and to be honest, I have barely heard of Hare. 3★

I want to read The Worst Journey in the World Mitford's account of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's suffering is insightful. Unusually in my reading of Mitford it is also compassionate and indignant of Cherry-Garrard's behalf.

Her Reading for Pleasure contains this great truth

As far as I am concerned, all reading is for pleasure.

Yes! To read for joy is one of the great gifts there is. At my age, pretty much the only things I don't read for pleasure are maps and Inland Revenue's web site!

The second section of the book is about travel and French historic figures. Mitford makes the distinction that she sees herself as a visitor rather than a tourist and she writes sadly about the Venetian Island of Torcello, which even then (1959) was already being overwhelmed by visitors. Well worth reading for Mitford's love of French history and her good fortune in being able to travel places like Russia when they were closed to most of us. Her account of how she obtained her Russian visa is very amusing!

Edit; I have discovered Open Library! & they have a copy of this book that doesn't have these four vital pages missing!

These four pages give more vital clues about Mitford relationships & things I certainly didn't know - like their father was violent. Also makes clear how much Nancy longed to go to school. Her self education was really remarkable. And (what I already suspected) the nanny in The Blessing was based on Blore.

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[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Evelyn Waugh wrote, "This accumulation of short pieces brings only delight." It is a companion to "A Talent to Annoy," though published earlier and some essays are in both volumes. One example is "Blor," a winning portrait of the Mitford Nanny. But you will remember what Mitford says about her mother: "She always lived in a dream world of her own and no doubt was even dreamier during her many pregnancies. She never opened a book and it is difficult to imagine what her tastes and occupations may have been. She had no cooking or housework to do. So what did she do all day? She says now that she lived for us. Perhaps she did, but nobody could say that she lived with us. It was not the custom then...." When dealing w Mitford, her own voice tells the story; no paraphrasing, please.

Mitford visited Russia in 1954, a trip arranged by the British ambassador to France, but, at his request, did not publish her memorable "Diary of a Visit" until many years later. This is not in "A Talent..." and makes "The Water Beetle" worth a purchase on its own. Running almost 30 pages, it is informative, absolutely hilarious -- yet always respectful. At Helsinki, she boarded a small Russian plane for Moscow: "We shot into the air with the minimum of fuss -- no revving, no voice bossing about safety belts -- no safety belts either. But we never seemed to gain any height at all and it was 'Oh do mind that tree' all the way to Moscow." Well, she's off!

Museums, the opera and ballet, dinners, a Red Army parade, a visit to the Kremlin itself, and so on, including a trip to Leningrad where she's confronted by "nasty-looking Americans, very rude." On Russian officials, she observes that "the reality of power suffices them and they live in an atmosphere of mystery, secrecy and calm." This was Russia 70 years ago.

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the great sorrows of my life is never having gotten to meet Nancy Mitford. Had she known, not having had to have met me would probably have been one of her great joys.
I am everything she despised about Americans. I am loud, middle-class, a poor (by her standards) dresser, and, well, American. I don't speak French. I love being a tourist and rushing around world historic sites trying to find the gift shop.
But, oh, to have had the chance to sit within hearing distance of Mitford, listening to her describe her favorite places in her colorful way, her delightful, naughty asides peppered throughout the conversation. She told it as she saw it.
"The Water Beetle" is out of print, but worth tracking down. These "essays and reminiscences" are her best.
I would give them five stars if only she didn't have a maddening habit of assuming all her readers spoke French. I may be able to guess at a word or two, but she quotes people in French in whole paragraphs, which leaves me feeling like an idiot.

[LOUISE FIELDER · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of short stories.
Each one told in an extremely easy way.
Nancy Mitford takes even tragic accounts and sees some personal humour in them and shows her true depth of how she sees the world.
Stories like Scotts devastating journey to the South Pole recalls the deep feelings the men had for each other faced with hardship and death.
How tourists are portrayed in different lands and how the natives really view them.
The first impression of Athens is sole destroying and its treasures totally obscured by the modern world.
Russia and the Russians and on how their lives are so different. How all their misery is dominated by the wonderful building of the Kremlin. and many more.
For a middle class woman born in the early 1900's when education was denied to her.
Not a particular well-liked child, brought up by a nanny, she is extremely well versed and writes with compassion.

[We Are All Mad Here · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd have loved this if more of it were like the first essay (Blor).

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short pieces in this collection are tagged as "Reminiscences" - curious if that is the aristocratic way of saying "Memoirs" (following Mitford's own famous U/non-U distinction) but to my ear it sounds intentionally slighter - less formal than memoirs and less certain of one's own importance.
In any event, the book is a series of travel pieces and tidied up diary entries - all characteristically hilarious. Among the quotable bits "I love children, especially when they cry, because then somebody takes them away." There's also a very entertaining piece from a Russian tour in 1954 - asking on June 3rd if she can meet some Soviet writers, her Intourist guide regrets that they've all left for the countryside on May 28th, where they spend the summer writing. In reply to "How many copies would you sell here of a popular novel?" she is told "fifty million" - the title of this publishing miracle? "Cement" - and so on.

[Claudia Sorsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the Nancy Mitford I'd heard about; sharp, incisive, funny. I'd read a novel or two of hers, found them forgettable, and wondered what all the fuss was about (aside from her famous family and her friendship with Evelyn Waugh). Now I know.

These essays were mostly written in the 1950s and early 1960s, so they're old enough to seem interestingly odd, but not alienatingly so. I loved her line about liking children–when they cry, so people take them away.

Oh, and the illustrations by Osbert Lancaster were a surprising but welcome addition; I'm rather fond of him (NB: the edition I read isn't in the database, but it's also a paperback, so this was as close as I could get. I picked it up on my first trip to the Montague Bookmill, in western Massachusetts).

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short travel and other essays by the witty Nancy Mitford. She shocks you at times with her outspoken summing up of the people who live in the places she travels but you could get away with that in the 50's if you were a Hon. It has been said many times that she wrote best about her family and the best chapter in the book was the one on her nanny.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mitford is best when she's writing about herself, or her travels; the impersonal essays were much less enjoyable.

[Alvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A diverting collection of somewhat slight but still quite charming essays. Mitford is admirably pithy and can be slyly funny, but be forewarned: she assumes readers are familiar with her rarified (and now rather antiquated) world so at times you'll probably need to do some googling to know who or what she's going on about. There's no mistaking that she's to-the-manor-born and her interests and assessments are quite uppercrusty, occasionally making her seem remote and unsympathetic (at least to bolshies like me). She is, however, also admirably free of many prejudices endemic to her fellow aristos and quite capable of delivering reportage without thundering judgment or ideological tilt, even when visiting British bugbears, Ireland and the Soviet Union. Overall I'd say this is a welcome read for anyone afflicted with Mitfordmania.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Altogether delightful with some precious insights into 18thc France- her specialty.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When I take up my pen, my thoughts are wicked," wrote Nancy Mitford in one of the pieces that makes up this collection. Originally appearing in publications such as The [London] Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and New Statesman, there's no particular overarching theme, though the majority are travel pieces on such places as Greece and Russia. I found the piece on August Hare, that notable eccentric whose odious upbringing and strange life were recounted in his biography, of special interest. There's a witty article on the differences between English, French and American ideas of chic, not to mention the very Mitford-esque "In Defense of Louis XV." Altogether, this is a nice volume for the Mitford fan, with humorous illustrations by the inimitable Oscar Lancaster.

[Harry Fulgencio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light and amusing book to read.