![The Princess of Cleves Madame de Lafayette, Nancy Mitford (translated by) [Near Fine] [Hardcover]](https://r.kelkoo.com/resize.php?country=ca&merchantId=100567270&categoryId=5101&trackingId=96985762&width=auto&height=auto&image=https%3A%2F%2Fpictures.abebooks.com%2Finventory%2F32113916310.jpg&sign=BQnIAlv0z1Va4VqegGF9h.ENxjZb1aYE5LSc0zFPwaY-)
A flamboyantly designed and professionally rebound copy in custom made slip case. Signed and dedicated 'to Hamish' by Mitford to the front free endpaper. Hamish is, undoubtedly James Alexander Wedderburn 'Hamish' St Clair Erskine [1909-1973] with whom Nancy had been madly in love with and briefly engaged to despite Hamish s well known homosexuality. Indeed her own brother Tom Mitford had been a lover of Hamish when the pair were at Eton College. Mitford in despair over to this unrequited love attempted suicide and wrote her first novel, Highland Fling and based the male lead on her beloved St. Clair-Erskine, Hamish. The book is a translation of the 1648 novel 'The Princess of Cleves', published anonymously but generally considered to have been written by the author, Madame de Lafayette. The book is one of the earliest novels in the Western canon. The publisher of Mitford's book, Euphorium Books was set up by her sister Diana Mitford and Diana's husband, the controversial character, Oswald Mosley.
