Madame De Pompadour

[Cecil Beaton. Nancy Mitford]


Nancy Mitford's biography of Madame de Pompadour. Mitford brings the huge personality of Madame de Pompadour to life against the backdrop of the French court. Written whilst the author was living in Paris, it is the first of three biographies of French historical figures, preceding Voltaire in Love and The Sun King. Beaton provides the charming dust jacket illustration of Madame de Pompadour in rococo splendour. The book is dedicated to Dolly, Princess Radziwill.


Nancy Mitford. With a dust jacket design by Cecil Beaton. Hamish Hamilton. London. November 1954. First edition, fifth impression. First printed in March 1954. Hardback, octavo; blue cloth-bound boards, silver gilt title to spine, dust jacket. 276 pages. Frontispiece and 20 black-and-white hors texte plates. English. 220 x 145mm. 0.5kg. . Very good, in very good dust jacket; light shelf wear, slight wear to forecorners and head and base of spine, small 1cm tear at base of spine, not price-clipped; pages edges dusty and with spotting, slight lean to spine, slight spotting to endpapers, no inscriptions.