The Blessing
Author: Nancy Mitford
Desc: With characteristically amusing malice Mitford blends a comedy of manners with culture shock as Grace Allingham a naive English rose impulsively marries Charles-Edouard de Valhubert a French nobleman with all his class's charm and decadence. Both are duped however by their son Sigismund -- the Blessing of the title -- a juvenile Machiavelli who mixes Gallic cunning with Saxon thoroughness to become one of Mitford's most memorable characters.