8. The Art of Conversation: Nancy Mitford, France, and Cultural Diplomacy

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. The Mission of Literature: Modern Novels and Diplomacy 1
5. Part One: Diplomatic Experience
6. 1. Making a Song and Dance of It: Staging Diplomacy in William Gerhardi’s Early Novels 27
7. 2. The League of Nations As Seen by Albert Cohen: A User’s Guide to Social Magic 50
8. 3. Modern Negotiations: Harold Nicolson’s Peacemaking 1919 and Public Faces 66
9. Part Two: Novels and Diplomacy
10. 4. “Diplomatic Dispatch Style”: Towards a New Aesthetic of the Novel 85
11. 5. Conrad’s Politics of Idealism: Diplomacy without Diplomats 100
12. 6. André Gide and the Art of Evasion 116
13. Part Three: Documents
14. 7. Proust’s Epistolary Diplomacy: Antoine Bibesco, René Peter, and “Salaïsme” 137
15. 8. The Art of Conversation: Nancy Mitford, France, and Cultural Diplomacy 158
16. Part Four: Foreign Affairs
17. 9. Action, Diplomacy, Art: André Malraux and Graham Greene 177
18. 10. Mythography and Diplomacy in Works by Ian Fleming and John le Carré 195
19. 11. Lawrence Durrell: Diplomacy as Farce 212
20. Works Cited 225
21. Contributors 237
22. Index 241