They were prototypes for Evelyn Waugh's "Bright Young People," the six sisters and a brother who provided a perfect historical metaphor for the fashionable confusions of their class and time. With apt symbolism, the Mitford girls paraded at smart London parties dressed as decadent Roman empresses. When the horses and hounds on their country estate bored them, the Mitfords traipsed abroad, treating Europe as their private playground. As the advancing shadow of World War II put a stop to the fun, they turned their patrician self-assurance to extremist politics. Nancy wrote the inside story in autobiographical novels, while Diana and Jessica...
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