Linguaphiles

If anyone has any recommendations for novels set during the late 18th and/or early 19th centuries, preferably in England or France, I would be very grateful!

And indeed, their startling — one might even say theatrical — individuality was all part of that complex, six-ply weave. It sounds facile in the extreme to say that Jessica became a rabid Communist because Unity, the sister to whom she was closest, became a rabid Nazi. It sounds equally glib to say that Unity became a Nazi because Diana — whom she admired and adored — became a Fascist. Yet to some extent these statements are true. Had these girls not grown up in such proximity, competing with or retreating from each other in a constant battling rhythm, they would not have become quite so singular. And had they not lived in such singular times, their individuality would — in some cases at least — have been expressed quite differently.

… Nancy was black queen, dominating and dazzling. Pam was essentially withdrawn from the fight. Diana and Tom — close in age, cool and controlled — were soulmates, remaining steadfast in this even after the start of his schooling in 1918. Then at Asthall, where Deborah was born in 1920, a new dynamic was formed by the younger children. They talked in private languages, not just the ‘do admit’ stuff but actual, near-unintelligible variations on English, as if they were mini-tribes within the family. Unity and Jessica, who called each other ‘Boud’, spoke ‘Boudledidge’ (understood only by Deborah, who nevertheless did not presume to join in). This continued into adulthood: ‘Jung va ja leddra,’ wrote Unity to Jessica in 1937, meaning ‘thanks for your letter’, before going on to lecture ‘my good Boud’ about her elopement, and describing how Hitler had forbidden German newspapers to print the story, ‘which was nice of him wasn’t it’. The closeness between Unity and Jessica, which developed to the full in adolescence, was such that political polarisation could not quite break it: the girls would discuss whether one would shoot the other under orders, yet they remained oddly allied.

—The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters