Most Popular Books by Rosamond Lehmann

Judith Earle, a solitary and sensitive young woman, navigates the turbulent waters of love, friendship, and self-discovery in Rosamond Lehmann''s evocative debut novel, *Dusty Answer*. Set against the backdrop of the early 20th century, Judith''s journey unfolds within the confines of her idyllic riverside home and the hallowed halls of Cambridge University. Her life becomes intricately entwined with the enchanting Fyfe cousins, whose presence ignites her passions and shapes her understanding of intimacy and betrayal. Lehmann masterfully captures the poignant transition from innocence to experience, exploring themes of unrequited love, the search for identity, and the elusive nature of happiness. As Judith grapples with the complexities of her emotions and the shifting dynamics of her relationships, readers are invited into a richly textured world where every glance and whispered word carries profound significance. *Dusty Answer* resonates with contemporary readers through its timeless exploration of the human heart and its yearnings, reminding us that the quest for connection and meaning is a universal and enduring pursuit.

Grace Fairfax lives with her dull, conventional husband Tom in a grey manufacturing town in the north of England. At thirty-four she finds that her external life of dreary routine fails to match up to her lush, wistful and dreamy internal life. Norah, her energetic and chaotic friend, is equally settled in her own marriage to an irritable university professor. Then Hugh Miller and his sister Claire descend upon the quiet town. On all four, the hypnotic charm of these two visitors exerts an enchanting spell. And after their departure, life - having been violently disrupted - will never be quite the same again . . .

Rosamond Lehmann’s only autobiographical work recreates the events that shaped her life—from childhood to motherhood to the death of her daughter Rosamond Lehmann was born during a violent February thunderstorm and lived a sheltered, privileged life with her parents, brother, and sisters. Writing from the distance of decades, she reveals why no adult would ever apologize to a child, shares thoughts on her “first conscious memory,” and discusses the taboo subjects of “birth, death, physical and sexual functions.” Later, she recounts the tragedy that rocked her world as a mother. A blackbird with a broken neck appears as a harbinger of doom: A few hours after finding the bird, Lehmann receives a phone call from her son telling her that her twenty-four-year-old daughter, Sally, is dead. Wracked with grief and desperate for answers, Lehmann, a non-believer, finds solace in spiritualism. Beginning with an examination of Lehmann’s singular childhood featuring cherished friends and pets, and concluding with an extraordinary letter to her granddaughter Anna, TheSwan in the Evening is about the search for peace and acceptance—and finding hope in the face of unbearable loss.

"[A] characteristically lyrical evocation of memory and mortality by a still-underrated ''day-dreaming fraud and muddler''"--From Hogarth Press original description?

Two sisters fall for the same man in this New York Times–bestselling novel of WWII-era England by an “immensely readable” author (Elizabeth Jane Howard). Rickie Masters is married to Madeleine, who is sitting out the war in the country with their children. Their domestic serenity is shattered when Rickie falls in love with Madeleine’s sister, Dinah, and they begin a clandestine, guilt-ridden affair. When Madeleine discovers their infidelity, accusations are hurled and hard choices are made. Then, a year before the war officially ends, tragedy strikes, and it is only after an estrangement of fifteen years that Madeleine and Dinah will begin to struggle toward some kind of reconciliation. Shifting between the three characters’ viewpoints, and shuttling seamlessly between past and present, The Echoing Grove is a story of life: messy, unpredictable, and unstoppable. It is about family, the things that hold us accountable, the events that lead to life-altering decisions, and the emotions that make us human. And above all it is about love: romantic love, married love, familial love, and illicit love. The heart wants what it wants, regardless of the cost.

A woman searches for a fresh start on a remote Caribbean island in this sequel to Rosamond Lehmann’s classic The Ballad and the Source The year is 1933. After a heart-wrenching betrayal by her married lover, Rebecca Landon leaves London for a tiny island in the Caribbean. There, she meets a colony of expatriates, including the voluble Captain Cunningham and his wife, Ellie, who were the first white settlers on the isle. She also meets Johnny, a married former pilot who was crippled in the war and now lives as a recluse. Drawn together by their mutual pain and sorrow, he and Rebecca are soon swept into a passionate affair. But there’s yet another presence on the island: the spirit of Sibyl Jardine, a scandalous beauty who fascinated Rebecca as a child and has left an unforgettable mark on the woman Rebecca has become. Mrs. Jardine also came to this remote island to escape, and before she died, she forged a powerful connection with Johnny. Does her ghost still cast a shadow over the island’s inhabitants? What is her unfinished business and what is she trying to communicate to Rebecca and Johnny? Or is it Rebecca who is trying to communicate something, driven by her own need for closure? This is a poignant, uplifting novel about the lives we leave behind, our eternal quest for love, and the answers we seek when our faith is shaken.

This collection of stories by one of Britain''s most beloved novelists depicts domestic life during World War II as seen through the eyes of both children and adults In "The Red-haired Miss Daintreys," four six-foot-tall sisters capture the imagination of young Rebecca when she and her family are on holiday. Beautifully crafted and informed by Lehmann''s eye for telling detail, it is a moving meditation on familial ties, romantic love, and the end of an era. In "When the Waters Came" and "A Dream of Winter," both the deprivations of war and a swarm of bees take their toll on the inhabitants of a small English village—afflicting one family in particular. "Wonderful Holidays" is the tale of a divorced woman who cares for two children while a wounded veteran of World War I longs for his absent wife. And the title story is an exploration of the unlikely friendship between two families—one privileged, one poor—and the tragedy that ensues when a band of gypsies sets up camp on the outskirts of town. These five stories will sweep readers into a world where grieving is a necessary part of the human condition and love can flourish in the most unexpected places. Morality, the class system, the grim realities of war, love and loss—Lehmann''s trademark themes are on vivid display in this remarkable collection.

A young girl befriends an elderly woman during the First World War in this remarkable novel by one of Britain’s best-loved authors Sibyl Jardine, the former best friend of Rebecca Landon’s grandmother, has recently returned to the Priory, her home at the top of a hill. Rebecca is instantly drawn in by Sibyl’s magnetic personality and blunt, shocking manner. Decades earlier, Sibyl had left her husband Charles for another man and, as a result, lost her daughter Ianthe. Now she is finally about to meet her three grandchildren, who will become an integral part of Rebecca’s life as she journeys into adolescence. At the heart of this extraordinary novel is the enigma that is Sibyl Jardine: Is she a saint or a sinner? Is she a duplicitous lover or a woman who has been unjustly punished? Played out in a series of conversations between Rebecca, Sibyl Jardine, Jardine’s granddaughter Maisie, and a Cockney maid named Tilly, The Ballad and the Source is a tale of perception and memory, passion and betrayal, and the fearsome power of a mother’s love.

In 1930s England, an encounter on a train leads to an illicit affair, in this novel of “spare, poetic prose” by the author of Invitation to the Waltz (Joyce Carol Oates). Just ten years ago, Olivia Curtis attended her first dance. Now she is divorced and living with her cousin in London. When she gets a call notifying her that her father is gravely ill, she makes preparations to return to Tulverton, in the English countryside—and on the railway journey home, she runs into Rollo Spencer, her girlhood crush. He and Olivia once shared a fleeting, magical moment on a moonlit terrace that she has never forgotten. Now, fate has thrown them together again, and in spite of the fact that Rollo is married, they embark on a clandestine affair. The Weather in the Streets charts the tempestuous course of Olivia and Rollo’s forbidden relationship, from the first throes of passion through the toll of their deception on Olivia as she confronts the harsh reality of being the other woman. A novel ahead of its time that touched on a variety of taboo subjects, it is an enduring classic by an author who “has always written brilliantly of women in love” (Margaret Drabble).

The New York Times–bestselling “masterpiece” and its haunting sequel, from a British novelist of “visceral power” (Jonathan Coe, The Guardian). “A novelist in the grand tradition,” New York Times–bestselling author Rosamond Lehmann wrote moving and memorable stories about the inner emotional lives of British girls and women (Anita Brookner). Jonathan Coe noted that Lehmann “has every quality that a great writer should possess . . . [including] an astonishing, unembarrassed emotionality that gives visceral power to her recurring themes—thwarted love, faithlessness, the unbearable sadness of naïve romantic feelings being crushed by the passage of time.” Those themes are explored through the character of Rebecca Landon, who appears as an innocent girl in Lehmann’s bestselling The Ballad and the Source, and as an emotionally wounded woman in her sequel, A Sea-Grape Tree, written over thirty years later. The Ballad and the Source: In this New York Times bestseller, when the former best friend of Rebecca Landon’s grandmother returns home to England, the ten-year-old girl is enchanted by the elderly woman’s magnetic personality and shockingly blunt manner. Rebecca comes to learn that Sibyl Jardine left her husband for another man decades ago, becoming estranged from her daughter and never seeing her grandchildren . . . until now. Set during the First World War, this “haunting book, expertly handled” follows Rebecca’s journey into adolescence and her evolving awareness of the complexity of human behavior and emotions through her friendship with Sibyl (Kirkus Reviews). “[Lehmann] broods delicately and beautifully over the past, turning the gaze inward.” —The New York Times A Sea-Grape Tree: In this lyrical sequel set in 1933, an adult Rebecca has fled to an island in the Caribbean, after a heart-wrenching betrayal by her married lover. There, she meets a colony of expatriates, including a former pilot who was crippled in the war and now lives as a recluse, with whom she begins an affair. But there’s yet another presence on the island—the spirit of the complex woman who fascinated Rebecca as a child: Sibyl Jardine. “Full of her sensibility, her funniness, her own particular acumen. It is also beautifully written and devised.” —Elizabeth Jane Howard

Ten years separate these two poignant novels featuring the same young woman, by the New York Times–bestselling “novelist in the grand tradition” (Anita Brookner). British novelist Rosamond Lehmann “has always written brilliantly of women in love” (Margaret Drabble). In her pair of novels featuring Olivia Curtis—a shy, romantic, and hopeful seventeen-year-old looking forward to her first dance, and later, a sadder young woman in her twenties who still longs to capture lost passion—Lehmann creates “a completely compelling intimacy” that lingers long after the stories are over (Hermione Lee, The Guardian). Invitation to the Waltz: Seventeen-year-old Olivia Curtis has been invited to her first dance. She is thrilled and terrified. In her diary, she confides her hopes, doubts, and fears—about her pretty, confident older sister, Kate; her precocious baby brother, James; her eccentric country neighbors; and of course, the upcoming party, which she is sure will be the crowning event of her life. Divided into three parts—Olivia’s birthday, the day leading up to the dance, and the event itself—Invitation to the Waltz beautifully captures the conflicting emotions of a teenager on the threshold of womanhood. “Utterly charming and so desperately true that it almost hurts.” —The New York Times The Weather in the Streets: Ten years older with a failed marriage behind her, Olivia runs into Rollo Spencer, her girlhood crush from the ball, on a train, and is swept up in a heated but clandestine affair, since Rollo is married. Lehmann’s “honest” and “powerful” novel charts the tempestuous course of Olivia and Rollo’s forbidden relationship, from the first throes of passion through the toll of their deception on Olivia as she confronts the harsh reality of being the other woman (Kirkus Reviews). “A vividly realized, painfully convincing story of a love affair, written in Lehmann’s characteristic spare, poetic prose.” —Joyce Carol Oates

A charming and evocative collection of short stories from one of Britain''s best-loved novelists

La plupart des héros et surtout des héroïnes de Mme Rosamond Lehmann aiment trop, comme ceux des comédies amoureuses de Shakespeare. Ils ont, comme dit Verlaine, " la fureur d''aimer ". Et rien ne les arrête, pas même l''identité du sexe. Et ces ardeurs troubles qui, dans notre littérature, prennent aussitôt apparence de péché et figure de vice, gardent ici, non seulement grâce au tact de l''auteur, mais aussi par l''ingénuité du paganisme de ses héros et de la sincérité de leur tendresse, une sorte de candeur charmante. Ils s''aiment sans perversité, car chez eux l''amour l''emporte sur tout. Edmond Jaloux , Au pays du roman, 1931

Deux sœurs se retrouvent à la campagne, toutes deux ont aimé le même homme, qui vient de mourir, et l''ombre de ce dernier ne cesse d''obscurcir leurs retrouvailles, placées sous le signe d''une douloureuse recherche de la sincérité. L''une tente désespérément de sauver les apparences derrière lesquelles elle a camouflé le vide de sa vie, l''autre voudrait avouer le tourment autodestructeur qui la ronge et qui l''a conduite à une marginalité qui n''est peut-être aussi qu''un leurre... On songe à une sorte de Tchekhov (celui des Trois sœurs) qui servirait son thé non à la russe mais à l''anglaise, dans un silence faussement bienséant que l''on sent habité de mensonges et de cris bâillonnés ; aux films de Bergman aussi, ce maître de l''intériorité blessée... D''où il ressort que si l''on peut guérir de la plupart des tourments qu''impose la vie, on ne guérit pas de la vie. Découverte en 1927 avec Poussière, évocation pleine d''ambiguïté des souffrances et des amours adolescentes. Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990) sera jusque dans les années soixante l''une des romancières anglaises les plus constamment rééditées en collection de poche... puis se fera très injustement oublier ; malgré les efforts de Christian Bourgois qui reprendra (chez Julliard et en collection 10-18) plusieurs de ses titres. Les aficionados de la romancière, dont les meilleurs livres n''ont pas pris une ride, attendaient depuis longtemps la réédition du Jour enseveli (1953), œuvre de haute amertume et nostalgie.

C''est un peu le Madame Bovary de Rosamond Lehmann ; mais à l''anglaise évidemment, et à la façon très spéciale de la romancière experte en vies brisées. Moins de sarcasme que de compassion, de rage que d''amertume désillusionnée. Dans le droit fil de Poussière (rééd. Phébus, 2003), un autre grand Lehmann - qui malgré le temps (1930) semble lui aussi n''avoir pas d''âge.