The Echoing Grove

by Rosamond Lehmann

Novel which tells of three characters, Rickie Masters, his wife Madeleine, and her sister Dinah. With extraordinary insight, Lehmann explores the sublimity and the pain of these fatally interrelated lives in a novel which carefully fictionalises the fracturing of the human personality under the pressure of irreconcilable emotional commitments.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Romance, Female Authors, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, British Literature

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Rosamond Nina Lehmann was born in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, as the second daughter of Rudolph Lehmann and his wife Alice Davis, a New Englander. Her father Rudolph Chambers Lehmann was a liberal MP, and editor of the Daily News. John Lehmann (1907-1989) was her brother; one of her two sisters was the famous actress Beatrix Lehmann.

In 1919 she went to Girton College, University of Cambridge to read English Literature, an unusual thing for a woman to do at that time. In December 1923 she married Leslie Runciman (later 2nd Viscount Runciman of Doxford) (1900-1989), and the couple went to live in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was an unhappy marriage, and they separated in 1927 and were divorced later that year.

In 1927, Lehmann published her first novel, Dusty Answer, to great critical and popular acclaim. The novel's heroine, Judith, is attracted to both men and women, and interacts with fairly openly gay and lesbian characters during her years at Cambridge. The novel was a succès de scandale. Though none of her later novels were as successful as her first, Lehmann went on to publish six more novels, a play (No More Music, 1939), a collection of short stories (The Gypsy's Baby & Other Stories, 1946), a spiritual autobiography (The Swan in the Evening, 1967), and a photographic memoir of her friends (Rosamond Lehmann's Album, 1985), many of whom were famous Bloomsbury figures such as Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Carrington, and Lytton Strachey. She also translated two French novels into English: Jacques Lemarchand's Genevieve (1948) and Jean Cocteau's Children of the Game (1955). Her novels include A Note in Music (1930), Invitation to the Waltz (1932), The Weather in the Streets (1936), The Ballad and the Source (1944), The Echoing Grove (1953), and A Sea-Grape Tree (1976).

In 1928, Lehmann married Wogan Philipps, an artist. They had two children, a son Hugo (1929-1999) and a daughter Sarah or Sally (1934-1958), but the marriage quickly fell apart during the late Thirties with her Communist husband leaving to take part in the Spanish Civil War. During World War II she helped edit and contributed to New Writing, a periodical edited by her brother. She had an affair with Goronwy Rees and then a "very public affair" for nine years (1941-1950) with the married Cecil Day-Lewis, who eventually left her for his second wife.

Her 1953 novel The Echoing Grove was made into the 2002 film Heart of Me, with Helena Bonham Carter as the main character, Dinah. Her book The Ballad and the Source depicts an unhappy marriage from the point of view of a child, and has been compared to Henry James' What Maisie Knew.

The Swan in the Evening (1967) is an autobiography which Lehmann described as her "last testament". In it, she intimately describes the emotions she felt at the birth of her daughter Sally, and also when Sally died abruptly of poliomyelitis at the age of 23 (or 24) in 1958 while in Jakarta. She never recovered from Sally's death. Lehmann claimed to have had some psychic experiences, documented in Moments of Truth.

Lehmann was awarded the CBE in 1982 and died at Clareville Grove, London on 12 March 1990, aged 89.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two sisters fight for the love of the same man. Madeleine is the conventional sister, committed to the social etiquette of conventional society. She is married to Rickie and the mother of his children. Dinah is the younger rebellious sister, frequenting bohemian circles. She and Rickie begin a clandestine love affair.

This beautifully poetic novel is set in the 1930s and runs through to the London Blitz when the bomb-damaged landscape poignantly reflects the fragmented, morally clouded nature of domestic life.

The novel begins towards the end of the story when Madeleine and Dinah are reunited after years of not talking. Chronology jumps back and forwards echoing the attempts of the characters to get their moral bearings and piece back together the broken and charred shards of their lives. Lehmann, deftly eschewing any moral judgements, takes us inside the heads of all three characters and gives each a fair and tremendously eloquent hearing. At the end of the day Lehmann investigates not so much the progress of love as the damage it can do. Sometimes, the poetic prose is a little overdone but on the whole a brilliant and beautiful book.

[Daisy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never mind echoing grove this was an echoing chamber of a lot of tedious characters talking about…what exactly? Love, loyalty, marriage, friendship, wants, desires? I couldn’t tell you because it was all just musings and stilted conversations of a like that were completely improbable and so devoid of feeling they became just words floating past without being anchored to either meaning or the character uttering them.
This is an overlong look at the marriage of the upper-class couple Madeline and Rickie. Both good looking, wealthy, sociable and envied by their set their relationship is tumbled by his having an affair with her sister Dinah. We never really get to understand what either finds so wonderful in each other that it is worth this great transgression Dinah’s free-spirited nature is hinted at but it is never clear what it is about Rickie that engenders such passion. Had this been a love-triangle dealing with loyalties it may have been more interesting but it suffers from the fact that Rickie is a serial adulterer, he sleeps with women while away on business and has an affair of several years standing with the wife of his best friend. Madeline forgives him, is frightfully reasonable when he tells her he’s been to see her sister and he runs around giving every woman the same schtick (non-intentional double-entendre there).
This book was based on Lehman’s affair with Cecil Day-Lewis and it does read as if it has been used to vent her feelings on it leading me to believe that it is more successful as an act of catharsis than a novel as it does feel, as you plough on, that it’s like listening to a friend going over and over the same painful event.
I’ve seen the language described as poetic but I didn’t see that, I felt it was overblown and cerebral rather than emotional which is what this tale called out for. The only part that I felt had any truth in it is Rickie’s description of himself. That despite the looks, the success he says,

“I’ve got it in me – this something, which is nothing, in the centre.”

Who hasn’t looked inside themself and been frightened by the void?

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, I think, Lehmann's most painful novel to read, perhaps because it partly grew out of Lehmann's harrowing affair with Cecil Day Lewis, who wouldn't leave his wife for Lehmann (though eventually he left both his wife and Lehmann to marry a third woman). It concerns two sisters, Madeleine and Dinah; Madeleine is married to Rickie, who is having a longstanding affair with Dinah. At the novel's beginning, Dinah and Madeleine are meeting again, after many years of estrangement, and after Rickie's death.

Lehmann constructs a series of flashbacks in which we see the marriage and the affair unfolding, creating a complex time scheme of past and present in which she moves from character to character, exploring each one's experiences and thoughts. Not all of the flashbacks seem truly necessary to the plot (especially a lengthy section near the end involving Rickie and the American wife of his friend Jack), but overall, the narrative Lehmann creates is rich and compelling, full of love, loss, and betrayal.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosamond Lehmann! Where have you been hiding all these years?

Her prose here is breathtaking. And I just love the way she plays with perspective. Though the abrupt shifts in time, place, and narrator could be a bit distracting, they were highly effective in evoking a sense of things half-remembered or only half-known...

I'm anxious to read more of Lehmann's work.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written in 1957 and so is one of Lehmann's later works: it certainly feels different in atmosphere from her classics - Invitation To The Waltz, The Weather in the Streets, or the utterly sublime Dusty Answer.

At heart it explores an erotic triangle of Madeleine, her husband Rickie, and his love affair with her sister Dinah. The books shifts through time and points of view between the three of them and allows us into their heads in turn. And although it is a book about love in all its manifestations, it is a pain-filled and melancholic book as Lehmann dissects these human hearts.

The style might be a little difficult if you are only used to reading contemporary novels, but it is worth persevering. I don't think this is quite as good as some of Lehmann's earlier works, but it's still very good indeed. And, far from finding it gentle, as some readers have, I think it's actually a very angry book just that the violence of abused emotions sits below the surface rather than right on top of it.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Procastination is my middle name. It's just terrible. I finally take five minutes to write a review for this wonderful book.

As you might know, I discovered Rosamond Lehmann a few years ago thanks to Ian McEwan's Atonement novel and Dusty answer is one of my favorite books now. Lehmann's writing is just incredible and what strikes me the most is her ability to portray the torments of the human heart. She doesn't just tell stories, she explores the complexity of relationships. It was true for Dusty answer and she takes an other step with this one because I think the novel deals more with guilt and the weight of commitment than with the relationships themselves, even if they are of course co-dependant. It took me forever to finish it because every single page caused a turmoil in me and it's really difficult to cut yourself from the characters' heartaches. Lehmann just seizes you into her book and you can't escape. You just don't read their story, you are living it. Like properly feeling everything so strongly, it's insane. Her command of language is to die for and I really wish I could be as truthful and genuine as she was in her writing.

It's funny how Roddie from Dusty answer and Dinah from The echoing grove are very much alike. The interaction/love triangle between Madeleine, Rickie and Dinah is so compelling and I just love how Lehmann had played with the timeline. It can be quite confusing in the first 60 pages but then it gives her some space to develop each character's storyline individually as she then reunites their voices in a perfectly mastered symphony that really strikes a chord in you.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the basic plot of this book was nothing new (two sisters in love with the same man who happens to be married to one of them) what stands out about this book are the characterizations, the setting (England around the time of WWII) and the way the author develops the plot by dipping back and forth between time intervals, thus giving us a chance to view events, circumstances,relationships and consequences from a variety of different perspectives - depending on who is remembering what happened. The book was published in the early fifties and may have even seemed a bit racy for the times since so much of the story involves marital infidelity and deception, coupled with more than just a hint of sexual promiscuity. The clandestine sexual relationship between Dinah and Rickie is the thread that weaves the story line together, along with the way Madeline (his wife and her sister) reacts to it. However, it's the impact that relationship has on all of the characters whose lives are being affected by it that makes this such compelling novel. I've never read anything by Rosamond Lehmann before, but intend to track down more of her work because she seems to write with a great deal of insight. What I found most moving about this book is that Lehmann invited us to get to know each of her main characters in depth. We came to recognize the complex motivation behind what led them to behave the way they did and to value the things that were unique about each of them. So it was difficult to be critical of them - despite the fact that their behaviors often seemed to merit it. Instead, I found myself sympathizing with each one of them because of what they were going through as a result of the complicated way their lives had become entangled. Ultimately I think this was a novel about the difficult burden of loving people, the pain that is so often and so unintentionally a part of it, and the fact that in the end what often matters the most about love is the ability to forgive -- something that so many people in relationships today are unable (or perhaps unwilling) to do.

[Austen to Zafón · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of the pain of her long-term affair with married poet Cecil Day Lewis came this novel of two sisters, one married, one having an affair with her sister's husband. As always, Lehmann's writing is pithy and intense, full of poignant descriptions of the inner lives of her cast. But I found it hard to empathize or even sympathize with any of the characters. And the constant flashbacks were confusing and annoying. I'm still not sure exactly what happened when. In the end, I guess that didn't matter, because it was one betrayal and angst-ridden interview after another, so any order would do. I stopped reading about 50 pages before the end because I ceased to care what happened.

[Laura]

Definitely read this when I was too young to appreciate it. Another for the "Must re-read".

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introspective tale of a love triangle between two sisters, Madeleine and Dinah, and Madeleine’s husband Rickie. With different perspectives and shifts in time, Lehmann constructs the impact of a long standing affair on all the parties involved, and a handful of others who are drawn into their circle.

Lehmann is certainly a brilliant and original writer. On every page one can find perceptive and inventive phrases, free from the sentimental or clichéd, that capture the essence of her characters’ thoughts and emotions. Events are initially alluded to, then referred to and expanded upon, so that they become part of the reader’s journey of discovery. Many reviewers point to Lehmann’s mastery of the internal language of emotions, but I feel her craft goes further than that into plot construction and dialogue as well.

Unfortunately the characters involved are not only unlikeable - which could have been interesting - but self-obsessed, petty and ultimately rather dull. We are given to understand that Dinah has this irresistible air of mystery that captivates Rickie, but nothing outside this constant assertion suggests anything attractive.In fact, all that seemed mysterious to me was how these dreadful characters persisted in such selfish and destructive behaviour over and over again, unless they were determined to make everyone as miserable as themselves.

Rickie is particularly annoying - we get glimpses of an unhappy childhood, which may be intended to excuse his weakness of character and constant philandering - and there are pages of his whining self justification and sulky tantrums which I forced myself through. This book has little of the sparkle and human warmth that made me love others of Lehmann’s works - it is one of her later books and seems to be marked by some bitterness and melancholy.

So 4* for the writing, 2* for the characters and their actions, a 3* rating seems fair overall.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have come to really like Rosamond Lehmann's novels, and although this won't be my favourite of her books, it is an accomplished beautifully written novel. The central characters Madeleine, Dinah and Rickie are each given a voice, and as the narrative weaves back and forth in time, we see the complexties of thier relationship through their eyes. None of these characters are totally sympathetic, there is no victim - they each bear some responsibility in what happens. This novel certainly differs greatly to An invitation to the waltz or The Weather in the Streets, it is darker and more meloncholic, her characters deeply flawed. I did find the final third of the novel a tiny bit tedious - not helped by my tiredness - but I had loved the first half of the book particularly, Rosamond Lehmann's writing is brilliant. This is a complex novel about human relationships.

[Lynnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I love Rosamond Lehmann's writing. Absorbing, lyrical, sublime, exquisite. The story is told from different perspectives, jumping back and forth, coming full circle at the end. Beautful.

[A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Managed to get about a quarter of the way through before giving up. The constant flashbacks were confusing and oh the constant witterings of the main characters bored me to tears.

[Genevieve Brassard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5? A challenging read stylistically (flashbacks within flashbacks and episodes revisited through different points of view) and narrowly focused thematically on upper-middle class types prone to adultery and self-absorption, but also intriguing as a historical snapshot of the years around WW II and its impact on private lives. Distant cousin to Bowen’s The Heat of the Day.

[Troy Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first Rosamond Lehmann novel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing is like a blend of Vita Sackville-West, Iris Murdoch and Penelope Lively. It is rather dialogue-heavy and I did feel it dragged ever so slightly around the three-quarter mark, but nevertheless, it is very impressive and one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year.

[o · Rating 3 out of 5]

i find it hard to rate it bcoz it’s beautifully written and you can tell the structure is intentional but the convoluted person changes and narration choices make it not just hard but sometimes boring to follow. it doesn’t help that madeleine is the only likeable character of the book

[Marie Saville · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ☆

[Dominique Gamache · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pour moi, un magnifique roman, très dense, très riche sur une trame simple : deux sœurs se retrouvent alors qu'elles ont aimé le même homme, Rickie. Le contexte est celui des années 30 et de la seconde guerre mondiale ce qui ajoute un parfum de tragédie. Le roman est construit de façon astucieuse avec des flash backs successifs qui donnent à voir une diversité de points de vue et dessinent un tableau parcellaire mais puissant de différents moments d'une vie d'adulte. C'est aussi un roman d'une grande mélancolie où les personnages essaient de se trouver et de se comprendre sans toujours y parvenir. Les dialogues témoignent d'une volonté parfois obsessionnelle de décrypter les sentiments des autres, les siens et ses propres empêchements. Bref, c'est un roman subtil qui s'attache à la psyche - aux névroses, à l'amour et à l'attachement- mais aussi à des problématiques plus sociales comme le déclassement et la prégnance des barrières sociales. Ami, amateur d'actions fortes et de récit sans ambivalence, passe ton chemin.

[Jennifer Iba · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And throughout all eternity, I forgive you and you forgive me." (W. Blake)-- a quote that means so much to Dinah and Ricky Masters but goes beyond applying to just romantic love.
R.Ebert wrote memorably of the film adaptation ("the Heart of Me"): "The great sadness in the movie is the waste of love, which is a rare commodity, and 'must be consumed in season'." [Austin Chronicle]: "Bonham Carter has never looked more beguiling and beautiful onscreen." As the man in the middle, Bettany becomes most interesting only when Ricky starts to disintegrate under the hypocrisy of his double life. Watching him crumble is the best thing about The Heart of Me. "It’s during these moments, when love is at once a godsend and a damnation, that you come closest to experiencing something poetic..." What makes The Heart of Me work (fine acting/look of the movie).. is the intelligent and morally complex script. I found my sympathies going out to different characters in different scenes. By the end of the novel this reader interprets that love (romantic or fraternal) is about forgiveness, and the fact that it is possible to love someone even though they may have caused you an incredible amount of pain and grief. Madeleine and Dinah, so different, so loyal to their love... terribly unlucky, they love the same man, who is married to Madeleine. Instead Ricky... he loves just one. He choses Dinah, not his wife, then he is tricked, deceived, manipulated (to believing Dinah no longer loves him) by the WWII's end it is clear he will never recover from having to live life without Dinah. The ending with the kite flying daughter/while Ricky flashes back to see kite-flying Dinah as he walks towards the Blitz Bombs and away from shelters. Ricky is beyond the aid of bomb shelters but his last moments are of remembering Dinah at her/their happiest just before he dies. The estranged sisters show definite signs of forgiveness and hope in the end...and when Madeline gives Dinah the inscription note of the bracelet Ricky had made for Dinah--Mad is tacitly acknowledging he loved Dinah only. And in giving Dinah the gift of the bracelet as well as sharing her daughter w/Dinah--the reader realizes that Blake's quote is just as suitable for lovers as it is for the estranged sisters who have both lost the same man: "And throughout all eternity, I forgive you and you forgive me." (W. Blake)

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the opening chapter of this book we meet Dinah who is visiting her sister madeleine after a long apparent estrangement, as they wander out with madeleines dog in the English country village there is a scene in which a rat is attacked by the dig and how each woman reacts suggests that these are very different individuals.
The book then is divided into separate parts of a day but each section reveals their past and how dinah had a passionate affair with madeleines husband and the subsequent effect this had on both their lives.
The book covers the years both pre and immediately after ww2 and is a remarkable depiction of infidelity, jealousy, family, and obsession. While at times the prose and dialogue became very intense to the point that I struggled to maintain full attention in parts overall I was very glad to read this dramatic story which reminded me a lot both in style and subject of the end of the affair.
The introduction also by Jonathan coe, gave a very good explanation of some of the themes I had missed on first read and subsequent reading of the authors biography on line suggests autobiographical elements to the tale and an incredible life story about the authors own affair with Cecil day Lewis.

[Ken Ryu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book follows a love triangle between two sisters, Madeline and Dinah, and Rickie. Rickie is married to Madeline but decides that he prefers Dinah. Madeline knows about this affair and grudgingly tolerates it.

The book covers the period leading up and through WWII in England. The book is Proustian in its long and detailed scenes with extensive dialog. One night can run hundreds of pages of dialog and memories.

It is somewhat interesting, though the realistic and detailed portrayal of a broken marriage leaves the story without any major epiphanies. Instead, the story is a tale of the tragedies of everyday life and one where love is fleeting or unreachable.

Lehman breaks the story into 4 major scenes with large jumps in between. The book is well written and has a unique flow. It is not a war story. It is not a love story. It is more real and more curious. It is a book that defies easy classification. Perhaps it is a tragedy, but one without a climatic explosion. Rather it is a story of a slow deterioration of potential bliss and contentment.

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the movie adaptation first (2002, The Heart of Me, with Helena Bonham Carter as Dinah), then I read the book. This is a very steamy story for its time, first published in 1953. There is a good summary on the book jacket. "Two sisters: Madeleine and Dinah. One husband: Rickie Masters. For many years now, Dinah, exotic and sensual, has conducted a clandestine affair with Rickie. Madeleine, calm and resolute, has accepted that her marriage has been of limited success. Rickie's sudden death makes widows of both sisters in this highly imaginative novel which explores with extraordinary insight the sublimity, the rivalry and the pain of personal relationships."

[Callie]

Three months to read this. I can’t bring myself to rate it. On paper this is the exact thing I should love. British, complicated love triangle, lots of interesting conversations. Alas. It was a slog. I appreciate the prose. I just felt the way she told the story was circuitous. So much of the action happened off screen and then we hear about it later in dialogue. And it made it hard to get immersed or to care. And yet I could never abandon it bc I kept feeling I should love it. That’s why I can’t rate it. I can’t in good conscience give it four or five stars, but I can’t also give it less.

[Brian Haines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sorry to say I bailed out of this about two thirds in. Some of the writing is excellent and individual scenes are well observed but I just found that nothing much was happening and it was taking a very long time. Every time I picked up the book it was decreasing expectation of enjoyment and there seemed nowhere the narrative could go. Also, as a 1980s Penguin it was physically beginning to fall to pieces.

[Jon Talbot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to rate this as the book has big flaws but Lehmann was a talented writer. So the negatives: it’s overlong, there are confusing jumps when it is not clear whose perspective we are getting and the dialogue is interminable. It really needs editing. But the writing is always very good, the characters are well fleshed out and it is clear much of this is based upon lived experience, so it resonates.

[Helena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful writing. Wonderful insights and characterisation. Ultimately depressing from start to end (which I tried very hard but failed to reach): every character struggling with those near and very dear to themselves - but above all with themselves. Hope impossible. I hoped for reconciliation of sorts but eventually cared no longer.

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was written in response to RL’s being dumped by Cecil Day-Lewis for the beautiful young actress Jill Balcon, for whom he left his wife. The structure is experimental, to be generous, but it doesn’t really work at all well. The editing is dreadful and there are far too many many errors and confusions. The relationship between Madeleine and Diana, the two sisters, is believable but this is a novel about people driven by a deeply emotional interior world, whose lives are very much bound up with such matters. I could not relate. All those affairs, all that drink, did not make them happy or likeable. All very Bloomsbury, a set of which RL was a part. There is a strong theme of how different their lives were from their Edwardian parents.

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admirably ambitious, really good dialogue, interesting Blitz backdrop, but I couldn't get into it and lost the thread a few times. The premise reminded me a lot of the first Antonya Nelson story I read (in the New Yorker, I think).

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took me a while to wade through and, although I strongly suspect that it is brilliant, I struggled to enjoy it. Which is very disappointing because I had expected to love it. Too much angst-ridden philosophising meant that I became impatient with the characters and lost the plot.