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Dusty Answer
Mamma was fast asleep at home, her spirit lapped in unconsciousness. Her dreams would not divine that her daughter had stolen out to meet a lover.And next door also they slept unawares, while one of them broke from the circle and came alone to clasp a stranger . . .'Judith Earle, over-earnest and inexperienced, has always been a little in love with each of the four cousins who come to stay next door and, on her return from Cambridge, becomes madly in love with one of them - Roddy, the 'sensation-hunter'. DUSTY ANSWER traces with delicate nostalgia childhood friendships and the pangs of thwarted young love.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1927
51 people are currently reading
2439 people want to read
About the author
Rosamond Lehmann
59 books125 followersRosamond 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.
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.
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July 10, 2023
IL TEMPO NON RITORNA
In quel suo libro meraviglioso intitolato Memoria di ragazza Annie Ernaux pone due epigrafi: una brevissima, fulminante, divertente – è un verso dei Supertramp dalla canzone “The Logical Song”, seconda traccia dell'altrettanto fulminante album “Breakfast In America” – e recita così:
I know it sounds absurd but please tell me who I am.
E credo la dica lunga sul ‘lavoro’ che Ernaux si appresta a fare, quel suo viaggio indietro nella memoria.
Claude Monet. Stagno delle ninfee e salice piangente (1916-1919).
La seconda epigrafe è ben più lunga ed evito di riportarla. Viene da questo romanzo. Prima volta che ne sentivo parlare, e prima volta che sentivo nominare Rosamond Lehmann.
Qualche pagina più avanti nel libro, Ernaux scrive:
Tuttavia non posso dire di non avere più niente a che fare con lei, o piuttosto con colei che diventerà l’estate successiva, come testimonia la violenza del turbamento che mi ha invaso leggendo “La bella estate” di Pavese e “Risposte nella polvere di Rosamond Lehmann…
Mi ha preso una curiosità insaziabile, ho voluto (e dovuto) leggere il romanzo della Lehmann.
E ho fatto bene, sono contento d’averlo fatto, mi è piaciuto, l’ho goduto.
La critica dell’epoca più che altro lo stroncò. E anche questo repêchage della Einaudi (Stile Libero) non mi pare abbia suscitato critiche e commenti entusiastici.
Il romanzo è uscito la prima volta nel 1927 con buon successo di pubblico, ha venduto bene per un paio di decenni: poi oblio e scomparsa per almeno trent’anni.
Anni Venti: Rosamond Lehmann con il fratello John e Lytton Strachey. La Lehmann, pur non facendone mai parte, frequentò il gruppo di Bloomsbury, e fu amica di Virginia e Leonard Woolf.
Judith Earle ha due preoccupazioni nella vita, una delle quali, lo studio, occupa in un quarto del romanzo una piccola parte, non di più: l’altra, innamorarsi, invece, trionfa in tutte e 430 le pagine.
I suoi adorati amici Fyfe, cinque cugini, quattro maschi e una femmina (l’unica scolorita), figli di una manica di fratelli e una sorella, hanno una preoccupazione in meno di Judith, lo studio.
Ma sostanzialmente hanno tutti e sei un solo obiettivo da raggiungere: divertirsi.
Preoccupazioni economiche, malattie, infelicità d’altro tipo, dolore esistenziale? Non pervenuti.
Come ha fatto Rosamond Lehmann con una materia tutto sommato insulsa, per non dire irritante, con personaggi che sembrano vivere in una campana di vetro, a tirare fuori un magnifico romanzo che ho letto con grande piacere ed emozione?
Rolf Armstrong (1989-1960): Judith.
Con la scrittura. Il suo talento. Le descrizioni che nel senso migliore del termine sono spesso pittoriche. Con la sua attenzione per luci, colori, sfumature vegetali, profumi, la conca della notte, la bellezza della sua lingua.
Con la perfezione psicologica: i tre cugini sopravvissuti (il più bello, Charlie, biondo e atletico, il primo batticuore di Judy, muore presto, muore nella Grande Guerra, dopo aver sposato la cugina Mariella, quella scolorita, e averle lasciato un bimbo che non conoscerà mai suo padre), Julian, Roddy e Martin sono una tavolozza di sfumature e differenze e toni psicologici caratteriali e comportamentali che è un autentica meraviglia.
Sono rimasto conquistato sin dal principio, dal lungo flashback dell’infanzia, i bambini vicini di casa (villa) nella campagna inglese lungo il Tamigi non troppo lontano da Londra, i giochi, le timidezze, i primi palpiti.
Ancora di più dalla seconda parte sull’adolescenza, la fine della scuola, l’attesa del college, i palpiti che diventano battiti che si fanno tamburi, ma ancora lontani.
Poi la terza parte, più lunga, sui tre anni d’università, gli studi, il primo bacio, l’amicizia con Jennifer che sfiora (sfiora?) emozioni saffiche.
E poi la quarta squisita parte sui primi tempi dopo il college, l’amore trionfa, si tinge di sesso, ma è soprattutto pena e struggimento, dolore e lacrime.
Infine la breve parte conclusiva con una magistrale scena nel finale.
Judith perde la verginità di notte sotto le fronde dei salici, e non riesco a immaginare scena più preraffaellita. Lehmann accenna, allude, lascia intuire, ma se ne allontano subito, nel giro di un rigo, un po’ come succedeva nei film di Autant-Lara: abbraccio, bacio, cinepresa che panoramica fino al camino per andare a sfocare sulle fiamme (a scelta, fiamme della passione o del peccato).
Era bellissimo vivere sola, cogliendo fiori, scrive la Lehmann: io la ringrazio anche perché finalmente per la prima volta ho percepito il culto e l’arte tipicamente inglese del verde, del paesaggio campestre, di fiori e giardini.
E la ringrazio per tanti altri momenti belli di questo romanzo di formazione per eccellenza, di questa educazione sentimentale di una fanciulla in fiore.
L’attrazione di Judy per quel gruppo di cugini, misteriosi e inquieti, che non sono fratelli, ma agli occhi di lei figlia unica sono famiglia: li avvolge tutti e cinque in un velo di fascino ai confini del mito, in un cerchio magico.
La sensibilità cinematografica, che emerge nella struttura del racconto e in certe situazioni (scene?): solo che nel 1927, quando è stato pubblicato questo romanzo, al cinema queste situazioni non si erano ancora viste.
La bisessualità di Judith e Roddy, intuita non descritta, trattata con pudore ma introdotta come aspetto importante.
La narratrice/narratore che in certi momenti si rivolge direttamente a Judith adottando la seconda persona singolare: avviene nei momenti in cui Judy è particolarmente insicura e vulnerabile, come sottolinea saggiamente Jonathan Coe nella prefazione.
Qualcosa s’era messo in moto… Julian era venuto a evocare ombre davanti e dietro di sé. Il passato ribolliva: l’antica malattia di ricordare stava per riprendere. E non una luce in prospettiva.
La ragazza dalla cui memoria tutto è iniziato.
In quel suo libro meraviglioso intitolato Memoria di ragazza Annie Ernaux pone due epigrafi: una brevissima, fulminante, divertente – è un verso dei Supertramp dalla canzone “The Logical Song”, seconda traccia dell'altrettanto fulminante album “Breakfast In America” – e recita così:
I know it sounds absurd but please tell me who I am.
E credo la dica lunga sul ‘lavoro’ che Ernaux si appresta a fare, quel suo viaggio indietro nella memoria.
Claude Monet. Stagno delle ninfee e salice piangente (1916-1919).
La seconda epigrafe è ben più lunga ed evito di riportarla. Viene da questo romanzo. Prima volta che ne sentivo parlare, e prima volta che sentivo nominare Rosamond Lehmann.
Qualche pagina più avanti nel libro, Ernaux scrive:
Tuttavia non posso dire di non avere più niente a che fare con lei, o piuttosto con colei che diventerà l’estate successiva, come testimonia la violenza del turbamento che mi ha invaso leggendo “La bella estate” di Pavese e “Risposte nella polvere di Rosamond Lehmann…
Mi ha preso una curiosità insaziabile, ho voluto (e dovuto) leggere il romanzo della Lehmann.
E ho fatto bene, sono contento d’averlo fatto, mi è piaciuto, l’ho goduto.
La critica dell’epoca più che altro lo stroncò. E anche questo repêchage della Einaudi (Stile Libero) non mi pare abbia suscitato critiche e commenti entusiastici.
Il romanzo è uscito la prima volta nel 1927 con buon successo di pubblico, ha venduto bene per un paio di decenni: poi oblio e scomparsa per almeno trent’anni.
Anni Venti: Rosamond Lehmann con il fratello John e Lytton Strachey. La Lehmann, pur non facendone mai parte, frequentò il gruppo di Bloomsbury, e fu amica di Virginia e Leonard Woolf.
Judith Earle ha due preoccupazioni nella vita, una delle quali, lo studio, occupa in un quarto del romanzo una piccola parte, non di più: l’altra, innamorarsi, invece, trionfa in tutte e 430 le pagine.
I suoi adorati amici Fyfe, cinque cugini, quattro maschi e una femmina (l’unica scolorita), figli di una manica di fratelli e una sorella, hanno una preoccupazione in meno di Judith, lo studio.
Ma sostanzialmente hanno tutti e sei un solo obiettivo da raggiungere: divertirsi.
Preoccupazioni economiche, malattie, infelicità d’altro tipo, dolore esistenziale? Non pervenuti.
Come ha fatto Rosamond Lehmann con una materia tutto sommato insulsa, per non dire irritante, con personaggi che sembrano vivere in una campana di vetro, a tirare fuori un magnifico romanzo che ho letto con grande piacere ed emozione?
Rolf Armstrong (1989-1960): Judith.
Con la scrittura. Il suo talento. Le descrizioni che nel senso migliore del termine sono spesso pittoriche. Con la sua attenzione per luci, colori, sfumature vegetali, profumi, la conca della notte, la bellezza della sua lingua.
Con la perfezione psicologica: i tre cugini sopravvissuti (il più bello, Charlie, biondo e atletico, il primo batticuore di Judy, muore presto, muore nella Grande Guerra, dopo aver sposato la cugina Mariella, quella scolorita, e averle lasciato un bimbo che non conoscerà mai suo padre), Julian, Roddy e Martin sono una tavolozza di sfumature e differenze e toni psicologici caratteriali e comportamentali che è un autentica meraviglia.
Sono rimasto conquistato sin dal principio, dal lungo flashback dell’infanzia, i bambini vicini di casa (villa) nella campagna inglese lungo il Tamigi non troppo lontano da Londra, i giochi, le timidezze, i primi palpiti.
Ancora di più dalla seconda parte sull’adolescenza, la fine della scuola, l’attesa del college, i palpiti che diventano battiti che si fanno tamburi, ma ancora lontani.
Poi la terza parte, più lunga, sui tre anni d’università, gli studi, il primo bacio, l’amicizia con Jennifer che sfiora (sfiora?) emozioni saffiche.
E poi la quarta squisita parte sui primi tempi dopo il college, l’amore trionfa, si tinge di sesso, ma è soprattutto pena e struggimento, dolore e lacrime.
Infine la breve parte conclusiva con una magistrale scena nel finale.
Judith perde la verginità di notte sotto le fronde dei salici, e non riesco a immaginare scena più preraffaellita. Lehmann accenna, allude, lascia intuire, ma se ne allontano subito, nel giro di un rigo, un po’ come succedeva nei film di Autant-Lara: abbraccio, bacio, cinepresa che panoramica fino al camino per andare a sfocare sulle fiamme (a scelta, fiamme della passione o del peccato).
Era bellissimo vivere sola, cogliendo fiori, scrive la Lehmann: io la ringrazio anche perché finalmente per la prima volta ho percepito il culto e l’arte tipicamente inglese del verde, del paesaggio campestre, di fiori e giardini.
E la ringrazio per tanti altri momenti belli di questo romanzo di formazione per eccellenza, di questa educazione sentimentale di una fanciulla in fiore.
L’attrazione di Judy per quel gruppo di cugini, misteriosi e inquieti, che non sono fratelli, ma agli occhi di lei figlia unica sono famiglia: li avvolge tutti e cinque in un velo di fascino ai confini del mito, in un cerchio magico.
La sensibilità cinematografica, che emerge nella struttura del racconto e in certe situazioni (scene?): solo che nel 1927, quando è stato pubblicato questo romanzo, al cinema queste situazioni non si erano ancora viste.
La bisessualità di Judith e Roddy, intuita non descritta, trattata con pudore ma introdotta come aspetto importante.
La narratrice/narratore che in certi momenti si rivolge direttamente a Judith adottando la seconda persona singolare: avviene nei momenti in cui Judy è particolarmente insicura e vulnerabile, come sottolinea saggiamente Jonathan Coe nella prefazione.
Qualcosa s’era messo in moto… Julian era venuto a evocare ombre davanti e dietro di sé. Il passato ribolliva: l’antica malattia di ricordare stava per riprendere. E non una luce in prospettiva.
La ragazza dalla cui memoria tutto è iniziato.
December 1, 2008
A forgotten British classic that for some reasons has always been popular in some parts of Europe - it seems never to have been out of print in France. -The prose is exquisite, Lehmann's gift with the English language is amazing and you want to remember most of her sentences for their sheer beauty and the emotions they convey. It's also one of the most beautiful, tender, and melancholic books ever written about adolescence and loss, and it captures the fleeting, elusive complexities of this time in life like few novels have been able to do. If only for this book, Lehmann remains of the great British writers of her time.
October 14, 2019
!Qué olvidada está Rosamond Lehmann y qué sacrilegio!!! Le doy gracias a Errata Naturae por haberla editado en español porque de no ser por ellos me la habria perdido y la verdad es que es imperdonable dejar escapar a una escritora de esta categoria. Vana Respuesta la escribió Rosamond Lehmann cuando tenia apenas 24 años, en 1927, una novela madura y compleja en cuanto a emociones, pero maravillosamente escrita y cercana en cuanto al estilo de Rosamond Lehmann.
Judith Earle es una niña bien, solitaria y sensible, que apenas tiene contacto con la gente debido a que sus padres la educan en casa a base de tutores e institutrices, es una soledad obligada porque realmente Judith ansía el contacto con la gente, pero unos padres casi siempre ausentes y frios y esa educación solitaria la mantienen alejada del mundo, pero un verano la familia Fyfe ocupa la casa vecina, vienen a pasar el verano y de repente la vida de Judith cobra luz, se hace luminosa y despierta a emociones que hasta ahora ni sabía que podria tener. La familia vecina está formada por la abuela y sus nietos, Charlie, Julian, Martin y Roddy y una chica, Mariella. Tras este verano, lleno de conversaciones y escapadas, se producen más encuentros a lo largo de la adolescencia y primera juventud de Judith, encuentros al cabo de los meses o de los años, pero fue ese primer verano el momento en que tanto el lector como Judith reconocen que estos chicos la dejarían marcada de por vida.
"Qué impacto, qué punzada tan intensa de alegría y tristeza... Ellos no lo entenderían.. Después de tantos años pensando en ellos, víendolos con tanta pasión, alimentando en su imaginación su existencia irreal de ensueño ¡qué estuvieran todos allí como si nada!".
Una novela inciática que describe perfectamente el despertar a la vida de Judith y de cómo su percepcion de los primos Fyfe va madurando y evolucionando a lo largo de los años. Y para mi una de los mayores talentos de esta escritora es de cómo en apenas unas frases, nos está haciendo un inmenso esbozo de la profundidad psicológica de estos personajes que no solo marcarán a Judith sino tambíen al lector. Y lo que más me fascina es lo moderna y adelantada a su tiempo de esta novela por los temas que plantea y por el valor de exponerlas, pensar que en 1927, el personaje femenino de una novela se expresara con tanta independencia:
"- Pero... - Roddy dudó- Si un hombre pretende pedirle a una chica que... en matrimonio, lo normal es que el primer paso lo dé él. ¿Entiendes?
(...)
-Pero Roddy, realmente..., realmente me estás hablando de una de esas convenciones anticuadas... En verdad, una mujer tiene todo el derecho del mundo a decir que... que quiere a un hombre... si lo desea... Es una mera cuestión de valor... ."
Es ante todo una novela sobre las emociones a lo largo de los años de una niña hasta convertirse en mujer; Rosamond Lehmann prima siempre la vida interior de sus protagonistas femeninas y hace al lector cómplice absoluto de su vida interior. Una novela magistral.
Judith Earle es una niña bien, solitaria y sensible, que apenas tiene contacto con la gente debido a que sus padres la educan en casa a base de tutores e institutrices, es una soledad obligada porque realmente Judith ansía el contacto con la gente, pero unos padres casi siempre ausentes y frios y esa educación solitaria la mantienen alejada del mundo, pero un verano la familia Fyfe ocupa la casa vecina, vienen a pasar el verano y de repente la vida de Judith cobra luz, se hace luminosa y despierta a emociones que hasta ahora ni sabía que podria tener. La familia vecina está formada por la abuela y sus nietos, Charlie, Julian, Martin y Roddy y una chica, Mariella. Tras este verano, lleno de conversaciones y escapadas, se producen más encuentros a lo largo de la adolescencia y primera juventud de Judith, encuentros al cabo de los meses o de los años, pero fue ese primer verano el momento en que tanto el lector como Judith reconocen que estos chicos la dejarían marcada de por vida.
"Qué impacto, qué punzada tan intensa de alegría y tristeza... Ellos no lo entenderían.. Después de tantos años pensando en ellos, víendolos con tanta pasión, alimentando en su imaginación su existencia irreal de ensueño ¡qué estuvieran todos allí como si nada!".
Una novela inciática que describe perfectamente el despertar a la vida de Judith y de cómo su percepcion de los primos Fyfe va madurando y evolucionando a lo largo de los años. Y para mi una de los mayores talentos de esta escritora es de cómo en apenas unas frases, nos está haciendo un inmenso esbozo de la profundidad psicológica de estos personajes que no solo marcarán a Judith sino tambíen al lector. Y lo que más me fascina es lo moderna y adelantada a su tiempo de esta novela por los temas que plantea y por el valor de exponerlas, pensar que en 1927, el personaje femenino de una novela se expresara con tanta independencia:
"- Pero... - Roddy dudó- Si un hombre pretende pedirle a una chica que... en matrimonio, lo normal es que el primer paso lo dé él. ¿Entiendes?
(...)
-Pero Roddy, realmente..., realmente me estás hablando de una de esas convenciones anticuadas... En verdad, una mujer tiene todo el derecho del mundo a decir que... que quiere a un hombre... si lo desea... Es una mera cuestión de valor... ."
Es ante todo una novela sobre las emociones a lo largo de los años de una niña hasta convertirse en mujer; Rosamond Lehmann prima siempre la vida interior de sus protagonistas femeninas y hace al lector cómplice absoluto de su vida interior. Una novela magistral.
January 24, 2019
(I'm currently reading My Brilliant Friend and it's recalling 1930s women writers like Lehmann and Antonia White so even though I read years ago, I'm posting the review here now)
A haunting evocation of the loss of innocence
Judith, sensitive, lonely and secretive, meets the family of cousins who move in next door and falls in love with all of them. This exquisite novel follows her relationships, the disappointments, the joys and the ultimate heartbreak that she experiences as she engages with life and grows from an innocent girl to a woman.
Brilliantly written, evocative and passionate, this is, for me, Lehmann's best novel.
A haunting evocation of the loss of innocence
Judith, sensitive, lonely and secretive, meets the family of cousins who move in next door and falls in love with all of them. This exquisite novel follows her relationships, the disappointments, the joys and the ultimate heartbreak that she experiences as she engages with life and grows from an innocent girl to a woman.
Brilliantly written, evocative and passionate, this is, for me, Lehmann's best novel.
August 14, 2020
I loved this book of young love.
Judith Earle has always been in love with each of the four cousins.
Summers spent playing outside in the countryside.
All will change when Judith goes to Cambridge college and meets Jennifer!
A coming of age novel where one learns who to love and trust.
It's hard to believe this was Rosamond's first novel.
I will be looking out for more of her wonderful books.
Judith Earle has always been in love with each of the four cousins.
Summers spent playing outside in the countryside.
All will change when Judith goes to Cambridge college and meets Jennifer!
A coming of age novel where one learns who to love and trust.
It's hard to believe this was Rosamond's first novel.
I will be looking out for more of her wonderful books.
June 4, 2019
Like reading a dream. Beautiful and bitchy and disillusioning, perfect wish-fulfilment slipping out of the hands to become broken dreams. Lovely dazzling prose.
It grips all the way through: and yet I feel not a twinge over Judith's missteps and coming to grief. Probably because she is, in fact, a bit of a cunt.
It grips all the way through: and yet I feel not a twinge over Judith's missteps and coming to grief. Probably because she is, in fact, a bit of a cunt.
June 16, 2010
This was Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927 when she was just 26. Sales were initially slow, and not much critical notice was taken of the book until Alfred Noyes gave it a glowing review in the Sunday Times, making Dusty Answer a bestseller almost overnight.
Its heroine, Judith Earle, is an intelligent, earnest girl who becomes entangled in the lives of five cousins who have occasionally visited at the house next door to Judith's; Judith played with them as a child, and years later, comes to know them again as she enters adulthood. When they reenter her life, she falls desperately in love with one of them.
There's also a very powerful relationship between Judith and a fellow student at Girton, which scandalized reviewers who saw in it lesbian undertones. (Lehmann indignantly denied this, and unfortunately, the character in the book who's more clearly meant to be a lesbian is unattractively portrayed.)
Dusty Answer often lacks narrative drive (especially in the rather uncertain, diffuse ending), but its intense, often idyllic, and impassioned style is compelling, a foretaste of things to come.
Its heroine, Judith Earle, is an intelligent, earnest girl who becomes entangled in the lives of five cousins who have occasionally visited at the house next door to Judith's; Judith played with them as a child, and years later, comes to know them again as she enters adulthood. When they reenter her life, she falls desperately in love with one of them.
There's also a very powerful relationship between Judith and a fellow student at Girton, which scandalized reviewers who saw in it lesbian undertones. (Lehmann indignantly denied this, and unfortunately, the character in the book who's more clearly meant to be a lesbian is unattractively portrayed.)
Dusty Answer often lacks narrative drive (especially in the rather uncertain, diffuse ending), but its intense, often idyllic, and impassioned style is compelling, a foretaste of things to come.
April 5, 2015
"You don't," she said petulantly. "Because you've never troubled to find out what I'm really like. It's never occurred to you there might be anything more than what you see. That's so like a man.... Lord, how stupid! Everybody dismissed with a little label. Everybody taken for granted once they've passed a few idiotic conventional tests...."
Dusty Answer is a black pot calling another black pot black situation. Little girl Judith romanticizes the four teens living with their grandmother during holidays. I never found out why none of these people ever find other people. Martin, Mariella, Julian and Roddy are freaking related to each other. Charlie dies young so I guess I can forgive him for marrying his cousin Mariella and dying soon after the birth of their first child. He's horny and it happens. But come on, they go away to schools where you don't have to study or anything. No one has to do anything except attend parties with other glamorous people in England. World war doesn't even stop these kids. I lost it when Julian appears after another absence (nothing happens in this book except absences where people return more glamorous than they were before. Do you remember me? I could never forget you! We are all so pretty!) an international tennis star. Of course he is! Why not, he's perfect at music and art. All he needs is a girl younger than him to suggest how brilliant he naturally is to pick up another hidden talent. Judith had a crush on Charlie because he's beautiful. I pictured everyone to look like pretty people in a swinging episode of Poirot. Sadly, this didn't get anyone murdered. I tried. Roddy appears less and pays her the least amount of attention so she picks him to obsess over throughout adolescence. There's a girl in her school, Jennifer, she carries on a relationship of platitudes and you're not giving me enough attention drama. The book jacket swears this is a romantic relationship. They don't do anything other than be possessive. That's all anyone does in Dusty Answer. Judith may as well have stayed the little girl day dreaming about the kids next door. She never forgets any of their birthdays, never a detail about that house. Mariella can't stand Judith. I suspect she knew that if these boys interacted with other females she wouldn't be worshiped any longer. Her whole appeal is that Judith knows from the mysterious psychic place that she doesn't like her. If she could win over Mariella than everything would be better. She loves Julian because he likes her the least out of her romantic pool of relatives. Mariella's personality is that she doesn't have one. I must have been a no personality cockroach in a past life. My punishment in this one is to keep reading books about glamour girls who laugh a lot and flatter the men in their lives with just the right laugh at just the right time. She stares at Julian a lot and he pokes and prods at every body else to tell him the fears he harbors deep down are unfounded. You know, the person who likes you if you magically put all their shit into terms that make them feel like super stars of the universe. Tell me what I don't know myself! I hate this kind of person but whatever gets them in their naughty parts, I guess. Martin kinda follows Judith, Mariella and Roddy around. Everyone ignored Martin so Martin had to be in love with everyone. The book jacket suggests that Roddy was gay and this was why he never returns Judith's obsession. I got more that another young man, Tony, was in love with Roddy and Roddy doesn't care what happens as long as someone is around to make moony faces at him. (I waited for someone to be indifferent to Roddy so he would join the love geometry shape too.) He doesn't bother to correct Judith when she takes this shit seriously. If Dusty Answer was half as long as it was and dropped the self righteous pot kettle stuff it could have been almost good. It is at least too good at the stuff when you're young and the looks in the eyes of others seem to confirm every thing you're afraid is true about yourself. It's wrong that it says something about you what someone else wants. If I were indifferent to this book more it would be in love with me. I liked Lehmann's other books better (especially Weather in the Streets). I remember reading that she was like this in her own life. Putting other people on pedestals and then falling hard when the only thing they wanted from you was to be a reflection of how hot they wanted to be. Yeah, okay, but what is different about Judith? Sure she thinks at the end she's over this shit now and only needs herself. I wish she could have been honest about anything and then I could have believed it. What was missing in her life? It is glossed over when her dad dies except for Judith to be said that Mariella doesn't write her a personal note. What was she making these neighbors EVERYTHING for? I feel like the point in wanting anything at all was completely missed and that my life is over when I keep choosing the wrong books to read. Judith should want herself more than she wants them but there's something empty in life anyway. She hides in them her whole life and then some fog lifts and it is Judith sailing here on out? Really?
September 9, 2022
I have previously read two of Rosamond Lehmann’s novels and can say I liked and appreciated them without loving them. This was her first novel, but for me her finest, and I definitely loved it. It is an intense tale of growing up and falling in love, the old story but told in a way that feels totally fresh so that it could only be Judith Earle’s story and belong to no one else.
Judith is a naive and isolated young girl, homeschooled by an elderly father and largely ignored by her flighty mother, imaginative and intelligent but given to living in her dream world. She becomes besotted by the Fyfe family, a group of cousins who stay next door with their grandmother. As Judith grows up and goes to study at Cambridge, their paths cross again and her experiences with each of them form a painful and emotional path to adulthood.
Lehmann’s writing is beautiful, and her physical and emotional landscapes are captured perfectly. From the beginning we are absorbed into Judith’s hopes and dreams, and feel every moment of joy and pain. It’s slightly puzzling how such intensity and awkwardness can be maintained in a character without becoming tiresome, but Lehmann cleverly moves her setting and characters around so that Judith is always moving forward, however clumsily, towards self-awareness and maturity.
The male Fyfe characters are all flawed but brilliantly drawn, and skilfully balanced with the women who befriend Judith at Cambridge. I really loved this book and was truly sorry when it reached the end.
Judith is a naive and isolated young girl, homeschooled by an elderly father and largely ignored by her flighty mother, imaginative and intelligent but given to living in her dream world. She becomes besotted by the Fyfe family, a group of cousins who stay next door with their grandmother. As Judith grows up and goes to study at Cambridge, their paths cross again and her experiences with each of them form a painful and emotional path to adulthood.
Lehmann’s writing is beautiful, and her physical and emotional landscapes are captured perfectly. From the beginning we are absorbed into Judith’s hopes and dreams, and feel every moment of joy and pain. It’s slightly puzzling how such intensity and awkwardness can be maintained in a character without becoming tiresome, but Lehmann cleverly moves her setting and characters around so that Judith is always moving forward, however clumsily, towards self-awareness and maturity.
The male Fyfe characters are all flawed but brilliantly drawn, and skilfully balanced with the women who befriend Judith at Cambridge. I really loved this book and was truly sorry when it reached the end.
May 3, 2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thwrrDescription: Rosamund Lehmann's first novel Dusty Answer records the education of Judith Earle, the only child of an academic father and socialite mother. Judith grew up in the seclusion of a large riverside house in the Thames Valley. The house next door is occupied from time to time by the Fyfe family whose children - cousins Charlie, Roddy, Julian and Martin drift in and out of her life.
Part One sees Judith reminiscing about her childhood where the seeds of her strong friendship with the cousins are laid. Many years have passed and the cousins return in adolescence for an atmospheric day of skating on the pond.Part Two. Judith realises the Fyfe cousins have returned to the house next door during a midnight swim in the river which joins both gardens . After days spent dancing, playing the piano and getting to know her neighbours again an unexpected telegram arrives form her mother in Paris. Part Three. Judith arrives in Cambridge and can't find her room. She wonders how she will settle down but soon meets fellow student Jennifer who is to become a great friend. During the winter snow, Roddy comes to visit ...Part Four Judith is invited to a picnic with Julian and Martin, and Roddy takes her for a trip in a canoe. Romance rears its head ...but which of the cousins is it to be ? Part Five. Whilst travelling in France with her mother, Judith meets up with Julian. They enjoy the French heat together until his sudden departure. Jennifer steps back into her life...Pas de bas
Dosi do
Change your partner
There you go!
- Bettie
A book based on a square dance that comes full circle, penned contemporary to Bloomsbury Set, that circle who lived in squares and loved in triangles.
DUSTY ANSWER by Rosamund Lehmann dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw
Narrator ..... Julia Hills
Judith ..... Rosina Carbone
Charlie ..... Jack Farthing
Martin ..... Oliver Gomm
Julian ..... Tom Ferguson
Gardener ..... Stephen Tomlin
TR The Weather in the Streets
4* The Echoing Grove
3* Dusty Answer
TR Rosamond Lehmann by Selina Hastings
November 15, 2008
“Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul/When hot for certainties in this our life!”–George Meredith
My father-in-law introduced me to Rosamond Lehmann. He sent me a copy of “The Heart of Me,” a film starring Paul Bettany, Olivia Williams and Helena Bonham Carter, a film based on Lehmann’s novel The Echoing Grove. Rosamond Lehmann was a British, 20th-century author who wrote incisively about women’s interior lives. Her writing is deft, accomplished, and, at times, a little melodramatic. Her characters live life large, their emotions strong and formidable, and they dream and love big even as reality thwarts and sometimes destroys them.
Lehmann’s first novel, Dusty Answer , published in 1927, delves into a young woman’s life and mind in an emotional coming-of-age story. It also explores the then taboo theme of homosexuality.
Judith Earle grows up in rural England with mostly indifferent parents who homeschool her. In the house next door, a group of cousins comes periodically to stay with their grandmother. The Fyfe children, Roddy, Julian, Charles, Martin and Mariella, absorb and enchant Judith’s life and daydreams, unbeknownst to them. The passages in the beginning of the novel float in a realm of memory and obsession:
She saw it all with the quivering overclear sense of exhaustion. It was too much. Roddy’s pale pace was all at once significant, even Charlie, floated away while she looked at him and loved him. And as she looked she saw the deep light falling on him and he seemed mingled with the whole mysterious goldenness of the evening, to be part of it; and she felt herself lost with him in a sudden dark poignant intimacy and merging,–a lifting flood, all come and gone in a timeless moment.
Judith idealizes the Fyfes, and it is this dance of knowing they do not reciprocate (until they do) and that she must hide it from them that makes and unmakes her. Judith is not a terribly likeable young woman at times, but Lehmann takes you into her mind and into her inexhaustible well of feelings and impressions and you cannot help but understand and empathize with her. When Judith goes to college and falls in with the magnetic Jennifer and is carried away into a friendship/affair with her, she almost escapes the mysterious, brooding Fyfes. But even Jennifer, who eventually leaves Judith for a more open lesbian affair (the lesbian themes are quite tame and veiled for today’s readers), cannot curb Judith’s love for the elusive Roddy.
Virago Press has been reprinting many of Rosamond Lehmann’s books, as well as other books by women writers that might otherwise be forgotten. I own the Virago edition of The Echoing Grove, but my copy of Dusty Answer was an on Harvest/Harcourt copy whose glue was so brittle the entire book cracked apart as I read it. I taped the spine so I could keep reading it on the bus.
I can’t say I loved this book, but I appreciated aspects of it. But what I find fascinating in today’s world, where reading blogs and social networking sites abound, is that now you can read an out of print or semi-obscure book and find others in far flung places who are reading the very same things. I was delighted to find this blog, where I found my reading itinerary was taking some similar twists and turns.
It says something about this generation of readers that we can take Christopher Morley’s mantra, “Read, every day, something no one else is reading,” and then find other readers who are doing the same. Does this defeat the purpose, or take away the mystery of wondering who else out there might be discovering a book or author? Perhaps. But it also means that book discussions can happen in new and fascinating ways. Call it book groups without boundaries.
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My father-in-law introduced me to Rosamond Lehmann. He sent me a copy of “The Heart of Me,” a film starring Paul Bettany, Olivia Williams and Helena Bonham Carter, a film based on Lehmann’s novel The Echoing Grove. Rosamond Lehmann was a British, 20th-century author who wrote incisively about women’s interior lives. Her writing is deft, accomplished, and, at times, a little melodramatic. Her characters live life large, their emotions strong and formidable, and they dream and love big even as reality thwarts and sometimes destroys them.
Lehmann’s first novel, Dusty Answer , published in 1927, delves into a young woman’s life and mind in an emotional coming-of-age story. It also explores the then taboo theme of homosexuality.
Judith Earle grows up in rural England with mostly indifferent parents who homeschool her. In the house next door, a group of cousins comes periodically to stay with their grandmother. The Fyfe children, Roddy, Julian, Charles, Martin and Mariella, absorb and enchant Judith’s life and daydreams, unbeknownst to them. The passages in the beginning of the novel float in a realm of memory and obsession:
She saw it all with the quivering overclear sense of exhaustion. It was too much. Roddy’s pale pace was all at once significant, even Charlie, floated away while she looked at him and loved him. And as she looked she saw the deep light falling on him and he seemed mingled with the whole mysterious goldenness of the evening, to be part of it; and she felt herself lost with him in a sudden dark poignant intimacy and merging,–a lifting flood, all come and gone in a timeless moment.
Judith idealizes the Fyfes, and it is this dance of knowing they do not reciprocate (until they do) and that she must hide it from them that makes and unmakes her. Judith is not a terribly likeable young woman at times, but Lehmann takes you into her mind and into her inexhaustible well of feelings and impressions and you cannot help but understand and empathize with her. When Judith goes to college and falls in with the magnetic Jennifer and is carried away into a friendship/affair with her, she almost escapes the mysterious, brooding Fyfes. But even Jennifer, who eventually leaves Judith for a more open lesbian affair (the lesbian themes are quite tame and veiled for today’s readers), cannot curb Judith’s love for the elusive Roddy.
Virago Press has been reprinting many of Rosamond Lehmann’s books, as well as other books by women writers that might otherwise be forgotten. I own the Virago edition of The Echoing Grove, but my copy of Dusty Answer was an on Harvest/Harcourt copy whose glue was so brittle the entire book cracked apart as I read it. I taped the spine so I could keep reading it on the bus.
I can’t say I loved this book, but I appreciated aspects of it. But what I find fascinating in today’s world, where reading blogs and social networking sites abound, is that now you can read an out of print or semi-obscure book and find others in far flung places who are reading the very same things. I was delighted to find this blog, where I found my reading itinerary was taking some similar twists and turns.
It says something about this generation of readers that we can take Christopher Morley’s mantra, “Read, every day, something no one else is reading,” and then find other readers who are doing the same. Does this defeat the purpose, or take away the mystery of wondering who else out there might be discovering a book or author? Perhaps. But it also means that book discussions can happen in new and fascinating ways. Call it book groups without boundaries.
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May 8, 2018
Mi sono trovato per sbaglio in un lesbodramma psicologico in cui tutti giocano a far male a qualcuno solo perché qualcun altro ha fatto soffrire loro.
Praticamente una manica di imbecilli che giocano a far fuori chi è più debole, fragile o ingenuo.
Non fosse per le belle descrizioni di alberi, fiori, giardini, profumi, fiumi, salotti e verande, sarebbe assolutamente evitabile.
Praticamente una manica di imbecilli che giocano a far fuori chi è più debole, fragile o ingenuo.
Non fosse per le belle descrizioni di alberi, fiori, giardini, profumi, fiumi, salotti e verande, sarebbe assolutamente evitabile.
January 5, 2011
There is some books, stories or even characters that you put in the corner of your mind, in the corner of your heart and they follow your everywhere you go. Judith and Roddy follow me everywhere. Rosamond Lehmann isn't well-known here (not for the common readers at least) and I discovered the book thanks to "Atonement" by Ian McEwan (who mentions the book in the novel when a journalist compares Briony's story to "Dusty Answer"). I was curious and chased down the book. There was no more publications of this book and I had to wait almost six months to finally read it. I was so ecstatic the day I got it in my hands...
The atmosphere reminds me of "Atonement" in many ways. Early 1900's England, the burden of the war and all the lost it has created. Judith is both a fascinated and fascinating character. We discover her in her early childhood when she was playing with the next-door family, The Fyfe, a group of cousins who came in the english countryside for the holiday. She is really fascinated by all of them: but little by little she becomes more and more attracted by Roddy Fyfe, the artistic and tortured soul. Time passes and one day, Judith is almost an adult. The war has affected the Fyfe family who finally comes back to their grand-mother's house. The reunion between Judith and The Fyfe is really strong and invites all of them to remember their childhood and the feelings they share. There is a twist in the story because when she was a little girl, Judith was fascinated by the Fyfe family but now that she is a grow-up, they are fascinated by her. The power of beauty, the power of mystery... The death of the older member of the family will cause many changes.
I love Rosamond Lehmann's writing. It's like a delicate hand which invites you to enter a world of imagination. At the same time, everything seems so real: the scents, the presence of Roddy next to Judith, the trouble she is feeling when he is near to her. The strenght of Judith's feeling almost breaks my heart and the climax of the book is just perfect. You can't have expected anything else between the two characters. The end of a book is really important for me. And the end of "Dusty answer" is just perfect for me. It leaves a taste of nostalgy, a taste of regrets for the things you didn't do or didn't have the courage to tempt at least. It emphasizes the loneliness of all the characters of the novel, like all the pain and all the years didn't have change anything, just as if time couldn't have any impact on the destiny of men. You just try to hang out on something, or someone, and one day you suddenly realize that it's gone away and you didn't even notice. Maybe a dream must remain a dream. George Bernard Shaw writes in "Man and superman", Act 4 (1903): "There is two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it". I think that it's a good way to express my state of mind after the last page of the book.
The ties between all the characters, the tragedy of resignation and fear (the fear of opening your heart to anybody), the burden of untelling feelings and desires, the weight of death and memories, make this book one of the greatest I have ever read. (less) [edit]
not set [edit]
Aug 06, 2010
The atmosphere reminds me of "Atonement" in many ways. Early 1900's England, the burden of the war and all the lost it has created. Judith is both a fascinated and fascinating character. We discover her in her early childhood when she was playing with the next-door family, The Fyfe, a group of cousins who came in the english countryside for the holiday. She is really fascinated by all of them: but little by little she becomes more and more attracted by Roddy Fyfe, the artistic and tortured soul. Time passes and one day, Judith is almost an adult. The war has affected the Fyfe family who finally comes back to their grand-mother's house. The reunion between Judith and The Fyfe is really strong and invites all of them to remember their childhood and the feelings they share. There is a twist in the story because when she was a little girl, Judith was fascinated by the Fyfe family but now that she is a grow-up, they are fascinated by her. The power of beauty, the power of mystery... The death of the older member of the family will cause many changes.
I love Rosamond Lehmann's writing. It's like a delicate hand which invites you to enter a world of imagination. At the same time, everything seems so real: the scents, the presence of Roddy next to Judith, the trouble she is feeling when he is near to her. The strenght of Judith's feeling almost breaks my heart and the climax of the book is just perfect. You can't have expected anything else between the two characters. The end of a book is really important for me. And the end of "Dusty answer" is just perfect for me. It leaves a taste of nostalgy, a taste of regrets for the things you didn't do or didn't have the courage to tempt at least. It emphasizes the loneliness of all the characters of the novel, like all the pain and all the years didn't have change anything, just as if time couldn't have any impact on the destiny of men. You just try to hang out on something, or someone, and one day you suddenly realize that it's gone away and you didn't even notice. Maybe a dream must remain a dream. George Bernard Shaw writes in "Man and superman", Act 4 (1903): "There is two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it". I think that it's a good way to express my state of mind after the last page of the book.
The ties between all the characters, the tragedy of resignation and fear (the fear of opening your heart to anybody), the burden of untelling feelings and desires, the weight of death and memories, make this book one of the greatest I have ever read. (less) [edit]
not set [edit]
Aug 06, 2010
January 12, 2021
- Se si cerca di... forzare la verità, ci si deve aspettare una bugia, non ti pare? È logico. Io comunque mi aspetterei sempre una bugia. Insomma... Non me ne stupirei affatto. Direi che è stata colpa mia, che avrei dovuto lasciarti in pace, libero. Penserei: ecco, ho voluto costringerlo e lui ha preferito ingannarmi. E ha fatto bene.
- Una bugia è una bugia, - obbiettò Martin, ostinato.
- Una bugia è una... Ma che significa? Non significa niente. A meno che tu non creda in un Dio che ti guarda e annota nel suo taccuino: Martin Fyfe lunedì ha detto una bugia, se continua così non gli daremo l'arpa. Ci credi? La verità! Che cos'è la verità! Ma se le tue cosiddette verità sono in gran parte costruite su bugie da cui si distinguono a stento! Io potrei, sono pronta a scommeterlo, potrei recitare la parte della bugiarda tutta la vita e non te ne accorgeresti neppure. Potrei essere una bugia.
Alle ultime parole Martin si coprì di un rossore improvviso. - Lo so che ne saresti capace, - disse con una certa durezza. - Sei abbastanza intelligente per fare tutto quello che vuoi, e io sono uno stupido. Ma non ci provare, ti prego...
- Non può esserci costrizione, capisci, Martin? - insistette lei malignamente. - Tu non mi faresti violenza per conquistarsi, vero? Mi lasceresti essere me stessa? Se mai provassi a costringermi, io ti direi una bugia dietro l'altra, e mi divertirei anche. E non ti perdonerei mai.
Lui si accese una sigaretta, e a denti stretti, fissando l'erba disse: - Con tutto questo, cosa cerchi di farmi capire? Che hai cambiato idea e vuoi rimangiarti la tua promessa?
Judith spalancò le braccia ed esclamò, quasi piangendo: - Ma non posso dire una parola? Non posso aprire bocca senza essere fraintesa?... Senza essere...
-----
- Ancora una cosa, - aggiunse. - non mi vergogno di quello che ho fatto, non mi vergogno di niente. Non c'è da vergognarsi di amare qualcuno e dichiararlo.
Non era vero. L'onta di quella resa, la lettera, l'amore non corrisposto avrebbero continuato a roderla, a bruciarla dentro, fino all'ultimo dei suoi giorni.
-----
- E intanto mi domando: per chi, per chi vorrai deporre le bende oscure che ti fasciano stretta la mente, per chi scaturirà la fiamma che vi è celata?
- Una bugia è una bugia, - obbiettò Martin, ostinato.
- Una bugia è una... Ma che significa? Non significa niente. A meno che tu non creda in un Dio che ti guarda e annota nel suo taccuino: Martin Fyfe lunedì ha detto una bugia, se continua così non gli daremo l'arpa. Ci credi? La verità! Che cos'è la verità! Ma se le tue cosiddette verità sono in gran parte costruite su bugie da cui si distinguono a stento! Io potrei, sono pronta a scommeterlo, potrei recitare la parte della bugiarda tutta la vita e non te ne accorgeresti neppure. Potrei essere una bugia.
Alle ultime parole Martin si coprì di un rossore improvviso. - Lo so che ne saresti capace, - disse con una certa durezza. - Sei abbastanza intelligente per fare tutto quello che vuoi, e io sono uno stupido. Ma non ci provare, ti prego...
- Non può esserci costrizione, capisci, Martin? - insistette lei malignamente. - Tu non mi faresti violenza per conquistarsi, vero? Mi lasceresti essere me stessa? Se mai provassi a costringermi, io ti direi una bugia dietro l'altra, e mi divertirei anche. E non ti perdonerei mai.
Lui si accese una sigaretta, e a denti stretti, fissando l'erba disse: - Con tutto questo, cosa cerchi di farmi capire? Che hai cambiato idea e vuoi rimangiarti la tua promessa?
Judith spalancò le braccia ed esclamò, quasi piangendo: - Ma non posso dire una parola? Non posso aprire bocca senza essere fraintesa?... Senza essere...
-----
- Ancora una cosa, - aggiunse. - non mi vergogno di quello che ho fatto, non mi vergogno di niente. Non c'è da vergognarsi di amare qualcuno e dichiararlo.
Non era vero. L'onta di quella resa, la lettera, l'amore non corrisposto avrebbero continuato a roderla, a bruciarla dentro, fino all'ultimo dei suoi giorni.
-----
- E intanto mi domando: per chi, per chi vorrai deporre le bende oscure che ti fasciano stretta la mente, per chi scaturirà la fiamma che vi è celata?
October 24, 2017
This is Lehmann's first novel, from 1927. I didn't realize it is her most famous, a "succès de scandale" for its "sensitive treatment of homosexuality" (in 1970s jacket copy, the "treatment" is always either "sensitive" or "frank").
Judith, an intelligent only child of well-to-do but emotionally distant parents, educated at home, becomes infatuated with the neighboring children, who are siblings and cousins all living with one grandmother (for a variety of reasons - they are not orphaned). She sees them off and on over a decade and by young adulthood goes through a series of entanglements with three of the young men, always one-sided and ill-fated and overhung by her torrid Cambridge relationship with the elusive Jennifer.
I am making it sound like a bit of a soap opera but Lehmann is an elegant writer and creates complex characters - this is the 4th or 5th novel of hers I've read.
Her own life was quite storied - leaving her first husband (2nd Viscount) for a 2nd Baron (who, before acceding to his hereditary title, ran for the House of Commons as a Communist), left the latter for a 9-year affair with Cecil Day-Lewis - etc!
Judith, an intelligent only child of well-to-do but emotionally distant parents, educated at home, becomes infatuated with the neighboring children, who are siblings and cousins all living with one grandmother (for a variety of reasons - they are not orphaned). She sees them off and on over a decade and by young adulthood goes through a series of entanglements with three of the young men, always one-sided and ill-fated and overhung by her torrid Cambridge relationship with the elusive Jennifer.
I am making it sound like a bit of a soap opera but Lehmann is an elegant writer and creates complex characters - this is the 4th or 5th novel of hers I've read.
Her own life was quite storied - leaving her first husband (2nd Viscount) for a 2nd Baron (who, before acceding to his hereditary title, ran for the House of Commons as a Communist), left the latter for a 9-year affair with Cecil Day-Lewis - etc!
December 2, 2009
Oh my I loved this novel. It is amazing to think that this novel first published in 1927 was Rosamund Lehmann's first novel. It is so beautifully written, passionate and finely observed. The voices of these young people resonate wonderfully. Their manner of speech could seem affected and odd in these modern times, and yet it serves to demonstrate and bring to life for us now, the times and emotional confusions of so many young people between the wars. This novel must have caused quite a stir upon it's publication, as the naive Judith becomes enamoured first of Jennifer whilst at Cambridge, and then falls recklessly in love with Roddy, one member of the Fyfe family who had so mesmerised her as a child. The lives of Judith and the Fyfe family are dramatic, sad and sometimes hopeless.
March 27, 2015
Outside, where the gentle dusk glimmered on rain-wet branches, the bird-calls were like sudden pale jets of light, coming achingly to the mind; and all at once the sun, like a bell, struck out a poignant richness, a long dark-golden evening note with tears in it, searching all the land with its fullness and dying slowly into a obscurer twilight. The tree-tops were quiet against the sky. There was no leaf upon them: yet, in that liquid mauve air, they stirred in her a sudden soft pang, a beating of the heart, and were, for a moment, the whole of the still hidden spring.
There's a lot of this lilac nature description. I don't think the things described tend to be very happy. Trembling, overwhelmed with their own realisation, at best. It suits the kind of emotional cornucopia this book is, full of deliciously melancholy excess of emotion. It's a juicily archetypal book about youth, in a very feminine way.
Judith is one of those lonely only children in love with a family, four boys and a girl. The family flutters in and out of her life without warning. I liked the descriptions of the painful jarring it is to have someone who has become a comfortable occupant of your mind appear in reality. Lehmann later described Judith as "a revolting character really, soppy." This is true enough. She's about as wet as they come. But I'm a sucker for a wanter. In childhood she has a crush on tempestuous golden boy Charlie, though reliable plodding Martin has a crush on her. After he's killed in WWI she quite deliberately transfers her affections to the slightly odd, distant Roddy, while having the odd moment of camaraderie with prickly, pretentious Julian.
Nothing really happens. There's no actual romance in this book. Judith goes off to Cambridge without getting to consummate any of her feelings. There she has a passionate friendship with Jennifer, a charismatic girl full of golden life, who breaks her heart by running off to be a lesbian amid great drama. Roddy occasionally visits her. She thinks they have a moments, though it's hard for her to be sure. Martin occasionally visits her, but she finds it hard to let him pine, even though she values him for his connection to Roddy.
Finally she offers herself to Roddy and finds he's not that into her. I did wish Judith had acknowledged that she deliberately decided to be in love with Roddy, so as to be in love. Everyone is in love with someone who's in love with someone else. The book ends with the dustiest answer Lehmann can devise, the classic ending of this variant of the bildungsroman. Everything Judith has invested in has disappeared. She will have to somehow create something new, but this book is all tragedy and doomed glorious youth. Like I said, I like wanting and this book is all about wanting.
There's a lot of this lilac nature description. I don't think the things described tend to be very happy. Trembling, overwhelmed with their own realisation, at best. It suits the kind of emotional cornucopia this book is, full of deliciously melancholy excess of emotion. It's a juicily archetypal book about youth, in a very feminine way.
Judith is one of those lonely only children in love with a family, four boys and a girl. The family flutters in and out of her life without warning. I liked the descriptions of the painful jarring it is to have someone who has become a comfortable occupant of your mind appear in reality. Lehmann later described Judith as "a revolting character really, soppy." This is true enough. She's about as wet as they come. But I'm a sucker for a wanter. In childhood she has a crush on tempestuous golden boy Charlie, though reliable plodding Martin has a crush on her. After he's killed in WWI she quite deliberately transfers her affections to the slightly odd, distant Roddy, while having the odd moment of camaraderie with prickly, pretentious Julian.
Nothing really happens. There's no actual romance in this book. Judith goes off to Cambridge without getting to consummate any of her feelings. There she has a passionate friendship with Jennifer, a charismatic girl full of golden life, who breaks her heart by running off to be a lesbian amid great drama. Roddy occasionally visits her. She thinks they have a moments, though it's hard for her to be sure. Martin occasionally visits her, but she finds it hard to let him pine, even though she values him for his connection to Roddy.
Finally she offers herself to Roddy and finds he's not that into her. I did wish Judith had acknowledged that she deliberately decided to be in love with Roddy, so as to be in love. Everyone is in love with someone who's in love with someone else. The book ends with the dustiest answer Lehmann can devise, the classic ending of this variant of the bildungsroman. Everything Judith has invested in has disappeared. She will have to somehow create something new, but this book is all tragedy and doomed glorious youth. Like I said, I like wanting and this book is all about wanting.
April 12, 2022
So happy I gave Rosamond Lehmann another go. I read “Invitation To The Waltz” a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it, but haven’t gotten around to reading anything else by her until recently. Thank God I found my copy of “Dusty Answer” stuffed in the closet of a spare bedroom. I knew it was there somewhere!
This book focuses on the life of Judith Earle from childhood to young adulthood, as well as a group of neighbors/cousins who she idolizes. As she gets older these illusions about the cousins start to fade, cracks start to show in the relationships and reality seeps in. I thought this was a really interesting premise which I can’t recall having read about before. It brought me back to a time when I was younger and everything meant more and seemed bigger than it was, when all you really had was yourself and your imagination and any brief interaction with other people set your mind off in a million different directions with a million possibilities. It was really sad to see Judith trying to hold on to that and realize it wasn’t sustainable, or maybe even ever real. But despite this sadness, there was also a very necessary breakthrough on her end (vague spoiler in quoted section ahead).
“When she reached home she would find that the cherry tree in the garden had been cut down. This morning she had seen the gardener start to lay the axe to its dying trunk. Even the cherry tree would be gone. Next door the board would be up: For Sale. None of the children next door had been for her. Yet she, from outside, had broken in among them and taken them one by one for herself. She had been stronger than their combined force, after all.”
The three books I’ve read by Lehmann all seem to focus on characters who never quite get what they want - outsiders, loners, people looking but never really finding. Also, like in “A Note In Music”, I was pleasantly surprised by the queer, ambiguous relationships and undertones.
Only a handful of authors can write in a way where, though I know a character is in the wrong or being completely illogical, I feel what they’re feeling, hate who they hate, like who they like.
Maybe my favorite part of Lehmann’s novels is the really special and particular way of she draws out her characters and brings them to life - their dialogues, their little actions and quirks and detachment, that make them so charming, even with all their flaws.
Can't wait to read more from her!
This book focuses on the life of Judith Earle from childhood to young adulthood, as well as a group of neighbors/cousins who she idolizes. As she gets older these illusions about the cousins start to fade, cracks start to show in the relationships and reality seeps in. I thought this was a really interesting premise which I can’t recall having read about before. It brought me back to a time when I was younger and everything meant more and seemed bigger than it was, when all you really had was yourself and your imagination and any brief interaction with other people set your mind off in a million different directions with a million possibilities. It was really sad to see Judith trying to hold on to that and realize it wasn’t sustainable, or maybe even ever real. But despite this sadness, there was also a very necessary breakthrough on her end (vague spoiler in quoted section ahead).
“When she reached home she would find that the cherry tree in the garden had been cut down. This morning she had seen the gardener start to lay the axe to its dying trunk. Even the cherry tree would be gone. Next door the board would be up: For Sale. None of the children next door had been for her. Yet she, from outside, had broken in among them and taken them one by one for herself. She had been stronger than their combined force, after all.”
The three books I’ve read by Lehmann all seem to focus on characters who never quite get what they want - outsiders, loners, people looking but never really finding. Also, like in “A Note In Music”, I was pleasantly surprised by the queer, ambiguous relationships and undertones.
Only a handful of authors can write in a way where, though I know a character is in the wrong or being completely illogical, I feel what they’re feeling, hate who they hate, like who they like.
Maybe my favorite part of Lehmann’s novels is the really special and particular way of she draws out her characters and brings them to life - their dialogues, their little actions and quirks and detachment, that make them so charming, even with all their flaws.
Can't wait to read more from her!
March 24, 2020
I read a Rosamond Lehmann on advice years ago, loved it as a evocation of childhood and family life I partway identified with (I *never* say that), and have since missed it rather desperately while memory blurs on its title. I'm still not sure which it was. When I found out she'd written about a bisexual woman main I located it at once.
I like her style, which is not modernist in the way of Woolf, although she was 'intimate with the Bloomsburys'--indeed I gather Lehmann fell through a crack as neither modernist nor backwards-looking toward the Victorian novel, and that this didn't help her work remain in sight.
Why hadn't I heard of this one as an LGBT classic? To be honest I never dared read The Well of Loneliness, published the year after (1928), because of its self-hatey reputation (mostly thanks to Jack Halberstam's Female Masculinity, I now think that rep exaggerated or misunderstood, and I'll try it). This presentation was not negative, although life as a lesbian in the society is seen to have mental health costs. It leaves somewhat to be desired, obviously, but I was happy--within my expectations of the time--with the bi/lesbian storyline. The main's relationship with a woman wasn't sidelined.
-- The het affairs? Oh, I didn't care, but the psychology of all is acute, and Lehmann is one of those writers I'll read for people-description. Also notable for landscape description, spliced closely enough with the mood of the story not to be redundant, original without being overegged. I look forward to slowly reading my way through her novels (and one day I'll happen upon the magic one I remember).
I like her style, which is not modernist in the way of Woolf, although she was 'intimate with the Bloomsburys'--indeed I gather Lehmann fell through a crack as neither modernist nor backwards-looking toward the Victorian novel, and that this didn't help her work remain in sight.
Why hadn't I heard of this one as an LGBT classic? To be honest I never dared read The Well of Loneliness, published the year after (1928), because of its self-hatey reputation (mostly thanks to Jack Halberstam's Female Masculinity, I now think that rep exaggerated or misunderstood, and I'll try it). This presentation was not negative, although life as a lesbian in the society is seen to have mental health costs. It leaves somewhat to be desired, obviously, but I was happy--within my expectations of the time--with the bi/lesbian storyline. The main's relationship with a woman wasn't sidelined.
-- The het affairs? Oh, I didn't care, but the psychology of all is acute, and Lehmann is one of those writers I'll read for people-description. Also notable for landscape description, spliced closely enough with the mood of the story not to be redundant, original without being overegged. I look forward to slowly reading my way through her novels (and one day I'll happen upon the magic one I remember).
August 7, 2010
There is some books, stories or even characters that you put in the corner of your mind, in the corner of your heart and they follow your everywhere you go. Judith and Roddy follow me everywhere. Rosamond Lehmann isn't well-known here (not for the common readers at least) and I discovered the book thanks to "Atonement" by Ian McEwan (who mentions the book in the novel when a journalist compares Briony's story to "Dusty Answer"). I was curious and chased down the book. There was no more publications of this book and I had to wait almost six months to finally read it. I was so ecstatic the day I got it in my hands...
The atmosphere reminds me of "Atonement" in many ways. Early 1900's England, the burden of the war and all the lost it has created. Judith is both a fascinated and fascinating character. We discover her in her early childhood when she was playing with the next-door family, The Fyfe, a group of cousins who came in the english countryside for the holiday. She is really fascinated by all of them: but little by little she becomes more and more attracted by Roddy Fyfe, the artistic and tortured soul. Time passes and one day, Judith is almost an adult. The war has affected the Fyfe family who finally comes back to their grand-mother's house. The reunion between Judith and The Fyfe is really strong and invites all of them to remember their childhood and the feelings they share. There is a twist in the story because when she was a little girl, Judith was fascinated by the Fyfe family but now that she is a grow-up, they are fascinated by her. The power of beauty, the power of mystery... The death of the older member of the family will cause many changes.
I love Rosamond Lehmann's writing. It's like a delicate hand which invites you to enter a world of imagination. At the same time, everything seems so real: the scents, the presence of Roddy next to Judith, the trouble she is feeling when he is near to her. The strenght of Judith's feeling almost breaks my heart and the climax of the book is just perfect. You can't have expected anything else between the two characters. The end of a book is really important for me. And the end of "Dusty answer" is just perfect for me. It leaves a taste of nostalgy, a taste of regrets for the things you didn't do or didn't have the courage to tempt at least. It emphasizes the loneliness of all the characters of the novel, like all the pain and all the years didn't have change anything, just as if time couldn't have any impact on the destiny of men. You just try to hang out on something, or someone, and one day you suddenly realize that it's gone away and you didn't even notice. Maybe a dream must remain a dream. George Bernard Shaw writes in "Man and superman", Act 4 (1903): "There is two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it". I think that it's a good way to express my state of mind after the last page of the book.
The ties between all the characters, the tragedy of resignation and fear (the fear of opening your heart to anybody), the burden of untelling feelings and desires, the weight of death and memories, make this book one of the greatest I have ever read.
The atmosphere reminds me of "Atonement" in many ways. Early 1900's England, the burden of the war and all the lost it has created. Judith is both a fascinated and fascinating character. We discover her in her early childhood when she was playing with the next-door family, The Fyfe, a group of cousins who came in the english countryside for the holiday. She is really fascinated by all of them: but little by little she becomes more and more attracted by Roddy Fyfe, the artistic and tortured soul. Time passes and one day, Judith is almost an adult. The war has affected the Fyfe family who finally comes back to their grand-mother's house. The reunion between Judith and The Fyfe is really strong and invites all of them to remember their childhood and the feelings they share. There is a twist in the story because when she was a little girl, Judith was fascinated by the Fyfe family but now that she is a grow-up, they are fascinated by her. The power of beauty, the power of mystery... The death of the older member of the family will cause many changes.
I love Rosamond Lehmann's writing. It's like a delicate hand which invites you to enter a world of imagination. At the same time, everything seems so real: the scents, the presence of Roddy next to Judith, the trouble she is feeling when he is near to her. The strenght of Judith's feeling almost breaks my heart and the climax of the book is just perfect. You can't have expected anything else between the two characters. The end of a book is really important for me. And the end of "Dusty answer" is just perfect for me. It leaves a taste of nostalgy, a taste of regrets for the things you didn't do or didn't have the courage to tempt at least. It emphasizes the loneliness of all the characters of the novel, like all the pain and all the years didn't have change anything, just as if time couldn't have any impact on the destiny of men. You just try to hang out on something, or someone, and one day you suddenly realize that it's gone away and you didn't even notice. Maybe a dream must remain a dream. George Bernard Shaw writes in "Man and superman", Act 4 (1903): "There is two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it". I think that it's a good way to express my state of mind after the last page of the book.
The ties between all the characters, the tragedy of resignation and fear (the fear of opening your heart to anybody), the burden of untelling feelings and desires, the weight of death and memories, make this book one of the greatest I have ever read.
August 24, 2023
This book is muddled because everyone longs for someone who isn't around & they lead people on who love them. No one is ever good enough. Everyone is rotten in this book.
November 16, 2018
My first book of Rosamond Lehmann's: it's touching, elegant, and beautifully stylised. I worry I will now need to read all her others; woe.
July 15, 2020
I was hoping for more from this but I just didn't care for any of the characters.
September 25, 2018
Memory is a strange thing. I read this book once perhaps fifteen years ago, more or less, and in my memory Judith's childhood & her fascination with her neighbours during it was the bulk of the book, and the time at Cambridge just a little piece at the end. Reading it again now, I find that is not how it is structured at all; perhaps the first third is the flashback to her childhood, and then a very long part at Cambridge, and then another section afterwards. And of course, as I am older, I read Judith differently as well; there was a time when I took for granted her
This is not to say that she is a terrible person; I do not think she is, just young and without any grounding -- she has some rules to get by on, but no idea what the rules are for, what it is that they are supposed to be guiding her towards and protecting her (and others) from.
And then, the lesbianism -- which Lehmann claimed was not there, but that she did so fascinates me. For I found it impossible to read
The more I write about this, the more I realise how much power this book has -- I simply cannot treat these characters as anything other than actual people, and I understand in a way I am not certain I have words for how Lehmann could insist there was no lesbianism in the book and yet be wrong -- she wrote what she saw and knew, very accurately, and the words for those things have changed, there are ideas about people and relationship now that she did not really have access to. I am very glad I reread it with adult eyes, and I think I will read more Lehmann; this is her first novel, and I wonder how they changed with her own adulthood.
This is not to say that she is a terrible person; I do not think she is, just young and without any grounding -- she has some rules to get by on, but no idea what the rules are for, what it is that they are supposed to be guiding her towards and protecting her (and others) from.
And then, the lesbianism -- which Lehmann claimed was not there, but that she did so fascinates me. For I found it impossible to read
The more I write about this, the more I realise how much power this book has -- I simply cannot treat these characters as anything other than actual people, and I understand in a way I am not certain I have words for how Lehmann could insist there was no lesbianism in the book and yet be wrong -- she wrote what she saw and knew, very accurately, and the words for those things have changed, there are ideas about people and relationship now that she did not really have access to. I am very glad I reread it with adult eyes, and I think I will read more Lehmann; this is her first novel, and I wonder how they changed with her own adulthood.
April 23, 2021
I didn’t enjoy this book, but I respect what it was trying to do within a very constrained budget in terms of contemporaneous societal norms. I also know that if it was a man doing this, I would just be like, “Henry Miller, why don’t you just die.” Bias isn’t always towards the more powerful group!
'Dusty Answer' is an interior portrait of the feverish thoughts and imaginings of a girl called Judith, describing her childhood neighbours the Fyfes and her interactions with them as a student in Cambridge. There isn’t a plot so much as changes in the way people think about Judith and how Judith interprets said changes in the hothouse of her hormonal teenage brain. She is the forerunner of a twenty-first century Disaster Bisexual. She manages to have romantic encounters not just with straight men and gay women, but with gay men*. She also may be the first girl in literature to have the 'he’s not worth it/you’re better than this' dichotomy crash headfirst into ‘but he is worth it so I should be better!’ fallacy. But not, alas, the last.
“She should have whetted his appetite by offering only a little at a time and then withdrawing it; so he still might be desirous of her.”
First literary heroine to lament her Bad Move one night stand?
“Haven’t you the guts to snap your fingers at a fellow who can’t be bothered with you? Aren’t you attractive and intelligent? Can’t you laugh? Aren’t there plenty of others?”
Yeah, Judith. Just get over it.
*Obviously I’m applying modern terminology the characters/author would not have applied themselves. I think it’s pretty clear from implication that romance – plus or minus sex – is what’s happening, though. See above for budget constraints of ‘being written in 1927’.
It’s not that I object to interiority or minimalist plots that mainly comprise Feeeeelings. What stopped me from enjoying this as much as I could have were the cut-off points. You always see Judith being a nervy, over-sensitive clinger; you never get to see her learning to grow a protective skin of her own self-worth or garner some insight into the root of her suffering. Equally, it ends with But that’s fully a my trash issue. From an internal validity perspective, this book does what it set out to do. It’s not the book’s fault that I would rather Lerner set out to do something else.
'Dusty Answer' is an interior portrait of the feverish thoughts and imaginings of a girl called Judith, describing her childhood neighbours the Fyfes and her interactions with them as a student in Cambridge. There isn’t a plot so much as changes in the way people think about Judith and how Judith interprets said changes in the hothouse of her hormonal teenage brain. She is the forerunner of a twenty-first century Disaster Bisexual. She manages to have romantic encounters not just with straight men and gay women, but with gay men*. She also may be the first girl in literature to have the 'he’s not worth it/you’re better than this' dichotomy crash headfirst into ‘but he is worth it so I should be better!’ fallacy. But not, alas, the last.
“She should have whetted his appetite by offering only a little at a time and then withdrawing it; so he still might be desirous of her.”
First literary heroine to lament her Bad Move one night stand?
“Haven’t you the guts to snap your fingers at a fellow who can’t be bothered with you? Aren’t you attractive and intelligent? Can’t you laugh? Aren’t there plenty of others?”
Yeah, Judith. Just get over it.
*Obviously I’m applying modern terminology the characters/author would not have applied themselves. I think it’s pretty clear from implication that romance – plus or minus sex – is what’s happening, though. See above for budget constraints of ‘being written in 1927’.
It’s not that I object to interiority or minimalist plots that mainly comprise Feeeeelings. What stopped me from enjoying this as much as I could have were the cut-off points. You always see Judith being a nervy, over-sensitive clinger; you never get to see her learning to grow a protective skin of her own self-worth or garner some insight into the root of her suffering. Equally, it ends with But that’s fully a my trash issue. From an internal validity perspective, this book does what it set out to do. It’s not the book’s fault that I would rather Lerner set out to do something else.
August 21, 2019
Nonostante dalla seconda metà il libro si sia un po’ riscattato, non posso attribuirgli più di due stelle.
Forse avevo aspettative troppo grandi, visto che l’autrice era amica di Leonard e Virginia Woolf, di Vanessa Bell, di Lytton Stratchey, ed avevo letto entusiastiche recensioni. Ammetto che la scrittura della Lehman è incantevole, e certi passaggi sono lirici, ma nell’insieme ho trovato la trama noiosa e stucchevole, forse troppo lontana dai miei gusti personali.
Da pagina 300 la storia si è fatta più incalzante ed avvincente ma complessivamente non ho gradito l’immagine leziosa ed affettata della protagonista, la sua continua tensione verso un amore irrealizzabile, la descrizione di ambienti e dialoghi artificiosi e stereotipati. Secondo me un tipo di scrittura ampiamente superata.
Ma è solo la mia personale opinione.
Forse avevo aspettative troppo grandi, visto che l’autrice era amica di Leonard e Virginia Woolf, di Vanessa Bell, di Lytton Stratchey, ed avevo letto entusiastiche recensioni. Ammetto che la scrittura della Lehman è incantevole, e certi passaggi sono lirici, ma nell’insieme ho trovato la trama noiosa e stucchevole, forse troppo lontana dai miei gusti personali.
Da pagina 300 la storia si è fatta più incalzante ed avvincente ma complessivamente non ho gradito l’immagine leziosa ed affettata della protagonista, la sua continua tensione verso un amore irrealizzabile, la descrizione di ambienti e dialoghi artificiosi e stereotipati. Secondo me un tipo di scrittura ampiamente superata.
Ma è solo la mia personale opinione.
maybe
January 15, 2021****************************
*Invitation to the Waltz 2 stars
*Dusty Answer
*Invitation to the Waltz 2 stars
*Dusty Answer
June 7, 2011
I could stare it this cover for hours, I really could.
...Oh, and the book itself was good too. ;) I'm glad I took a chance on it and bought it before reading, which was my only option since Rosamond Lehmann's books are so hard to come by now. I absolutely must get my hands on more of her work!
...Oh, and the book itself was good too. ;) I'm glad I took a chance on it and bought it before reading, which was my only option since Rosamond Lehmann's books are so hard to come by now. I absolutely must get my hands on more of her work!
July 10, 2024
I finished this one yesterday and I just had to give it five stars! I find the Bloomsbury Group so interesting, yet Rosamond Lehmann was a new discovery for me! Her prose is so so so lyrical, the story she tells is so touching and, most of all, her characters feel so real in their lust for life and wonder. Judith has to be one of my favourite main characters I have ever had the pleasure of getting acquianted with. Her dramatic nature and imaginitive tendencies felt so familiar. So sad to let go of this story and the world of Judith Earle <3
November 8, 2024
Beautiful book- genuinely found it so relatable even though was written in 1920s
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