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Invitation to the Waltz

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 · rating details · 265 ratings · 37 reviews

A diary for her innermost thoughts, a china ornament, a ten-shilling note, and a roll of flame-coloured silk for her first evening dress—these are the gifts Olivia Curtis receives for her 17th birthday. She anticipates her first dance, the greatest yet most terrifying event of her restricted social life, with tremulous uncertainty and excitement. For her pretty, charming e...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published March 1st 2006 by Virago UK (first published 1932)

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Dec 17, 2011 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: time of my life

Recommended to Mariel by: slow motion

I think I loved Invitation to the Waltz a little bit. I have a feeling about it that it could grow into my memory as a fonder experience. Sweet and sad. I'll sigh when spotting it on my bookshelf (it is still on my bedside table. I'm reluctant to let go of the evening just yet). It's what people mean when they describe an experience as bittersweet, probably. I don't know if I could trust a memory as real unless its edges were sharp. "Did I built it into something too perfect?" If you're like me...more I think I loved Invitation to the Waltz a little bit. I have a feeling about it that it could grow into my memory as a fonder experience. Sweet and sad. I'll sigh when spotting it on my bookshelf (it is still on my bedside table. I'm reluctant to let go of the evening just yet). It's what people mean when they describe an experience as bittersweet, probably. I don't know if I could trust a memory as real unless its edges were sharp. "Did I built it into something too perfect?" If you're like me and find it difficult to enjoy anything without feeling sad for the inevitable moment of it ending you'll probably like this curious nostalgic feeling of a seventeen year old girl's first encounter with, well, looking around at other people (and maybe trying to avoid the meeting of the eyes in the looking around) to see if someone else might get the 'If you're like me..." feeling. It might be like reading a book and writing the goodreads review of it in your head while you read feeling. Olivia does that before, during and after her dance. They say not to look at your feet while you dance. Lehmann's prose style is a little like looking at your feet when you dance. She's moving. There are steps, like doing someone else's made up dance (I have used this analogy before, probably. When you rehearse and then on the day of you know the steps and forget and you're just dancing), and yet it's you moving. I like the way she moves. At first I wasn't so sure. Too many descriptions of outfits, the sister Kate was uninteresting to me in her predetermined romance that pretty people in young people's novels can have. I was suspicious that it would be another same old story I've read before. Yet it's unique like some dance that anyone could dance because of the deliberation of the steps. (Enough, Mariel.) Olivia is hopeful, out of place, uncomfortable in her own skin. It's the good kind of painful because you can like someone else for having those qualities that you were miserable yourself having. Anyone could say awkward teen, stiff upper lip English people, catty debutantes, et all, and yet Lehmann writes it as just skin to be worn and seen through if you will. The interest for me is in the will.

'Invitation' is a little awkward, even shy. I'm hooked on its arm and led into the country dance (it's really a dance this time!) that's something a great deal more than a country dance because it has been thought so much of. It's about the fit. The fit is less because it has been thought so much (less) of. Lehmann did something brilliant here. It's like wanting to be aware and utterly without the background to place others in. It is like being on someone else's arm in a room. Their shelter is also the shadow for you to stand in, if you do not know your own background (sharp edges and blurry middles. Or is it the other way around?). Olivia is a seventeen year old girl who stops to notice how she breathes. Do you ever stop and pay attention to your own breathing and after a while it feels like you might forget how if you can't stop paying attention to your own breathing? What if you also pay attention to how other people breathe and, wish as you might, you are not in sync. The arm you are on yanks as much as it can pull. It feels good when you're pulled so that you don't think about it.
The word suspicious is used a lot. What other people might mean, if you could read behind their intentions. If you could pull back the curtain of the mask. It's about the hope that there might be nothing more behind that background than the nice face it puts on. It's about when you might pull back on the arm. It's about feeling like there could be some imagination about that background and others fitting into it. 'Waltz' is bittersweet because I'm getting pulled too. I don't know if Olivia is going to remember to breathe. I forget when she forgets and suspect when she suspects. I don't know more about these people than she does. It's pretty much the perfect look into how a shy person forgets how to judge because she is too afraid of being judged herself.

I found out about Invitation to the Waltz (and it's sequel. I'm going to read that soon. I'm looking forward to it as a special treat for the Christmas break) when looking for readalikes of the favorites of my heart books. It was recommended for fans of Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart (my favorite book). It could have easily have been one of my I Capture the Castle readalikes of the summer of 2011, as well. This is one of my most cherished kinds of stories. How do you keep the hope alive about what is going on in all of those other people's heads? The studying/living/breaking one's own heart story. I think that I read them as a reminder that it comes out of the hope as much as suspicion. I want to believe that some part behind my own mask has wheel cogs turning to wonder about those Olivias.

"They were so kind. This was what real people were like after all, just as she had always imagined; not sinister, inexplicable, but friendly and simple, accepting one pleasantly, with humour but without malice, without condescension, criticism or caresses. How extraordinary to be here with them; from being outcast, flung beyond the furthest rim, to have penetrated suddenly to the innermost core of the house, to be in their home. The dancing, the people beyond were nothing, a froth on the surface, soon to be blown away."

And yet I felt so lonely for Olivia in the end. The dance is over and all of those people she met (some were out right horrors) are trying to keep a softer shape in her mind. I felt like she was losing those real edges and it was too sweet that she should trust. What if her Uncle Oswald is right that if she doesn't decide what the right way to fit is that someone else will decide for her. What if they don't stand beside with a sympathetic expression as Olivia does? What if she meets too many people who don't make the same concern and the wonder is gone and everyone seems the same old story that only some people get to have in novels? (I'd tell her to read better novels. They have great people.) What if those people weren't worth bothering about? Is it enough to do it to have better edges? I don't know... More books.(less)

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Jul 25, 2012 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Upon first reading Invitation to the Waltz I thought it was a lively charming novel, which it is. This re-read of it however, has given me the chance to appreciate just how very good it is. First published in 1932, but set around 1920 Invitation to the Waltz is the story of a dance, seventeen year old Olivia's first ever, which she will attend with her beautiful older sister Kate. On the surface there isn’t much to the story at all. Olivia wakes to her seventeenth birthday, is given some marvell...more Upon first reading Invitation to the Waltz I thought it was a lively charming novel, which it is. This re-read of it however, has given me the chance to appreciate just how very good it is. First published in 1932, but set around 1920 Invitation to the Waltz is the story of a dance, seventeen year old Olivia's first ever, which she will attend with her beautiful older sister Kate. On the surface there isn’t much to the story at all. Olivia wakes to her seventeenth birthday, is given some marvellous scarlet fabric to have a dress made for the coming ball, a ten shilling note, a diary and an ugly ornament from her sweet little brother. Then there are the days leading up to the dance, the dress which must be made and the anticipated arrival of Reggie who will accompany them to the dance, and provide a possibly much needed partner for Olivia. Olivia and Kate's family comprises a socially aware mother an elderly father, odd Uncle Oswald, and endearingly sweet 7-year-old brother James. Olivia is a wonderful character – brought up to be polite, she is terrified of hurting people’s feeling, she is so overly conscious of herself as we so often are at that age – that her trials and agonies could belong to almost any young girl – even today.

“I want to do something absolutely different, or perhaps nothing at all: just stay where I am, in my home, and absorb each hour, each day, and be alone; and read and think; and walk about the garden in the night; and wait, wait...”

Then comes the evening of the party and the awful, exciting anticipation, of a longed for event. The flame coloured fabric that Olivia is given for her birthday has been made into a dress by local seamstress Miss Robinson, another wonderful creation from Rosamond Lehmann, as we are allowed a poignant glimpse of this sad woman’s life, her disappointments and inadequacies. The dress surprisingly not tried on in its finished form until the evening itself is inevitably a disappointment. The evening of the dance takes up three-quarters of the book with the people Olivia and Kate meet - especially Olivia, the conversations they have, and the feelings they awake in her. Olivia meets some interesting characters at the dance – a young blind man, a rather miserable poet as well as the son of the household Rollo Spencer.

“I’ve had a lot really, one way and another. What was it that, at last, had made almost a richness? Curious fragments odd and ends of looks, speeches…Nothing for myself really. Rollo leaving me to go to Nicola. Rollo and his father smiling at one another. Peter crying, saying “are you my friend?” Kate looking so happy…Waltzing with Timmy. Marigold flying downstairs to him. Yes, I can say I’ve enjoyed myself.”

The dance held for the effervescent Marigold Spencer – is both an excitement and an agony for Kate and Olivia. They just daughters of a middle-class businessman, while aristocratic Marigold and Rollo Spencer are from an altogether different world. A world of glamour, house parties, trips to London, fast cars and hunting. As they leave childhood behind them, they will inevitably become more separate from the glorious beings from the big house who they were once more equal to, as children. Rosamond Lehmann portrays the differences of class, and social position brilliantly in this novel. From the sad thirty-year-old dressmaker, aware she was too good to marry a bricklayer, left on the shelf and reduced to a life of tedium and ill health. To the sweep’s bedraggled little children, to the selfish, vain young things who arrive for the party, she has a brilliantly observing eye.

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Mar 29, 2009 Denis rated it 4 of 5 stars

What could have been, with a less talented and sharp writer, a shallow, sentimental, soapy romance novel, becomes with the great Rosamond Lehmann a masterful exploration of adolescent angst and dreams, and one of the most delightful evocation, not only of a young girl's psyche, but also of a whole British social class at a certain time of its history. As usual, Lehmann approaches her characters with tenderness and compassion, but also with great realism and depth, and not, sometimes, without a l...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Moira Russell marked it as to-read · review of another edition

de rigeur GoodReads review UTU selection: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lch0o4...#

- the cover is b&w, except where it is pink (OMG Photoshop effect)
- the title is in swirly neon-yellow fake cursive
- the back cover is VILE pink
- with a neon-yellow blurb on it from Anita Brookner
- and other titles by the same author are represented by thumbnails showing, respectively: 1) a man's giant blue hands clutching a woman, in orange, from the back 2) a girl whose face is half cut off opening her pink...more

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Jul 21, 2011 Jacquelynn Luben rated it 3 of 5 stars

I recently finished An Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann. She was on the fringe of the Bloomsbury set, and there are echoes of Virginia Woolf in the way she concentrates on a very short space of time and presents the thoughts of the main protagonists, rather then telling a story with a strong plot. On the one hand, I have to say that it was amusing and endearing to get under the skin of the teenage girl, Olivia, as she prepares for the all-important first dance. On the other hand, this...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Kirsty Darbyshire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book

This kept reminding me of a girls school story. It was written in 1932 and even now I've probably read more school stories from that era than I have adult literature; and the central character is seventeen year old Olivia who is more-or-less the kind of upper middle class nice girl who might have turned up at the Chalet School or its ilk.

It was just the same turns of phrase and atmosphere that linked this book to my childhood reading though, this is a more honest look at a young woman. The story

...more

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Apr 11, 2012 Marija rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, modern-classics

All told, the story is simple in its summation—a young girl’s birthday followed by her experiences at her first dance—but it would be a detriment to leave it at that. Olivia is a wonderful observer. She catches people both at their best and their worst—all pretense is stripped away, revealing the true nature of every character. This is an honest book full of awkwardness and vulnerability. Yet at same time, Olivia’s observations of both herself and others are often wonderfully amusing.

However, th...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Angela Young rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a clever idea to make the excitement about and preparations for her first dance the setting for Olivia Curtis's agonising and heart-rending coming-of-age. The things she notices about herself as she realises the party she had imagined is not the party she is actually at are poignant and true and timeless. I think I imbibed this novel in its entirety the way - when I've cooked food for supper - I eat without thinking about the individual ingredients that make it taste the way it tastes. I ca...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Ellen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, fiction

I was interested in reading "Invitation to the Waltz", by Rosamund Lehmann, primarily because of Lehmann's association with the Bloomsbury Group through her brother, John Lehmann, who worked for the Woolfs in their publishing endeavor, the Hogarth Press. What I found is that Rosamund Lehmann has been influenced by Virginia Woolf's writing concepts, and the stream-of-consciousness method.

The entire book takes place during one day, similar to "Mrs. Dalloway". The two main characters, Kate and Oliv...more

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Oct 18, 2011 Misha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, persephone-virago-nyrb-vintage, favorites, favorites-2011, literary-fiction, like-downton-abbey

What a delightful read! I came across this book due to comparisons with I Capture the Castle, another wonderful coming-of-age book and a favorite of mine.

Invitation to the Waltz is told from the POV of Olivia, 17 year old protagonist, who has been invited to her first dance. The first half covers the morning of her birthday, and the preparations for the dance. The second half is the dance itself. This book is definitely not for those who like plot-driven, action-packed or fast-paced novels. In f...more What a delightful read! I came across this book due to comparisons with I Capture the Castle, another wonderful coming-of-age book and a favorite of mine.

Invitation to the Waltz is told from the POV of Olivia, 17 year old protagonist, who has been invited to her first dance. The first half covers the morning of her birthday, and the preparations for the dance. The second half is the dance itself. This book is definitely not for those who like plot-driven, action-packed or fast-paced novels. In fact, plot-wise hardly anything happens. So why the 5 stars? The characters, that's why. They are the most vibtant and memorable set of characters I have come across in any book. Though this book is mostly from Olivia's POV, we are also given a glimpse into Kate's - Olivia's beautiful older sister - POV as well. I loved Olivia! Overshadowed by her sister, Olivia often lacks confidence, is sometimes naive, and sometines extraordinarily mature for her age. The authors gives her readers a chance to see the world from Olivia's eyes. We experience her hopes, fears, sadness. I loved how Olivia is so awkward and scared about her first dance. She is often childish and then admonishes herself for being so. There are no end to the humourous moments. The experiences of our lovable heroine before and after the dance, and her often awkward encounters with different people are laced with hilarious moments. The author's beautiful prose makes these encounters and the people come alive.

The best part of the book is the dance itself. We get to see each new acquaintance through Olivia's eyes. Each meeting is described in detail, and each person leaves something to ponder upon, both for Olivia as well as the readers. Maurice, who is so kind; Archie, who is so charming yet snubs her; Peter, the overly sensitive poet; the handsome, enigmatic Rollo Spencer and so on. At the end of the dance, Olivia looks upon everything with a new maturity and insight. The naive young girl grows up.

The ending is a hopeful yet sad one, as Olivia realizes that one dance has changed everthing. Kate is no longer the same, and neither is she. One night has changed the dynamics of their relationship completely.

Invitation to the Waltz is a deeply satisfying read, recommended for fans of Jane Austen, Dodie Smith and Nancy Mitford.

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Mar 05, 2011 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, library, library-arlington

The early chapters of this book about two sisters going to a dance were a bit of a muddle for me. Lehmann drops the reader into the middle of the sisters' world, and I kept feeling that I was missing out on some important family history. The narrative style added to the muddle. The third-person narrative shifts between plain younger sister Olivia and her older sister Kate, but Olivia remains the primary focus. The shifts to Kate’s perspective struck me as odd because the book is so clearly Olivi...more

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Dec 19, 2010 Mona rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century-lit, literature, britain, small-press-nyrb-persephone-virago

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is my first (conscious) Virago read. I started paying attention to the Virago Press titles and authors after discovering that many of the bloggers who enjoyed Persephone Books were into this publisher as well. Virago Press publishes works by women writers.

The novel takes place in 1920 and follows seventeen-year-old Olivia Curtis's preparation for and attendance at her first dance. Beyond that, there's not much of a plot. The novel is divided into three parts. The first part, about 86 pages...more

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Apr 06, 2010 Mandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2010

This book follows seventeen year old Olivia in the days before her first dance. We meet an array of different characters, from her beautiful sister, Kate to the cheeky children of the village all seen from Olivia's point of view, some times innocent, yet often with a wry insight and always with tenderness. I loved the flow and rhythm of this story as you bounce along with Olivia. Also, although the book is set clearly within a 1920s time frame and within a certain class, I think young girls of t...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: in-by-of-england, 2008, reviewed

Remember what high school dances were like? Remember how important the little successes and failures were? Rosamond Lehmann describes it perfectly. Remember being seventeen and in a dress that didn't work out as you hoped, worried about being sweaty (and terrified of how you might smell), hoping that someone would ask you to dance and hoping that someone else wouldn't, and wishing you could be like those other girls who seem so breezy and in an inner circle that you'll never know?

The book was pu...more

9 likes · like · see review

May 11, 2011 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, favourites

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Invitation to the Waltz is a short, perfectly-formed account of the week leading up to, and the occasion of, a grand dance, filtered through the minds of two teenaged sisters, Olivia (the youngest) and Kate. Several things made me conclude that Lehmann was my new favourite writer: 1) the lucid and accurate dialogue – when reading it, I found myself grinning, and wanting to point out to people how good it was; 2) the acute psychological and social observations, and the succession of interesting,...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Susan Kavanagh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british, virago

My first foray into the work of Rosalind Lehmann will not be my last. Lehmann presents a beguiling story of a week in the life of a young woman that includes her birthday and an important dance. Within this tight structure, the author develops interesting characters, explores issues of class and describes English country society between the wars. All the blogs were right--this is a terrific novel.

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Aug 29, 2012 rachael gibson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Brilliant coming-of-age book in a similar vein to I Capture the Castle. A really comforting, wonderful read but painful at times with the perfectly-documented commentary on what it is to be an awkward teenager full of uncertainty.

"She tried to repeat it indifferently, as if correcting what of course had been a mere slip of the tongue..."

In fact, sod being an awkward teenager - it's a passage that still makes me squirm as an awkward adult!

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Jun 16, 2010 Margaret rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, virago, authors-kl

This was the first Lehmann I read, and it's still probably my favorite. It's a simple snapshot of a teenage girl getting ready for and going to her first dance. Nothing momentous happens, but it's not meant to; it's just a beautifully written, sympathetically perceived portrait of its heroine, Olivia, and a short span in her life.

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Feb 17, 2013 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's trivial to say that this novel would make for a Downton Abbey fix, but it's a haunting novel, set in the years post-WWI, about a young British woman's first dance. More than any book I've read in some time, it successfully channels the anxiety and confusion a young woman faces as she becomes an adult--as well as the way one shakes with the beauty of finding herself and her agency in the world.

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Oct 13, 2010 Shelley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: persephone-virago, read-2010

I really enjoyed this book published in 1932. Sounds like a hideous romance novel, but is actually a very simple story about a girl turning 17 and attending her first dance. The prose is very beautiful, and I will definitely add the sequel to my tbr pile.

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Dec 03, 2012 Abigail rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

The story of Olivia Curtis, who has just turned seventeen, as she experiences her birthday, the preparation for her first dance, and the dance itself. Written in 1932, but taking place somewhat earlier I think (references to the war with fairly young people having suffered injuries), it depicts rural English middle class society and how Olivia as a young girl reacts to the people around her. Once the evening of the dance arrives, she is exposed to a greater variety of people than she had ever en...more

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Feb 22, 2009 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

My Mum gave me the book having heard it discussed on Radio 4. While nothing much happens at all, the thought processes are of interest.

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Aug 11, 2009 Zen Cho rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit, interwar

Thought this was good -- sensitive, very readable style. Was impressed by the evocation of Olivia's moods and vulnerability.

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Mar 19, 2013 Dolors rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

The introduction of a young lady in the London Society.
And the ending of her innocence and happiness.

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Dec 22, 2011 Rosemary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This charming book, first published in 1932, follows the sensitive Olivia Curtis through two important days of her life: her seventeenth birthday and, a week later, her first dance. Set in 1920, it evokes the clumsy mixture of eagerness, innocence and embarrassment that surrounds a girl who longs to live to the full but knows she is not one of the prettiest ones.

This is a wonderful portrait of a girl on the brink of womanhood and a particular time and place. Rosamond Lehmann is probably best kno...more

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Sep 20, 2008 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first in a series of books about the same character. In this one she is a girl of 16, going to her first party/dance in a country house with her sister who is 18. It is the story of that dance. The next in the series of books follows the same girl when she has a relationship with a married man and that sounds like it will be a lot more of a spicy read ! Also in this book, I am afraid I got mixed up about which bits of the book were actually written through the eyes of the sister and...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 30, 2012 Annie Williams rated it 1 of 5 stars

Hated it - found it boring and was not interested in the two girls at all

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Jul 31, 2011 Raluca added it

i liked it very much! something for jane austin's fans.

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Mar 14, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

A pleasant read!

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Jul 07, 2008 Siria rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, british-fiction

Not much happens in this book, but then nothing is really supposed to happen: it's just a snapshot of a moment in the life of a young girl who was living at a time of immense social change in Britain, one of the last generation of upper-middle-class girls who would be educated at home by a governess, have a brief coming out season, and then be married off to a nice young man. Very light and charming, a quick and pleasurable read.

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About Rosamond Lehmann

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 r...more 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[1:][2:] 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,[3:] 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.

(Source: wikipedia)(less)

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Quotes from Invitation to the Waltz

“Advice to Young Journal Keepers. Be lenient with yourself. Conceal your worst faults, leave out your most shameful thoughts, actions, and temptations. Give yourself all the good and interesting qualities you want and haven't got. If you should die young, what comfort would it be to your relatives to read the truth and have to say: It is not a pearl we have lost, but a swine?” — 7 people liked it

“I want to do something absolutely different, or perhaps nothing at all: just stay where I am, in my home, and absorb each hour, each day, and be alone; and read and think; and walk about the garden in the night; and wait, wait...” — 5 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1477344.Invitation_to_the_Waltz?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328729192l/1477344.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1477344.Invitation_to_the_Waltz?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann[/url]

Invitation to the Waltz

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