Invitation to the Waltz
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ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE BRITISH WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
'The first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions' ANITA BROOKNER
'Every emotional ripple is beautifully observed: the hideous anticipation' GUARDIAN
'Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters' MARGARET DRABBLE
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 seventeenth 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 elder sister Kate, the dance is certain to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia?
Exploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann perfectly captures the emotions of a girl standing poised on the threshold of womanhood.
'The first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions' ANITA BROOKNER
'Every emotional ripple is beautifully observed: the hideous anticipation' GUARDIAN
'Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters' MARGARET DRABBLE
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 seventeenth 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 elder sister Kate, the dance is certain to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia?
Exploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann perfectly captures the emotions of a girl standing poised on the threshold of womanhood.
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- Published: Jun 11 2026
- ISBN: 9780349018041
Press Reviews
- Anita Brookner
A novelist in the grand tradition, and, more than this, an innovator, the first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions
- Margaret Drabble
Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters, of suffering
- Marghanita Laski
No English writer has told of the pains of women in love more truly or more movingly than Rosamond Lehmann
English PEN
Lehmann legitimised a type of writing that took on deep personal themes
Anita Brookner
A novelist in the grand tradition, and, more than this, an innovator, the first writer to filter her stories through a woman's feelings and perceptions
Margaret Drabble
Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters, of suffering
Marghanita Laski
No English writer has told of the pains of women in love more truly or more movingly than Rosamond Lehmann
- Guardian
Every emotional ripple is beautifully observed: the hideous anticipation, the agony of the empty dance card, the brief flutters of hope as various men take her for a turn around the dance floor, the many small disappointments that follow and the sudden vivid need to escape from the crowd, to flee, to breathe