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Invitation to the Waltz (Paperback)

by Rosamond Lehmann (Author) "THE village, in the hollow below the house, is picturesque, unhygienic : it has more atmosphere than form, than outline : huddled shapes of soft..." (more)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New edition edition (2 Mar 2006)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1844083055
ISBN-13: 978-1844083053
Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 1.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 39,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#3 in Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > L > Lehmann, Rosamond

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Review

'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' Anita Brookner 'Lehmann has always written brilliantly of women in love, of mothers, of daughters, of suffering' Margaret Drabble 'No English writer has told of the pains of women in love more truly or more movingly than Rosamond Lehmann' Marghanita Laski

Product Description

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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First Sentence
THE village, in the hollow below the house, is picturesque, unhygienic : it has more atmosphere than form, than outline : huddled shapes of soft red brick sag towards gardens massed with sunflowers, Canterbury bells, sweet-williams. Read the first page

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	77% buy the item featured on this page: Invitation to the Waltz 4.8 out of 5 stars (4) �4.99
	9% buy The Weather in the Streets (Virago Modern Classics) 4.4 out of 5 stars (8) �6.72
	6% buy Dusty Answer 4.5 out of 5 stars (4) �5.99
	5% buy The Echoing Grove (Virago Modern Classics) 4.5 out of 5 stars (2) �5.98

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews

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4 star:		(1)
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4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A joyful, funny, poignant story of young dreams unfolding., 25 Oct 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Invitation to the Waltz (Virago modern classics) (Paperback)

This novel failed at first to grasp me. I had started it once and ditched it. Haven't we seen the homes and lives of middle England, circa 1920, portrayed a thousand times? On a weekend break in the country, I tried again. I had been too hasty the first time. Lehmann's prose is captivating. She describes Olivia's first dance, her attempted elegance in a poorly assembled gown, her own and her sister's disappointment with the 'suitable young man' fetched up from somewhere to accompany them. The agony of appearing in a room full of strangers, relying on a lacklustre escort was particularly appropriate as I too attended a dance the weekend I read the book. I too had to face a room of strangers, and eighty years on, the same pain is still palpable in that situation.. Lehmann's writing becomes subtle and arresting. Scene after scene is written with truly fine comedy entwined with delicate reflections on adolescence, class and love . I howled with laughter, then blinked back tears at a poignant description of a blind man. Olivia doesn't enjoy as immediately successful an evening as her sister Kate but her 'Invitation to the Waltz 'of life is much more arresting.

Perhaps Lehmann borrowed a little too closely from Jane Austen's 'Mr Collins' in her portrait of the stuffy escort. ( Is there a bibliography of comic literary clergymen somewhere?). Perhaps the elision from comedy to tragedy played a little too obviously with the reader's emotions, but these reservations are curmudgeonly. The book is a toast to a young woman's debut into the world written with expert comic observation, and consummate prose. Delicious. Please read it!

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious and delightful, 27 Jul 2006

By	Star_Sea "Xing" (Salisbury, England) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I first read this book nearly ten years ago, when I was not much younger than Olivia and just as naive! Olivia is a wonderful character, rather sensitive and not quite sure of her place in the world, wishing for that magical transformation that will turn her into someone graceful and beautiful, like her older sister Kate. However, despite her awkward ways and the disappointing escort, Olivia's 'waltz' turns out to be very interesting indeed. Lehmann's stream-of-consciousness is first rate and leaves you wanting more.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding novel - one of my favourites, 2 Jul 2007

By	Wanting To Read More Molly Keane - See all my reviews

I first read this book when I was seventeen, the same age as Olivia. The experience of reading this was so strong that I could afterwards remember every episode in my head as if it had really happened.

Although Rosamond Lehmann's style is laden with adjectives, three or four at a time sometimes, this technique really works in Invitation to the Waltz, and the impressionistic style is so powerful, that it's hypnotic and deeply memorable.

Reading it again at 24, I can see how naive Olivia is: it's not that surprising she gets into the mess she does in The Weather in The Streets: she's extremely gullible!

But still I love living every moment of the book through her: the cringiness of feeling obliged to buy pieces of lace from the manipulative salesgirl, being sickened by lecherous old men, being starstruck by the knowable but untouchable Spencers - for Olivia, used to a comfortable middle-class schoolroom bound environment - this is her chance to experience life, glamour and excitement. It's our chance too, to be taken away into the world of the novel, to be swept by the heady sense of expectation, and forced to witness and take a part in the little emotional dramas that make this novel so sensitive and finely tuned.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A first dance
Invitation to the Waltz travels into the life, indeed into the mind, of Olivia Curtis.

The plot is simple. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Fleur Fisher

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