Dusty Answer

Dusty Answer
1st US edition
Author(s)	Rosamond Lehmann
Country	England
Language	English
Genre(s)	Bildungsroman[1]
Publisher	Chatto & Windus (UK) Henry Holt (US)
Publication date	1927
Media type	Print & Audio
Pages	355 (UK), 348 (US)
OCLC Number	479619425

Dusty Answer is English author Rosamond Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927. She sent it unsolicited to publishers Chatto & Windus who agreed to publish it, saying it showed 'decided quality'.^[2]. It went unnoticed on initial publication but then received an effusive review by respected critic Alfred Noyes of The Sunday Times who called it 'the sort of novel Keats would have written', which brought it to public attention and it became a bestseller,^[3][4] and according to The Guardian a 'landmark book of the interwar period'.^[5]. Its success allowed her to leave her then husband and run off with maverick artist Wogan Phillips whom she later married.^[6]

Plot introduction

The story contains many elements of the authors own childhood and upbringing; albeit idealised. Like the author the protagonist Judith Earl grew up privately educated^[4] in a large riverbank house in Buckinghamshire^[1] unlike the author though she is an only child; her only playmates being the occasional visits of the children next door; five cousins: Martin, Charlie, Roddy, Martin and Marietta. Childhood friendships develop into romantic entanglements which continue as Judith leaves home for Girton College, Cambridge^[7] with a brief interlude when Judith falls in love with Jennifer a fellow student, scandalous for contemporary readers.^[4]

Reception

With the exception of Alfred Noyes, most contemporary reviews concentrated on what was perceived as the authors unhealthy preoccupation with sex.^[4] In her memoir The Swan in the Evening, Lehmann states 'It was discussed, and even reviewed, in certain quarters as the outpourings of a sex-maniac'.^[2] The Evening Standard cited Dusty Answer and Alec Waugh's The Loom of Youth as being a 'corrupting influence' on the young.^[4]. The novel triggered a literary scandal and came to be regarded as an epitome of the Zeitgeist.^[8]

Radio dramatisations

It has twice been dramatized for BBC Radio 4 :-

• In 1990 by Elspeth Sandys for The Monday Play.^[9]
• In 2010 by Lavinia Greenlaw^[10] for Woman's Hour Drama, narrated by Julia Hills.^[11]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.enotes.com/dusty-answer-salem/dusty-answer
2. ^ ^{a b} http://anokatony.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/rosamond-lehmann-and-the-publication-of-%E2%80%9Cdusty-answer%E2%80%9D/
3. ^ http://danitorres.typepad.com/workinprogress/2008/10/rosamond-lehman.html
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} Introduction by Jonathan Coe to Virago Press edition, publ. 2000, ISBN 978-1-84408-294-0
5. ^ http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9781844082940
6. ^ http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=0701165421
7. ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/174490/Dusty-Answer
8. ^ Victorian Legacy: the Lehmanns' Instructions for Use by Françoise BORT, Université Paris-Est (Tuesday, July 12th, 2005)
9. ^ http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/dusty_answer__drama_.htm
10. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tffq2
11. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thwdt

External links

• Time Magazine article from October 1927
• ‘Half-amused, Half-mocking’: Laughing at the Margins in Rosamond Lehmann’s Dusty Answer by Dr Sophie Blanch, University of Surrey