The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
Avant-garde composer Albert Sanger lives in a ramshackle chalet in the Swiss Alps, surrounded by his 'Circus' of assorted children, admirers and a slatternly mistress. The family and their home life may be chaotic, but visitors fall into an enchantment, and the claims of respectable life or upbringing fall away.
When Sanger dies, his Circus must break up and each find a more conventional way of life. But fourteen-year-old Teresa is already deeply in love: for her, the outside world holds nothing but tragedy.
Splendid * Spectator *
It's a novel about ideas..as well as the sort of delicious and merciless emotions that can make people exuberant or desperate * The Atlantic *
She is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeed -- Anita Brookner
Margaret Kennedy caught just the taste of the time, mixing a stolid domestic Englishness with 'Continental' bohemians * Irish Times *
Miss Kennedy . . . finds herself well to the front among novelists, men or women, of today. Its theme is the clash between two incompatible worlds, and its solution is reached through tragedy * New York Times (1924) *
It's a novel about ideas..as well as the sort of delicious and merciless emotions that can make people exuberant or desperate * The Atlantic *
She is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeed -- Anita Brookner
Margaret Kennedy caught just the taste of the time, mixing a stolid domestic Englishness with 'Continental' bohemians * Irish Times *
Miss Kennedy . . . finds herself well to the front among novelists, men or women, of today. Its theme is the clash between two incompatible worlds, and its solution is reached through tragedy * New York Times (1924) *
Margaret Kennedy was born in London in 1896 and read History at Somerville College, Oxford in 1915 (alongside Winifred Holtby and Vera Brittain) where she began writing. In 1924, Kennedy’s second novel The Constant Nymph became a worldwide bestseller which she adapted into a hit West End play starring Noel Coward (three different star-studded film versions followed). Described as ‘superb’ by Elizabeth Bowen, Kennedy wrote fifteen further prize-winning novels including The Feast in 1950, as well as literary criticism and a biography of Jane Austen. She died in 1967.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780099589747 |
| ISBN 10 | 0099589745 |
| Title | The Constant Nymph |
| Author | Margaret Kennedy |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2014-08-07 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |