 1945 US edition (publ. Reynal & Hitchcock) | |
| Author | Rosamond Lehmann |
|---|---|
| Publisher | William Collins, Sons |
Publication date | 1944 |
The Ballad and the Source is a novel by Rosamond Lehmann, first published in 1944 by Collins in the UK.[1] Set in Edwardian England, the book deals with the relationship between Rebecca, a young girl, and Sibyl Jardine, a complicated and domineering elderly woman.
Contemporary reviewers compared the novel to the work of Henry James, though the book's feminism was then considered unfashionable.[2]
Lehmann returned to the character of Rebecca in her last novel, A Sea-Grape Tree (1976), which follows her as an adult dealing with betrayal by a married lover.
- ^ "The Ballad and the Source". Kirkus Reviews. 1 April 1945. Retrieved 21 August 2024.
- ^ Susan Janet Kaplan, 'Rosamond Lehmann's The Ballad and the Source: A Confrontation with "The Great Mother"', Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer 1981), pp.127-145