Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann

This book tends to be published in some deplorable covers that make it look like a historical harlequin romance novel set in the 1920s/30s. It is, in fact, a brooding, emotional, powerful novel about a lonely girl growing up in the early twentieth century, infatuated with a family that used to stay the summer in the house next to hers. Beautifully written, with living, fascinating characters captured with incredibly perception, I found it very emotionally stirring. I especially liked the different people Judith (the main character) seems to be, changing continuously, dissatisfied and frustrated, struggling to find a centre and never inhabiting any role with confidence. Her ambiguously described affair with another woman in college gave it the reputation of a 'shocking' novel when it was published. Contemporary press also apparently called it 'the kind of novel Keats would have written'. I'm really not sure what that's supposed to mean, but I definitely enjoyed it enormously and think it is very stylistically accomplished, and with especially standout characters.