The Echoing Grove

I finished reading The Echoing Grove by Rosamond Lehmann the other day. It's a Virago title I picked up at a used bookstore. Published in 1953 it has a very simple plot: two sisters, one man; one sister is married to him, the other is having an affair with him. Though Lehmann manages dazzling tricks with time in this novel and often writes strikingly beautiful sentences, I just couldn't get into the story. Nothing ever seemed to happen beyond the love triangle. I even contemplated not finishing the book, but soldiered on. From the foreword (written by Jonathan Coe) I learned people tend to strongly like or dislike this novel. I am more in the later camp than the former. I am glad, however, that I read the foreword because I learned about the affair Lehmann had with Cecil Day Lewis. Day Lewis was married when he met Lehmann during the second world war and remained so for their nine year affair. But then in 1949 he met an actress named Jill Balcon and cast off both his wife and Lehmann to marry her. Amazing, huh? I don't give a hoot about Hollywood gossip but I love reading about bed hopping among the literati.