Invitation to the Waltz

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Gabi's Review 

Rosamund Lehmann’s Invitation to the Waltz, published in 1932, is a beautifully crafted coming-of-age novel that captures the delicate transition from adolescence to young adulthood with acute sensitivity. A character-driven narrative set in the early 20th-century English countryside, it follows the story of Olivia Curtis, a kind-hearted 17-year-old, as she prepares for and attends her first formal dance. It’s a pivotal moment that symbolises both her growing self-awareness and the broader social currents of her time and place.

The novel combines elegant lyricism and astute psychological insights to perfectly capture a young woman grappling with the social expectations she is meant to embody. Half of the narrative unfolds over a single day: Olivia’s birthday. Lehmann masterfully evokes the subdued anxieties, fleeting hopes and small rituals of youth, symbolised by Olivia’s excitement about the new flame-coloured fabric that will craft the dress for her first big social engagement. Her awkward interactions with her family and other members of her village reveal her vulnerability and innocence; and while she can’t resist tentative dreams of romance, she also chides herself for harbouring foolish speculations. By contrast, her older sister Kate is a wise, sensible woman wielding the power of her good looks with the shrewdness of a society hostess. Kate is a wonderfully clever guide for Olivia, knowing her better than she knows herself, and the relationship between the girls is depicted with an engaging tenderness.

The novel’s later section focuses on the heady magic of the dance, in which the whirl of music, conversation and shifting social dynamics expose Olivia to a kaleidoscope of human experience. Through her eyes we meet a vivid cast of characters, all rendered in precise detail and with a touch of wry humour: opportunistic salespersons, arrogant aristocrats, charming cads, and weary wallflowers. Olivia encounters snobbery, kindness, disillusionment, and a fleeting sense of connection that throws the rigid class structure of her world into stark relief; and she learns through these interactions that her well-intentioned innocence can also be a liability.  Olivia is neither glamorous nor rebellious; she’s an observer, absorbing the world around her with a mix of wonder and unease. And while the dance doesn’t dispel her naivete, she begins to sense her own strengths.

The novel’s introspective tenor and domestic themes might not satisfy readers craving plot-driven excitement. Yet this is also its charm: Invitation to the Waltz is a snapshot, a moment suspended in time, and Lehmann’s refusal to overexplain or resolve every narrative thread mirrors the uncertainty of youth itself. The ending - bittersweet and open-ended - leaves Olivia poised on the cusp of something larger and unknown. Her character is revisited in the sequel, The Weather in the Streets, which I am now eager to read.

Invitation to the Waltz is a poignant, exquisitely written exploration of growing up. It’s a novel that lingers, not for its grand events, but for its quiet truths about the beauty and pain of discovering one’s identity. Highly recommended.

Publisher's Review 

A diary for her innermost thoughts, a china ornament, a ten-shilling note, and a roll of flame-coloured silk for her first evening dress: these are the gifts Olivia Curtis receives for her seventeenth birthday. She anticipates her first dance, the greatest yet most terrifying event of her restricted social life, with tremulous uncertainty and excitement. For her pretty, charming elder sister Kate, the dance is certain to be a triumph, but what will it be for shy, awkward Olivia.

Exploring the daydreams and miseries attendant upon even the most innocent of social events, Rosamond Lehmann perfectly captures the emotions of a girl standing poised on the threshold of womanhood.