ABSTRACT
In 1918 Sackville-West "redis covered" Violet Keppel whom she had known as a child. Both were immediately smitten and embarked on a tempestuous affair, which Vita presented in fictional ized form in her novel Challenge, pub lished in 1924 in the United States but not in England. She wrote a franker account for the drawer (which was not published until it was included in her son's memoir of 1973). In 1919 Violet contracted a mar riage-which was not intended to be con summated-with Denys Trefusis, but she and Vita continued to escape for love trysts at various locales in Britain. Harold, for his part, was preoccupied with the peace negotiations at Versailles.
