ABSTRACT
Lehmann’s much later novel A Sea-Grape Tree (1976). After The Echoing Grove (1953) she did not produce a novel for some years. Her daughter Sally’s unexpected death from poliomyelitis in Java in 1958 had a profound influence on Lehmann who became preoccupied with spirituality and mysticism. The Swan in the Evening: Fragments of an Inner Life (1967) was a response to that event. A collection of Lehmann’s short stories, The Gypsy’s Baby, appeared in 1946. She also translated Jean COCTEAU’S Les Enfants terribles. Lehmann’s interest for lesbian readers lies in her depiction of lesbian relationships and of homosexuality in her earlier work. In the 1980s she was rediscovered by feminist critics, and many of her novels were re-issued by Virago.
