The Weather in the Streets (Virago Modern Classics)

This well written book is a warning to all women embarking on an affair with a married man or considering it. Olivia starts out independent and free and ends up completely shackled to this shallow man who does love her, but loves himself a whole lot more.

Just seeing her disintegration is depressing - the way she starts waiting in for him just in case he might stop by, lying to her friends and cutting herself off from people who might know or disapprove. All the awkward conversations and stolen moments are just plain sad. It starts off as an adventure for her and quickly becomes an addiction she just can't break.

A sad look at the lies people tell themselves (4/4 people found this helpful)

As another reviewer here has mentioned, we know from the start that there can be no happy ending to this story, and the fact that we already know the journey that the characters are to take, works brilliantly. Lehmann plays with the well-worn cliches of an affair between an independant-minded woman and her married lover, yet avoids writing in terms of cliches herself.

This is a haunting, beautifully-written and sensitive study of how we make choices that we know are wrong for us, and the inevitable disappointment that we are shoring up. And yet somehow this is a hopeful book too, with touches of comedy that lighten the atmosphere. Overall a sad book, that ought - but won't! - teach us something.

A novel of tenderness (7/7 people found this helpful)

Lehmann's novel seems to, with her lilting lovely prose, to describe the tragedy that love can be. In her unique style she describes Olivia's inner life in a way you wish you could describe your own. The beauty and lyricism with which she crystallises the pain that her heroine feels, and the lack of cliche when analysing an almost unavoidably cliched subject make this a truly beautiful novel. Or as someone else put it "a novel of tenderness".

Cynicism and romance clash in this account of an affair (23/23 people found this helpful)

We all know that They Never Leave Their Wives, and we know from the beginning that this book is unlikely to end happily for Olivia, its charming heroine. She's a nice middle-class girl, trying to live the bohemian life on no money in 1930s London; Rollo, her lover, is the heir to a baronetcy, rich, handsome, successful- and married. She's on a losing wicket from the start, but she can't resist him; soon she's staying in on the offchance he might call round and lying to her friends and family in the time-honoured manner. The reader is subtly shown that there are two truths here: on the one hand there is a genuine love story- Olivia and Rollo really love each other- but on the other, this is the account of Olivia's desperate struggle for the status, wealth and social acceptance she would get as the recognised partner of an alpha male like Rollo. The materialistic aspects of the affair are described in luscious detail- the emerald ring, the weekend trips in expensive cars, the extravagant lunches and lavish gifts of books and flowers- as are the glimpses of Rollo's wealthy lifestyle that make Olivia covet the position of his wife. To conclude: this is both a touching love story and a cynical account of the relations between men and women, all in Rosamond Lehmann's crisp, poetic, humorous prose.

The Weather in the Streets (Virago Modern Classics)

Rosamond Lehmann

Reader Reviews:

Good warning to women considering an affair (2/2 people found this helpful)

A sad look at the lies people tell themselves (4/4 people found this helpful)

A novel of tenderness (7/7 people found this helpful)

Cynicism and romance clash in this account of an affair (23/23 people found this helpful)

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