The Ballad and the Source

The Ballad and the Source is a novel by Rosamond Lehmann, first published in 1944 by Collins in the UK.^[1] Set in Edwardian England, the book deals with the relationship between Rebecca, a young girl, and Sibyl Jardine, a complicated and domineering elderly woman.

The Ballad and the Source

1945 US edition (publ. Reynal & Hitchcock)
Author	Rosamond Lehmann
Publisher	William Collins, Sons
Publication date	1944

Contemporary reviewers compared the novel to the work of Henry James, though the book's feminism was then considered unfashionable.^[2]

Lehmann returned to the character of Rebecca in her last novel, A Sea-Grape Tree (1976), which follows her as an adult dealing with betrayal by a married lover.