The Constant Nymph (novel)

The Constant Nymph is a 1924 novel by Margaret Kennedy. It tells how a teenage girl falls in love with a family friend, who eventually marries her cousin, and explores the two girls' mutual jealousy.

The Constant Nymph
AuthorMargaret Kennedy
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherHeinemann
Publication date
1924
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages344 pp

Success

The novel was a best-seller on first publication, becoming the first novel of a genre that might be called "Bohemian". Much of its success was due to its then-shocking sexual content, describing scenes of adolescent sexuality and of noble savagery in the Austrian Tyrol.

There is a complimentary allusion to the novel in the 1934 detective story The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers. Fifteen-year-old Hilary tells her father she aspires to write novels: "Best sellers. The sort that everybody goes potty over. Not just bosh ones, but like The Constant Nymph."[1] Sayers includes a positive mention by two characters in her 1930 epistolary novel, The Documents in the Case.[2]

Adaptations
Main articles: The Constant Nymph (1928 film), The Constant Nymph (1933 film), and The Constant Nymph (1943 film)

Margaret Kennedy and Basil Dean adapted The Constant Nymph for a three-act play that was published by Doubleday, Page and Company (Garden City, N.Y.) in 1926. A differently treated, second stage adaptation of the play was published by William Heinemann (London) in 1926.[3] The play was performed on the London stage in 1926 and featured Noël Coward and Edna Best.[4]

The novel was first adapted as a silent film in 1928 by Adrian Brunel and Alma Reville and directed by Brunel and Basil Dean. This version starred Ivor Novello, Mabel Poulton, and Benita Hume.[4]

It was adapted again in 1933 by Dorothy Farnum and directed by Dean. It featured Victoria Hopper, Brian Aherne, and Leonora Corbett.[4]

A third film adaptation in 1943 featured Charles Boyer, Joan Fontaine, and Alexis Smith. It was adapted by Kathryn Scola and directed by Edmund Goulding.

References
  1. Paperback reissue (London: New English Library, 1968), p. 79.
  2. Extract
  3. 20th-Century American Bestsellers.
  4. LIFE. "Movie of the Week: The Constant Nymph". August 2, 1943. p. 38.
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