Challenge

The passion of art—and lifeThis was Vita Sackville-West’s second novel, the superbly romantic story of a young, Byronic Englishman and the woman he loves. Together they travel to Greece, where they become central figures in a political revolution, an idyll of love, and a drama of jealousy and betrayal. The scene is richly described, the action is exciting, the romance is captured brilliantly and with intense feeling. Yet this novel was suppressed—for it told the truth.Challenge mirrors with passionate sincerity the events surrounding Vita Sackville-West’s illicit love affair with Violet Keppel, the childhood friend for whose sake she was prepared to outrage convention by abandoning her husband Harold Nicolson, her family, and all that England meant to her. Available at last in this Avon edition, Challenge is a timeless declaration of love and a moving expression of the rebelliousness of the soul.