The novel sold well from its first appearance, becoming the first novel of a genre sometimes 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." Sayers includes a positive mention by two characters in her 1930
epistolary novel,
The Documents in the Case. The character and appearance of the composer Lewis Dodd was based on the artist
Henry Lamb, who was a gifted pianist. Kennedy's cousin George was one of Lamb's oldest friends. Attributes of Albert Sanger were taken from
Augustus John, particular the artists' colony he set up in 1911 at
Alderney Manor. Kennedy may have been trying to protect herself against accusations of using her friends as models by transferring to both of them the talents of musicians rather than painters. ==Adaptations==