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The Last Laugh
D. H. Lawrence’s eerie and discomfiting story “The Last Laugh” is set in Hampstead. It’s about a couple leaving a house late at night who are intrigued by a strange laugh coming from the trees of a nearby park. They end up having an encounter with a being who sets in motion a train of inexplicable events.
Published in 1928, it picks up on the early 20th-century wave of interest in Pan, the god with goat’s legs associated with wildernesses and shagging, and who is supposedly unique among the gods—because he died. In “The Last Laugh”, Pan returns to the world (well, Hampstead), which has devastating consequences for people wrapped up in everyday concerns. Pan seems to blur the distinctions between right and wrong.
Published in 1928, it picks up on the early 20th-century wave of interest in Pan, the god with goat’s legs associated with wildernesses and shagging, and who is supposedly unique among the gods—because he died. In “The Last Laugh”, Pan returns to the world (well, Hampstead), which has devastating consequences for people wrapped up in everyday concerns. Pan seems to blur the distinctions between right and wrong.
- GenresShort Stories
40 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1926
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About the author
D.H. Lawrence
2,090 books4,233 followersDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism, and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct.
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H._Law...
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H._Law...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 22, 2023
Thank goodness for Goodreads blurbs, because I'm pretty sure I would've had no idea what was going on otherwise (and, honestly, even the blurb seems a little confused about this story). The writing was atmospheric and there was a definite sense of foreboding, but once again I just didn't get it. I won't write D.H. Lawrence off completely until after I've read one of his full-length novels, but I'm beginning to think that his short stories just aren't for me.
December 20, 2019
This is the best story I’ve ever ever read. It’s so unique. Planning to write a paper on it soon—hopefully
May 15, 2023
The tale is set in a dreamlike snowy London where a couple, a young partially deaf girl (Miss James) and a young man (Mr. Marchbanks), leave a house late at night. Meeting a young policeman, they become intrigued by a strange laugh coming from the trees of a nearby park. They end up having an encounter with a Pan God like being who sets in motion a train of inexplicable events with Marchbanks becoming possessed by the Pan-spirit, Miss James gaining her hearing and the policeman becoming lame.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews