England, My England and Other Stories

by D.H. Lawrence

The fourteen short stories collected in this volume were written between 1913 and 1921, most of them against the background of the 1914-18 War. All but one were published in slightly different versions by magazines and periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic. Ten were selected and revised by Lawrence for his collection England, My England published in 1922 in the United States and 1924 in Britain. Some of the stories included in this volume are "Tickets Please", "The Blind Man", "Monkey Nuts", "Wintry Peacock", "Hadrian", "Samson and Delilah", "The Primrose Path", "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter", and "The Last Straw". The texts aim to recover Lawrence's own intentions, which editors and publishers all too frequently ignored or altered. Where possible, manuscripts and corrected typescripts are used as base-texts. The introduction traces the composition and revision of the stories, setting them in the context of Lawrence's life and work. The textual apparatus gives variant readings, and explanatory notes identify sources, references and quotations. The 1915 version of "England, My England" is given in an appendix.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Classics

338 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

David 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...

Reviews

[Dani Dányi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nagyon szépen ír Lawrence, néha átcsap prózaversbe, leírásai és a tájszólásos-dialektusos párbeszédek is különleges színfoltok, a női-férfi kapcsolatok és a világháború örökké jelenlevő motívuma jól körbehatárolják ezt a novellagyűjteményt. A hétköznapok, mindennapi élet, kisemberek, „alsóbb” néprétegek, az angol vidék és a morálisan ambivalens helyzetek glamúrmentes és aprólékosan hiteles történetei. Időnként versszerűen rájátszik az ismétlésre, néha muzikális vagy túldíszített mondatok és nehezen értelmezhető (ám kétségkívül eredeti) mozzanatok ejtik több-kevesebb zavarba a beszélt nyelv prózaszövegét kereső olvasót, máskor bizonyos kiemelt fontosságú jelzők és szóalakok (pl a sűrűn pufogtatot „ruddy” adjektívusz, to name just one) okoznak oda nem illő bosszúságot. Azért alapjában véve eléggé zseniális író volt ez a Lawrence, és érdemes végigmenni a történetein, igazak és megragadóak.

[Wayne]

Mine is a Penguin 1964 edition with only 10 stories.
...which tells me that:

"Many of the characters were drawn
from Lawrence's friends
and acquaintances in real life
and some stories caused great offence
when they were published."

Which doesn't surprise when we also read
that the content of these tales
has as "an underlying theme"...
"the emotional and physical conflict
between men and women,
and there is a frightening hardness
and disillusion in the sexual relationships
of the people involved..."

I'm halfway through the first story and enjoying Lawrence's style and subject matter just as much as ever.
More so when I can imagine that these are mostly factual situations and characters.
I can well imagine their chagrin though, these friends,or former friends of his.
Lawrence must have been an infuriating person with his overweening selfconfidence and opinionated ways.
Which made the man and the writer.
So no use complaining.
Except one CAN appreciate his poor friends or ex-friends!!!!

[Katarina Stenstedt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories I read were absolutely gorgeous, but it became too heavy as pandemic reading. I'll finish some other time, or maybe go back to it in small doses.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawrence is the short prose form. All these stories are overshadowed by the First World War in some way and many of them examine the emotional impact on life and relationships. In many ways I enjoyed this more than some of Lawrence's long novels.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this book, and my edition had a picture of Kent on it, which I always found ironic. Tickets, Please is a story about the Ripley Rattler that used to take people from Ripley to the big city (Nottingham). I see this as a celebration of England, not a decline, but they seem to have built over the tram tracks, which is a shame.

[JW van der Merwe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories - sensual but also at times romantic but most often very negative view of relationships - compared to art something like a surrealist. Most of his relationships or characters an absolute nightmare...

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all D H Lawrence it's a bit depressing ... But that's where the storyline comes from very often with Lawrence ... The repressed ...

[Jeni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories I hated to leave. Hilariously funny and tragic in turns...