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St Mawr and Other Stories
St. Mawr and Other Stories contains St. Mawr, a long novella, two short stories, "The Overtone" and "The Princess," and two unfinished stories, "The Wilful Woman" and "The Flying Fish." They were all written during Lawrence's stay in New Mexico and Mexico between 1922 and 1925. The texts are newly edited from Lawrence's original manuscripts and typescripts, eliminating mis-transcriptions and unauthorized alterations made by publishers and printers for reasons of house-styling, fear of prosecution or moral censoriousness. In some cases whole lines of text, which have been omitted in the first and subsequent editions, have been restored. The textual apparatus records all variants. The introduction uses unpublished material to trace the genesis and reception of each work. The notes give the translation of foreign words, the explanation of classical, biblical, literary and historical references and the reasoning behind some of the more involved textual cruces.
316 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
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796 people want to read
About the author
D.H. Lawrence
2,086 books4,181 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 - 30 of 79 reviews
April 1, 2022
Para não começar como de costume, por falar da obsessão de D.H. Lawrence por sexo, adiando-a apenas uns parágrafos porque é um tema incontornável num livro que reúne duas histórias em que aborda a falta de desejo sexual e uma em que o desejo se torna crime, elejo “A Mulher Voluntariosa” como a minha preferida. Sendo apenas o início de um romance que nunca chegou a ser desenvolvido, é marca da excelência deste autor fazer com que ele resulte como um conto de pleno direito. Baseada numa americana conhecida deste autor, a voluntariosa Sybill é uma delícia.
Tinha começado por ser Sybil Hammett, e tinha sido sucessivamente Sybil Thomas e Sybil Danks, antes de casar com o artista judeu vindo de algures na Polónia, e que era, na opinião da sua família, um anticlímax. Mas ela não admitia a possibilidade de haver um anticlímax para ela, e guardava ainda algumas surpresas desagradáveis para presentear a família. Sendo a família, a sua mãe e o general, o segundo padrasto de Sybill. Porque ela estava tão bem provida de padrastos como de maridos.
Também com laivos de sátira e diálogos sardonicamente inteligentes, temos a novela que dá título à colectânea, “St. Mawr”.
Sempre aquele mesmo interesse mórbido pelas outras pessoas e pelas suas vidas, os seus assuntos privados, a sua roupa suja. Sempre aquele ar alerta para os acontecimentos pessoais, sempre comentários, comentários, comentários. Sempre aquela crítica subtil e aquela avaliação dos outros, aquela análise dos motivos dos outros. Se a anatomia pressupõe um cadáver, a psicologia pressupõe um mundo de cadáveres. A má-língua, que representa crítica e análise pessoais, pressupõe um laboratório à escala mundial de psiques humanas prontas a ser dissecadas. Se se retalhar uma coisa, é evidente que acaba por cheirar mal. Por isso, nada deita um cheiro tão infernal, no fundo, como a psicologia humana. Mrs. Witt era uma psicóloga pura, uma psicóloga hostil.
Estes textos foram escritos nos últimos anos da vida do autor, quando se mudou para o Novo México, onde revelou interesse por Pã e pelo Animismo, tendências bem patentes em “A Harmonia”.
Para Pã sou uma ninfa, para Cristo uma mulher. E Pã está na escuridão, e Cristo no meio de uma pálida luz. (...) Pã e Cristo, Cristo e Pã. Ambos a influenciar-me, de modo que, quando à luz do dia, vestindo a minha túnica, passo entre os meus próximos, sou uma cristã. Mas quando corri nua e sozinha pelos bosques perfumados de escuridão, sou uma ninfa de Pã. E agora tenho que ir, porque quero correr. Não para fugir de mim, mas para correr para mim.
Não é fácil gostar sempre de Lawrence, porque ele por vezes vai longe de mais, e nunca perdeu tanto as estribeiras como em “A Princesa”, que desta vez foi uma releitura. Há algo de pérfido na forma como a virgindade desta mulher arrogante, sempre protegida pelo pai, é abordada neste conto, que considero problemático em vários aspectos.
Quanto a “O Peixe-Voador”, é demasiado místico e simbólico para o meu gosto, pelo que não lastimo não passar dos três capítulos iniciais de uma obra mais extensa.
A Harmonia-4*
St. Mawr-4,5*
A Princesa- 3*
A Mulher Voluntariosa-5*
O Peixe-Voador- DNF
Tinha começado por ser Sybil Hammett, e tinha sido sucessivamente Sybil Thomas e Sybil Danks, antes de casar com o artista judeu vindo de algures na Polónia, e que era, na opinião da sua família, um anticlímax. Mas ela não admitia a possibilidade de haver um anticlímax para ela, e guardava ainda algumas surpresas desagradáveis para presentear a família. Sendo a família, a sua mãe e o general, o segundo padrasto de Sybill. Porque ela estava tão bem provida de padrastos como de maridos.
Também com laivos de sátira e diálogos sardonicamente inteligentes, temos a novela que dá título à colectânea, “St. Mawr”.
Sempre aquele mesmo interesse mórbido pelas outras pessoas e pelas suas vidas, os seus assuntos privados, a sua roupa suja. Sempre aquele ar alerta para os acontecimentos pessoais, sempre comentários, comentários, comentários. Sempre aquela crítica subtil e aquela avaliação dos outros, aquela análise dos motivos dos outros. Se a anatomia pressupõe um cadáver, a psicologia pressupõe um mundo de cadáveres. A má-língua, que representa crítica e análise pessoais, pressupõe um laboratório à escala mundial de psiques humanas prontas a ser dissecadas. Se se retalhar uma coisa, é evidente que acaba por cheirar mal. Por isso, nada deita um cheiro tão infernal, no fundo, como a psicologia humana. Mrs. Witt era uma psicóloga pura, uma psicóloga hostil.
Estes textos foram escritos nos últimos anos da vida do autor, quando se mudou para o Novo México, onde revelou interesse por Pã e pelo Animismo, tendências bem patentes em “A Harmonia”.
Para Pã sou uma ninfa, para Cristo uma mulher. E Pã está na escuridão, e Cristo no meio de uma pálida luz. (...) Pã e Cristo, Cristo e Pã. Ambos a influenciar-me, de modo que, quando à luz do dia, vestindo a minha túnica, passo entre os meus próximos, sou uma cristã. Mas quando corri nua e sozinha pelos bosques perfumados de escuridão, sou uma ninfa de Pã. E agora tenho que ir, porque quero correr. Não para fugir de mim, mas para correr para mim.
Não é fácil gostar sempre de Lawrence, porque ele por vezes vai longe de mais, e nunca perdeu tanto as estribeiras como em “A Princesa”, que desta vez foi uma releitura. Há algo de pérfido na forma como a virgindade desta mulher arrogante, sempre protegida pelo pai, é abordada neste conto, que considero problemático em vários aspectos.
Quanto a “O Peixe-Voador”, é demasiado místico e simbólico para o meu gosto, pelo que não lastimo não passar dos três capítulos iniciais de uma obra mais extensa.
A Harmonia-4*
St. Mawr-4,5*
A Princesa- 3*
A Mulher Voluntariosa-5*
O Peixe-Voador- DNF
June 23, 2022
What the Hell was my library thinking.
I remember, when I was younger, complaining to my mother about a stomach ache. No sooner had I uttered the words, than I realised my mistake. There it was - the feeling of impending doom descending on me as my mother reached for the bottle of castor oil. Now - I don't know if you've ever had the misfortune of actually tasting castor oil, but my understanding was that oil belonged in engines, not in human stomachs. That hasn't changed, for I could never understand why something that made you gag, was supposed to make you feel better. It tastes like - umm - hard to define - perhaps the inside of a long-distance runner's sock? Maybe it was for mother's benefit, for while I had many stomach aches after that, I never complained again.
So it was with D.H. Lawrence. I felt that a man of my age SHOULD have read D.H.L. by now. So off to the library I went and found St. Mawr. A horse story! Great! However, I can only liken reading it to being administered with a big spoonful of you-know-what. That is my first and last D.H.L. book...and I shall never complain about him again.
I remember, when I was younger, complaining to my mother about a stomach ache. No sooner had I uttered the words, than I realised my mistake. There it was - the feeling of impending doom descending on me as my mother reached for the bottle of castor oil. Now - I don't know if you've ever had the misfortune of actually tasting castor oil, but my understanding was that oil belonged in engines, not in human stomachs. That hasn't changed, for I could never understand why something that made you gag, was supposed to make you feel better. It tastes like - umm - hard to define - perhaps the inside of a long-distance runner's sock? Maybe it was for mother's benefit, for while I had many stomach aches after that, I never complained again.
So it was with D.H. Lawrence. I felt that a man of my age SHOULD have read D.H.L. by now. So off to the library I went and found St. Mawr. A horse story! Great! However, I can only liken reading it to being administered with a big spoonful of you-know-what. That is my first and last D.H.L. book...and I shall never complain about him again.
November 22, 2011
Some of the reviews here mentioned "overlong" descriptive passages. I love Lawrence's descriptions, especially of the natural world. That's the main reason I read his work. He helps me see the world anew.
April 6, 2015
round up from 3.5 stars
st mawr - rough and messy novella about a woman's burning desires for an untamed man absent from the modern world, which uses a wild stallion as its metaphor. as if that doesnt drive home the point enough, the final third muses on white women's innate desires for miscegenation. lawrence is one of the first writers (in the english language world anyways) who takes sex seriously as something that adults do and not something to be shunned, omitted or turned into a bawdy joke, but this work doesnt really present an enlightened view on women's sexuality. i feel like if it were written today it would contain lots of instances of "alpha" and "beta"
the man who died - an account of jesus' life post-crucifixion. good timing on this one with easter being yesterday. in the days after his resurrection, jesus spends his time organising a cockfight and knocking up a priestess of isis. better, more interesting and shorter than st mawr and is what brings this up to a rounded four star review
st mawr - rough and messy novella about a woman's burning desires for an untamed man absent from the modern world, which uses a wild stallion as its metaphor. as if that doesnt drive home the point enough, the final third muses on white women's innate desires for miscegenation. lawrence is one of the first writers (in the english language world anyways) who takes sex seriously as something that adults do and not something to be shunned, omitted or turned into a bawdy joke, but this work doesnt really present an enlightened view on women's sexuality. i feel like if it were written today it would contain lots of instances of "alpha" and "beta"
the man who died - an account of jesus' life post-crucifixion. good timing on this one with easter being yesterday. in the days after his resurrection, jesus spends his time organising a cockfight and knocking up a priestess of isis. better, more interesting and shorter than st mawr and is what brings this up to a rounded four star review
October 21, 2015
The long novella St. Mawr rather dwarfs the short story, The Man Who Died in this slim volume, but both are D. H. Lawrence at his very finest! St. Mawr continues with Lawrence's primary theme of a frustrated woman looking for a man who is full of life, but in this case her inspiration turns out to be an unmanageable stallion. In The Man Who Died, Christ wakes up in his cave still alive and realizes that he has been given a second chance at life. It is extraordinarily beautiful prose and one of the great works of art in the English language.
October 4, 2016
It's crazy to me how racist you can be (I guess this was in 1925) and still be considered great literature by the white men of today. Amazing. Anyways, St. Mawr had some really interesting things to say about women and male relationships that I think was probably super topical for the time, especially w/regards to casual sexual relationships and how those can potentially be empty etc etc but god damn was it racist. Oh and she totally wanted to have sex with her horse. Totally.
February 15, 2021
Non siamo sufficientemente animali.
June 19, 2020
A young American lady living in England, Lou Witt, meets and weds Rico (a hopeful artist from Australia), thus entering a sexless marriage: Lou doesn't like men and Rico only likes himself. St. Mawr is a big, beautiful horse who gets along only with his groom/handler Lewis and the two seem to be able to communicate via an odd, mumbling language. Lawrence brilliantly authors a story about sex but the closest Lawrence gets to anyone making love here is Rico and St Mawr rolling over each other in a riding accident. Lawrence's voice comes through loud and clear when, through Rico's thoughts, the author questions the viability of a simple, quiet English village life for an artist. (Lawrence himself was a global traveler and certainly his preferred range of sexual partners, in real life, would have been unacceptable in said small English village in 1925.) Then there is Mother Witt always upset: how can their be universes/societies of which she can't participate? She tries to tackle a groom, Phoenix/Geronimo Trujillo, of another horse and actually proposes marriage to him so she can enter that universe. No, that's not possible. So our choices? 1)Accept were we are born and handle the frustrations or 2) get on a horse, board a ship, etc., and travel and experience all that we can. But even if we make the latter choice (like me), there are still worlds (St. Mawr and Lewis) we can not enter, we can not understand. But we must accept: live and let live. Yea, I know, I'm rambling here with cliches. I enjoyed this book very much. This isn't "Rainbow" or "Women in Love" but it's an enjoyable take on the fact that there are world's we can never experience. I could feel Lawrence's frustrations and his ultimate acceptance that life is actually very limited. Enjoy what you can, when you can.
April 8, 2008
St. Mawr is not only one of my favorite DH Lawrence books, but one of my top 5 from the period. Who doesn't love a story about a girl and her horse, and how her man will never measure up to the steed? Me.
November 5, 2025
O Death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling?
June 19, 2020
I'm not sure why these 2 stories ("St. Mawr" is a rather short novel, "The Man Who Died" a rather long short story) have been published together. In St. Mawr (4 stars from me) , frustrated characters see worlds they can never have/understand. In "The Man Who Died" (3 stars from me), the Christian Jesus either wakes before death or is resurrected from death but does not ascend to heaven. Either way, Jesus has new experiences, some of them perhaps are experiences that the characters in St. Mawr simply can't have: humans have limits. My weighted rating is something like 3.75 or so, or 4 stars here on goodreads. I very much enjoyed the challenges both works present. And I'll read both of these again.
June 18, 2023
Another important stop along the road to untangling and understanding the man who was David Herbert Richards Lawrence. Another vital step toward Lawrence's creation of his final, crystallized version of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which would, as his highest and clearest expression of himself and his beliefs, come to integrate his life experiences and his churning philosophy just before he was forever lost to our world...
These beautiful and unexpected stories showcase two previously unvisited worlds Lawrence dared to traverse - landscapes across which lesser mortals might fear to tread at all. Not so Lawrence; he treks across wide-eyed and wonder-full as a newborn babe, expressing and sharing new sensations as well as both conscious and unconscious thought as he stumbles along his way. How lovely that he does this as a human being and not as some creature of wisdom or of all-knowing omnipotence. He is, as ever, just as lost as we are...and ever compelled to reflect and seek.
There is some wonderful, beautiful prose here, and there are emerging ideas - raw and struggling to find form in the context of Lawrence's words, characters, and storytelling. Above all else, though, there is here a chance to know Lawrence himself - man, and human being - seeking to understand his existence and whatever might be his rightful place within The Natural Order of The World...
These beautiful and unexpected stories showcase two previously unvisited worlds Lawrence dared to traverse - landscapes across which lesser mortals might fear to tread at all. Not so Lawrence; he treks across wide-eyed and wonder-full as a newborn babe, expressing and sharing new sensations as well as both conscious and unconscious thought as he stumbles along his way. How lovely that he does this as a human being and not as some creature of wisdom or of all-knowing omnipotence. He is, as ever, just as lost as we are...and ever compelled to reflect and seek.
There is some wonderful, beautiful prose here, and there are emerging ideas - raw and struggling to find form in the context of Lawrence's words, characters, and storytelling. Above all else, though, there is here a chance to know Lawrence himself - man, and human being - seeking to understand his existence and whatever might be his rightful place within The Natural Order of The World...
May 17, 2009
Two quite interesting novellas. The writing in "St. Mawr" once the characters arrive in Arizona is exceptional. Lawrence manages to both explicate his philosophy and write beautifully.
"The Man Who Died" is a rather startling thing, a jolt to one steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I don't know that I could ever be a strict adherent to Lawrence's philosophy, but it is certainly something that will provoke thought. To state it simply, he does make some very good points. A little book I am happy to have found.
"The Man Who Died" is a rather startling thing, a jolt to one steeped in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I don't know that I could ever be a strict adherent to Lawrence's philosophy, but it is certainly something that will provoke thought. To state it simply, he does make some very good points. A little book I am happy to have found.
August 21, 2013
Loved this. Very evocative. Some massive themes tackled in a short novel: life, death, belief and so on, but the most compelling take-away is the beauty and cruelty of nature. The evocation of the powerful St. Mawr is most chilling.
"In the inner dark she saw a handsome bay horse with his clean ears pricked like daggers from his naked head as he swung handsomely round to stare at the open doorway. He had big, black, brilliant eyes, with a sharp questioning glint and that air of tense, alert quietness which betrays and animal that can be dangerous".
"In the inner dark she saw a handsome bay horse with his clean ears pricked like daggers from his naked head as he swung handsomely round to stare at the open doorway. He had big, black, brilliant eyes, with a sharp questioning glint and that air of tense, alert quietness which betrays and animal that can be dangerous".
July 14, 2014
People like to have a book with a good stimulating structure, and a book that goes somewhere. Why should every book do that? This book was similar to cider with Rosie, the book didn't need to go anywhere. With st mawr I loved the new aspects approached on life, it was slightly disturbing but the ride Lewis, st mawr and lou's mother towards the end of the book was fascinating. It was a little hard to read as the two women in the book were constantly searching for something and analysing the world of their day and it's faults; but it was a bit of an eye opener in a way
March 5, 2018
A masterful short story that explores the complicated Victorian relationships between men and women, as well as the animalistic streak in us all. His insight on human nature is extraordinary.
January 21, 2020
I am surprised by how a male author could write from a woman's perspective so precisely.
March 11, 2021
This is so far the worst book I've ever read. Not only was the plot utterly bland, it was also extremely scarce. Majority of the book consisted of an unnecessary amount of description. At times, these descriptions were either too detailed or too intertwined that in the end, they didn't make any sense. In the beginning, I hoped that the main character could be at least some redemption for this book, but Lou also grew more and more annoying with every page.
What's more, the not so subtle motives of misogyny and racism didn't help the book at all.
PS: The relationship between Lou and the horse was rather questionable - she would certainly bang the horse if she had the chance.
What's more, the not so subtle motives of misogyny and racism didn't help the book at all.
PS: The relationship between Lou and the horse was rather questionable - she would certainly bang the horse if she had the chance.
April 11, 2022
I only read "The Man Who Died"
November 29, 2020
I think it’s interesting to read books like this to get an idea of (white men’s) attitudes of the time, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it. I didn’t like the plot, I didn’t like any of the characters or their “development”. The writing style was mostly nice but that’s about all it had going for it in my opinion.
November 20, 2020
Spesso capita di vivere dei momenti in cui la terra traballa sotto i nostri piedi, non ci sono più certezze a sorreggerci e ogni cosa ci appare ammantata da una nebbia fitta e persistente. Quando non si sa dove andare, quando si è perso il senso dell’orientamento e l’incertezza ci avvolge, il primo istinto è quello di cercare di tornare a casa, qualsiasi cosa questo voglia dire per noi.
Anche i protagonisti de “Il purosangue” di D.H. Lawrence sono spinti dallo stesso insopportabile anelito, dalla stessa dolorosa insicurezza. Si muovono nel mondo quasi come ciechi, allungando le mani nel disperato tentativo di riuscire ad afferrare qualcosa o qualcuno al quale potersi aggrappare per non cadere nel baratro nero e insondabile di una vita vuota.
Al centro di queste esistenze si staglia forte e solido il vero protagonista del romanzo, St. Mawr, il purosangue del quale la giovane Luisa si innamora la prima volta che posa lo sguardo sul suo pelo folto e rosso e sui suoi occhi diffidenti e fieri, capaci di cogliere l’anima di chi si ritrova a sondarne le profondità.
Se vuoi saperne di più, leggi qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
Anche i protagonisti de “Il purosangue” di D.H. Lawrence sono spinti dallo stesso insopportabile anelito, dalla stessa dolorosa insicurezza. Si muovono nel mondo quasi come ciechi, allungando le mani nel disperato tentativo di riuscire ad afferrare qualcosa o qualcuno al quale potersi aggrappare per non cadere nel baratro nero e insondabile di una vita vuota.
Al centro di queste esistenze si staglia forte e solido il vero protagonista del romanzo, St. Mawr, il purosangue del quale la giovane Luisa si innamora la prima volta che posa lo sguardo sul suo pelo folto e rosso e sui suoi occhi diffidenti e fieri, capaci di cogliere l’anima di chi si ritrova a sondarne le profondità.
Se vuoi saperne di più, leggi qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
February 15, 2012
“Most men have a deadness in them, that frightens me so, because of my own deadness.”
Lou Witt is a well-to-do, married, attractive woman who, despite her position in society, is unhappy. Lou has spent the majority of her life fitting the role that society has given her, but she is dissatisfied with this role. When Lou finds herself in the presence of St. Mawr, the beautiful and emblematic horse, she begins the process of pinpointing just why she is so unhappy. St. Mawr is the catalyst to Lou’s discovery of her own life’s emptiness. Everything about St. Mawr suggests wildness, liveliness, and a genuine self. In contrast, Lou finds that she can only find this inner vitality/genuine self in St. Mawr, and perhaps a bit in Louis and Phoenix, the groomsmen. St. Mawr and these two men are not bound by the societal expectations that Lou and her folk are; they are enslaved, that is true, but even in their role as servants they are able to keep their integrity intact. St. Mawr is the antithetical Rico; Lou’s husband is a handsome, nice, perfectly suitable (in his society) man. Yet a repressed angry animal lives within him. At one point, Lou describes his personality to be like that of a domesticated dog: “And that was Rico. He daren't quite bite. Not that he was really afraid of the others. He was afraid of himself, once he let himself go.” Lou’s realization that her relationships are pointless because they are artificial, compels her to follow her mother to America, where she begins to withdraw from society altogether. While St. Mawr was the catalyst to her change, it is the American landscape (specifically in New Mexico) that allows Lou some rest from her disappointment of civilization.
But seriously. The book would be better if St. Mawr was a unicorn.
Lou Witt is a well-to-do, married, attractive woman who, despite her position in society, is unhappy. Lou has spent the majority of her life fitting the role that society has given her, but she is dissatisfied with this role. When Lou finds herself in the presence of St. Mawr, the beautiful and emblematic horse, she begins the process of pinpointing just why she is so unhappy. St. Mawr is the catalyst to Lou’s discovery of her own life’s emptiness. Everything about St. Mawr suggests wildness, liveliness, and a genuine self. In contrast, Lou finds that she can only find this inner vitality/genuine self in St. Mawr, and perhaps a bit in Louis and Phoenix, the groomsmen. St. Mawr and these two men are not bound by the societal expectations that Lou and her folk are; they are enslaved, that is true, but even in their role as servants they are able to keep their integrity intact. St. Mawr is the antithetical Rico; Lou’s husband is a handsome, nice, perfectly suitable (in his society) man. Yet a repressed angry animal lives within him. At one point, Lou describes his personality to be like that of a domesticated dog: “And that was Rico. He daren't quite bite. Not that he was really afraid of the others. He was afraid of himself, once he let himself go.” Lou’s realization that her relationships are pointless because they are artificial, compels her to follow her mother to America, where she begins to withdraw from society altogether. While St. Mawr was the catalyst to her change, it is the American landscape (specifically in New Mexico) that allows Lou some rest from her disappointment of civilization.
But seriously. The book would be better if St. Mawr was a unicorn.
September 11, 2019
(This should not be listed under the "author" Brian Finney, the author is D.H. Lawrence. Finney is the editor. That's effing weird.)
A late-career collection of one novella, two completed short stories, and two unfinished stories, it's probably best for a Lawrence completist. I can understand why others would find it disappointing.
Perhaps it's more interesting to look at these as Lawrence exploring his fascination with America and Americans, and how these contrast with the old world and old-world natives. The Texas wife Lou(ise) is much more of a "man" than her insufferable effete European husband Rico. "The Princess" is half American on her dead mother's side, half Scottish aristocracy on her father's (or so she's told), but her life only begins when her dotty father dies and she travels to the Southwest. "The Flying Fish" places an old-worlder in the new world's wonder. He is overwhelmed and ill, obsessed with the weight of his own family roots. "The Overtone" doesn't fit that mold, but it's an intense, brief flashbulb into "old" married longing versus "new" youth longing.
Otherwise, obvious through-lines do unite stories such as Lawrence's interest in Pan and the natural (let's not say "human") ideals Pan represents. There are touches of race-consciousness as he explores Indigenous and Mestizo characters reduced to servile roles (when they are the real American nobility). And of course loads, to the point of tediousness, of descriptions of pine trees and horse trails and canyon vistas and so on. Want to make this book more fun? Challenge yourself to a drinking game as you find all the common threads.
A late-career collection of one novella, two completed short stories, and two unfinished stories, it's probably best for a Lawrence completist. I can understand why others would find it disappointing.
Perhaps it's more interesting to look at these as Lawrence exploring his fascination with America and Americans, and how these contrast with the old world and old-world natives. The Texas wife Lou(ise) is much more of a "man" than her insufferable effete European husband Rico. "The Princess" is half American on her dead mother's side, half Scottish aristocracy on her father's (or so she's told), but her life only begins when her dotty father dies and she travels to the Southwest. "The Flying Fish" places an old-worlder in the new world's wonder. He is overwhelmed and ill, obsessed with the weight of his own family roots. "The Overtone" doesn't fit that mold, but it's an intense, brief flashbulb into "old" married longing versus "new" youth longing.
Otherwise, obvious through-lines do unite stories such as Lawrence's interest in Pan and the natural (let's not say "human") ideals Pan represents. There are touches of race-consciousness as he explores Indigenous and Mestizo characters reduced to servile roles (when they are the real American nobility). And of course loads, to the point of tediousness, of descriptions of pine trees and horse trails and canyon vistas and so on. Want to make this book more fun? Challenge yourself to a drinking game as you find all the common threads.
January 25, 2014
I don't know why I returned to these novellas forty-five years after reading them in college, but I did.
It's icy cold here now and when folks do gather, they tend to be effusive or withdrawn. Kind of like the characters in Lawrence's two pieces.
I love the imagined new story of Christ's resurrection into human realization, rejection and acceptance. I still admire Lawrence's ability to make sentences and imagery that swell, curve, break and re-form. And to think that Christ might have said, "The teacher and the saviour are dead in me; now I can go about my business, into my own single life." I like this Jesus, given all the twists and turns his story has endured due to man's interference and need to control the plot.
St. Mawr...I so like Mrs. Witt, damnable snob and icon that she is. Her daughter Louise, who buys and is entranced by the glorious horse St. Mawr, strikes me as whiny, but searching.
I can see and hear women at a "women's lib" meeting in 1970 calling for the castration of men and the elevation of women. I think about all the claptrap and true talk about gender differences, historical fact and fiction, and the way to find meaning in one's life.
Good to re-read Lawrence, too, in order to remember his travel writing, poetry, painting - despite being hounded by censors for most of his life.
I remember sneaking home copies of "Rabbit Run" and "Lady Chatterly's Lover" and thinking they were VERY mysterious books.
It's icy cold here now and when folks do gather, they tend to be effusive or withdrawn. Kind of like the characters in Lawrence's two pieces.
I love the imagined new story of Christ's resurrection into human realization, rejection and acceptance. I still admire Lawrence's ability to make sentences and imagery that swell, curve, break and re-form. And to think that Christ might have said, "The teacher and the saviour are dead in me; now I can go about my business, into my own single life." I like this Jesus, given all the twists and turns his story has endured due to man's interference and need to control the plot.
St. Mawr...I so like Mrs. Witt, damnable snob and icon that she is. Her daughter Louise, who buys and is entranced by the glorious horse St. Mawr, strikes me as whiny, but searching.
I can see and hear women at a "women's lib" meeting in 1970 calling for the castration of men and the elevation of women. I think about all the claptrap and true talk about gender differences, historical fact and fiction, and the way to find meaning in one's life.
Good to re-read Lawrence, too, in order to remember his travel writing, poetry, painting - despite being hounded by censors for most of his life.
I remember sneaking home copies of "Rabbit Run" and "Lady Chatterly's Lover" and thinking they were VERY mysterious books.
March 23, 2009
this was the first lawrence i read. i liked it so much more than 'sons and lovers', which i hated. 'st. mawr' has a lot of amazing stuff about the nature of existence, idealism, and good vs. evil. peep this: 'mankind, like a horse, ridden by a stranger, smooth faced, evil rider. evil himself, smooth faced and pseudo handsome, riding mankind past the dead snake, to the last break.' yikes.
'the man who died' is a supposition that jesus didn't actually die on the cross but instead was taken down too soon. once rehabilitated he shuns humans because they tried to kill the only one who offered to save them, claiming 'men and women alike were mad with the egoistic fear of their own nothingness.' he then lights out for lebanon where he shacks up with a preistess of isis who thinks of him as osiris incarnate.
obviously this is way more interesting than a thinly veiled autobiography about a whiny, vacillating, mother-obsessed ponce. ('sons and lovers')
'the man who died' is a supposition that jesus didn't actually die on the cross but instead was taken down too soon. once rehabilitated he shuns humans because they tried to kill the only one who offered to save them, claiming 'men and women alike were mad with the egoistic fear of their own nothingness.' he then lights out for lebanon where he shacks up with a preistess of isis who thinks of him as osiris incarnate.
obviously this is way more interesting than a thinly veiled autobiography about a whiny, vacillating, mother-obsessed ponce. ('sons and lovers')
June 18, 2020
Painful reading, only read it for our book club's upcoming September meeting in honour of Lawrence's birthday, 130years ago, Sep. 11, 1885.
I remember loving Lady Chatterly's Lover and Women in Love and Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow about 40 years ago now...what has changed? I think that my level of ennui, world weariness and cynicism was a match for DH Lawrence in my teens. I have abandoned these defeatist behaviors and find life's every moment exciting. The book is very dated now and no longer shocks. And in the age of Internet, neither does it titillate. I found the 4 other short stories that accompanied St Mawr, equally evocative of disease: The overtone (again about a boring marriage) and The Willful Women and the Flying Fish (neither of which were completed, happily). Slightly more interesting was The Princess which is an odd tale of a young virginal woman getting abducted by a mad Mexican and raped and led to madness herself. Enough Lawrence for me for lifetime!
I remember loving Lady Chatterly's Lover and Women in Love and Sons and Lovers and The Rainbow about 40 years ago now...what has changed? I think that my level of ennui, world weariness and cynicism was a match for DH Lawrence in my teens. I have abandoned these defeatist behaviors and find life's every moment exciting. The book is very dated now and no longer shocks. And in the age of Internet, neither does it titillate. I found the 4 other short stories that accompanied St Mawr, equally evocative of disease: The overtone (again about a boring marriage) and The Willful Women and the Flying Fish (neither of which were completed, happily). Slightly more interesting was The Princess which is an odd tale of a young virginal woman getting abducted by a mad Mexican and raped and led to madness herself. Enough Lawrence for me for lifetime!
Want to read
June 18, 2007I bought this book after slipping into a little used book store in Brighton, England. Being by D.H. Lawrence is what drew me to the book, as I've been a fan of his since I heard his poem called Self-Pity.
"I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself"
After picking up the book, the following line made me want to read more of it.
"She, with her odd little museau, not exactly pretty, but very attractive; and her quaint air of playing at being well-bred, in a sort of charade game; and her queer familiarity with foreign cities and foreign languages; and the luring sense of being an outsider everywhere, like a sort of gipsy, who is at home any-where and nowhere: all this made up her charm and her failure. She didn’t quite belong."
I related to her (she says, narcissisticly).
"I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself"
After picking up the book, the following line made me want to read more of it.
"She, with her odd little museau, not exactly pretty, but very attractive; and her quaint air of playing at being well-bred, in a sort of charade game; and her queer familiarity with foreign cities and foreign languages; and the luring sense of being an outsider everywhere, like a sort of gipsy, who is at home any-where and nowhere: all this made up her charm and her failure. She didn’t quite belong."
I related to her (she says, narcissisticly).
July 8, 2013
Fabulous, wonderful short novels by one of my favorite authors. "The Man Who Died" is Lawrence's brilliant evocation of a Christ who did not die on the cross, but lives as a man, seeking the meaning of existence as he travels from place to place. I first read it in high school, and it's one of those touchstone books, that makes your brain turn around in it's pan. St. Mawr is another thought-provoking story, in keeping with Lawrence's ongoing exploration of whether or not a true, equal relationship is possible between men and women. I first read this book (both short novels combined) in high school, when the Christ story blew my mind, then re-read it in college, and about twice a decade since then. To me, these represent the culmination of Lawrence's themes introduced in earlier works. Strongly recommended.
Read
December 27, 2023The Man Who Died was very interesting.
St. Mawr was as well, but only the second time I read it. The first time was for high school English class and I found the endless descriptive passages tedious to get through. Once you've read it, re-reading it is a pleasure because you speed through those parts.
St. Mawr was as well, but only the second time I read it. The first time was for high school English class and I found the endless descriptive passages tedious to get through. Once you've read it, re-reading it is a pleasure because you speed through those parts.
September 6, 2010
It always amazes me that college courses rarely include these novelettes. The first, The Man Who Died, picks up the story of Jesus after he awakens in the crypt. He finds that he is alive and ready for a new chapter in his life. Like no other author, Lawrence take Jesus through a transformation of unimaginable growth and conclusion.
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