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The Complete Short Stories: Volume 1
In the judgment of many, Lawrence's expansive genius found its happiest expression within disciplined limits, for in his short stories and short novels his powers are never weakened by the repetitions which mar some of his longer works. As a short-story writing, Lawrence at his best was unexcelled.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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About the author
D.H. Lawrence
2,084 books4,201 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 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 16, 2016
I don't agree with "the judgment of many" that Lawrence was at his best within the constrained discipline of the short story, that the shorter form restricted him from indulging in his notorious rambling & repetitions "which mar some of his longer works." In my opinion, the novel gave him the freedom and the breadth to stretch out and be himself. The one great story in this first volume is "Daughters of the Vicar" which runs to 51 pages and is simply wonderful. I would give the whole volume 5 stars just for that one story.
September 1, 2022
Volume 1 of the complete short stories. Many of these pieces reflect the lives of the working class, especially miners.
This volume contains 17 stories, including The Prussian Officer, which is considered by some to be homoerotic and perhaps even belong to that queer amorphous beast: gay literature. Word to the wise— don’t get your hopes up! Be prepared to read not only between the lives but between the very words.
A range of stories from a serious modern realist.
This volume contains 17 stories, including The Prussian Officer, which is considered by some to be homoerotic and perhaps even belong to that queer amorphous beast: gay literature. Word to the wise— don’t get your hopes up! Be prepared to read not only between the lives but between the very words.
A range of stories from a serious modern realist.
October 9, 2015
I have funny gaps in my reading, especially when it comes to the so-called "classics", a word that makes me think of togaed, mustachioed white men with collars the shape of coffee filters, or maybe the occasional frumpy, cheerless, sexless, and lumpen Female Author. I know none of this is actually the case. This is a construct of shameful archetypes in my own mind, my teenaged, early adult mind that reduced me to "Fuck you, Melville. William S. Burroughs IS the American novelist par excellence."
Then you get older and you start rebelling against yourself because you've already rebelled against the world. Par becomes a golfing term, you begin getting hairless patches on the backs of your legs, and you realize that Burroughs is a terrible writer.
Lawrence neatly plops down into this Classic Gap, which is even neater for the fact that he's writing about rebelling against yourself because you've already rebelled against the world or at least healthy chunks of it.
I've always associated Lawrence with Cinemax late-night soft core pornography. I'm sure there's a lurid, early 80s film version of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" that I was vaguely aware of during my early-cable TV sexual awakening. But that was about it.
Lawrence is one of those writers who is so good it's kind of terrifying. Case in point: I challenge anyone to read stories like "A Fragment of Stained Glass" (worth the whole read alone, a disturbing, beautiful story) or "Daughters of the Vicar" and not be profoundly unsettled by his gifts.
His prose, lyrical and dark and weird, is one thing. His themes are another. Yes, these are, at their core, very sensual works, but not like you'd think. The desire here are primal, almost prehuman or preternatural. Men and women hunt each other inside the nights that exist alongside us in perpetuity. Sometimes men hunt men as in "The Prussian Officer". Sometimes women hunt moles as in "Second Best". What matters most here is the sublime savagery of love and desire and Lawrence excels at exploring this without getting bogged down in details of blatant sexuality.
I know Lawrence was kind of a pre-fascist asshole, but, still. Even Orwell admired him and he hated everything!
Then you get older and you start rebelling against yourself because you've already rebelled against the world. Par becomes a golfing term, you begin getting hairless patches on the backs of your legs, and you realize that Burroughs is a terrible writer.
Lawrence neatly plops down into this Classic Gap, which is even neater for the fact that he's writing about rebelling against yourself because you've already rebelled against the world or at least healthy chunks of it.
I've always associated Lawrence with Cinemax late-night soft core pornography. I'm sure there's a lurid, early 80s film version of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" that I was vaguely aware of during my early-cable TV sexual awakening. But that was about it.
Lawrence is one of those writers who is so good it's kind of terrifying. Case in point: I challenge anyone to read stories like "A Fragment of Stained Glass" (worth the whole read alone, a disturbing, beautiful story) or "Daughters of the Vicar" and not be profoundly unsettled by his gifts.
His prose, lyrical and dark and weird, is one thing. His themes are another. Yes, these are, at their core, very sensual works, but not like you'd think. The desire here are primal, almost prehuman or preternatural. Men and women hunt each other inside the nights that exist alongside us in perpetuity. Sometimes men hunt men as in "The Prussian Officer". Sometimes women hunt moles as in "Second Best". What matters most here is the sublime savagery of love and desire and Lawrence excels at exploring this without getting bogged down in details of blatant sexuality.
I know Lawrence was kind of a pre-fascist asshole, but, still. Even Orwell admired him and he hated everything!
October 24, 2012
It is a wonderful experience to become immersed in Lawrence's world of early 20th century northern England: the life of the working class, encounters with the moneyed, love and lust, games on days off, drinking, miners' strikes. Some have almost an O. Henry-type twist, but of emotions rather than plot.
September 24, 2007
this man sees straight into people's souls. it's frightening and mostly sad, but monumental, baby. if none of it makes you cry, you must be some kind of monster.
January 2, 2018
Disappointment Is My Middle Name
It seems to me that D.H. Lawrence had a dissatisfied wanderer's soul. As the son of a miner, he did not fit into English literary society. His ties with his mother precluded easy relationships with women in early life. He always looked for that overpowering love from others who could hardly respond to that degree. He disagreed with prevailing opinion about many things, including sex, patriotism, and class. Eventually his discontents drove him from England and he wandered the globe looking for that "better home". So many try, so few succeed. The style of his discontent led to his novels being banned and his paintings being confiscated by the authorities. Though I have admired his writing in the past, and the stories in this volume are excellent, I find a certain disquiet in Lawrence. He always wants to find the unhappy ending, the love jelling into hatred, the lover going away forever, disappointed at last. His characters' slogan might be, "I love you but I can't stand you." While over-optimism is tiring, I find this focus on unhappiness also fatiguing. Men abandon their former loves and marry ("The Witch A La Mode") or go away to new urban lives("The Modern Lover"). Women beckon men and then push them away in tediously familiar mating games with no ending ("New Eve and Old Adam"). There are also stories of violent, perverse love, such as "The Prussian Officer". The mentally-unstable injured miner, the domineering father that spoils the lives of his children, the deserting soldier without a plan---it's as if Lawrence loved to concentrate on the flaws of each person, to turn over each stone and lovingly point out the bugs and worms to make us squirm instead. "The Daughters of the Vicar" is perhaps the most optimistic, though of the two girls, only one manages to escape her narrow, constricting fate dictated by false class pride---well, she is forced out(the other is married off to an autistic midget---whoa, nice !). Each story portrays extremely well-developed characters whose conversations and movements never lack meaning. D.H. Lawrence was one of the top British writers of the twentieth century. If you have never read him, I suggest you should begin here. These are brilliant stories. Just don't expect many happy endings.
It seems to me that D.H. Lawrence had a dissatisfied wanderer's soul. As the son of a miner, he did not fit into English literary society. His ties with his mother precluded easy relationships with women in early life. He always looked for that overpowering love from others who could hardly respond to that degree. He disagreed with prevailing opinion about many things, including sex, patriotism, and class. Eventually his discontents drove him from England and he wandered the globe looking for that "better home". So many try, so few succeed. The style of his discontent led to his novels being banned and his paintings being confiscated by the authorities. Though I have admired his writing in the past, and the stories in this volume are excellent, I find a certain disquiet in Lawrence. He always wants to find the unhappy ending, the love jelling into hatred, the lover going away forever, disappointed at last. His characters' slogan might be, "I love you but I can't stand you." While over-optimism is tiring, I find this focus on unhappiness also fatiguing. Men abandon their former loves and marry ("The Witch A La Mode") or go away to new urban lives("The Modern Lover"). Women beckon men and then push them away in tediously familiar mating games with no ending ("New Eve and Old Adam"). There are also stories of violent, perverse love, such as "The Prussian Officer". The mentally-unstable injured miner, the domineering father that spoils the lives of his children, the deserting soldier without a plan---it's as if Lawrence loved to concentrate on the flaws of each person, to turn over each stone and lovingly point out the bugs and worms to make us squirm instead. "The Daughters of the Vicar" is perhaps the most optimistic, though of the two girls, only one manages to escape her narrow, constricting fate dictated by false class pride---well, she is forced out(the other is married off to an autistic midget---whoa, nice !). Each story portrays extremely well-developed characters whose conversations and movements never lack meaning. D.H. Lawrence was one of the top British writers of the twentieth century. If you have never read him, I suggest you should begin here. These are brilliant stories. Just don't expect many happy endings.
June 29, 2018
In his novels, D. H. Lawrence exhibits incredible talent as one of the best English language authors of all time thanks to his artful prose, complex, well-crafted characters, and an almost unmatched ability evoke aesthetics that match and harmonize with his thematic moods. These talents are on full display here in this collection of short stories. I was particularly drawn to the "proletarian" pieces in this collection, where Lawrence paints portraits of colliers and privates that are all the more poignant for their realism; these are not caricatures there to drive home a political point or expound on some moral or ethical theme, but real human beings presented in real human settings.
My only real complaint is that I think Lawrence's writing style lends itself better to novels than to short stories. With the exception of some of the longer pieces (most notably Daughters of the Vicar), the stories simply aren't long enough to give us more than a little morsel of the character complexity buried within. Before we begin to even truly know the characters, the story is over, and we are on to the next denizen of Lawrence's creative universe. For this reason, I would recommend reading Sons and Lovers instead if you have not yet experienced the joy of D. H. Lawrence's masterful pen.
My only real complaint is that I think Lawrence's writing style lends itself better to novels than to short stories. With the exception of some of the longer pieces (most notably Daughters of the Vicar), the stories simply aren't long enough to give us more than a little morsel of the character complexity buried within. Before we begin to even truly know the characters, the story is over, and we are on to the next denizen of Lawrence's creative universe. For this reason, I would recommend reading Sons and Lovers instead if you have not yet experienced the joy of D. H. Lawrence's masterful pen.
November 16, 2024
There were a couple of real stand-out stories such as The Thorn in the Flesh, and The Shadow in the Rose Garden, that I particularly enjoyed. The other stories I found difficult to connect with. Many were so short there was little time for character development and they were just a snippet in time rather than a complete story arc. I also found the language flowery and challenging to concentrate on. I conclude that D H Lawrence may just not be the right author for me!
August 7, 2019
If i were rating this as a collection to be dissected and analyzed in a literature class, perhaps I would give this 4 stars. But while I enjoy Lawrence’s style, I simply did not find the majority of this collection memorable. “Second Best” was quite good. And I liked “The Shades of Spring.” But the others, even a few I enjoyed, were quickly forgotten. His better short work is in volumes 2 and 3.
December 29, 2025
Mundane and unknowing social revelations from the words of an ego, arrogant and earned. Self aware to both. Love and duty and emotion, noticed unnoticed, pronounced, all the same. Grey characters and lives are made obvious by Lawrence’s concentrated and grandiose statements of them
July 9, 2019
Some interesting tales.
February 16, 2024
3.5
Standouts: New Eve and Old Adam, The Prussian Officer, The White Stocking
Standouts: New Eve and Old Adam, The Prussian Officer, The White Stocking
April 8, 2024
Me likes 🐤
May 18, 2013
I’ve never read anything by D.H. Lawrence before, but I enjoyed this collection of his short stories. Although they vary greatly in subject and setting, the common theme in all of them is the relationships between characters – they are developed so well in such a small span of time. And Lawrence is wonderfully descriptive of both people and places. These stories are great little snapshots of life. I was wowed by their ability to pull me in so quickly and completely. I never thought of myself as a short story reader, but this little volume may have changed that!
Favorite quotes: “Life, life is beautiful, so long as it is consuming you. When it is rushing through you, destroying you, life is glorious. It is best to roar away, like a fire with a great draught, white-hot to the last bit. It’s when you burn a slow fire and save fuel that life’s not worth having.” – Cyril Mersham, from “A Modern Lover”
“They are wrong – they are all wrong. They have ground out their souls for what isn’t worth anything, and there isn’t a grain of love in them anywhere. And I will have love. They want us to deny it. They’ve never found it, so they want to say it doesn’t exist. But I will have it. I will love – it is my birthright. I will love the man I marry – that is all I care about.” – Louisa Lindley, from “Daughters of the Vicar”
“It is one’s own self that matters. Whether one is being one’s own self and serving one’s own God.” – Hilda Millership, from “The Shades of Spring”
Favorite quotes: “Life, life is beautiful, so long as it is consuming you. When it is rushing through you, destroying you, life is glorious. It is best to roar away, like a fire with a great draught, white-hot to the last bit. It’s when you burn a slow fire and save fuel that life’s not worth having.” – Cyril Mersham, from “A Modern Lover”
“They are wrong – they are all wrong. They have ground out their souls for what isn’t worth anything, and there isn’t a grain of love in them anywhere. And I will have love. They want us to deny it. They’ve never found it, so they want to say it doesn’t exist. But I will have it. I will love – it is my birthright. I will love the man I marry – that is all I care about.” – Louisa Lindley, from “Daughters of the Vicar”
“It is one’s own self that matters. Whether one is being one’s own self and serving one’s own God.” – Hilda Millership, from “The Shades of Spring”
February 9, 2013
D.H. Lawrence is very good at writing about inter-personal relationships (and flowers, always the flowers), but it got a little bit repetitive reading some twenty stories that were all on the same themes. A lot of them individually were very good, while some didn't really grab me to the same extent. I like his longer fiction more than his short stories because he gets to expand on the personalities more.
Want to read
June 18, 20121) A Modern Lover
2) The Old Adam
3) Her Turn
4) Strike Pay
5) The Witch a la Mode
6) New Eve and Old Adam
7) The Prussian Officer
8) The Thorn in the Flesh
9) Daughters of the Vicar
10) A Fragment of Stained Glass
11) The Shades of Spring
12) Second Best
13) The Shadow in the Rose Garden
14) Goose Fair
15) The White Stocking
16) A Sick Collier
17) The Christening
2) The Old Adam
3) Her Turn
4) Strike Pay
5) The Witch a la Mode
6) New Eve and Old Adam
7) The Prussian Officer
8) The Thorn in the Flesh
9) Daughters of the Vicar
10) A Fragment of Stained Glass
11) The Shades of Spring
12) Second Best
13) The Shadow in the Rose Garden
14) Goose Fair
15) The White Stocking
16) A Sick Collier
17) The Christening
January 20, 2012
I have irrational love for D.H. Lawrence. So many words! So many feelings! Coal miners! Aristocrats! Confused children! All right up my completely irrational alley.
August 10, 2009
A little all over the place. Some were good and some were very good and some were not good at all.
Read
August 2, 2010The character dynamics in these stories kept me company as I toured in the Balearic Islands (Menorca and Majorca). I chose these as Lawrence is a tried and true author in my estimation.
August 21, 2016
Extraordinary I beleive I like his short stories more even than his novels
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews