Complete Short Stories, Vol 2

by D.H. Lawrence

Complete Short Volume 2 (A Viking compass book, C96)

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, Literature

303 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

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

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixteen stories in this volume, including the delightfully named Monkey Nuts, and another called Samson and Delilah which is not biblical in any sense except metaphoric.

Trains, coal miners, nuts and peacocks. Friends and relatives. New relations and old acquaintances. The back cover blurb on these books is the biggest slur on a writer I’ve ever seen on their own book— praising Lawrence's genius "within disciplined limits", that is, in his short stories, the blurb goes on to say "his powers are never weakened by the repetitions which mar some of his longer works." Vicious!!

This volume opens with the vivid and intimate Odour of Chrysanthemums.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another zinger from Lawrence.
These stories are of a slightly different hue than the first volume. A few take place in the American southwest and move away from the stuffy social mores of Lawrence's England. There is thus a greater effusion of a sense of expansiveness, of triumph, and little of the guilt that mark his earlier works. Stories like "Two Blue Birds" or "Monkey Nuts" deal with bold, independent women asserting themselves against or even for the will of men, with mixed results. One, "Tickets, Please" ends with a group of vicious, feral railroad girls beating the shit out of the swinging dick who has tried to lay them all.
A lot of reviewers seem to take issue with Lawrence's overt themes of sexual dominance which I can see, but I think it is easy to mistake dominance for assertiveness. For instance, the heroine of a story like "Sun" or "Smile" (the latter of which is a corpse) definitely win out in their unmuddied championing of their own female triumph. Sexuality in Lawrence is never a given, it must be taken. In "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" it takes a near-drowning to summon up passions.
There are weaker ones here. "The Woman Who Rode Away" is an odd one, taking the story of the white woman immersed in native culture against her will and giving it a somewhat different spin, but the works, overall, are great and really inimitable.

[Nd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up as a discard thinking that, as someone who is a prolific reader and has had innumerable literature classes over the years, I knew a little about D.H. Lawrence as an author. So as not to prejudice my reading in any way, I purposely did no reading about him in advance. Nor have I read Volume 1. Apparently, whatever I studied many years ago or thought I remembered had left me.

These short stories have immense depth and intensity into sensibilities beginning with the powerful Odor of Chrysanthemums and the ephemeral life of Egbert and Winifred in England, My England right through the odd points of viewing in The Woman Who Rode Away. The stories were fascinating studies in a number of concepts: negation of power (opposites/contrasts) intensity, relationships (both real and imagined), class distinction and the mingling of classes, among other things. His psyche examinations delved into the overlap and opposition in variations in points of view and ways of thinking, and frequently included some version of inaccessibility and aloofness mingled with an introspective awareness. I wonder about the intention and purpose of ending of some of the short stories abruptly. It seems that he was more interested in the stories as exploratory concepts than as short stories.

I particularly like his beautiful and captivating use of words that pulled me into stories and situations that typically would have held no interest or even would have been repellent. He is incredibly good at luring the reader into otherworldly places.

So, now I'll read a bit about him and find out how completely off base I am???

[Mikey B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers Within

This collection of short stories did not go over well with me. I found the underlying theme in most to be that of domination (power) and the behavior of the dominating and dominated – all this with a distinct psycho-sexual tone. It became really tiresome.

The best story in the lot “The Princess” ended is this fashion – sexual dominance. It really leads one to believe that D.H. had some serious problems he needed work on – the man needed help. Perhaps writing served as a vent, which is how some of the stories come across.

The “Horse dealer’s Daughter” wasn’t bad and “Sun” was definitely interesting. “Fannie and Annie” and The Blind Man” were well told.

I found “The Woman Who Ran Away” with allusions to New Age and Indian religion ridiculous. It approached the realm of science fiction. After the following lines I started to speed read.

“Her kind of womanhood, intensely personal and individual was to be obliterated again, and the great primeval symbols were to tower once more over the fallen individual independence of women. The harshness and the quivering nervous consciousness of the highly bred white woman was to be destroyed again, womanhood was to be cast once more into the great stream of impersonal sex and impersonal passion.”

“The Primrose Path” was dismal, dark and depressing. Sutton is a sexual predator. “You Touched Me” and “Tickets, Please” were simplistic, bordering on unreality. Some stories like “Monkey Nuts” were cruel and sadistic. In “England, My England”, Egbert is a mal-adjusted individual and the story is nihilistic overall. “Odour of Chrysanthemums” ranks as one of the most depressing stories I have ever read – it is stark and alienated.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Nip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do believe that D.H. Lawrence is, and will remain, my favorite, most brilliant author of short stories. This volume ranges from the dismal, soot-encrusted mining towns of his youth, to the musings of London intellectuals, to his sexual fantasies of America’s Southwest, where Taos became another home.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

much obliged to meet a peacock named Joey. see: 'wintry peacock' and other tidy tales here.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really great collection of stories. The funny thing about them though is that none were "happy", so to speak. From hardships to trauma to relational issues, each story left me thinking how well it was written but wondering if the next would be a bit more uplifting.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another volume of wonderfully written short stories.

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A more critical and engaged reader would perhaps be able to speak intelligent about the differences between Volume 1 and Volume 2 and Lawrence's development as a writer over time, but I am not that reader. I think it's safe to assume that everything I wrote about Volume 1 would apply to Volume 2 as well.

[Annette Boehm · Rating 2 out of 5]

...The stories I did read in this book (five of them) were all depressing. As far as craft goes, there was a lot of telling, not a lot of showing, and that makes reading boring for me. There was an underlying sense of misogyny running through most of what I read, but this may not be true for all the stories. Didn't finish it because it made me feel depressed.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Snake" is my favorite.

[Daniel J. Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence is amazing in his short fiction. Excellently written and so powerful. So many layers to the many stories. An excellent read.