Sun

by D.H. Lawrence

'Sun' is a sensual story of a woman rediscovering her sexuality through the power of the sun. But for the unexpected arrival of her businessman husband she was ready to give herself to a local peasant but is finally pulled back to respectability by her husband. But she is free to remain apart from him in the sun.

"And she would rub a little olive oil into her skin, and wander a moment in the dark underworld of the lemons, balancing a lemonflower in her navel, laughing to herself. There was just a chance some peasant might see her. But if he did, he would be more afraid of her than she of him. She knew of the white core of fear in the clothed bodies of men."

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, British Literature, Fiction, Italy, Magical Realism

38 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

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

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short story from D.H. Lawrence that certainly wasn't his best, but the beautifully evocative language made it quite delightful to read. A woman is prescribed open space and plenty of laying out in the sun by her doctor, possibly in a hope to improve her mental health state.

It is written from her perspective, which I enjoyed, and we learn her lusts and desires, which probably raised a few eyebrows when this was first published, but thankfully now it is common knowledge that women enjoy sex, too. This story wasn't as erotic as I'd hoped, though.

While the language is typical D.H. Lawrence, I failed to really love the story itself. I feel like it had problems developing, and quite honestly, it was too short for my tastes.

[John Hatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story of a New York wife and mother whose doctor prescribes nude sun-bathing. Mother and infant son depart for Sicily, leaving father and husband behind in New York. As her body responds to the healing rays of the sun, she experiences unexpected emotions.

[Cecily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” gave the title to a movement. But the dominant colours are not red, yellow and gold, but blue.

This short story conjures a powerful impression of carnal awakening from intimate communing with the sun. The significant colour is blue, not just of eyes, the sea, and the sky, but of the sun itself, and especially the flames that stream from it. The flames that alight on Juliet, light her, warm her, melt her, mould her, penetrate her innermost self. Resistance is futile. Resistance is rejected. She acknowledges her needs and desires, even as she realises how they are constrained by temperament and society.

Once again, I willingly, eagerly, submitted to the naturalistic but elliptically fiery passion of Lawrence’s words.

As I read this, the sun was shining, but the wind was bitter. I’ve become more sensitive to cold in recent months. I yearn for the sun, not just its cheering light, but its deep, penetrating warmth. The words on the page were an uplifting simulacrum for Juliet’s rebirth.

Story by Quotes

On arriving at this beautiful place:
"She saw it all, and in a measure it was soothing. But it was all external... She herself was just the same... her incapacity to feel anything real."

Things change from the first sunrise she sees there, as if it's the first sunrise she's ever seen:
"The sun lifted himself molten and sparkling, naked over the sea's rim... shaking the night off himself, like wetness. And he was full and naked. And she wanted to come to him."

She keeps seeing blue in the sun:
“He rose all molten in his nakedness, and threw off the blue-white fire, into the tender heaven.”
"his blue pulsing roundness, whose outer edges streamed brilliance."

Over several days or weeks, she develops an intense connection with the sun:
"She could feel the sun penetrating into her bones; nay, further, even into her emotions and thoughts."
"Her weary, chilled heart was melting."
(Her womb also gradually ceases resistance, and begins to unfold like a lily.)

Sharing:
"She knew the sun in every thread of her body... And though he shone on all the world, when she lay unclothed he focussed on her" so she had “a feeling of detachment from people”.

Acceptance:
"Beautiful or not, she felt that by the sun she was appreciated. Which is the same."
"Something deep inside her unfolded and relaxed... her conscious self was secondary. The true Juliet lived in the dark flow of the sun within her deep body."

Notes on the Story

Juliet is despatched to Italy for "sun baths" - naked sunbathing. She seems to be suffering from post-natal depression, and she and her husband were “Like two engines running at variance, they shattered one another”. So “She permitted herself to be carried away.”

For me, this was all about the sun. But there is Biblical imagery if you want it. in this Paradisiacal garden, Juliet leaps “quick as a serpent” and later, there is a literal snake. No apples, but there are pears. And an attractive peasant with an ass that may also be attractive - though the word choice may not have been purely Biblical. ;)

I didn’t like the ending, because it’s sadly plausible for the time - perhaps even, for now.

Notes on the Picture

Impressionists often put specks of contrasting colours next to each other to create the impression of another. Radical then, though less so to those of us familiar with pixels and screens.

With “Impression, Sunrise”, if you measure the brightness of different areas of the canvas with a photometer, or just look at it in black and white, the sun is barely visible, because it is no brighter than the rest of the painting. See Luminance.


PG / R Alternative

For a less sexual version of the awakening power of Italian sun on body and soul, see Elizabeth von Arnim’s Enchanted April, reviewed HERE.


Read as part of Selected Short Stories.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg

I made the proofing of this book and Project Gutenberg will publish it.

[John Hatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange story of the conflict between a woman's desire and her sense of responsibility and willingness to accept fate. It plays out almost entirely within her soul, without any outward expression of the conflict. Very interesting and again, astonishing how much can be said (or written) in so few pages.

Compliments to Erik MacQueen for this brilliant translation into Swedish!

[sapphopipo]

in my literature class at university we actually talk about terrifying things like for example…sex

[catarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting short story.. had to read for an english course

[Nanette Bulebosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

About how some solitary time with the sun changes a woman's self perception and the people in her life. I read this in college and it made a huge impact on me.

[Demetra Stavridou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Τον αγαπώ αυτόν τον συγγραφέα, όσο "παλιομοδίτικος" κι αν φαντάζει σήμερα σε ορισμένους. Κλασική στόφα.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

En av de bättre novellerna publicerade av Novellix.

Lawrence har ett intressant sätt att arbeta med gränser på i Sol. Dels finns där en väldigt tydlig skildring av konflikten mellan själ och kropp. Dock är det inte fullständigt klart vad som utgör kroppens medium och vad som utgör själens. Skillnader mellan kvinna och man, barn och vuxen, natur och civilisation är också tydligt presenterade.
Trots att den mest uppenbara tolkningen av denna novell är om kvinnans uppgörelse med sin biologiska givenhet, dvs att vara förmögen att bära avkomma, finns det där en annan tolkning att göra enligt mig. Man kan läsa solen som ett slags kontakt med det andliga, det högre. Jag ser det absolut som ett försök att skriva sig fram till ursprunget som idé. Hur kommer man i kontakt med det som är människan innan hon sugs upp av civilisationen? Hur förhåller sig individen mellan det kultiverade och det biologiska? Kan hon utan kompromiss välja båda? Vilka konsekvenser uppstår då hon faktiskt väljer det ena över det andra?
Lawrence använder sig av kvinnans starka koppling till fortplantningen, inte som ett sexuellt begär, utan som den nödvändiga driften att låta "lotusblomman" öppna sig på ett intressant sätt. Juliet drivs mellan att vilja låta sig befruktas och föda ett nytt barn och att känna sig tyngd inför det ansvar som läggs på modern (betänk även hur det ansvaret måste sett ut då novellen publicerades). Detta slutar i en modern, men också ytterst antik (Lawrence refererar t.o.m. till Perseus i sista meningen), tanke om att det inte går att bryta sig loss från ödets makt. En nog så sann insikt vilken vi, enligt mig, allt för sällan vill kännas vid i den tid vi själva lever i idag.

[Patricia Lule Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novellen är väldigt sensuella & sexuellt laddad då man får följa en kvinnliga huvudkaraktär tankar kring lust & sex & åtrå.

Huvudkaraktären ordinerad av läkare att vitsas i solen för att bli friskare & gladare förmodligen mot mental hälsa.

Det som är unikt med novellen är att skrivit ur en kvinnas perspektiv att hon brottas med sina inte tankar & känsloliv kring sin åtrå & sexualitet på ett icke normgivande sätt. Jag förstår varför novellen ansågs under sin tidsepok att vara kontroversiell & normbrytande & annorlunda. Nu är det snarare mer normaliserat att kvinnan är en aktiv sexuell varelse precis som mannen.

Det som är bra med novellen är att tempot är lagom. Dock lyckas jag inte få någon vidare känsla för huvudkaraktär då hen är avtrubbad i sitt moderskap till en början (säkerligen förlossningsdepression). Novellen tar liksom aldrig riktigt fart & avslutet blir vad som förväntas av kvinnans roll & ställning. Jag hade önskat ett oväntat slut. Därför ger jag novellen betyget tre av fem.

För mer info om mig & mina bokrecension följ FruLuleHamilton på instagram för en kreativ bild till bokrecension.

[Δκнғ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like when a turbo-normie white woman goes to Bali and thinks herself as spiritual and shit cause she paid for some overpriced, overwashed, over-gentrified Yoga sessions set up by some Ruskies who have been welcomed by buck-broken Balinese who calls for Total Jawa Death because of that one bombing done by a Malaysian despite letting themselves be anally gapes by those damned foreigners.

[Jakob Hessius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vet ej vad jag tycker. Jag har lite svårt att komma i stämning när jag läser så korta verk. Jag behöver lite mer tid på mig för att komma in i historien och karaktärerna. Jag får läsa om dom en gång till så får jag nog en annan uppfattning om dom.

[Annasara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frihet mot ansvar i ett tyvärr tråkigt format.

[Tuva Marken Ortman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skimrande.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sensual novel about the relationship with one's body.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the relationship between a human's body and the sun.

[Sanjay Chandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about man-woman relationship, both bound by circumstances of born to riches, woman finding freedom through sunbathing in the nude. She knows she will not find her freedom with a peasant

[M. Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

2☆

[Elina Purmonen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Språket flyter på bra, och det poetiska ger en guldkant.

[Elias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read on a sunny day… “The sun is to us what we take from it. And if we are puny, it is because we take punily from the superb sun.” …fantastic read

[Matilda Ekestubbe · Rating 2 out of 5]

nope fattade inte grejen

[Mina Jørgensborg · Rating 2 out of 5]

not for me

[violeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’ll say it DH Lawrence got that freak in him

[87lectures · Rating 3 out of 5]

Belle écriture mais marre des fixettes sur les boobs, franchement

[ExeDavid · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

woman discovers sun boofing

[libraryofjonna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 stjärnor

[Eirik Flordalen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was way too horny for me. Went into it blind and uhh... what was the story even about? Skin cancer and I hate my husband-core.

[flaams · Rating 4 out of 5]

D.H. Lawrence’s short story Sun explores the sensual awakening of a woman through her connection with nature, particularly the sun. The story follows Juliet, a woman prescribed sunbathing to restore her vitality, both physical and emotional. As she spends her days under the sun's rays, she experiences a profound transformation, feeling liberated and connected to her deepest desires. Her bond with the sun becomes almost spiritual, as it penetrates her mind and body, reviving parts of herself long repressed by societal expectations and her marriage.

The story is rich with Lawrence’s evocative language, vividly describing Juliet’s communion with the sun and her gradual release from her emotional numbness. The recurring imagery of blue, from the sky and the sea to the fiery core of the sun, reflects Juliet’s personal journey. She is drawn to the sun’s powerful energy, which melts her internal resistance and stirs her sensual desires.

The plot itself feels somewhat underdeveloped, and the brevity of the story leaves certain elements unexplored. Readers are introduced to Juliet’s inner world and desires, which may have been quite provocative when the story was first published, but today feel more familiar in their themes of female sexuality and self-discovery. The story, while suggestive, doesn’t fully embrace the erotic potential that it hints at, leaving some readers wanting more.

The ending brings Juliet back to reality with the arrival of her husband, symbolizing a return to the constraints of respectability and societal norms. It’s a plausible conclusion, reflecting the time period’s limitations on women’s autonomy, but it also feels like a retreat from the freedom Juliet had begun to taste.