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丕賱禺丕胤卅
Young Helena Verden and her violin teacher Siegmund MacNair are in love, but there is more than one obstacle to their happiness. Siegmund's solution to the dilemma turns a woman's longing for love into tragedy.
343 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
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627 people want to read
About the author
D.H. Lawrence
1,950听books4,021听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.
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.
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July 27, 2020
乇賵丕賷丞 兀丨丿丕孬賴丕 賯賱賷賱丞 乇睾賲 胤賵賱賴丕 賱賰賳賴丕 賲賲賷夭丞 亘噩賲丕賱 丕賱賱睾丞 賵兀爻賱賵亘 丕賱賵氐賮
丿賷 丕鬲卮 賱賵乇丕賳爻 丕賱賮賳丕賳 丕賱匕賷 賷賲賳丨 丕賱賵氐賮 賰賱 賲丕 賷賲賱賰 賲賳 鬲毓亘賷乇丕鬲 亘丿賷毓丞
毓賱丕賯丞 丨亘 亘賷賳 丕賲乇兀丞 賵乇噩賱 賲鬲夭賵噩 鬲氐亘丨 丕賱夭賵噩丞 丕賱胤乇賮 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賮賷賴丕
賰賱 賲賳賴賲 丨丕卅乇 賮賷 賮毓賱 賲丕 賷乇睾亘 賮賷賴 賮毓賱丕 賵亘賷賳 賳購賰乇丕賳 丕賱匕丕鬲 賵賮毓賱 賲丕 賷購賮鬲乇囟 兀賳賴 氐賵丕亘
賲毓丕賳丕丞 爻賷噩賲賵賳丿 賵氐乇丕毓賴 賲毓 賳賮爻賴 賰丕賳 丕賱兀賵囟丨 賵丕賱兀賯賵賶, 丨鬲賶 賷氐賱 賱丌禺乇 賱丨馗丕鬲 丕賱兀賱賲 賵丕賱丕賳賴賷丕乇
丕賱夭賵噩丞 賵丕賱丨亘賷亘丞 賰賱 賲賳賴賲丕 毓丕卮鬲 丨賷丕鬲賴丕 賰賲丕 鬲乇睾亘 亘毓丿 賲賵鬲賴
賵賰兀賳 賲賵鬲賴 賰丕賳 丕賱丨賱 丕賱兀賲孬賱 賱賱禺賱丕氐 賲賳 丕賱賲毓丕賳丕丞 賵丕賱丨賷乇丞
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賳購卮乇鬲 毓丕賲 1912 丕爻鬲胤丕毓 賱賵乇丕賳爻 兀賳 賷毓乇囟 賮賷賴丕 噩賵丕賳亘 賲賳 胤亘賷毓丞 丕賱丨賷丕丞 賵丕賱賲卮丕毓乇 賵丕賱賳丕爻
丿賷 丕鬲卮 賱賵乇丕賳爻 丕賱賮賳丕賳 丕賱匕賷 賷賲賳丨 丕賱賵氐賮 賰賱 賲丕 賷賲賱賰 賲賳 鬲毓亘賷乇丕鬲 亘丿賷毓丞
毓賱丕賯丞 丨亘 亘賷賳 丕賲乇兀丞 賵乇噩賱 賲鬲夭賵噩 鬲氐亘丨 丕賱夭賵噩丞 丕賱胤乇賮 丕賱孬丕賱孬 賮賷賴丕
賰賱 賲賳賴賲 丨丕卅乇 賮賷 賮毓賱 賲丕 賷乇睾亘 賮賷賴 賮毓賱丕 賵亘賷賳 賳購賰乇丕賳 丕賱匕丕鬲 賵賮毓賱 賲丕 賷購賮鬲乇囟 兀賳賴 氐賵丕亘
賲毓丕賳丕丞 爻賷噩賲賵賳丿 賵氐乇丕毓賴 賲毓 賳賮爻賴 賰丕賳 丕賱兀賵囟丨 賵丕賱兀賯賵賶, 丨鬲賶 賷氐賱 賱丌禺乇 賱丨馗丕鬲 丕賱兀賱賲 賵丕賱丕賳賴賷丕乇
丕賱夭賵噩丞 賵丕賱丨亘賷亘丞 賰賱 賲賳賴賲丕 毓丕卮鬲 丨賷丕鬲賴丕 賰賲丕 鬲乇睾亘 亘毓丿 賲賵鬲賴
賵賰兀賳 賲賵鬲賴 賰丕賳 丕賱丨賱 丕賱兀賲孬賱 賱賱禺賱丕氐 賲賳 丕賱賲毓丕賳丕丞 賵丕賱丨賷乇丞
丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賳購卮乇鬲 毓丕賲 1912 丕爻鬲胤丕毓 賱賵乇丕賳爻 兀賳 賷毓乇囟 賮賷賴丕 噩賵丕賳亘 賲賳 胤亘賷毓丞 丕賱丨賷丕丞 賵丕賱賲卮丕毓乇 賵丕賱賳丕爻
December 2, 2023
The ultimate tease. Smack at the beginning, Lawrence tells us the main character will die. Then, he puts him on an island with fast tides, caves that flood, and a young woman who drives him mad with lust. Cold showers won't cure him any more than those swims. Will she give in to him, ever? She loves him. He loves her. Then, that death thing. How does it happen? Which cave or swim or hilltop in the dark? Lawrence kept me reading to find out.
October 18, 2020
This sophomore novel is a cross between Brief Encounter and Touching from a Distance (the Ian Curtis memoir), exploring a doomed affair between two surprisingly staid characters. The first half has some fine bucolic writing and not much else, the second half kicks into life when Lawrence explores the depression of Siegmund in an age when depression was remarkably unbritish. The seeds of Lawrence鈥檚 mercurial, passionate antiheroes and antiheroines are here, with the characters avidly loving each other in one paragraph and scowling with hatred in the next. And now, having completed Lawrence鈥檚 novels in this Year of the Plague 2020, here are my best to worst rankings.
D.H. Lawrence . . . RANKED
NOVELS:
1 鈥� Women in Love
2 鈥� Sons and Lovers
3 鈥� Lady Chatterley鈥檚 Lover
4 鈥� The Lost Girl
5 鈥� Kangaroo
6 鈥� Aaron鈥檚 Rod
7 鈥� The White Peacock
8 鈥� The Rainbow
9 鈥� The Plumed Serpent
10 鈥� The Trespasser
11 鈥� The Boy in the Bush*
NOVELLAS:
1 鈥� St. Mawr
2 鈥� The Virgin and the Gipsy
3 鈥� The Fox
4 鈥� The Captain鈥檚 Doll
5 鈥� The Princess
6 鈥� The Ladybird
7 鈥� The Escaped Cock
* This is an MS from Mollie Skinner DHL tweaked and 鈥渞ecast鈥� . . . as DHL contributed only 录 of the text, I refute this novel鈥檚 place in the DH canon.
D.H. Lawrence . . . RANKED
NOVELS:
1 鈥� Women in Love
2 鈥� Sons and Lovers
3 鈥� Lady Chatterley鈥檚 Lover
4 鈥� The Lost Girl
5 鈥� Kangaroo
6 鈥� Aaron鈥檚 Rod
7 鈥� The White Peacock
8 鈥� The Rainbow
9 鈥� The Plumed Serpent
10 鈥� The Trespasser
NOVELLAS:
1 鈥� St. Mawr
2 鈥� The Virgin and the Gipsy
3 鈥� The Fox
4 鈥� The Captain鈥檚 Doll
5 鈥� The Princess
6 鈥� The Ladybird
7 鈥� The Escaped Cock
* This is an MS from Mollie Skinner DHL tweaked and 鈥渞ecast鈥� . . . as DHL contributed only 录 of the text, I refute this novel鈥檚 place in the DH canon.
March 24, 2017
乇賵丕賷丞 賲賱賷卅丞 亘丕賱噩賲丕賱 賵丕賱亘卮丕毓丞
賱丕 丕爻鬲胤賷毓 賯賵賱 丕賱賲夭賷丿
July 8, 2021
Free download available at .
5* Women in Love
4* Sons and Lovers
5* Lady Chatterley's Lover
3* The Rainbow
3* The Fox
3* The Virgin and the Gipsy
3* The Prussian Officer
3* Daughters of the Vicar
3* The Captain's Doll
4* The Ladybird
3* England, My England
3* The Prussian Officer and The White Stocking
3* Aaron's Rod
3* The Shades Of Spring
3* A Modern Lover and Other Stories
3* Goose Fair
3* Love Among the Haystacks
3* A Mortal Coil and Other Stories
4* The Rocking-Horse Winner
4* STUDIES IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE
4* The Daughter-In-Law
4* The Boy in the Bush
3* The Trespasser
TR The Escaped Cock
TR Selected Short Stories
TR Kangoroo
TR The White Peacock
TR The Lost Girl
TR Selected Critical Writings
TR The Man Who Loved Islands
About D.H. Lawrence:
5* The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature by Bill Goldstein
5* Women in Love
4* Sons and Lovers
5* Lady Chatterley's Lover
3* The Rainbow
3* The Fox
3* The Virgin and the Gipsy
3* The Prussian Officer
3* Daughters of the Vicar
3* The Captain's Doll
4* The Ladybird
3* England, My England
3* The Prussian Officer and The White Stocking
3* Aaron's Rod
3* The Shades Of Spring
3* A Modern Lover and Other Stories
3* Goose Fair
3* Love Among the Haystacks
3* A Mortal Coil and Other Stories
4* The Rocking-Horse Winner
4* STUDIES IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE
4* The Daughter-In-Law
4* The Boy in the Bush
3* The Trespasser
TR The Escaped Cock
TR Selected Short Stories
TR Kangoroo
TR The White Peacock
TR The Lost Girl
TR Selected Critical Writings
TR The Man Who Loved Islands
About D.H. Lawrence:
5* The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature by Bill Goldstein
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January 24, 2016賱賲 兀鬲賵賯毓 丨賷賳 亘丿兀鬲 亘賴丕 兀賳 賷賳鬲賴賷 丕賱兀賲乇 爻乇賷毓丕 廿賱賷 鬲氐賳賷賮
( 賰鬲亘 賱賲 鬲賰鬲賲賱 )
!!
賱丕 兀毓賱賲 賱賲丕匕丕 卮毓乇鬲 亘賰賱 賴匕賴 丕賱睾乇亘丞 毓賳 丕賱賰鬲丕亘 責 賱賲丕匕丕 卮毓乇鬲 兀賳賳賷 亘毓賷丿丞 貙 賲毓 兀卮禺丕氐 兀賯乇兀 毓賳賴賲 賵賰兀賳賴賲 兀卮亘丕丨丕賸 毓賱賷 賵乇賯 !
賮賯胤 爻胤賵乇 鬲亘丿兀 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賵兀賳丕 賲毓賴賲 賵丿賵賳賴賲 賮賷 丕賱賵賯鬲 賳賮爻賴 .. !!
賱丕 兀丨亘 丕賱賰鬲丕亘 丕賱匕賷 賷丿毓賳賷 丕爻乇丨 亘毓賷丿丕賸 毓賳 兀丨丿丕孬賴 ..
賵賱丕 丕賱匕賷 賷爻賲丨 賱賷 兀賳 兀亘鬲毓丿 亘匕賴賳賷 賵毓賷賵賳賷 毓賳 氐賮丨丕鬲賴 ..
賵乇亘賲丕 兀賰賵賳 賯丿 鬲爻乇毓鬲 賮賷 丕賱丨賰賲 責
賱丕 兀毓賱賲 .. 賵賱賰賳 .. 丕爻賲 丿 . 賴賭 賱賵乇丕賳爻 賷爻鬲丨賯 丕賱氐亘乇 .. 賵賷爻鬲丨賯 賲賳賴賷 賲丨丕賵賱丞 孬丕賳賷丞 ...
乇睾賲 囟賲賷乇賷 丕賱匕賷 賷鬲毓亘賳賷 丨賷賳 兀鬲乇賰 賰鬲丕亘丕賸 賴賰匕丕 賲賳 亘丿丕賷鬲賴 ..
廿賱丕 兀賳賳賷 賱丕 兀乇賷丿 兀賳 丕囟賷毓 賲夭賷丿丕賸 賲賳 丕賱賵賯鬲 賮賷 丕賱鬲乇丿丿 亘賷賳 丕賱丕爻鬲賲乇丕乇 賵丕賱鬲乇賰 ..
賵賱賳 丕賯賷賲賴丕 丕賱兀賳 ..
賮賷 賱賯丕亍 丌禺乇 亘廿匕賳 丕賱賱賴
...
( 賰鬲亘 賱賲 鬲賰鬲賲賱 )
!!
賱丕 兀毓賱賲 賱賲丕匕丕 卮毓乇鬲 亘賰賱 賴匕賴 丕賱睾乇亘丞 毓賳 丕賱賰鬲丕亘 責 賱賲丕匕丕 卮毓乇鬲 兀賳賳賷 亘毓賷丿丞 貙 賲毓 兀卮禺丕氐 兀賯乇兀 毓賳賴賲 賵賰兀賳賴賲 兀卮亘丕丨丕賸 毓賱賷 賵乇賯 !
賮賯胤 爻胤賵乇 鬲亘丿兀 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賵兀賳丕 賲毓賴賲 賵丿賵賳賴賲 賮賷 丕賱賵賯鬲 賳賮爻賴 .. !!
賱丕 兀丨亘 丕賱賰鬲丕亘 丕賱匕賷 賷丿毓賳賷 丕爻乇丨 亘毓賷丿丕賸 毓賳 兀丨丿丕孬賴 ..
賵賱丕 丕賱匕賷 賷爻賲丨 賱賷 兀賳 兀亘鬲毓丿 亘匕賴賳賷 賵毓賷賵賳賷 毓賳 氐賮丨丕鬲賴 ..
賵乇亘賲丕 兀賰賵賳 賯丿 鬲爻乇毓鬲 賮賷 丕賱丨賰賲 責
賱丕 兀毓賱賲 .. 賵賱賰賳 .. 丕爻賲 丿 . 賴賭 賱賵乇丕賳爻 賷爻鬲丨賯 丕賱氐亘乇 .. 賵賷爻鬲丨賯 賲賳賴賷 賲丨丕賵賱丞 孬丕賳賷丞 ...
乇睾賲 囟賲賷乇賷 丕賱匕賷 賷鬲毓亘賳賷 丨賷賳 兀鬲乇賰 賰鬲丕亘丕賸 賴賰匕丕 賲賳 亘丿丕賷鬲賴 ..
廿賱丕 兀賳賳賷 賱丕 兀乇賷丿 兀賳 丕囟賷毓 賲夭賷丿丕賸 賲賳 丕賱賵賯鬲 賮賷 丕賱鬲乇丿丿 亘賷賳 丕賱丕爻鬲賲乇丕乇 賵丕賱鬲乇賰 ..
賵賱賳 丕賯賷賲賴丕 丕賱兀賳 ..
賮賷 賱賯丕亍 丌禺乇 亘廿匕賳 丕賱賱賴
...
March 26, 2014
The Trespasser by D. H. Lawrence
I鈥檓 not sure about the best way to enjoy writing this comment on D.H. Lawrence鈥檚 second novel, The Trespasser. With Lawrence it seems to easy to say it is a very fine, intensely wrought novel that presaged even greater work to follow. If you were an editor/publisher and received this work from a relatively unknown writer, for instance, you鈥檇 know right away that the man had immense and peculiar talent. You鈥檇 question the narrow focus of the plot and the confusing opening and ending of the manuscript, but you鈥檇 have no doubt, sentence after sentence, that Lawrence understood early in his career that you could write about things in the English language that normally are ineffable.
The story is fairly simple. A musician in a bad early marriage falls in love with a younger musician, spends a week on the Isle of Wight with her, and realizes, upon returning home, that he can鈥檛 go on without her (Helena) or abandon Beatrice (his wife) and the children he shares with Beatrice. So he commits suicide. Hangs himself. Within a year, Beatrice has moved on with help from her family, and Helena has found a new suitor who slowly, slowly, is getting his fingers in position to pry her fingers off Siegmund鈥檚 memory.
There is something intentionally Wagnerian about this, but let鈥檚 skip that and go back to this peculiar quality of Lawrence鈥檚 writing. He manages, in describing the week on the Isle of Wight, to describe the moment to moment rise and fall all lovers experience in their earliest passion. He relates a passing glance to nothing less than death. He grants the sky and sun and waves outrageous primacy in reflecting human emotions to which, we probably believe, nature is utterly indifferent. He simply has the tenacity to not let go of what happens between two erotically engaged people taking a walk, lying on the beach, wondering privately to themselves whether there is a future to this passion or an onrushing calamity.
Carrying this emotional nothingness, devoid of clear action and certain outcome for the longest time, is a very difficult task for a writer. But Lawrence, like some other English writers before him (Blake comes to mind) had the gift of re-valuing his native language itself. Yes, Nietzsche theorized and practiced such revaluation in German, too; I鈥檓 conscious of that and want to bring him into the discussion just a bit, especially because he first loved and then hated Wagner, and the young Lawrence wasn鈥檛 nearly as astute and bitter and learned as Nietzsche.
No matter, here is a novel by Lawrence I had never heard of before that isn鈥檛 infected by some of his later histrionics and excesses. Curiously, the smaller Lawrence wrote (some of the short stories and The Fox come to mind), the more purely he wrote, with less affectation and overt criticism of almost everyone who couldn鈥檛 quite believe in his theories of 鈥渢he blood.鈥�
The Trespasser reaches an appalling high point toward the end as Siegmund realizes he can鈥檛 go on. His analysis is clear and deadly. His relations with his wife, who is fed up with him, and his children, who are fed up with him, are dreadful. He is truly someone who at least should run away, and we know he will do that, we just don鈥檛 know, until the beautifully awkward discovery of his body, how he will do it.
Those of us who would condemn him in principle are likely to stop condemning him as they get as good a look at his home life when he returns from the Isle of Wight. That鈥檚 when Lawrence鈥檚 drama becomes action, not metaphysics, logic, not fantasy, and my God, by God, he鈥檚 going to do it...he鈥檚 going to do it...he鈥檚 done it...he鈥檚 dead.
And then? This business of Beatrice refusing to mourn him, this business of Helena contemplating, within a year, the advances of a new lover. Actually, it鈥檚 a little brutal, a little too realistic, a little disappointing in a way that puts the whole of our little lives into an unpleasant perspective.
The first time I ran into such an ethos--the ethos of so what if we live, so what if we die--occurred during my freshman year in college. My roommate informed me that if I were to die, he wouldn鈥檛 care in the least; he wouldn鈥檛 care if anyone died, himself or his family included. Life to him was a material phenomenon, and so if Earle was dead, big deal. He wasn鈥檛 being histrionic, nor was Lawrence being histrionic in The Trespasser He really meant that in the context of the sun and stars and galaxies, we don鈥檛 matter, so those of us who survive a little longer should just get on with it.
This anecdote of mine ends badly. Obviously I didn鈥檛 die. My roommate died. He already, at seventeen (he was a math prodigy), was on the road to alcoholism. By his late forties, he would call me and talk about things drunkenly, and because somehow we鈥檇 remained friends, I would listen, and then he got around to telling me his liver was shot and there was no remedy and by fifty, he was gone. That鈥檚 a brutal death. My mother, who was a nurse, once told me that cirrhosis of the liver causes the worst death of all. She鈥檇 seen it and many other kinds of death and that was her opinion.
In the case of The Trespasser, the approach to suicide is as finely recounted as moments of erotic bliss just a few days earlier on the Isle of Wight. The only error our editor/publisher might have made upon receiving this exceptional early novel was not insisting Lawrence get into it and out of it more cleanly and quickly. But the young Lawrence wanted some irony and distance from his dismal vision, and so only ninety percent of the text is unremittingly acute. The other ten percent is novelizing. Ultimately with Women in Love, Lawrence spat the novelizing out. All he gave his readers was his really unusual rendition of relentless passion lurking beneath everything we say and do.
I鈥檓 not sure about the best way to enjoy writing this comment on D.H. Lawrence鈥檚 second novel, The Trespasser. With Lawrence it seems to easy to say it is a very fine, intensely wrought novel that presaged even greater work to follow. If you were an editor/publisher and received this work from a relatively unknown writer, for instance, you鈥檇 know right away that the man had immense and peculiar talent. You鈥檇 question the narrow focus of the plot and the confusing opening and ending of the manuscript, but you鈥檇 have no doubt, sentence after sentence, that Lawrence understood early in his career that you could write about things in the English language that normally are ineffable.
The story is fairly simple. A musician in a bad early marriage falls in love with a younger musician, spends a week on the Isle of Wight with her, and realizes, upon returning home, that he can鈥檛 go on without her (Helena) or abandon Beatrice (his wife) and the children he shares with Beatrice. So he commits suicide. Hangs himself. Within a year, Beatrice has moved on with help from her family, and Helena has found a new suitor who slowly, slowly, is getting his fingers in position to pry her fingers off Siegmund鈥檚 memory.
There is something intentionally Wagnerian about this, but let鈥檚 skip that and go back to this peculiar quality of Lawrence鈥檚 writing. He manages, in describing the week on the Isle of Wight, to describe the moment to moment rise and fall all lovers experience in their earliest passion. He relates a passing glance to nothing less than death. He grants the sky and sun and waves outrageous primacy in reflecting human emotions to which, we probably believe, nature is utterly indifferent. He simply has the tenacity to not let go of what happens between two erotically engaged people taking a walk, lying on the beach, wondering privately to themselves whether there is a future to this passion or an onrushing calamity.
Carrying this emotional nothingness, devoid of clear action and certain outcome for the longest time, is a very difficult task for a writer. But Lawrence, like some other English writers before him (Blake comes to mind) had the gift of re-valuing his native language itself. Yes, Nietzsche theorized and practiced such revaluation in German, too; I鈥檓 conscious of that and want to bring him into the discussion just a bit, especially because he first loved and then hated Wagner, and the young Lawrence wasn鈥檛 nearly as astute and bitter and learned as Nietzsche.
No matter, here is a novel by Lawrence I had never heard of before that isn鈥檛 infected by some of his later histrionics and excesses. Curiously, the smaller Lawrence wrote (some of the short stories and The Fox come to mind), the more purely he wrote, with less affectation and overt criticism of almost everyone who couldn鈥檛 quite believe in his theories of 鈥渢he blood.鈥�
The Trespasser reaches an appalling high point toward the end as Siegmund realizes he can鈥檛 go on. His analysis is clear and deadly. His relations with his wife, who is fed up with him, and his children, who are fed up with him, are dreadful. He is truly someone who at least should run away, and we know he will do that, we just don鈥檛 know, until the beautifully awkward discovery of his body, how he will do it.
Those of us who would condemn him in principle are likely to stop condemning him as they get as good a look at his home life when he returns from the Isle of Wight. That鈥檚 when Lawrence鈥檚 drama becomes action, not metaphysics, logic, not fantasy, and my God, by God, he鈥檚 going to do it...he鈥檚 going to do it...he鈥檚 done it...he鈥檚 dead.
And then? This business of Beatrice refusing to mourn him, this business of Helena contemplating, within a year, the advances of a new lover. Actually, it鈥檚 a little brutal, a little too realistic, a little disappointing in a way that puts the whole of our little lives into an unpleasant perspective.
The first time I ran into such an ethos--the ethos of so what if we live, so what if we die--occurred during my freshman year in college. My roommate informed me that if I were to die, he wouldn鈥檛 care in the least; he wouldn鈥檛 care if anyone died, himself or his family included. Life to him was a material phenomenon, and so if Earle was dead, big deal. He wasn鈥檛 being histrionic, nor was Lawrence being histrionic in The Trespasser He really meant that in the context of the sun and stars and galaxies, we don鈥檛 matter, so those of us who survive a little longer should just get on with it.
This anecdote of mine ends badly. Obviously I didn鈥檛 die. My roommate died. He already, at seventeen (he was a math prodigy), was on the road to alcoholism. By his late forties, he would call me and talk about things drunkenly, and because somehow we鈥檇 remained friends, I would listen, and then he got around to telling me his liver was shot and there was no remedy and by fifty, he was gone. That鈥檚 a brutal death. My mother, who was a nurse, once told me that cirrhosis of the liver causes the worst death of all. She鈥檇 seen it and many other kinds of death and that was her opinion.
In the case of The Trespasser, the approach to suicide is as finely recounted as moments of erotic bliss just a few days earlier on the Isle of Wight. The only error our editor/publisher might have made upon receiving this exceptional early novel was not insisting Lawrence get into it and out of it more cleanly and quickly. But the young Lawrence wanted some irony and distance from his dismal vision, and so only ninety percent of the text is unremittingly acute. The other ten percent is novelizing. Ultimately with Women in Love, Lawrence spat the novelizing out. All he gave his readers was his really unusual rendition of relentless passion lurking beneath everything we say and do.
November 15, 2022
A masterclass in descriptive writing, with a bitter-sweet ending following a tragedy involving two lovers (a book without lovers would not be a book by DHL!). Normally I鈥檓 not a fan of descriptive writing as it is the sign of hormonal high school writing and/or the middle-class colleague who announces via email that they are 鈥渓eaving the organisation to write鈥� (cue loud groans around the office as you know you will all be expected to read it, and brace yourself for: 鈥榗louds like cotton-wool鈥�, 鈥榯he sunshine state鈥�, 鈥榓 chip off the old block鈥�, 鈥榯he calm before the storm鈥�, 鈥榣ike an angel鈥� etc). But when you read Lawrence you are reminded that descriptive writing can be amazing when performed (and it does feel more than a little performed) by a master.
April 30, 2014
D.H.Lawrence鈥檚 The Trespasser, published, after The White Peacock, in 1912 is very much of its time. Unlike the more famous Lady Chatterley鈥檚 Lover, this is a book that might excite the interest of a modern publisher but wouldn鈥檛 be actually published. The language, full of deeply poetic angst, is identifiably old fashioned, and the plot is so thin, and no longer in any form unique, that no current editor could consider publication.
We live in a different age and few these days would have the patience to read this piece of literature in the way necessary to absorb fully the subtlety of the nuanced language. As a step back into an earlier time, when readers were prepared to mull over the words and ideas presented by an author, it did an excellent job for me. But, I admit, there were descriptive passages I skipped, wanting to get back to the emotional conflicts and leave the landscape to my imagination.
Lawrence has a way of employing language in ways that most writers wouldn鈥檛 dare, and he not only gets away with it, but produces evocative and moving prose. If the story is thin, the characters most certainly are not. This is a book all about character in its literal and metaphorical senses. Modern readers, by which I mean those young enough to remain unaware of the furore over Lady C (which I read in my late teens, when it was finally released in UK), are unlikely to understand the moral dilemma at the heart of the novel. When the idea of faithfulness in marriage has been as widely disparaged as it has in modern literature, it must be hard to comprehend why anyone would put themselves through the torture here described simply in order to satisfy the whim of then current social and religious mores.
I鈥檇 like to report that I enjoyed the book, but it is a work more to be endured, whilst the empathetic reader is compelled to discover an outcome that is, in reality, inevitable. Those interested in Lawrence, studying literature, or fascinated by portrayals of English life at the beginning of the last century will find a great deal here. For the rest, I suspect the archaic language and the lack of a modern plot will prevent any real enjoyment.
We live in a different age and few these days would have the patience to read this piece of literature in the way necessary to absorb fully the subtlety of the nuanced language. As a step back into an earlier time, when readers were prepared to mull over the words and ideas presented by an author, it did an excellent job for me. But, I admit, there were descriptive passages I skipped, wanting to get back to the emotional conflicts and leave the landscape to my imagination.
Lawrence has a way of employing language in ways that most writers wouldn鈥檛 dare, and he not only gets away with it, but produces evocative and moving prose. If the story is thin, the characters most certainly are not. This is a book all about character in its literal and metaphorical senses. Modern readers, by which I mean those young enough to remain unaware of the furore over Lady C (which I read in my late teens, when it was finally released in UK), are unlikely to understand the moral dilemma at the heart of the novel. When the idea of faithfulness in marriage has been as widely disparaged as it has in modern literature, it must be hard to comprehend why anyone would put themselves through the torture here described simply in order to satisfy the whim of then current social and religious mores.
I鈥檇 like to report that I enjoyed the book, but it is a work more to be endured, whilst the empathetic reader is compelled to discover an outcome that is, in reality, inevitable. Those interested in Lawrence, studying literature, or fascinated by portrayals of English life at the beginning of the last century will find a great deal here. For the rest, I suspect the archaic language and the lack of a modern plot will prevent any real enjoyment.
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September 12, 2016丨丕賵賱鬲 丨賯丕 兀賳 兀賰賲賱賴丕.
噩丕賴丿鬲 賲毓賴丕 賰孬賷乇丕 ..
賱賰賳賷 賮賰乇鬲 兀賳 丕賱丨賷丕丞 兀賯氐乇 賲賳 兀乇睾賲 賳賮爻賷 毓賱賷 賯乇丕亍丞 乇賵丕賷丞 乇鬲賷亘丞 噩丿丕 賰賴匕賴 賮賯胤 賱兀賳賴丕 賰賱丕爻賷賰賷丞!
賮鬲乇鬲賰鬲赖丕
賵鬲賯賷賷賲賷 賱賴丕 賷購鬲乇賰 兀賷囟丕 !
噩丕賴丿鬲 賲毓賴丕 賰孬賷乇丕 ..
賱賰賳賷 賮賰乇鬲 兀賳 丕賱丨賷丕丞 兀賯氐乇 賲賳 兀乇睾賲 賳賮爻賷 毓賱賷 賯乇丕亍丞 乇賵丕賷丞 乇鬲賷亘丞 噩丿丕 賰賴匕賴 賮賯胤 賱兀賳賴丕 賰賱丕爻賷賰賷丞!
賮鬲乇鬲賰鬲赖丕
賵鬲賯賷賷賲賷 賱賴丕 賷購鬲乇賰 兀賷囟丕 !
May 26, 2021
Lawrence's second novel is intermittently fascinating. The story of a doomed affair, for me it was let down by the construction, which sags nastily in the middle.
The opening section of the book on the Isle of Wight has some stunning writing - things only Lawrence could come up with - although after an initial high, the overall effect wanes. You can't help thinking, "all right, all right, get on with it - what happens?" When things do start to happen - the couple returning to normal life, again the book lights up with incredible descriptions of character and action. Again, overwroughtness drags the whole thing down and you close the book with some fond memories but an overall feeling of relief.
It's grown on me in the few days since I've read it and the vivid sections are there in my memory like real events, more for the writing, though, and not so much for the characters or even the story.
The opening section of the book on the Isle of Wight has some stunning writing - things only Lawrence could come up with - although after an initial high, the overall effect wanes. You can't help thinking, "all right, all right, get on with it - what happens?" When things do start to happen - the couple returning to normal life, again the book lights up with incredible descriptions of character and action. Again, overwroughtness drags the whole thing down and you close the book with some fond memories but an overall feeling of relief.
It's grown on me in the few days since I've read it and the vivid sections are there in my memory like real events, more for the writing, though, and not so much for the characters or even the story.
May 26, 2019
This story is based on real events (its Wagnerian echoes seem forced).
Helena is a modern girl who flees both cold and warmth;
An anemone, to her, is just a kaleidoscopic shape
But, for her lover Siegmund, is a thing to evaluate;
He gets beneath its skin; but the flesh is distasteful to her,
She is positively anaemic, exhausts her passions in a blur,
Til Siegmund's violin is the only thing that remains of him.
The cold condemning eyes of his wife, the grave eyes of his children
No longer matter now, for he is in an empty place
(Niflheim, limbo) forgetting Helena's empty face.
Helena is a modern girl who flees both cold and warmth;
An anemone, to her, is just a kaleidoscopic shape
But, for her lover Siegmund, is a thing to evaluate;
He gets beneath its skin; but the flesh is distasteful to her,
She is positively anaemic, exhausts her passions in a blur,
Til Siegmund's violin is the only thing that remains of him.
The cold condemning eyes of his wife, the grave eyes of his children
No longer matter now, for he is in an empty place
(Niflheim, limbo) forgetting Helena's empty face.
March 26, 2019
D.H.Lawrence 莽ok severek okudu臒um bir yazar. Yine 莽ok g眉zel bir kitapla bulu艧turdu beni. Kitab谋n kahramanlar谋 38 ya艧谋nda, evli, 莽ocuklu bir m眉zik 枚臒retmeni olanSiegmund ile ondan uzun y谋llard谋r keman dersi alan 27 ya艧谋ndaki Helena. Kitap bu ikilinin yasak a艧k谋n谋 anlat谋yor. Helena ve Sigmund bir adada 5 g眉nl眉k bir deniz tatili yapt谋ktan sonra Londra'ya d枚n眉yorlar. Siegmund kar谋s谋n谋n ve 莽ocuklar谋n谋n O'nu a艧a臒谋layan, yok sayan tav谋rlar谋na dayanam谋yor. Ne ailesini b谋rak谋p Helena ile olabiliyor ne de Helena'y谋 b谋rak谋p ailesine d枚nebiliyor. Bu 莽枚z眉ms眉zl眉k onu intihara g枚t眉r眉yor. O'nun 枚l眉m眉nden sonra ise ya艧am devam ediyor. Her zaman oldu臒u gibi...
June 29, 2014
Narrative about acutely distressed individuals seeking to abate the unfair forces turning their lives upside down, making them wallow in insurmountable depression--but constantly failing at that (as a lot characters do in contemporaneous works).
A lot of description, so little events, making a review of this not worth the while. Good Sunday read, though.
A lot of description, so little events, making a review of this not worth the while. Good Sunday read, though.
December 19, 2013
毓賳丿賲丕 丕賳賯爻賲 丕賱賳賯丕丿 賮賷 鬲氐賳賷賮 賴匕賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賳 賰丕賳鬲 匕丕鬲 丕賱賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賵 丿賵賳 匕賱賰貙 賮賯丿 兀賳丨夭鬲 賵亘丕賲鬲賷丕夭 丕賱賶 丕賱賯爻賲 丕賱孬丕賳賷 亘乇睾賲 賲丕 鬲丨賲賱賴 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賲賳 毓賲賷賯 丕賱賲毓賳賶 賮賷 賵氐賮 賱丨馗丕鬲 丕賱丕賳賴賷丕乇 丕賱兀禺賷乇丞 貙 丕賱丕 丕賳賴丕 賰賰賱 賱丕 鬲賮賷 亘丕賱丕賲鬲賷丕夭丕鬲 丕賱鬲賷 丨賯賯鬲 亘賯賱賲 丿 賴 賱賵乇丕賳爻 賮賷賲丕 爻亘賯賴丕 .
February 19, 2023
Non credo che trover貌 mai le parole o il coraggio per parlare di questo libro.
February 20, 2025
Cannot be bothered writing a proper review for some reason but I liked it more than I expected. I had the impression that this was his worst novel, but it wasn't too bad though the middle section perhaps could have been cut down. Interesting the switch from first to third person from his first novel, and the smaller scope. This one had better relationships than The White Peacock. Also there were some very satisfying sentences especially to read aloud.
June 14, 2018
This early D. H. Lawrence novel is basically the Ian Curtis story set in an earlier England. If you鈥檙e feeling trigger happy, maybe quit The Trespasser while you鈥檙e ahead. There鈥檚 no prize for forcing yourself on to the end.
March 3, 2025
鈥� So che il cuore della vita 猫 buono perch茅 lo sento, altrimenti sceglierei di vivere come atto di sfida. Ma la vita 猫 spesso pi霉 grande di chiunque altro. Soffriamo e spesso non sappiamo perch茅. La vita non lo spiega. 鈥�
I romanzi che << fanno per me >>, quelli in cui amo sguazzarci impunemente, scorrazzare come un furetto in una splendida e verdeggiante prateria, sono quelli il cui respiro 猫 tendenzialmente lontano, se non preistorico. Chi mi conosce, bonariamente mi ha sempre definita come lettrice dall鈥檃nima vecchia, quella che ama impegnarsi in vicende complicate, cervellotiche e pragmatiche, in cui non basta una semplice e risoluta pacca sulla spalla a condensare o smorzare qualunque tensione, quanto un鈥檌ndagine a fondo. Quasi sempre questa indagine coincide con quella relativa l鈥檃nima, negli ultimi tempi frequentatrice di salotti letterari in cui fanno da sfondo vicende che un tempo non avrei mai immaginato o sognato. Ad inizio anno, mi sono intestardita a voler compiere dei passi che, solo il tempo lo dir脿, mi condurranno lontana. Non solo di letteratura, ma, in generale, convergenti lungo una strada in cui la mia anima possa sentirsi ristorata, consapevole ma contenta di ci貌 che da sempre confida di scovare, e fra questi progetti sicuramente il proposito di affondare o sondare il terreno sui diversi fronti della letteratura.
Non posso ignorare l鈥檈co altisonante dei classici, alle mie orecchie 猫 un suono dolce in cui tutto il resto, il resto che lo circonda, sembra un surrogato, una figura meramente scopiazzata. Eppure, una pila di gigantesca di libri non potr脿 mai conciliare il piacere di tutta una vita, uno scambio di anime, quell鈥� immancabile appuntamento fra autore e lettore in cui il bandolo della matassa 猫 che da ci貌 non si cerca nient鈥檃ltro che quello scambio di avere ed essere dato. Come uno scambio di lettere o di email che alla fine di un viaggio, di un ritiro si poggiano su esperienze personali o meno che conducono lontano o vicino dall鈥檕biettivo iniziale, ed accrescono il piacere della lettura, della sua compagnia mediante la ricerca di un uomo o una donna - il nostro guru - che ci guidi o conduca nei posti pi霉 impensabili.
Basta fare il primo passo nella direzione giusta e il resto viene da s茅. O quasi. La letteratura 猫 divenuta parte integrante della mia vita ma, mio Dio, quante cose ho visto e vissuto, quante cose si sono susseguite a quel aprire un semplice libro di favole, osservare le figure colorate ed essere risucchiata in un mondo in cui, all'epoca non ne ero del tutto consapevole, si dibatteva con la mia coscienza. Nel tempo quest鈥檃rte 猫 stata perfezionata, ma come dimenticare la magia che invase il mio spirito, plasm貌 la mia pelle, quando conobbi Harry e la splendida Hogwarts?
Come spiegare quel piacere che nutr矛 quando conobbi, quando avevo diciannove anni, D H Lawrence, mediante la storia di una giovane coppia e del loro indicibile amore? Forse si trattava di quella magia che ogni tanto attribuisco all鈥檌ncontro che spesso la vita ci riserva, quando conosciamo o scopriamo un nuovo autore, ma fu qualcosa che mi piacque irrimediabilmente, gener貌 un certo fascino, instill貌 quel seme della passione per i classici, gi脿 gettato con l鈥檃more tragico di Catherine e Heathcliff, di cui io avrei dovuto solo prenderne cura. Nonostante tante cose non mi erano chiare, nonostante tanti passaggi fossero incomprensibili, tante scelte dei personaggi inspiegabili, ma trastullata con superficialit脿 dal tepore di una storia che aveva messo su quelle fondamenta da cui adesso, in et脿 adulta, posso attingere per la realizzazione del mio rendimento culturale. Una specie di cornice infilata nella cornice di uno specchio in cui i personaggi erano una specie di << santoni >> insoddisfatti della vita, anime vacue che vagano lungo la riva dell鈥檃ssurdo e i cui gesti spesso insensati e sconsiderati sono dettati dal mal di vivere. Da forme di soffocamento che inducono a sciogliere qualunque legame, ma che sottraggono forme di tranquillit脿. Helena, infatti, 猫 conoscitrice di queste forme di soffocamento, quasi sempre sballottata come una gigantesca onda, a seconda del suo incontrollato flusso, da una parte all鈥檃ltra, e a cui la vita le ha riservato il compito di custodire, tra le sue piccole mani, un fiore delicato ma bellissimo. Forse abdicare ad un potere assoluto in cui il sesso maschile diviene sturmento e distruzione di fonti di vita, di forme di umanit脿 purch猫 divenga comprensiva e gestibile, la relega in una realt脿 in cui sembra impossibile scorgere alcunch猫, moralista ma forte e indomabile come la natura il cui destino 猫 trascinato in conclusioni meschine e malvagie. Ma questo mal del secolo 猫 un male incurabile che cresce nel suo organismo come una malattia incurabile, privandola di quella bellezza di vita, quella mancanza di obiettivi che come una condanna grava sulla sua testa come una spada di Damocle. Helena aveva un ch茅 di rassicurante e ordinato 鈥�. ma nascondeva un mondo vasto di tante cose che nella cornice di uno specchio incrinato, lucido ma frantumato in pi霉 parti, non sfolgora quanto resta una macchia opaca difficile da togliere.
E non credo ci siano bisogno di tante parole per dire che, Helena, cos矛 come Sigmund, furono qui funamboli generati da Lawrence come espediente narrativo all鈥檌nfluenza del mondo che 猫 volont脿, in cui i vasti echi schopenhaueriani, il tema della morte come piegamento ai limiti della sregolatezza individuale, l鈥檃tto del recidere ogni legame,qualunque assetto positivo essi conferiscono, sono forme di perdita ma rigenerazione atti all鈥檃nnientamento. E, in questo splendido ma tragico quadro, una musicalit脿 tipica di quella warneriara e manniana, in cui Lawrence delina quel margine invalicabile fra bisessualit脿, rapporti carnali asmatici di carne e spirito, cristallina in un paesaggio circostante immobile ma disseminato di simboli in cui lo scontro con la natura, la sua forza matrice genera impotenza, incapacit脿 ad non essere travolto dagli affetti. La musicalit脿 di certi affetti 猫 aggiunzione, imperativo al pensiero, alla moralit脿 lawrenciana, cos矛 incommensurabile, ricca e produttiva,e ogni azione o gesto specchio di ogni atto cui sia capace l鈥檜omo. Dinanzi al rapporto uomo/natura siamo nient鈥檃ltro che delle forme nevrotiche che possono trastullarsi dinanzi la superficie deliziosa e calda della vita, ma mossi da idiomi inesplicabili di malinconia e sofferenza che stanno al di sotto, quella che l鈥檃utore all鈥檈poca disconosce.
Il mondo 猫 un vasto cosmo di tante cose che tentiamo di interpretare mediante chiavi di lettura in cui a dettare le regole 猫 solo l鈥檃utore, e pur quanto i personaggi abbiano forza e respiro non riescono a sciogliersi da quella sinfonia del componimento generato dalla stessa natura quanto a prevalere gli stessi personaggi. Difficili da scorgere chiaramente se non avvolti in una coltre di opacit脿, una certa tendenza a sovrapporre la volont脿 creativa della musica stessa. E ci貌 che se ne ricava 猫 un torrente di emozioni, sentimenti che danno il via libera a forme di energie logoranti
Il gusto pi霉 grandioso di una forma rigenerante che non ristora quanto annienta, assioma che folgora come un accecante luce, elemento aggiuntivo di un componimento musicale concepito, cos矛 come il suo titolo, dall鈥檈sperienza di una sua ex amica e delle sue relazioni che intrattenne con un uomo sposato che finisce poi per suicidarsi.
Questo folle e spietato meccanismo che 猫 una subordinazione alla vita, e in cui, delle volte, mi sono sentita persino intrappolata, soffocata, oppressa da qualcosa che 猫 esistito solo nella mia testa, perch茅 fui cos矛 immersa in qualcosa che mi affascin貌 e infastid矛 tantissimo, sbandando e perdendo un po' la direzione, mettendo gli occhi in primis su due anime innamorate e sul loro approccio alla vita, non riuscendo per貌 a valicare i confini del possibile, la dolcezza del mio cuore era in netto contrasto con quella tragicit脿 tipica della filosofia Schopenhaueriana. Ma la cui frustrazione che gravava come un fardello troppo pesante sulle loro coscienza inquina fin troppo spesso il sorriso. Fin troppo proiettati in una realt脿 disumana, l鈥檌nizio di un processo amorfo e ineluttabile in cui l鈥檌ntento fatalista era reso all鈥檈stremo, si abbraccia o si segue una linea di nullit脿 come un male incurabile e invincibile, impossibile da estirpare, e niente di tutto questo sarebbe stato possibile, magari figli di carta di un Thomas Hardy o di una Elizabeth Gaskell, la cui luce interiore splendeva fin troppo. Accecava persino i nostri occhi deboli. E ci貌, questo spregevole sistema, li avrebbe annientati. Sarebbe stato impossibile contrastarli, cos矛 facile da trovarsi l矛, ora che
cresce e si consolida in un paesaggio che sembra si stia avvizzendo, in cui si avverte il desiderio del possesso e la tacita richiesta d鈥檃iuto. Ma ottenendo come unica occasione di riscatto o rinascita, una vita che 猫 sempre stata vuota e appagante.
November 2, 2024
From the back cover:
鈥�The Trespasser, Lawrence鈥檚 second novel, foreshadows the passion of Lady Chatterley鈥檚 Lover. Helena and Siegmund are in love. But there is more than one obstacle to their happiness. Siegmund is a married man with children and Helena is full of inhibitions. They spend a week together on the Isle of Wright, but on their return to London Siegmund faces a deadlock.鈥�
The Trespasser is an emotional tug of war 鈥� sensuality mixed with a hefty dose of tension, just what I love about and have come to expect from a D.H. Lawrence novel. Love and anxiety, even foreboding, interplay with every word, particularly in the first two-thirds of the novel as we are introduced to Siegmund, a conflicted and adulterous father of four, and his lover Helena, during their vacation by the sea. This short novel is more than a love story, however; it is a personal and family drama, raw, human, and with a gamut of shades of love and betrayal.
My favourite aspect of Lawrence鈥檚 writing is the sensuality he evokes through rich imagery and tactile vocabulary. It all comes in waves of softness and harshness, making his words so alive that they feel like a summer breeze against my skin.
鈥�The Trespasser, Lawrence鈥檚 second novel, foreshadows the passion of Lady Chatterley鈥檚 Lover. Helena and Siegmund are in love. But there is more than one obstacle to their happiness. Siegmund is a married man with children and Helena is full of inhibitions. They spend a week together on the Isle of Wright, but on their return to London Siegmund faces a deadlock.鈥�
The Trespasser is an emotional tug of war 鈥� sensuality mixed with a hefty dose of tension, just what I love about and have come to expect from a D.H. Lawrence novel. Love and anxiety, even foreboding, interplay with every word, particularly in the first two-thirds of the novel as we are introduced to Siegmund, a conflicted and adulterous father of four, and his lover Helena, during their vacation by the sea. This short novel is more than a love story, however; it is a personal and family drama, raw, human, and with a gamut of shades of love and betrayal.
My favourite aspect of Lawrence鈥檚 writing is the sensuality he evokes through rich imagery and tactile vocabulary. It all comes in waves of softness and harshness, making his words so alive that they feel like a summer breeze against my skin.
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April 20, 2010It was his first, I believe (D.H. Lawrence), and hasn't the narrative control of "Lady Chatterly," but it is interesting to see how he fearlessly writes about his characters. For one thing, he mixes their viewpoints, which I was told not to do. That is, he has her thoughts about something in the same paragraph that also contains his thoughts. It is as though we are traveling inside a cocoon with them, larvae all, and I also like the way he instintively sets the stage for each scene, which attracts modern readers who are used to seeing filmed stories. Writing a novel is like seeing a movie, really. It reels forward just so. The main difference, given the reality that it isn't a movie, or isn't yet a movie, is that one can stop it and restart it and take off in a new direction. But make no mistake. The movie is there awaiting the author and that is part of the pull of the writing itself, the unique joy of one's own internal vision, indivisible except by its creator. I'm looking forward to finishing "The Trespasser" because it is in a compendium entitled "Erotic Works of D.H. Lawrence," and contains "Lady Chatterly" as well as assorted other pieces.
October 26, 2011
I have read the author's more famous works and liked them very much. This early work recently became available as an audiobook, on Audible.com, at a reasonable price, so I indulged myself. The story is unsatisfying because it lacks diversity. Lawrence draws an interesting portrait of a married man of about 40, an artist, who starts an affair with a young woman and joins her for a week's holiday on the Isle of Wight. He is bored with his wife but loves his children and knows that this affair will only lead to his own destruction. Whether he and the woman even consummate their affair is unclear -- something I would not have believed based on Lawrence's other books. The novel merely consists of the details of their holiday, his return to his very angry, resentful family, and his suicide. The character portraits are interesting and the author's language is always arresting, but I missed the elaborate narrative development of Women In Love or Lady Chatterley's Lover and the candid sexual themes.
April 11, 2016
3.5 out of 5 stars - There is something melancholic about this work which really appeals to me. Although the story is quite simple and awkwardly bookended, Lawrence's ability to describe nature and landscape is unparalleled. His talent is there, just raw. There are glimpses in this novel of his greater, more fulsome works to come (thinking "Lady Chatterley's Lover"). Lawrence keenly observes the human spirit 鈥� both its fragility and strength 鈥� and he pointedly attacks difficult and controversial ideas instead of shying away from them. It is his fearlessness which attracts me most to his work.
October 19, 2021
The edition I read--I couldn't find the Cambridge-Penguin edition--has an introduction by Richard Aldington, who took Ford Madox Ford to task for not recommending this novel. But this is one of Lawrence's weaker works, although still worth reading once.
The ending is not especially convincing. The writing is draped in all sorts of Lawrencian clich茅s--"he loved her... and he hated her"--much like The Rainbow. If you are a completist, you might be interested in The Trespasser. If you're only interested in the Best of D. H. Lawrence, you can give this book a miss.
The ending is not especially convincing. The writing is draped in all sorts of Lawrencian clich茅s--"he loved her... and he hated her"--much like The Rainbow. If you are a completist, you might be interested in The Trespasser. If you're only interested in the Best of D. H. Lawrence, you can give this book a miss.
March 19, 2012
To get the most out of this book you need to slow the bleep down but when you do that you get little moments in your mind that are perfect... don't race to finish this book! Immerse yourself in it, feel yourself in its images. Best meditation.
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July 25, 2011terribly depressing
January 23, 2018
Not my "cup of tea " - What more can I say.
December 11, 2021
I tried one of Lawrence's later novels, Kangaroo, a year or two ago, and did not get on with it at all, so I approached this hitherto unknown and much earlier novel with some scepticism.
There is no doubt that Lawrence is capable of working considerable magic, and this novel is no exception 鈥� more of that later. But most of it consists of the record of a week's holiday at the seaside undertaken by a young unmarried woman, Helena, and a slightly older man, Siegmund, who is married: they are both evidently cultivated and very self-conscious people; and much of the writing is concerned to delve into their intense and often conflicting feelings about each other and their adulterous escapade. This would be all right 鈥� except that instead of showing these feelings, dramatising them, Lawrence tries to analyse them directly, to finger them, pick them apart, question their real and precise nature, as though both man and woman were patients on the psychoanalyst's couch. After a little while this becomes frankly tedious. It is a manner of writing that Lawrence often resorted to, though much less in the really great novels such as The Rainbow and Women in Love, and hardly if at all in the much briefer novellas and short stories.
But there is magic in this novel, and it is towards the close where (without giving the story away) the two lovers are separated, the focus is elsewhere, and the writing becomes unfailingly taut, dramatic. The final chapter, in which Helena seems to be beginning a new life, but one which is overshadowed by the mistakes of her past, brought to mind the closing of Kafka's Metamorphosis, where the tone of optimism at a new beginning is similarly qualified by the darkness of the preceding narrative.
There is no doubt that Lawrence is capable of working considerable magic, and this novel is no exception 鈥� more of that later. But most of it consists of the record of a week's holiday at the seaside undertaken by a young unmarried woman, Helena, and a slightly older man, Siegmund, who is married: they are both evidently cultivated and very self-conscious people; and much of the writing is concerned to delve into their intense and often conflicting feelings about each other and their adulterous escapade. This would be all right 鈥� except that instead of showing these feelings, dramatising them, Lawrence tries to analyse them directly, to finger them, pick them apart, question their real and precise nature, as though both man and woman were patients on the psychoanalyst's couch. After a little while this becomes frankly tedious. It is a manner of writing that Lawrence often resorted to, though much less in the really great novels such as The Rainbow and Women in Love, and hardly if at all in the much briefer novellas and short stories.
But there is magic in this novel, and it is towards the close where (without giving the story away) the two lovers are separated, the focus is elsewhere, and the writing becomes unfailingly taut, dramatic. The final chapter, in which Helena seems to be beginning a new life, but one which is overshadowed by the mistakes of her past, brought to mind the closing of Kafka's Metamorphosis, where the tone of optimism at a new beginning is similarly qualified by the darkness of the preceding narrative.
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January 5, 2022I enjoyed reading this novel 鈥撯€� though I will admit to being a bit bored (or, unengaged) throughout a decent portion of it. While I feel no sympathy/empathy towards any of the characters (this novel's greatest 'fault'), it is a beautifully intricate romance/falling-out-of-love (?) novel. D.H. Lawrence's prose and his attention to detail in developing the characters (their inner thoughts and outer expressions/postures; their worldviews; etc) is the major draw towards reading this novel. The small moments of passion (and the decline thereof) between Siegmund and Helen -- as well as the private reflective moments that these characters have with the world and their situation within it -- are written so beautifully. The play that transpires between each lover, their outward expressions, and their inner experiences and desires is lovingly written with such incredible detail. I might call D.H. Lawrence a philosopher of love if I didn't respect him so much -- he is certainly attuned towards the interplay of every minute aspect and expression of love (passion, jealousy, hatred, etc., etc., etc.) more than any other I've read, and I am very excited to read more of his texts in the near future.
December 3, 2019
One of the early D.H. Lawrence's novels (2nd, if I'm not mistaken), an intense, impressionistic account of an affair between a married man with children and a younger woman. The story centers on their romantic trip to the Isle of Wight and the tragic consequences that come thereafter. Life and death, love and hate, freedom and bondage, feeling and thinking, the individual and the collective - all these themes are explored to varying degrees of depth. Ultimately, though, it is recognizable Lawrence - intensely psychological and sensitive, relationship-oriented, brutally honest in looking at life both in its light and dark expressions. They say a calm always comes before the storm - but it may also come AFTER it in some instances, as Lawrence attempts to show in this story. The ultimate conclusion to make is that trespassing into other people's lives is not something to be undertaken lightly.
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