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Frieda
Nottingham, 1907. I coniugi Weekley formano una coppia insolita. Il mite Ernest non spicca per il suo fascino, ha origini umili ed è uno studioso di etimologia barricato in un mondo di prevedibili radici e desinenze. Frieda � la baronessa Von Richthofen � è di una bellezza straordinaria, discende da una famiglia di aristocratici tedeschi, e la sua personalità non potrebbe essere più lontana da quella del marito: è raffinata, brillante, spontanea. Ernest e Frieda hanno tre bambini, Monty, Elsa e Barby, e convivono serenamente nella loro modesta dimora a due passi dalla foresta di Sherwood. Ultimamente, però, Frieda è giù di tono. Ernest le suggerisce allora di andare a trovare sua sorella a Monaco per distrarsi un po'. Monaco, 1907. Quando arriva nella città bavarese, Frieda ha l'impressione di aver riacquistato la vista dopo anni passati al buio di un'esistenza mediocre. Nei caffè bohémien scopre le idee radicali di anarchici e artisti d'avanguardia, nel salotto della sorella Elisabeth una nuova teoria rivoluzionaria, la psicoanalisi, e una prassi dissoluta, il libero amore. Frieda si innamora perdutamente dell'amante di Elisabeth, il medico Otto Gross � seguace di un certo Freud �, e sogna di trasferirsi con lui nella comunità utopica di Monte Verità. Al termine del suo soggiorno a Monaco, seppur ripiombata nello squallore del suo ménage familiare, Frieda rinuncia alla fuga: non può abbandonare i suoi figli. Nottingham, 1912. Sono passati cinque anni, ma Frieda non ha dimenticato Monaco e quel turbinio di emozioni che la faceva sentire viva. La relazione con Ernest la avvilisce e il suo ruolo di madre devota le sta stretto, nonostante l'amore incondizionato che nutre per i bambini. Frieda ancora non sa che l'incontro casuale con un giovane poeta dai capelli rossi è destinato a cambiare il corso della sua vita. E la storia della letteratura.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
50 people are currently reading
842 people want to read
About the author
Annabel Abbs
10books267followersAnnabel Abbs is an English writer and novelist.
Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, was published in 2016 and tells a fictionalised story of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce. It won the Impress Prize for New Writers, the Spotlight First Novel Award, was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, the Caledonia Novel Award and the Waverton Good Read Award. The Joyce Girl was a Reader Pick in The Guardian 2016 and was one of ten books selected for presentation at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, where it was given Five Stars by the Hollywood Reporter.
Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, was published in 2016 and tells a fictionalised story of Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce. It won the Impress Prize for New Writers, the Spotlight First Novel Award, was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, the Caledonia Novel Award and the Waverton Good Read Award. The Joyce Girl was a Reader Pick in The Guardian 2016 and was one of ten books selected for presentation at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, where it was given Five Stars by the Hollywood Reporter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
November 16, 2018
"I want to explore the very depths of the human soul, the male and female soul. I want to know how the heart works, Mrs Weekley. I want to see inside the human unconscious."
I often struggle with fictional biographies/biographical fiction because too often writers move from well-known episode to well-known episode and offer up a more coherent, even simplistic, narrative of a life. Abbs, I'm pleased and relieved to note, doesn't do either. Instead she offers a more chaotic and inconsistent version of Frieda, a woman who makes decisions then doubles back, whose emotions shift and change - which feels far more realistic than a one-note character.
Frieda really is at the heart of this book so that Lawrence doesn't make an appearance until about 40% in. Abbs doesn't allow him to hijack her story, and the volatile relationship that ensues is viewed via Frieda's needs, her agonies over the loss of her children, her satisfactions.
The novel is billed as ' The original Lady Chatterley' but while Frieda seems to have contributed to the portrait of Constance, she has more complicated incarnations as Ursula Brangwen in The Rainbow and Women in Love.
A book, then, which creatively inhabits its characters and which also offers an impressive historicised look into the cultural and intellectual ferment of the time that ranged from Freud to the suffragettes even while adulterous married women were legally forced to have no relationship with their children (till they came of age). I don't know enough about the real Frieda Lawrence to comment on historical accuracy, but imaginatively this is a persuasive and nuanced portrait of a courageous, sometimes difficult, woman.
Many thanks to John Murray for an ARC via NetGalley.
December 12, 2018
I have a particular weakness for “famous wives� books, which have become increasingly popular over the past decade. (I have a whole shelf for them.) Frieda particularly appealed to me because of the reading I’ve done around the life of D.H. Lawrence. In my sophomore year of college I took a course on Yeats & Lawrence and found Lawrence fascinating almost in spite of myself. I remember bursting out in one early seminar on Sons and Lovers, “but he sexualizes everything!� The more I read, though, the more I admired his grasping for the fullness of life, which at least starts with the body.
After my study abroad year I did independent travel in Dorset and around Nottingham to explore the sense of place in Thomas Hardy and Lawrence’s works, and when I applied for graduate school scholarships I was undecided whether to focus on the Victorians or Lawrence and the Moderns (I eventually settled on the former). I also adapted a paper I’d written about D.H. Lawrence’s new moral framework for sexuality in Lady Chatterley’s Lover and presented it at the D.H. Lawrence Society of North America’s 2005 conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The conference included a wonderful trip out to Lawrence’s ranch at Taos.
All this explains why I was so keen to see how Annabel Abbs would depict Frieda, who came from disgraced German aristocracy and left her first husband, Ernest Weekley, a linguistics professor at Nottingham, and their three children to be with Lawrence. If you rely only on the words of Lawrence himself, you’d think Frieda was lucky to shed her dull family life and embark on an exciting set of bohemian travels with him as he built his name as a writer.
Abbs adds nuance to that picture by revealing just how much Frieda was giving up, and the sorrow she left behind her. Much of the book is in third person limited from Frieda’s point of view, but there are also occasional chapters from the perspectives of Ernest and the children, mostly their son Monty, as they work through their confusion over Frieda’s actions and try to picture the future without her. I loved the way that these chapters employ dramatic irony, especially to create a believable child mindset. “I have realised there is something inside me struggling to come out,� Frieda says to Monty. “I call it the what-I-could-be.� Poor Monty, just seven years old when the book opens in 1907, thinks his mother must be talking literally about a baby on the way. When her inchoate longings finally center on Lawrence, Ernest’s working-class former student, in 1912, Monty describes the young man as a “hungry fox.�
Frieda’s relationship with Lawrence, whom she called “Lorenzo,� lasted nearly two decades but was undeniably volatile. Abbs refuses to romanticize it: the early days of frolicking naked in meadows and weaving flowers through each other’s pubic hair soon cede to incidents of jealousy and disturbing cruelty. Lawrence pressed her into remarrying though she was happier living outside of convention. We can sympathize with the passion and deep communion she found with Lawrence �
� but also with the later suspicion that she’s given up so much � social acceptability and years of life with her children � and perhaps in some ways it hasn’t been worth it. “He could be so infuriating! So exhausting! But his vitality, the sharp light in which he saw everything, his wild poetic fury, they made her feel as if she could breathe again.�
Frieda is particularly reminiscent of Loving Frank, Nancy Horan’s novel about Mamah Borthwick Cheney’s affair with architect Frank Lloyd Wright: she left her children in pursuit of love and independence and spent time traveling, including in Germany, where she absorbed notions of free love and women’s rights � just as Frieda did. I was also reminded of Free Woman, Lara Feigel’s book on Doris Lessing, who gave up her children to pursue her writing. In Lessing’s case there was not the same wrenching regret. Still, all three books offer a valuable look at the choices women make when love, duty and vocation don’t align.
My knowledge of Lawrence’s writings and biography enhanced my enjoyment of this novel. I’ve appreciated for the first time just how much Frieda inspired the female protagonists in Lawrence’s major works. In a comprehensive Historical note and Author’s note, Abbs lists her sources and explains the small tweaks she made to the historical record to fit the story line. However, you don’t need any prior knowledge to fall in love with Frieda’s vivacity. Her determination to live according to her own rules makes her a captivating character.
Originally published, with images, on my blog, .
After my study abroad year I did independent travel in Dorset and around Nottingham to explore the sense of place in Thomas Hardy and Lawrence’s works, and when I applied for graduate school scholarships I was undecided whether to focus on the Victorians or Lawrence and the Moderns (I eventually settled on the former). I also adapted a paper I’d written about D.H. Lawrence’s new moral framework for sexuality in Lady Chatterley’s Lover and presented it at the D.H. Lawrence Society of North America’s 2005 conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The conference included a wonderful trip out to Lawrence’s ranch at Taos.
All this explains why I was so keen to see how Annabel Abbs would depict Frieda, who came from disgraced German aristocracy and left her first husband, Ernest Weekley, a linguistics professor at Nottingham, and their three children to be with Lawrence. If you rely only on the words of Lawrence himself, you’d think Frieda was lucky to shed her dull family life and embark on an exciting set of bohemian travels with him as he built his name as a writer.
Abbs adds nuance to that picture by revealing just how much Frieda was giving up, and the sorrow she left behind her. Much of the book is in third person limited from Frieda’s point of view, but there are also occasional chapters from the perspectives of Ernest and the children, mostly their son Monty, as they work through their confusion over Frieda’s actions and try to picture the future without her. I loved the way that these chapters employ dramatic irony, especially to create a believable child mindset. “I have realised there is something inside me struggling to come out,� Frieda says to Monty. “I call it the what-I-could-be.� Poor Monty, just seven years old when the book opens in 1907, thinks his mother must be talking literally about a baby on the way. When her inchoate longings finally center on Lawrence, Ernest’s working-class former student, in 1912, Monty describes the young man as a “hungry fox.�
Frieda’s relationship with Lawrence, whom she called “Lorenzo,� lasted nearly two decades but was undeniably volatile. Abbs refuses to romanticize it: the early days of frolicking naked in meadows and weaving flowers through each other’s pubic hair soon cede to incidents of jealousy and disturbing cruelty. Lawrence pressed her into remarrying though she was happier living outside of convention. We can sympathize with the passion and deep communion she found with Lawrence �
“She was conscious, in that moment, that their minds had met and crossed and understood. That this miner’s son � so strange and unknown, so young � was more like her than anyone she’d ever met.�
“She felt as if she had been split open, as if Mr Lawrence had peered deep inside her, seen things she had hidden from the rest of the world. It was a marvellous feeling, she decided, to be explored and understood.�
� but also with the later suspicion that she’s given up so much � social acceptability and years of life with her children � and perhaps in some ways it hasn’t been worth it. “He could be so infuriating! So exhausting! But his vitality, the sharp light in which he saw everything, his wild poetic fury, they made her feel as if she could breathe again.�
Frieda is particularly reminiscent of Loving Frank, Nancy Horan’s novel about Mamah Borthwick Cheney’s affair with architect Frank Lloyd Wright: she left her children in pursuit of love and independence and spent time traveling, including in Germany, where she absorbed notions of free love and women’s rights � just as Frieda did. I was also reminded of Free Woman, Lara Feigel’s book on Doris Lessing, who gave up her children to pursue her writing. In Lessing’s case there was not the same wrenching regret. Still, all three books offer a valuable look at the choices women make when love, duty and vocation don’t align.
My knowledge of Lawrence’s writings and biography enhanced my enjoyment of this novel. I’ve appreciated for the first time just how much Frieda inspired the female protagonists in Lawrence’s major works. In a comprehensive Historical note and Author’s note, Abbs lists her sources and explains the small tweaks she made to the historical record to fit the story line. However, you don’t need any prior knowledge to fall in love with Frieda’s vivacity. Her determination to live according to her own rules makes her a captivating character.
Originally published, with images, on my blog, .
October 25, 2018
I absolutely loved Frieda ~ A Novel of the Real Lady Chatterley by Annabel Abbs.
It was captivating and exhilarating from start to finish. You couldn't wait to hear what happened next.
A scandalous, wicked and extremely well-written novel about the sensational story of Frieda von Richthofen, wife of D.H. Lawrence - and the real-life inspiration for Lady Chatterley's Lover, the classic novel banned for more than 30 years.
I couldn't fault it. It was like I was in a movie; each scene full of imagination, developing and leading on to the next...and the next!
There's bluebells, birdlife, forests, books; stories of writings. Liaisons, encounters.
Cafes in Munich to Nottingham, London and Lake Garda in Italy.
Pure enjoyment. Loved it.
I would recommend this book. It was sensational!
It was captivating and exhilarating from start to finish. You couldn't wait to hear what happened next.
A scandalous, wicked and extremely well-written novel about the sensational story of Frieda von Richthofen, wife of D.H. Lawrence - and the real-life inspiration for Lady Chatterley's Lover, the classic novel banned for more than 30 years.
I couldn't fault it. It was like I was in a movie; each scene full of imagination, developing and leading on to the next...and the next!
There's bluebells, birdlife, forests, books; stories of writings. Liaisons, encounters.
Cafes in Munich to Nottingham, London and Lake Garda in Italy.
Pure enjoyment. Loved it.
I would recommend this book. It was sensational!
April 20, 2022
“He has made an image of me. He knows nothing about who I am�
“Why must the lives of we women be so hard, so complicated?�
“Why was it always one rule for women and quite another for men?�
“And how could she start - and how could she let go? She must leap from the known into the unknown.�
When I read the first page of this book, a shiver went down my spine and I knew it’ll break my heart into pieces.
How wrong Was I in guessing the direction of the story but oh how right in the heart break.
Reading about patriarchy, love, sex, marriage, motherhood, feminism and finding oneself in 1907 as I’m sitting on a swing in 2022 is very strange. How today became. And how today’s normal was a sin to then and how some things are sadly still the same. A century later.
Oh the poetic and mesmerizing narration of the scenery; the wildfowl, the pear blossoms, the dandelions, it was all so alive within the pages of the book.
Frieda is a devoted mother and wife who has been shaped into molds of men’s needs and wants and preferences all her life. By her father, her husband, her lover and by society who had very strict roles and do’s and dont’s for women.
She’s never been HERSELF. Never designed a life of her own, one that she wants. Her life’s been picked and swept by the rules made to restrain and oppress her and her needs as a human but more dominantly as a woman.
They loved her. Her wit, intelligence, charm, warmth..they would’ve died for her. IF she was what they wanted her to be. IF she catered to their needs. IF she lived according to their rules.
What a lovely golden cage..
“It’s a blessing and a curse to feel so much�.
I was reminded of this quote when I was experiencing Frieda’s thoughts.
Some see and feel things deeper than their surroundings, maybe think of things way ahead of it’s time. This creates this duality in oneself; the truth as you know it within and then the truth made normal by “the real world� surrounding you. They constantly repeat to you why you’re wrong but also doing “The normal� doesnt feel right, it’s not normal.
I don’t believe Frieda was free as she was always dragged to play a role to feed a man, but I also believe for that time and setting it was a start (Although it hasn’t gotten that far today).
From afar, she’s portrayed as a monster of a mother. As you live through her pain and suppression, you can’t help but emphasize AND become infuriated at the unfairness there was. She was a WOMAN on the quest to find Freedom: A concept lost and outrageous to that time (Still is to many parts of the world today 100 years later).
I dived into this not knowing it was a historical piece, a biography with characters that actually existed once. You can imagine my shock in the end, and also my curiosity to search and learn more.
⭐️: Very strong 5/5
“Why must the lives of we women be so hard, so complicated?�
“Why was it always one rule for women and quite another for men?�
“And how could she start - and how could she let go? She must leap from the known into the unknown.�
When I read the first page of this book, a shiver went down my spine and I knew it’ll break my heart into pieces.
How wrong Was I in guessing the direction of the story but oh how right in the heart break.
Reading about patriarchy, love, sex, marriage, motherhood, feminism and finding oneself in 1907 as I’m sitting on a swing in 2022 is very strange. How today became. And how today’s normal was a sin to then and how some things are sadly still the same. A century later.
Oh the poetic and mesmerizing narration of the scenery; the wildfowl, the pear blossoms, the dandelions, it was all so alive within the pages of the book.
Frieda is a devoted mother and wife who has been shaped into molds of men’s needs and wants and preferences all her life. By her father, her husband, her lover and by society who had very strict roles and do’s and dont’s for women.
She’s never been HERSELF. Never designed a life of her own, one that she wants. Her life’s been picked and swept by the rules made to restrain and oppress her and her needs as a human but more dominantly as a woman.
They loved her. Her wit, intelligence, charm, warmth..they would’ve died for her. IF she was what they wanted her to be. IF she catered to their needs. IF she lived according to their rules.
What a lovely golden cage..
“It’s a blessing and a curse to feel so much�.
I was reminded of this quote when I was experiencing Frieda’s thoughts.
Some see and feel things deeper than their surroundings, maybe think of things way ahead of it’s time. This creates this duality in oneself; the truth as you know it within and then the truth made normal by “the real world� surrounding you. They constantly repeat to you why you’re wrong but also doing “The normal� doesnt feel right, it’s not normal.
I don’t believe Frieda was free as she was always dragged to play a role to feed a man, but I also believe for that time and setting it was a start (Although it hasn’t gotten that far today).
From afar, she’s portrayed as a monster of a mother. As you live through her pain and suppression, you can’t help but emphasize AND become infuriated at the unfairness there was. She was a WOMAN on the quest to find Freedom: A concept lost and outrageous to that time (Still is to many parts of the world today 100 years later).
I dived into this not knowing it was a historical piece, a biography with characters that actually existed once. You can imagine my shock in the end, and also my curiosity to search and learn more.
⭐️: Very strong 5/5
September 23, 2018
‘Her entire past, she reflected, had been a long arduous struggle to become herself.�
While I was reading Frieda, I found myself treading a very winding path in terms of the thoughts this novel was provoking. It wasn’t until the very end, after I’d closed the book and just sat for a few minutes inside my own head space, that I realised I needed to approach my review of Frieda a little differently than usual. See, when I read a novel that is a fictional biography, I find it impossible to think of the character separate to their real self. It’s like the fiction bit just drops off, and on account of this very realness, there’s an instinctive urge to review the character, and essentially the real person they were, along with my feelings about them rather than the actual novel itself. Problematic if you didn’t like the character whose life informs the subject of the novel.
I did in the beginning have a great deal of empathy for Frieda. I could intimately understand her frustration at the restraint she was expected to live with, both inside and outside of the home. And Frieda’s situation of being married to an older man with no capacity to understand, much less connect, was all too common, I’d wager.
‘She felt as if the piano and the music she was thumping out were the only things holding her in place. And if she were to stop playing, she would shrink so far inside erself she might disappear.�
She was also a foreigner among her contemporaries, which of course would not have helped things. It was an extra barrier securing her isolation and compounding her frustrations, which I feel fashioned her into being more open to the manipulations of other, more flamboyant and impressionable people. She was intelligent, yet had no forum for expression.
‘She’d been to one of Mrs Dowson’s suffragette meetings, of course she had. But when she spoke out, saying change wouldn’t come from voting, they had turned on her. She had tried to explain � in her broken English � that a new society needed creating in the image of woman, that simply voting for laws made and controlled by men was insufficient, that behaving like angry men was the wrong way to get change.�
Sometimes with historical fiction, there is an urge to be outraged by the situations contextualised. Yet we, as readers, are approaching the text with a modern gaze and all of the benefit of hindsight that comes with our modernity. In her author note, Annabel Abbs writes:
‘She [Frieda] was not, therefore, a woman ‘leaving her children�. She was a woman who believed in her right to choose her own life and, as a result, was denied access to her children.�
This is valid on both points: Frieda did believe in her right to choose her own life and as a woman, I believe in this as well. All women should be able to choose their own life. Absolutely. And yes, Frieda was denied access to her children based on the choices she made. However, poke a finger in this and it gets a little mucky and grey, and I do believe viewing the situation with a modern gaze compounds this further. I liked how this was brought up in a frank fashion by Katherine Mansfield in conversation with Frieda as they stalked the gates of her son Monty’s school in an effort to catch a glimpse of him:
‘“But weren’t you aware of the law when you ran away with Mr Lawrence? You must have known you would lose the children.� Katherine prodded impatiently at the ground with the tip of her silk parasol.
“I didn’t run away with him. I was just going to my father’s party and he was going to his relatives and we thought we’d have a few days in Germany together. But then he wrote to Ernest and everything blew up. Anyway, I’m their mother!�
“You’re also an adulterous, deserting wife. Didn’t you know there’s a special punishment reserved for mothers? Anyway, the laws here are archaic.”�
I wasn’t overly sympathetic towards Frieda over not having access to her children. Frieda struck me as a woman who wanted it all: the security of marriage but the freedom of a single woman. She wanted her lovers and she wanted her children. She wanted material comforts but didn’t want the obligations that came with possessing them. She seemed intent on martyring herself as a woman with no choices: I want to be with my children but D.H. Lawrence needs me, he can’t write without me, he won’t be a great author unless I am his muse. I want to use my brain more so I’ll use it vicariously through a man who has no respect for me instead of using it in my own stead. I don’t want to be married anymore so I’ll run off with a man who wants me to marry him. She was inconsistent, inconsiderate, and often times naive. Given Lawrence’s toxicity within their relationship, and his apparent loathing for her children alongside his jealousy of her love for them, the fact that she refused to choose them over him is paramount to the entire issue. The impression I formed of Frieda was of a woman in a permanent state of confusion. Take these extracts as an example, and they are presented chronologically:
‘She shook her head so frenziedly a hairpin clattered to the floor. “I want so much to be loved. To be a full part of someone’s life. To have passion. Children cannot give that. And I must use my brain! Men keep all the brainy work for themselves.”�
Then:
‘She didn’t want to be married any more. She didn’t want to swap one married life for another. She needed more time�
Yes, that was how she wanted to live, not for show or convenience but for pure wild passion.�
And veering back to:
‘She wished she could find the words to explain the rightness of Lorenzo, of their future together, of how she felt this rightness with a brilliant intensity, as if she held a finely cut diamond in her hand.�
She was all over the place. The true tragedy in this story is that the alternative for her children was pretty grim, with their fanatical grandparents, timid aunt, and deeply depressed father. They lost so much. I found her inability to set aside her own desires ultimately selfish and her inconsistency set her on a path of unreliability and emotional destruction, not just for herself, but for all of those who loved her.
Ernest, Frieda’s husband and father of her children, was an interesting man. Being of a older generation and a different culture to Frieda, he was completely unable to relate to her. He was repressed, old fashioned, emotionally crippled. For a professor of words, he was entirely useless at communicating with his wife. Yet, he loved her deeply, obsessively even. And she had no idea. Her leaving him, the shame of her conduct; it broke him:
‘He slumped against the wall and examined his hand. It was grazed all along the side and blood was beginning to leak from the broken skin. And then he started crying again and his chest heaved so that horrible, garrotting sounds came from his throat, slicing open the morning air and scaring all the birds from the sky.�
As if the act of leaving him in such a scandalous way was not enough, Frieda insisted on rubbing his face in the shame by sending him her old lover’s letters and a copy of Anna Karenina:
‘To help you understand me, I send you these letters from my old lover, Doctor Otto Gross. Please try to understand who I am.�
‘I beg you to read this. See what terrible things happened to Anna after Count Karenin refused to divorce her. I beg you to let me see my children.�
The author note indicates that Frieda actually did this, fact not fiction. It was in times like this, where I doubted her grasp on reality, and questioned her maturity. She certainly had no compassion for Ernest and what he may have been suffering. And to be fair to her, he was driven quite mad with grief and kept up a steady stream of hateful correspondence that would have rattled even the most solid of women. But, despite his failings within the marriage and his reactions to Frieda’s leaving, he was not a bad man.
‘It seemed to him that every minute in the last forty years had been pushing him towards this moment. His wife, his children, his house, his professorship were like markers, arrows, pointing him onwards. He was nearly there. His book and a Cambridge Chair were his final destination. And then he could pause and draw breath. Spend time with his family. Perhaps travel with Frieda. At times he felt close to his destination, it was as though he could smell it in the air.�
His greatest sin was being frigid and dismissive, old fashioned and uptight. Frieda swapped Ernest for Lawrence, a man who was emotionally unstable and prolific in his abuse because life with an artist was ‘never boring�. I believe she trapped herself more fully with Lawrence than she ever was with Ernest. I’m on the fence as to whether this is tragic or poetic justice.
Frieda really is an outstanding novel. Annabel Abbs writes in a manner that instils empathy and presents a full understanding for all of her cast. I detested Frieda, despised Lawrence, despaired over Ernest, but wholly appreciated the novel itself. Annabel has taken a woman whose scandalous behaviour shadowed her entire life, and has told her story with clear impartiality. By offering the perspectives of Ernest and her three children alongside that of Frieda herself, she makes no attempt to persuade us to one side or the other. She gives us everything, good and bad, and then within the context of the era, and the social movements that were in focus at that time, we are able to see, with a certain clarity, that life is complicated. In any era, life has been complicated and punctuated by shades of grey. This is a novel that will invoke strong feelings within some readers and would make for an invigorating book club session. No matter what you end up feeling about Frieda von Richthofen, whether you love her or hate her or fall somewhere in between, this novel will leave an impression upon you. The prose is glorious, vivid and immersive, with a captivating flow. For those who love literature and digging into the stories behind the stories, Frieda is an ideal read.
‘She ran through the trees, her bare feet sinking in and out of the leaves that spread, damp and pulpy, across the forest floor. For the first time since leaving England she felt the freedom she’d been yearning for. It swept her up in a blast of exhilaration, so that for a few minutes she forgot Lorenzo and felt herself to be absolutely alone. She felt the air gusting in and out of her, with its pungent black odour of fungi and earth. She felt the breeze whipping through her hair, drawing her up and up, as if she was being tossed high into the elements.�
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Frieda for review..
While I was reading Frieda, I found myself treading a very winding path in terms of the thoughts this novel was provoking. It wasn’t until the very end, after I’d closed the book and just sat for a few minutes inside my own head space, that I realised I needed to approach my review of Frieda a little differently than usual. See, when I read a novel that is a fictional biography, I find it impossible to think of the character separate to their real self. It’s like the fiction bit just drops off, and on account of this very realness, there’s an instinctive urge to review the character, and essentially the real person they were, along with my feelings about them rather than the actual novel itself. Problematic if you didn’t like the character whose life informs the subject of the novel.
I did in the beginning have a great deal of empathy for Frieda. I could intimately understand her frustration at the restraint she was expected to live with, both inside and outside of the home. And Frieda’s situation of being married to an older man with no capacity to understand, much less connect, was all too common, I’d wager.
‘She felt as if the piano and the music she was thumping out were the only things holding her in place. And if she were to stop playing, she would shrink so far inside erself she might disappear.�
She was also a foreigner among her contemporaries, which of course would not have helped things. It was an extra barrier securing her isolation and compounding her frustrations, which I feel fashioned her into being more open to the manipulations of other, more flamboyant and impressionable people. She was intelligent, yet had no forum for expression.
‘She’d been to one of Mrs Dowson’s suffragette meetings, of course she had. But when she spoke out, saying change wouldn’t come from voting, they had turned on her. She had tried to explain � in her broken English � that a new society needed creating in the image of woman, that simply voting for laws made and controlled by men was insufficient, that behaving like angry men was the wrong way to get change.�
Sometimes with historical fiction, there is an urge to be outraged by the situations contextualised. Yet we, as readers, are approaching the text with a modern gaze and all of the benefit of hindsight that comes with our modernity. In her author note, Annabel Abbs writes:
‘She [Frieda] was not, therefore, a woman ‘leaving her children�. She was a woman who believed in her right to choose her own life and, as a result, was denied access to her children.�
This is valid on both points: Frieda did believe in her right to choose her own life and as a woman, I believe in this as well. All women should be able to choose their own life. Absolutely. And yes, Frieda was denied access to her children based on the choices she made. However, poke a finger in this and it gets a little mucky and grey, and I do believe viewing the situation with a modern gaze compounds this further. I liked how this was brought up in a frank fashion by Katherine Mansfield in conversation with Frieda as they stalked the gates of her son Monty’s school in an effort to catch a glimpse of him:
‘“But weren’t you aware of the law when you ran away with Mr Lawrence? You must have known you would lose the children.� Katherine prodded impatiently at the ground with the tip of her silk parasol.
“I didn’t run away with him. I was just going to my father’s party and he was going to his relatives and we thought we’d have a few days in Germany together. But then he wrote to Ernest and everything blew up. Anyway, I’m their mother!�
“You’re also an adulterous, deserting wife. Didn’t you know there’s a special punishment reserved for mothers? Anyway, the laws here are archaic.”�
I wasn’t overly sympathetic towards Frieda over not having access to her children. Frieda struck me as a woman who wanted it all: the security of marriage but the freedom of a single woman. She wanted her lovers and she wanted her children. She wanted material comforts but didn’t want the obligations that came with possessing them. She seemed intent on martyring herself as a woman with no choices: I want to be with my children but D.H. Lawrence needs me, he can’t write without me, he won’t be a great author unless I am his muse. I want to use my brain more so I’ll use it vicariously through a man who has no respect for me instead of using it in my own stead. I don’t want to be married anymore so I’ll run off with a man who wants me to marry him. She was inconsistent, inconsiderate, and often times naive. Given Lawrence’s toxicity within their relationship, and his apparent loathing for her children alongside his jealousy of her love for them, the fact that she refused to choose them over him is paramount to the entire issue. The impression I formed of Frieda was of a woman in a permanent state of confusion. Take these extracts as an example, and they are presented chronologically:
‘She shook her head so frenziedly a hairpin clattered to the floor. “I want so much to be loved. To be a full part of someone’s life. To have passion. Children cannot give that. And I must use my brain! Men keep all the brainy work for themselves.”�
Then:
‘She didn’t want to be married any more. She didn’t want to swap one married life for another. She needed more time�
Yes, that was how she wanted to live, not for show or convenience but for pure wild passion.�
And veering back to:
‘She wished she could find the words to explain the rightness of Lorenzo, of their future together, of how she felt this rightness with a brilliant intensity, as if she held a finely cut diamond in her hand.�
She was all over the place. The true tragedy in this story is that the alternative for her children was pretty grim, with their fanatical grandparents, timid aunt, and deeply depressed father. They lost so much. I found her inability to set aside her own desires ultimately selfish and her inconsistency set her on a path of unreliability and emotional destruction, not just for herself, but for all of those who loved her.
Ernest, Frieda’s husband and father of her children, was an interesting man. Being of a older generation and a different culture to Frieda, he was completely unable to relate to her. He was repressed, old fashioned, emotionally crippled. For a professor of words, he was entirely useless at communicating with his wife. Yet, he loved her deeply, obsessively even. And she had no idea. Her leaving him, the shame of her conduct; it broke him:
‘He slumped against the wall and examined his hand. It was grazed all along the side and blood was beginning to leak from the broken skin. And then he started crying again and his chest heaved so that horrible, garrotting sounds came from his throat, slicing open the morning air and scaring all the birds from the sky.�
As if the act of leaving him in such a scandalous way was not enough, Frieda insisted on rubbing his face in the shame by sending him her old lover’s letters and a copy of Anna Karenina:
‘To help you understand me, I send you these letters from my old lover, Doctor Otto Gross. Please try to understand who I am.�
‘I beg you to read this. See what terrible things happened to Anna after Count Karenin refused to divorce her. I beg you to let me see my children.�
The author note indicates that Frieda actually did this, fact not fiction. It was in times like this, where I doubted her grasp on reality, and questioned her maturity. She certainly had no compassion for Ernest and what he may have been suffering. And to be fair to her, he was driven quite mad with grief and kept up a steady stream of hateful correspondence that would have rattled even the most solid of women. But, despite his failings within the marriage and his reactions to Frieda’s leaving, he was not a bad man.
‘It seemed to him that every minute in the last forty years had been pushing him towards this moment. His wife, his children, his house, his professorship were like markers, arrows, pointing him onwards. He was nearly there. His book and a Cambridge Chair were his final destination. And then he could pause and draw breath. Spend time with his family. Perhaps travel with Frieda. At times he felt close to his destination, it was as though he could smell it in the air.�
His greatest sin was being frigid and dismissive, old fashioned and uptight. Frieda swapped Ernest for Lawrence, a man who was emotionally unstable and prolific in his abuse because life with an artist was ‘never boring�. I believe she trapped herself more fully with Lawrence than she ever was with Ernest. I’m on the fence as to whether this is tragic or poetic justice.
Frieda really is an outstanding novel. Annabel Abbs writes in a manner that instils empathy and presents a full understanding for all of her cast. I detested Frieda, despised Lawrence, despaired over Ernest, but wholly appreciated the novel itself. Annabel has taken a woman whose scandalous behaviour shadowed her entire life, and has told her story with clear impartiality. By offering the perspectives of Ernest and her three children alongside that of Frieda herself, she makes no attempt to persuade us to one side or the other. She gives us everything, good and bad, and then within the context of the era, and the social movements that were in focus at that time, we are able to see, with a certain clarity, that life is complicated. In any era, life has been complicated and punctuated by shades of grey. This is a novel that will invoke strong feelings within some readers and would make for an invigorating book club session. No matter what you end up feeling about Frieda von Richthofen, whether you love her or hate her or fall somewhere in between, this novel will leave an impression upon you. The prose is glorious, vivid and immersive, with a captivating flow. For those who love literature and digging into the stories behind the stories, Frieda is an ideal read.
‘She ran through the trees, her bare feet sinking in and out of the leaves that spread, damp and pulpy, across the forest floor. For the first time since leaving England she felt the freedom she’d been yearning for. It swept her up in a blast of exhilaration, so that for a few minutes she forgot Lorenzo and felt herself to be absolutely alone. She felt the air gusting in and out of her, with its pungent black odour of fungi and earth. She felt the breeze whipping through her hair, drawing her up and up, as if she was being tossed high into the elements.�
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Frieda for review..
April 23, 2019
A novel of Lady Chatterley - set in NOTTINGHAM and EUROPE
What an interesting subject for a novel! This is a story that charts the relationship between D H Lawrence � miner’s son, poet and creative wordsmith � and Mrs Frieda Weekley, married to straight-laced Ernest, dullard and Professor of Modern Languages with a fondness for etymology and philology. Frieda is an aristocratic Richthofen by birth, a German Baroness, now living in Nottingham with three young children. Her life is rather mundane and dull, her days marked by…”a drifting lethargy..�
She persuades Ernest to let her go to visit her two sisters in avant garde Munich, where the movement for sexual freedom (centred around Café Stefanie in the Amalienstraße, frequented by artists and liberal thinkers) is in full swing. She arrives with her eldest child, Monty, in tow � a mere 6 years old � and upon arrival in the city her first stop late at night is to visit Café Stefanie before she has even offloaded her bags at her sister’s residence. Here she is confronted by the louche life that her sisters espouse, and the Wurst she has promised her son is certainly not going to materialise as anticipated in this locale!
She embraces the profligate culture of free love with gusto and within days she asks Dr Otto Gross to be her lover, who is already her married sister’s lover; contrary to expectation, this does not go down well with her sister, who is already carrying Otto’s child. Frieda returns home to Nottingham, much enlightened and enamoured and is soon off to Amsterdam to meet Otto once again, under the pretext of ministering to her ill sister in Munich. And here for me is the slight rub. The first 2/5ths of the book feel like a whistle stop tour of Frieda’s sexual ripening, readying her for the main focus which is her future relationship with D H Lawrence. The reader is informed of her development, in summary form, so that the coming affair with the great man feels plausible.
Coming from the English culture, which is crawling away from restrictive Victorian values, married to her staid husband, it feels most unlikely that she would have had the liberty or wherewithal to take herself off for a secret assignation to Amsterdam at a whim (which incidentally proves to be a little disappointing for her). Further, trying to engineer a seduction of her husband by a Mrs Bradley (a woman suggested in good faith by her current lover) so that Ernest too can be initiated into the pleasures of the free love movement, seems odd (perhaps it’s true, who knows?). He naturally spurns her. This, of course, serves to reinforce the premise that Frieda is sexually blossoming, now liberated, open and ready for another extra marital relationship. It is scene-setting. The general story of this period of her life is rooted in truth, it just feels a little far fetched in the way it is presented here to the reader.
What comes through loud and clear is Frieda’s starry-eyed and childlike disposition, an inability to see life other than in black and white. There are no shades of grey, of compromise, and this personality trait perhaps is what drew Dr Otto to her in particular, the hint of mental instability that could be tackled by his Freudian talking therapies. She needs to have power for herself, to have passion and to feel alive, to be desired and loved. She takes from the world rather than understanding the balance of give and take in her relationships. Probably at heart she is a woman with narcissistic traits who is in thrall to the women’s liberation movement but almost subjugates herself in her relationships � even at the expense of contact with her beloved children. Her father calling her by a boy’s name (Fritzl) and pushing her to dive head first into a cold lake (note the cover) probably didn’t help her to define her sense of self in her early years and the latent issues are now coming home to roost.
D H Lawrence arrives in the Weekley household and Frieda is smitten within the hour. Within 8 weeks they are an item and travelling to Metz and then, as the lack of finances starts to bite, on towards the Alps and Northern Italy. Ernest and the children are left at home.
Lorenzo, as Frieda now calls him, writes to Ernest about their union and there seem to be few reverberations between the two lovebirds about his rather despicable act. He wants her for himself, to tie her to him. As a creative spirit he needs to suck the life blood out of her in order to be creative. For me the electricity and passion � although verbally expressed � don’t really come across, but the portrait of a rather sad, misguided and at times vapid woman does. There is no response from Frieda when she learns that her erstwhile lover, Dr Otto Gross, is now in a psychiatric unit � she continues, however, to press his letters to her bosom but doesn’t reflect on his demise.
Overall I did actually very much enjoy the book. It was not what I was expecting. I anticipated the vagaries of a sizzling, magnetic liaison, having been prepared by the early narrative � after all Frieda was the inspiration for the original Lady Chatterley. What emerged, however, was a picture of a woman, rather sad, with a very open and naive heart, searching for something, yet never really finding her true “self� � always a cypher for the creativity of others. And someone who sadly came to tolerate abusive behaviour (she had after all been conditioned in childhood by her family). It is a multi-faceted novel that drew me in and took me on a quite a journey.
The author has a great writing talent which was evident in her wonderful novel The Joyce Girl (set in Paris, 5* review).
What a fabulous cover and it was that that convinced me to pick up the book! And I am ultimately very glad that I did.
What an interesting subject for a novel! This is a story that charts the relationship between D H Lawrence � miner’s son, poet and creative wordsmith � and Mrs Frieda Weekley, married to straight-laced Ernest, dullard and Professor of Modern Languages with a fondness for etymology and philology. Frieda is an aristocratic Richthofen by birth, a German Baroness, now living in Nottingham with three young children. Her life is rather mundane and dull, her days marked by…”a drifting lethargy..�
She persuades Ernest to let her go to visit her two sisters in avant garde Munich, where the movement for sexual freedom (centred around Café Stefanie in the Amalienstraße, frequented by artists and liberal thinkers) is in full swing. She arrives with her eldest child, Monty, in tow � a mere 6 years old � and upon arrival in the city her first stop late at night is to visit Café Stefanie before she has even offloaded her bags at her sister’s residence. Here she is confronted by the louche life that her sisters espouse, and the Wurst she has promised her son is certainly not going to materialise as anticipated in this locale!
She embraces the profligate culture of free love with gusto and within days she asks Dr Otto Gross to be her lover, who is already her married sister’s lover; contrary to expectation, this does not go down well with her sister, who is already carrying Otto’s child. Frieda returns home to Nottingham, much enlightened and enamoured and is soon off to Amsterdam to meet Otto once again, under the pretext of ministering to her ill sister in Munich. And here for me is the slight rub. The first 2/5ths of the book feel like a whistle stop tour of Frieda’s sexual ripening, readying her for the main focus which is her future relationship with D H Lawrence. The reader is informed of her development, in summary form, so that the coming affair with the great man feels plausible.
Coming from the English culture, which is crawling away from restrictive Victorian values, married to her staid husband, it feels most unlikely that she would have had the liberty or wherewithal to take herself off for a secret assignation to Amsterdam at a whim (which incidentally proves to be a little disappointing for her). Further, trying to engineer a seduction of her husband by a Mrs Bradley (a woman suggested in good faith by her current lover) so that Ernest too can be initiated into the pleasures of the free love movement, seems odd (perhaps it’s true, who knows?). He naturally spurns her. This, of course, serves to reinforce the premise that Frieda is sexually blossoming, now liberated, open and ready for another extra marital relationship. It is scene-setting. The general story of this period of her life is rooted in truth, it just feels a little far fetched in the way it is presented here to the reader.
What comes through loud and clear is Frieda’s starry-eyed and childlike disposition, an inability to see life other than in black and white. There are no shades of grey, of compromise, and this personality trait perhaps is what drew Dr Otto to her in particular, the hint of mental instability that could be tackled by his Freudian talking therapies. She needs to have power for herself, to have passion and to feel alive, to be desired and loved. She takes from the world rather than understanding the balance of give and take in her relationships. Probably at heart she is a woman with narcissistic traits who is in thrall to the women’s liberation movement but almost subjugates herself in her relationships � even at the expense of contact with her beloved children. Her father calling her by a boy’s name (Fritzl) and pushing her to dive head first into a cold lake (note the cover) probably didn’t help her to define her sense of self in her early years and the latent issues are now coming home to roost.
D H Lawrence arrives in the Weekley household and Frieda is smitten within the hour. Within 8 weeks they are an item and travelling to Metz and then, as the lack of finances starts to bite, on towards the Alps and Northern Italy. Ernest and the children are left at home.
Lorenzo, as Frieda now calls him, writes to Ernest about their union and there seem to be few reverberations between the two lovebirds about his rather despicable act. He wants her for himself, to tie her to him. As a creative spirit he needs to suck the life blood out of her in order to be creative. For me the electricity and passion � although verbally expressed � don’t really come across, but the portrait of a rather sad, misguided and at times vapid woman does. There is no response from Frieda when she learns that her erstwhile lover, Dr Otto Gross, is now in a psychiatric unit � she continues, however, to press his letters to her bosom but doesn’t reflect on his demise.
Overall I did actually very much enjoy the book. It was not what I was expecting. I anticipated the vagaries of a sizzling, magnetic liaison, having been prepared by the early narrative � after all Frieda was the inspiration for the original Lady Chatterley. What emerged, however, was a picture of a woman, rather sad, with a very open and naive heart, searching for something, yet never really finding her true “self� � always a cypher for the creativity of others. And someone who sadly came to tolerate abusive behaviour (she had after all been conditioned in childhood by her family). It is a multi-faceted novel that drew me in and took me on a quite a journey.
The author has a great writing talent which was evident in her wonderful novel The Joyce Girl (set in Paris, 5* review).
What a fabulous cover and it was that that convinced me to pick up the book! And I am ultimately very glad that I did.
August 15, 2019
Bloody men! Bloody patriarchy! In her bid for freedom, she swapped one cage for another. Five stars for an excellent blend of fact and fiction about an extraordinary woman living in very different times to our own.
November 24, 2018
A novel which creatively inhabits its characters, which has a flowing prose and which also offers a historicised view into the cultural and intellectual struggles of the time that ranged from Freud's theoretical framework to the suffragettes. Even though historical verasity is almost inevitably lost, Frieda is portrayed as a courageous person, as exceptionally modern for her time period and as, some may say, even a radical in her own way.
This copy was kindly provided to me in exchange for an honest review by the publisher via NetGalley.
This copy was kindly provided to me in exchange for an honest review by the publisher via NetGalley.
November 11, 2018
Pass the smelling salts. I fear my constitution has been weakened with this talk of free love and sexuality in Munich. I do regard the man DH Lawrence to be quite the tease! I have never lived like this before. Nottingham is so tame compared to my life now.
Nevertheless, I shall ensure that I contact these pages again and write a fuller review of this luscious novel once I have recovered my senses. It is the story of how I, the real Mrs Chatterley came to be, and what goes on between these pages, these sheets, will be sure to cause a scandal.
A fascinating literary scandal once the book is unleashed onto polite society in November.
REVIEW :
A novel which brings to life someone in history I had never really thought about before � the woman who was the real Lady Chatterely
I’ve read the novels of DH Lawrence and often wondered about the attitudes of the time regarding sexuality and relationships and there’s no doubt in this novel what is acceptable in that regard and how times are changing. It’s interesting to see Frieda’s change as she goes to Munich and then meets DH Lawrence. The rest they say is history�.
Despite the locations, the novel is of course very character driven and there are a few view points although Frieda is quick to tell you what she is thinking and feeling in her own voice. Of course, with modern attitudes, the wish to be free from a stifling marriage is no shock, but in her day, the way in which this free-love and wanton abandon is not just encouraged but promoted � and by her sister � is shocking in its own way.
This was a fascinating way to delve into the lives of real characters who had a huge influence on today’s literary scene. We’re all familiar with the book Lady Chatterly’s lover and the scandal it caused at the time. Now we get to see , or at least imagine, just how that might have happened. Although a little dense and slow paced at times, this is an interesting novel.
Nevertheless, I shall ensure that I contact these pages again and write a fuller review of this luscious novel once I have recovered my senses. It is the story of how I, the real Mrs Chatterley came to be, and what goes on between these pages, these sheets, will be sure to cause a scandal.
A fascinating literary scandal once the book is unleashed onto polite society in November.
REVIEW :
A novel which brings to life someone in history I had never really thought about before � the woman who was the real Lady Chatterely
I’ve read the novels of DH Lawrence and often wondered about the attitudes of the time regarding sexuality and relationships and there’s no doubt in this novel what is acceptable in that regard and how times are changing. It’s interesting to see Frieda’s change as she goes to Munich and then meets DH Lawrence. The rest they say is history�.
Despite the locations, the novel is of course very character driven and there are a few view points although Frieda is quick to tell you what she is thinking and feeling in her own voice. Of course, with modern attitudes, the wish to be free from a stifling marriage is no shock, but in her day, the way in which this free-love and wanton abandon is not just encouraged but promoted � and by her sister � is shocking in its own way.
This was a fascinating way to delve into the lives of real characters who had a huge influence on today’s literary scene. We’re all familiar with the book Lady Chatterly’s lover and the scandal it caused at the time. Now we get to see , or at least imagine, just how that might have happened. Although a little dense and slow paced at times, this is an interesting novel.
October 11, 2018
I loved this story from the beginning. Annabel Abbs has an amazing skill with detail that brings the characters, scenes and story to life.
I listened to the audio version beautifully read by Leith McPherson.
I listened to the audio version beautifully read by Leith McPherson.
January 16, 2019
Frieda: A Novel of the Real Lady Chatterley's is the follow up to English author, Annabel Abbs, debut novel, The Joyce Girl. Written in the third person in eight parts, the real lady Chatterley is conveyed through four points of view; Frieda von Richthofen, her husband Ernest and their children, Monty and Barby. Having only heard of the book Lady Chatterley's Love, I knew nothing about how it came to be. I knew it was written by D.H Lawrence but didn't know that it was based on a real woman, aristocrat Frieda von Reichtofen. History says that Frieda left her children for D.H Lawrence so I relished the opportunity to learn about the woman behind the man.
In the author's note, Abbs clearly states this is her interpretation of Frieda as a mother. With Ernest's point of view, I also found it be an interpretation of Frieda as a wife. Frieda is a German born woman who lives with her older husband and their three children Monty, Barby and Elsa, in England. As a mother to her young children, Frieda came across as a warm, loving woman who held her children close to her heart. Perhaps more so as Frieda felt she was on the periphery of English society. Talk of war made matters worse for Frieda and her school aged children with racism rampant. I greatly admired Frieda for wanting her babies to be playing and having fun. Even in Frieda's darkest moments when she had to choose between her lover and children, I did not doubt her loyalty to her little ones.
Reading about the children's points of view was heartbreaking. Abbs skilfully demonstrates the thoughts and feelings of both Monty and Barby, though Monty had more air time. The children know that there is something wrong with the family situation but cannot comprehend what it is. They want to see their mother but do not know that it is their father and ultimately, the law, that is keeping Frieda from them. Reading the after note was illuminating because I could see the long term effects that being taken away from their mother had on the children. If the laws of the early 1900s didn't favour men, Frieda would have relished the choices that women have today.
Frieda's relationship with Ernest is a different matter to that of her children. It is clear from the start that Frieda is lonely in all aspects of her marriage. Ernest spends much of his time locked away in his office and the two have separate beds. Ernest came across as a very traditional, older gentleman who believed that his sole role was to provide financially for the family. He did not see that his much younger wife wanted a passionate relationship until it was too late. I felt that Frieda did her best to hold onto her marriage for a number of years but if Ernest was correctly portrayed by Abbs, I could sympathise and understand why Frieda found her head turned by other men, including Lawrence himself.
A story about passion, family and relationships, Frieda is the ideal read for those who want to know more about the women who played a part in history that, until now, have been kept under wraps.
In the author's note, Abbs clearly states this is her interpretation of Frieda as a mother. With Ernest's point of view, I also found it be an interpretation of Frieda as a wife. Frieda is a German born woman who lives with her older husband and their three children Monty, Barby and Elsa, in England. As a mother to her young children, Frieda came across as a warm, loving woman who held her children close to her heart. Perhaps more so as Frieda felt she was on the periphery of English society. Talk of war made matters worse for Frieda and her school aged children with racism rampant. I greatly admired Frieda for wanting her babies to be playing and having fun. Even in Frieda's darkest moments when she had to choose between her lover and children, I did not doubt her loyalty to her little ones.
Reading about the children's points of view was heartbreaking. Abbs skilfully demonstrates the thoughts and feelings of both Monty and Barby, though Monty had more air time. The children know that there is something wrong with the family situation but cannot comprehend what it is. They want to see their mother but do not know that it is their father and ultimately, the law, that is keeping Frieda from them. Reading the after note was illuminating because I could see the long term effects that being taken away from their mother had on the children. If the laws of the early 1900s didn't favour men, Frieda would have relished the choices that women have today.
Frieda's relationship with Ernest is a different matter to that of her children. It is clear from the start that Frieda is lonely in all aspects of her marriage. Ernest spends much of his time locked away in his office and the two have separate beds. Ernest came across as a very traditional, older gentleman who believed that his sole role was to provide financially for the family. He did not see that his much younger wife wanted a passionate relationship until it was too late. I felt that Frieda did her best to hold onto her marriage for a number of years but if Ernest was correctly portrayed by Abbs, I could sympathise and understand why Frieda found her head turned by other men, including Lawrence himself.
A story about passion, family and relationships, Frieda is the ideal read for those who want to know more about the women who played a part in history that, until now, have been kept under wraps.
January 20, 2022
lawrence isterse dünyanın en iyi kitaplarını yazmıs bile olsa da gerizakalı hödüğün önde gideni. okurken sinirlerime zor hakim oldum.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2020
DNF @ 35%
July 26, 2020
I fell in love with the story of Lady Chatterley's Lover when I was 14 so when I came across this novel inspired by Lawrence's wife, I was intrigued. It tells the story of Frieda's first marriage to an English professor who introduces her to a student of his who subsequently becomes her lover. There follows the passionate affair with Lawrence that causes Frieda to lose her children. I enjoyed this as a novel, I have no idea how accurate it is, and you could see elements of Lawrence's writing in the storyline.
September 16, 2020
Devo ammettere che l'inizio è ottimo: l'autrice ha una buona penna, l'analisi psicologica è ben fatta, i personaggi apparivano interessanti, lo sfondo culturale intrigante. E poi - più o meno dalla comparsa di Lawrence - è peggiorato tutto. Il libro è diventato noioso, troppo lungo, inutilmente prolisso, la caratterizzazione può essere riassunta in "se non vi piace Frieda siete dei superficiali", e, soprattutto, ho trovato una vera e propria apoteosi delle relazioni abusive.
Non ho mai letto Lawrence, quindi chissà, il problema è mio, ma l'impressione di lui che ho ricavato da questo romanzo è di un idiota presuntuoso incapace di scrivere. La narrazione prova disperatamente a convincerci della genialità di quest'uomo e del suo ruolo di fondamentale importanza nella letteratura mondiale, ma diciamo la verità - non credo siano in molti nel 2020 desiderosi di leggere i suoi romanzi; non è che uno scrittore mediocre che la storia ha cancellato. Processo inevitabile, ma forse rappresentarlo come il puù grande, innovatore, originale autore di tutti i tempi è un po' ridicolo.
Su Frieda ho poco da dire, perché è completamente priva di personalità. Lei è un'irritantissima Mary Sue, un'Anna Karenina che non ci ha creduto abbastanza, è bellissima e perfetta e con lei non ci sono mezze misure, o tutti la amano o tutti la odiano. All'autrice non è ben chiara la regola dello "show, don't tell": ci ripete che Frieda è speciale, audace, coraggiosa, diversa, più matura delle sue sorelle, ma niente di tutto ciò ci viene mostrato, e non basta dire ai lettori che un personaggio è fatto in un certo modo se poi non sei in grado di dimostrarlo. Mi dispiace molto scrivere questo, perché la vera Frieda è un personaggio estremamente affascinante, ma questa eroina di lei non ha nulla. La sua relazione con Lawrence è abusiva e francamente spaventosa; sì, è una rappresentazione accurata del loro effettivo rapporto, ma ciò non toglie che qui venga giustificata in nome del vero amore e dell'arte e dell'ispirazione letteraria. Aberrante.
Per quanto riguarda lo stile, alcuni dettagli tecnici e stilistici sono molto carini, per esempio il contrasto tra il successo letterario di Ernest e i reiterati fallimenti di Lawrence, ma più andavo avanti più mi sembrava artefatto, come se l'autrice si stesse sforzando di sembrare poetica e profonda, riuscendoci solo in parte. Il romanzo è raccontato dal punto di vista di Frieda, del marito e dei figli maggiori, ma la protagonista è talmente poco sviluppata che i suoi POV risultano eccessivi e pesanti. I personaggi secondari sono decisamente più fascinosi, ma scompaiono sullo sfondo per dare più spazio a lei, scelta che rallenta molto il ritmo del romanzo.
Una vera delusione.
Non ho mai letto Lawrence, quindi chissà, il problema è mio, ma l'impressione di lui che ho ricavato da questo romanzo è di un idiota presuntuoso incapace di scrivere. La narrazione prova disperatamente a convincerci della genialità di quest'uomo e del suo ruolo di fondamentale importanza nella letteratura mondiale, ma diciamo la verità - non credo siano in molti nel 2020 desiderosi di leggere i suoi romanzi; non è che uno scrittore mediocre che la storia ha cancellato. Processo inevitabile, ma forse rappresentarlo come il puù grande, innovatore, originale autore di tutti i tempi è un po' ridicolo.
Su Frieda ho poco da dire, perché è completamente priva di personalità. Lei è un'irritantissima Mary Sue, un'Anna Karenina che non ci ha creduto abbastanza, è bellissima e perfetta e con lei non ci sono mezze misure, o tutti la amano o tutti la odiano. All'autrice non è ben chiara la regola dello "show, don't tell": ci ripete che Frieda è speciale, audace, coraggiosa, diversa, più matura delle sue sorelle, ma niente di tutto ciò ci viene mostrato, e non basta dire ai lettori che un personaggio è fatto in un certo modo se poi non sei in grado di dimostrarlo. Mi dispiace molto scrivere questo, perché la vera Frieda è un personaggio estremamente affascinante, ma questa eroina di lei non ha nulla. La sua relazione con Lawrence è abusiva e francamente spaventosa; sì, è una rappresentazione accurata del loro effettivo rapporto, ma ciò non toglie che qui venga giustificata in nome del vero amore e dell'arte e dell'ispirazione letteraria. Aberrante.
Per quanto riguarda lo stile, alcuni dettagli tecnici e stilistici sono molto carini, per esempio il contrasto tra il successo letterario di Ernest e i reiterati fallimenti di Lawrence, ma più andavo avanti più mi sembrava artefatto, come se l'autrice si stesse sforzando di sembrare poetica e profonda, riuscendoci solo in parte. Il romanzo è raccontato dal punto di vista di Frieda, del marito e dei figli maggiori, ma la protagonista è talmente poco sviluppata che i suoi POV risultano eccessivi e pesanti. I personaggi secondari sono decisamente più fascinosi, ma scompaiono sullo sfondo per dare più spazio a lei, scelta che rallenta molto il ritmo del romanzo.
Una vera delusione.
December 2, 2024
Frieda von Richthofen ist vom Namen her nur wenigen bekannt, aber man findet Spuren von ihr in vielen Romanen von D.H. Lawrence. Für ihn hat sie ihre Familie verlassen, was Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts ein Skandal war, und gesellschaftliche Ächtung und den Verlust ihrer Kinder bedeutete, Annabel Abbs erzählt die Geschichte einer Frau, die sich aus den falschen Motiven in eine Ehe stürzte, in der sie nicht glücklich war. Die von ihren Schwestern ein Leben gezeigt bekam, das das genaue Gegenteil von ihrem war und die alles aufgegeben hat für die vermeintlich große Liebe.
Es beginnt mit einem Besuch ihrer Schwester Nusch. Sie zeigt deutlich, was sie von Friedas Leben hält: das Haus ist klein und unordentlich, die Schwester hat sich von einem strahlenden jungen Mädchen in eine Matrone verwandelt und ihr Mann ist meilenweit von dem entfernt, was sich die Familie als passenden Ehemann für eine von Richthofen vorgestellt hat. Sie will, dass Frieda sie in Deutschland besucht um ihr Leben kennen zu lernen. Aber als Frieda sie besucht und in dieses Leben eintaucht, ist ihr das auch nicht recht. Denn Frieda bewegt sich in der Szene der Münchener Künstler und der freien Liebe sicherer, als es ihre Schwestern jemals getan haben.
Frieda ist eine interessante Frau, aber das Buch wird ihr meiner Meinung nach nicht gerecht. Annabel Abbs erzählt ihre Geschichte, aber sie kratzt nur ein wenig an der Oberfläche. Egal, ob es um die Ehe mit Ernest Weekely oder ihre Beziehungen in Deutschland, ich hatte immer das Gefühl, als ob mir etwas fehlen würde. Genauso ist es mit ihrer Beziehung zu D.H. Lawrence: immer wieder gab es Lücken in der Erzählung. Trotzdem konnte ich einen guten Eindruck gewinnen: die Beziehung war schwierig. Lawrence setzte Frieda unter Druck, er wollte sie für sich alleine haben. Die Liebe einer Mutter zu ihren Kindern konnte er nicht verstehen und war darauf eifersüchtig. Für ihn waren Friedas Kinder nur etwas, das zwischen ihm und seiner großen Liebe stand und er tat alles, damit sie sie aufgab und nur für ihn da war. Anfangs war es sicher Liebe, aber mehr und mehr wurden gegenseitige Abhängigkeit und Vorwürfe daraus.
Es gibt über Frieda viel zu erzählen, deshalb hätten dem Buch ein paar Seiten mehr gutgetan. Aber so ist die Autorin für meinen Geschmack zu wenig in die Tiefe gegangen und für mich zu Vieles offen gelassen.
Es beginnt mit einem Besuch ihrer Schwester Nusch. Sie zeigt deutlich, was sie von Friedas Leben hält: das Haus ist klein und unordentlich, die Schwester hat sich von einem strahlenden jungen Mädchen in eine Matrone verwandelt und ihr Mann ist meilenweit von dem entfernt, was sich die Familie als passenden Ehemann für eine von Richthofen vorgestellt hat. Sie will, dass Frieda sie in Deutschland besucht um ihr Leben kennen zu lernen. Aber als Frieda sie besucht und in dieses Leben eintaucht, ist ihr das auch nicht recht. Denn Frieda bewegt sich in der Szene der Münchener Künstler und der freien Liebe sicherer, als es ihre Schwestern jemals getan haben.
Frieda ist eine interessante Frau, aber das Buch wird ihr meiner Meinung nach nicht gerecht. Annabel Abbs erzählt ihre Geschichte, aber sie kratzt nur ein wenig an der Oberfläche. Egal, ob es um die Ehe mit Ernest Weekely oder ihre Beziehungen in Deutschland, ich hatte immer das Gefühl, als ob mir etwas fehlen würde. Genauso ist es mit ihrer Beziehung zu D.H. Lawrence: immer wieder gab es Lücken in der Erzählung. Trotzdem konnte ich einen guten Eindruck gewinnen: die Beziehung war schwierig. Lawrence setzte Frieda unter Druck, er wollte sie für sich alleine haben. Die Liebe einer Mutter zu ihren Kindern konnte er nicht verstehen und war darauf eifersüchtig. Für ihn waren Friedas Kinder nur etwas, das zwischen ihm und seiner großen Liebe stand und er tat alles, damit sie sie aufgab und nur für ihn da war. Anfangs war es sicher Liebe, aber mehr und mehr wurden gegenseitige Abhängigkeit und Vorwürfe daraus.
Es gibt über Frieda viel zu erzählen, deshalb hätten dem Buch ein paar Seiten mehr gutgetan. Aber so ist die Autorin für meinen Geschmack zu wenig in die Tiefe gegangen und für mich zu Vieles offen gelassen.
May 24, 2020
PER SAPERNE DI PIÙ
"Nessun marito dovrebbe mai sapere chi è realmente sua moglie."
Non ci posso far nulla, a me i romanzi storici piacciono da impazzire, soprattutto se scritti in modo magistrale ed incentrati su figure che conosco solo per sentito dire. Questo libro della Abbs ricostruisce molto fedelmente la vicenda degli amori di Frieda Weekley, primo fra tutti quello per i suoi figli, con uno scavo psicologico davvero degno di nota.
Non nascondo di essere stata colta, talvolta, da una certa noia, provocata dalla mancanza di colpi di scena. D'altro canto, "Frieda" non è mica un thriller o un romanzo d'avventura: mi accontento di aver appreso di più su questo interessante personaggio realmente vissuto.
"Nessun marito dovrebbe mai sapere chi è realmente sua moglie."
Non ci posso far nulla, a me i romanzi storici piacciono da impazzire, soprattutto se scritti in modo magistrale ed incentrati su figure che conosco solo per sentito dire. Questo libro della Abbs ricostruisce molto fedelmente la vicenda degli amori di Frieda Weekley, primo fra tutti quello per i suoi figli, con uno scavo psicologico davvero degno di nota.
Non nascondo di essere stata colta, talvolta, da una certa noia, provocata dalla mancanza di colpi di scena. D'altro canto, "Frieda" non è mica un thriller o un romanzo d'avventura: mi accontento di aver appreso di più su questo interessante personaggio realmente vissuto.
May 3, 2021
Che Frieda non sia Anna Karenina è chiaro e che Annabel Abbs non sia Tolstoj è altrettanto chiaro.
Ma se il confronto tra gli autori è impietoso nei confronti della seppur ottima autrice inglese, quello tra le protagoniste vede in Frieda un'audacia del tutto assente nell'eroina tolstoiana. Ed è proprio quando ne prende consapevolezza essa stessa, che da vittima che soggiace all'ascendenza degli uomini, immolandosi alla nuova Frieda, alla donna del futuro, apre la via a quell'emancipazione sociale per cui non solo le donne, ma l'umanità intera le deve essere grata.
Ma se il confronto tra gli autori è impietoso nei confronti della seppur ottima autrice inglese, quello tra le protagoniste vede in Frieda un'audacia del tutto assente nell'eroina tolstoiana. Ed è proprio quando ne prende consapevolezza essa stessa, che da vittima che soggiace all'ascendenza degli uomini, immolandosi alla nuova Frieda, alla donna del futuro, apre la via a quell'emancipazione sociale per cui non solo le donne, ma l'umanità intera le deve essere grata.
June 8, 2020
Très beau roman, très belle biographie. Qu’on connaisse ou pas DH Lawrence et son roman Lady Chatterley on ne peut qu’aimer passionnément Frieda la femme qui lui a inspiré de nombreux livres.
Il est sorti récemment en français chez Hervé Chopin éditions.
Il est sorti récemment en français chez Hervé Chopin éditions.
April 10, 2024
Interesting fictional account of the woman who was to become DH Lawrence's wife, and the inspiration for many of his novels.
October 5, 2018
The moving story of Frieda von Richthofen, wife of D.H. Lawrence - and the real-life inspiration forLady Chatterley's Lover,a novel banned for more than 30 years.
Frieda daughter of German aristocrat Baron von Richthofen is married to English professor Ernest Weekley and living in Nottingham. A visit from her sister unsettles her and she decides to visit Germany, leaving her three children with Ernest and the nanny. It is 1907 and Munich is a city alive with new ideas and free love so it seems inevitable for Frieda to take a lover. Her experience awakens her sexually and Otto stimulates her intellectual thinking as well so that when she returns to England she continues to write to him and dreams of their time together.
Ernest invites a former student D H Lawrence to lunch , but when Ernest is delayed Frieda finds herself relaxing and warming to the young man who is keen to go to Germany for work. She decided "if she was still as dazzled by him, she would take him to the woods and show him who she truely was". The year is now 1912 and their relationship is volatile and causes great heartache and anxiety in the family.
The book is written in eight parts taking the reader from England to Germany, Italy and back to London while the epilogue is back in Italy in 1927 with Lawrence working on Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Annabel Abbs lives in London with her husband and four children. Her debut novel The Joyce Girl has won a number of awards. Her writing style is soft and gentle with a wonderful use of the English language, “She hadn’t intended to lie naked in the open air but as she walked through the woods , a sudden breeze had rushed up her skirt, rattling and pulling at her underclothes as if trying to prise them off.�
Having read Lady Chatterley’s Lover in my final year at high school I was keen to read Frieda and found it added a lot of background to the characters and I will read Lady Chatterley again shortly. The historical notes at the rear of the book added useful information about the characters and DH Lawrence’s books. It is a great read and I am sure will be enjoyed by many people especially those who have read some of DH Lawrence’s novels
Frieda daughter of German aristocrat Baron von Richthofen is married to English professor Ernest Weekley and living in Nottingham. A visit from her sister unsettles her and she decides to visit Germany, leaving her three children with Ernest and the nanny. It is 1907 and Munich is a city alive with new ideas and free love so it seems inevitable for Frieda to take a lover. Her experience awakens her sexually and Otto stimulates her intellectual thinking as well so that when she returns to England she continues to write to him and dreams of their time together.
Ernest invites a former student D H Lawrence to lunch , but when Ernest is delayed Frieda finds herself relaxing and warming to the young man who is keen to go to Germany for work. She decided "if she was still as dazzled by him, she would take him to the woods and show him who she truely was". The year is now 1912 and their relationship is volatile and causes great heartache and anxiety in the family.
The book is written in eight parts taking the reader from England to Germany, Italy and back to London while the epilogue is back in Italy in 1927 with Lawrence working on Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Annabel Abbs lives in London with her husband and four children. Her debut novel The Joyce Girl has won a number of awards. Her writing style is soft and gentle with a wonderful use of the English language, “She hadn’t intended to lie naked in the open air but as she walked through the woods , a sudden breeze had rushed up her skirt, rattling and pulling at her underclothes as if trying to prise them off.�
Having read Lady Chatterley’s Lover in my final year at high school I was keen to read Frieda and found it added a lot of background to the characters and I will read Lady Chatterley again shortly. The historical notes at the rear of the book added useful information about the characters and DH Lawrence’s books. It is a great read and I am sure will be enjoyed by many people especially those who have read some of DH Lawrence’s novels
February 27, 2021
I found the true story behind this novel really interesting and I appreciate that the author seems to have wanted to stay true to the information contained in the letters between the various real life characters. Unfortunately, I found the characters in the novel a bit two dimensional and hard to empathise with, perhaps as a result of the author not wanting to be to interpretive.
In particular I found Frieda really frivolous and lacking in substance. I didn’t feel her motivations for leaving her children to be with Lawrence very believable through the way her character was written. This was frustrating for me as I really wanted to empathise with her struggle, but her internal monologue was always kind of ridiculous!
In particular I found Frieda really frivolous and lacking in substance. I didn’t feel her motivations for leaving her children to be with Lawrence very believable through the way her character was written. This was frustrating for me as I really wanted to empathise with her struggle, but her internal monologue was always kind of ridiculous!
January 20, 2019
Beautifully written, sensitively rendered portrait of an extraordinary woman and the legendary D.H. Lawrence. Abbs manages to explore, in a sympathetic and totally non-judgemental way, some deeply controversial issues, such as a mother's obligation to weigh her responsibilities to her children against the needs of (in her case an extremely demanding) partner . The genesis of the "sexual revolution" is portrayed vividly through a number of very ahead of their times characters. An intriguing aspect of the book for me was the idea of the muse becoming a collaborator, which it seems was very much the case in this partnership. Abbs has moved ahead and matured as a writer since "The Joyce Girl" and it will be exciting to see which historical character she takes as subject for her next novel.
April 3, 2024
It’s a story about Frieda, who is known as D.H. Lawrence’s love, muse and most important female figure influencing most of his novels. Emancipated sexually, morally and socially way ahead the women of her time, she led a solitary inner life, difficult to make other understand her views. She picked her love for Lawrence and a happier life, away from her empty marriage which costed her maybe too much: her children. Very interesting novel, greatly documented.
May 23, 2021
très beau portrait de femme
May 28, 2020
Je remercie Agnès CHALNOT et les éditions Hervé Chopin pour ce service presse.
Les plus :
La couverture magnifique qui est rester la même que la VO
Les dates pour s'y retrouver
Plusieurs point de vues
Il y a plusieurs parties et à chacune d'elle une citation.
Il faut quand même savoir que je ne lis jamais de l'historique mais j'ai commencé Frieda sans aucune à priori et j'ai bien fait puisque j'ai adoré.
L'histoire commence à Nottingham en 1907, Frieda est une baronne, qui est mère de 3 enfants, elle à très proche de son fils Monty voir même trop selon son mari Ernest.
Elle s'ennuie dans son couple qu'elle trouve sans saveur ni passion. Elle a une grande soif de vivre, d'être aimé, être libre de s'exprimer de ne plus être enfermer dans son rôle de mère aux foyers qui ne doit pas exprimer ses idées parce que cela ne se fais pas.
Elle a 2 sœurs, Nutch et Elisabeth. Nutch est une personne horrible, toujours à critiquer Frieda, elles ont demi-frère qu'elles ne connaissent pas.
A l'époque les mariages arrangées était normal, on ne poser pas de questions même si actuellement dans certains pays c'est toujours d'actualité.
"Nutch trouvera un mari riche parce qu'elle est belle. Elisabeth s'en sortira parce qu'elle est extrêmement brillante, mais Frieda ?" Elle est sympathique la mère non ?
Quand elle part en vacances chez sa sœur Elisabeth, elle trouve plonger dans un monde qu'elle ne connais pas ou un certain Dr Freud commence à se faire connaître. Sa vie va être bouleverser à tout jamais. Elle va prendre un amant qui va la révéler à elle-même, sa sexualité va se libérée, sa passion réveillée, c'est un papillon qui sort de sa chrysalide, puis de plus en plus d'hommes vont passer dans sa vie sans réellement s'attarder.
Après cela, pour Frieda sa vie n'avait aucun sens, ni but à part ses enfants en 13 ans de mariage, elle s'ennuie.
"Comment agir, c'était la question. Où aller, comment devenir soi-même ?" D. H. Lawrence, L'Arc-en-ciel.
Chaque décision est juger par tous, et elle se perds entre ses désirs enfouies et la réalité.
Donc tout cela pour dire que j'ai beaucoup aimer voir Frieda voir évoluer, se libérée petit à petit de ses chaînes que sa condition impose.
Je recommande à ceux qui aime l'historique avec des femmes qui se cherche et veux trouver leur liberté pour enfin VIVRE.
Les plus :
La couverture magnifique qui est rester la même que la VO
Les dates pour s'y retrouver
Plusieurs point de vues
Il y a plusieurs parties et à chacune d'elle une citation.
Il faut quand même savoir que je ne lis jamais de l'historique mais j'ai commencé Frieda sans aucune à priori et j'ai bien fait puisque j'ai adoré.
L'histoire commence à Nottingham en 1907, Frieda est une baronne, qui est mère de 3 enfants, elle à très proche de son fils Monty voir même trop selon son mari Ernest.
Elle s'ennuie dans son couple qu'elle trouve sans saveur ni passion. Elle a une grande soif de vivre, d'être aimé, être libre de s'exprimer de ne plus être enfermer dans son rôle de mère aux foyers qui ne doit pas exprimer ses idées parce que cela ne se fais pas.
Elle a 2 sœurs, Nutch et Elisabeth. Nutch est une personne horrible, toujours à critiquer Frieda, elles ont demi-frère qu'elles ne connaissent pas.
A l'époque les mariages arrangées était normal, on ne poser pas de questions même si actuellement dans certains pays c'est toujours d'actualité.
"Nutch trouvera un mari riche parce qu'elle est belle. Elisabeth s'en sortira parce qu'elle est extrêmement brillante, mais Frieda ?" Elle est sympathique la mère non ?
Quand elle part en vacances chez sa sœur Elisabeth, elle trouve plonger dans un monde qu'elle ne connais pas ou un certain Dr Freud commence à se faire connaître. Sa vie va être bouleverser à tout jamais. Elle va prendre un amant qui va la révéler à elle-même, sa sexualité va se libérée, sa passion réveillée, c'est un papillon qui sort de sa chrysalide, puis de plus en plus d'hommes vont passer dans sa vie sans réellement s'attarder.
Après cela, pour Frieda sa vie n'avait aucun sens, ni but à part ses enfants en 13 ans de mariage, elle s'ennuie.
"Comment agir, c'était la question. Où aller, comment devenir soi-même ?" D. H. Lawrence, L'Arc-en-ciel.
Chaque décision est juger par tous, et elle se perds entre ses désirs enfouies et la réalité.
Donc tout cela pour dire que j'ai beaucoup aimer voir Frieda voir évoluer, se libérée petit à petit de ses chaînes que sa condition impose.
Je recommande à ceux qui aime l'historique avec des femmes qui se cherche et veux trouver leur liberté pour enfin VIVRE.
August 16, 2020
Frieda von Richthofen, jeune baronne allemande à vit Nottingham avec son mari, professeur et leurs trois enfants.
Elle prend conscience combien sa vie est banale et ennuyeuse lors d’une visite e sa sœur qui se pavane et affiche ouvertement sa vie de femme infidèle. Elle ne comprend pas comment Frieda a pu faire un aussi mauvais mariage.
Au fil des ans, sa relation est devenue insipide, mais le peu d’argent qu’ils possèdent les oblige à se restreindre sur tout. Elle se sent enfermée dans son rôle d’épouse et de mère, alors qu’elle aspire à bien plus.
Sa rencontre avec Otto et leur relation adultère, va lui faire entrapercevoir un monde bien différent, empli d’amour et de liberté.
Mais sa vie va définitivement changer quand elle va tomber amoureuse du poète D.H Lawrence, elle quittera tout pour vivre pleinement cette relation, perdant ainsi la garde de ses enfants. En effet, à cette époque avoir un amant et quitter son mari, voulait également dire être mise au banc de la société. Elle tentera tant bien que mal survivre à la séparation. Elle comprend que la liberté intellectuelle et sexuelle à un lourd prix : elle perd la liberté d’élever ses enfants !
Une biographie romancée, mais aussi un magnifique livre, un hymne à la liberté et au libre-arbitre et à la révolution sexuelle.
Elle prend conscience combien sa vie est banale et ennuyeuse lors d’une visite e sa sœur qui se pavane et affiche ouvertement sa vie de femme infidèle. Elle ne comprend pas comment Frieda a pu faire un aussi mauvais mariage.
Au fil des ans, sa relation est devenue insipide, mais le peu d’argent qu’ils possèdent les oblige à se restreindre sur tout. Elle se sent enfermée dans son rôle d’épouse et de mère, alors qu’elle aspire à bien plus.
Sa rencontre avec Otto et leur relation adultère, va lui faire entrapercevoir un monde bien différent, empli d’amour et de liberté.
Mais sa vie va définitivement changer quand elle va tomber amoureuse du poète D.H Lawrence, elle quittera tout pour vivre pleinement cette relation, perdant ainsi la garde de ses enfants. En effet, à cette époque avoir un amant et quitter son mari, voulait également dire être mise au banc de la société. Elle tentera tant bien que mal survivre à la séparation. Elle comprend que la liberté intellectuelle et sexuelle à un lourd prix : elle perd la liberté d’élever ses enfants !
Une biographie romancée, mais aussi un magnifique livre, un hymne à la liberté et au libre-arbitre et à la révolution sexuelle.
August 27, 2024
Anyone who's all like " Anna Karenina is my spirit animal", abandons her three children and chooses hedonism and ego stroking is not my people, even if her boy toy is the infamous D H Lawrence. The author makes a valiant effort to make Freida out to be a decent mother, a feminists of her time and the wronged party, but she really is just a selfish, horny woman out to change the world by, wait for it.....Supporting her man because he just needs her soooooo much.
She should never have gotten married to the boring (according to her) Mr. Weakly to begin with. But she just had to have him. She pops out three children whom she just absolutely adores, but then of course, becomes bored and restless with her older husband and wants go off to Europe have a crazy sex with hot strangers like her sister's are doing. It's not a mid life crisis, it's for the sexual revolution! Those pesky children whom she loves more than life itself will get along just fine without her and not grow up to have crippling abandonment issues. (Her son never recovered.)
But hey, we now thanks to her sacrifice get to read the works of D H Lawrence, which is good, if you are into that sort of thing. (Personally I think Lady Chatterley is beyond dull.)
Well written, easy to read.
She should never have gotten married to the boring (according to her) Mr. Weakly to begin with. But she just had to have him. She pops out three children whom she just absolutely adores, but then of course, becomes bored and restless with her older husband and wants go off to Europe have a crazy sex with hot strangers like her sister's are doing. It's not a mid life crisis, it's for the sexual revolution! Those pesky children whom she loves more than life itself will get along just fine without her and not grow up to have crippling abandonment issues. (Her son never recovered.)
But hey, we now thanks to her sacrifice get to read the works of D H Lawrence, which is good, if you are into that sort of thing. (Personally I think Lady Chatterley is beyond dull.)
Well written, easy to read.
February 19, 2021
I wanted to like this book. I haven't read much by DH Lawrence but I have read Lady Chatterley's Lover which is based on Frieda, DH Lawrence's lover.
Poor old Frieda, all she wants to do is be naked, sleep with who she wants and be a good mum to her three kids. Unfortunately for her she was born about 70 years to early and lived in a time where divorce was shameful and as for living in sin, well that was for Satan.
All the people are so dramatic in this story, and I know, it's based on real letters and real events but wow, I guess that's what it's like to be around writers. Everyone is in love immediately or about to die without the love of someone or other.
David Herbert Lawrence or Lorenzo as Frieda calls him is impetuous, immature and very demanding. The low point for me had to be when he demanded Frieda forget about her kids because he needed her love!
TW: verbal abuse, self harm, suicidal ideation
Poor old Frieda, all she wants to do is be naked, sleep with who she wants and be a good mum to her three kids. Unfortunately for her she was born about 70 years to early and lived in a time where divorce was shameful and as for living in sin, well that was for Satan.
All the people are so dramatic in this story, and I know, it's based on real letters and real events but wow, I guess that's what it's like to be around writers. Everyone is in love immediately or about to die without the love of someone or other.
David Herbert Lawrence or Lorenzo as Frieda calls him is impetuous, immature and very demanding. The low point for me had to be when he demanded Frieda forget about her kids because he needed her love!
TW: verbal abuse, self harm, suicidal ideation
December 17, 2024
Captivating and heartbreaking. The painful cost of a woman's search for freedom from a "dry and dutiful marriage". Trapped by class and social expectations; ahead of her time. Her loving children lost, supplanted by a new lover. An abusive genius; a moody surrogate child. One set of constraints swapped for another - is she happier now? The pain of her loss mingled with the rapture of her unleashed passion. Even the radical thinker wishes to ensnare her: "I do not wish to be married. I do not wish to be a possession." He is alive though, full of anger; a torrent raging against stifling conservatism.
Her children condemned to a loveless upbringing. Hearts broken. "If only she and Ernest had spent time together unwed and free ... all this pain could have been avoided". The blame is not hers alone.
Beautifully written with poetic language and imagery that expresses the full gamut of emotions, from absolute pain and desolation to the joys of unbridled passion.
Her children condemned to a loveless upbringing. Hearts broken. "If only she and Ernest had spent time together unwed and free ... all this pain could have been avoided". The blame is not hers alone.
Beautifully written with poetic language and imagery that expresses the full gamut of emotions, from absolute pain and desolation to the joys of unbridled passion.
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