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Cecily's Reviews > Love Among the Haystacks
Love Among the Haystacks
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Haystacks nudge warm and gilded memories to the front of my mind: building dens of hay on my grandparents� farm, Monet’s series paintings, and Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie (written nearly 50 years after this). Golden scrumpy, too, which segues into student daze.
How could anyone not love haystacks? So making love in them is not much of a mental leap. Practice might be pricklier, but would be out of place in this bucolic idyll: a double coming-of-age, with brotherly rivalry, and a background of class differences.
Better to Come
This is a straightforward and rather tidy early Lawrence story. The Nottinghamshire dialect is rather strong, and some of the farming detail a little heavy handed. It reminded me of on BBC Radio 4.
But the writing bears promises of what was to come in later works.
“As he dried himself, he discovered little wanderings in the air, felt on his sides soft touches and caresses that were peculiarly delicious: sometimes they startled him, and he laughed as if he were not alone. The flowers, the meadow-sweet particularly, haunted him. He reached to put his hand over their fleeciness. They touched his thighs. Laughing, he gathered them and dusted himself all over with their cream dust and fragrance� Things never had looked so personal and full of beauty, he had never known the wonder in himself before.�
“The furtive glitter of raindrops through the mist of darkness.�
“He was a very seedy, slinking fellow, with a tang of horsey braggadocio� Small, thin and ferrety� He was all slouching, parasitic indolence.� A tramp (AmE “hobo�).
“She gave an impression of cleanness, of precision and directness.�
“There was a dense mist, so that the light could scarcely breathe.�
Read as part of Selected Short Stories.
Image source for Monet haystacks:
by
Haystacks nudge warm and gilded memories to the front of my mind: building dens of hay on my grandparents� farm, Monet’s series paintings, and Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie (written nearly 50 years after this). Golden scrumpy, too, which segues into student daze.
How could anyone not love haystacks? So making love in them is not much of a mental leap. Practice might be pricklier, but would be out of place in this bucolic idyll: a double coming-of-age, with brotherly rivalry, and a background of class differences.
Better to Come
This is a straightforward and rather tidy early Lawrence story. The Nottinghamshire dialect is rather strong, and some of the farming detail a little heavy handed. It reminded me of on BBC Radio 4.
But the writing bears promises of what was to come in later works.
“As he dried himself, he discovered little wanderings in the air, felt on his sides soft touches and caresses that were peculiarly delicious: sometimes they startled him, and he laughed as if he were not alone. The flowers, the meadow-sweet particularly, haunted him. He reached to put his hand over their fleeciness. They touched his thighs. Laughing, he gathered them and dusted himself all over with their cream dust and fragrance� Things never had looked so personal and full of beauty, he had never known the wonder in himself before.�
“The furtive glitter of raindrops through the mist of darkness.�
“He was a very seedy, slinking fellow, with a tang of horsey braggadocio� Small, thin and ferrety� He was all slouching, parasitic indolence.� A tramp (AmE “hobo�).
“She gave an impression of cleanness, of precision and directness.�
“There was a dense mist, so that the light could scarcely breathe.�
Read as part of Selected Short Stories.
Image source for Monet haystacks:
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Love Among the Haystacks.
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Reading Progress
April 22, 2016
–
Started Reading
April 22, 2016
– Shelved
April 23, 2016
–
Finished Reading
April 27, 2016
– Shelved as:
historical-fict-20th-cent
April 27, 2016
– Shelved as:
short-stories-and-novellas
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Dolors
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Apr 28, 2016 11:38PM
I have a collection of Lawrence's short stories that don't include any of the short stories you've written about, Cecily. You've rekindled my urge to get back to Lawrence sooner rather than later...
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Dolors wrote: "I have a collection of Lawrence's short stories that don't include any of the short stories you've written about, Cecily. You've rekindled my urge to get back to Lawrence sooner rather than later..."NONE of them?!
I will probably not write any more individual reviews from this collection (well, maybe one or two, but not immediately), but I will write a bit about the collection as a whole.
What's surprised and impressed me is how diverse they are - though there are common themes.
Cecily, you are reading up a haystack of Lawrence books/stories. Love how your review links the story to Monet's painting and your memories about haystacks. The quotes remind me how beautifully Lawrence wrote. I've not read him since undergrad days. Time to read a few more of his work.
Laysee wrote: "Cecily, you are reading up a haystack of Lawrence books/stories. Love how your review links the story to Monet's painting and your memories..."Thanks, Laysee. I've been enjoying myself. I think I'm going to leave the rest of the stories for a little while, but I'll be back...
I hope you enjoy yourself when you return to Lawrence's fields and mining towns.
An affectionate review, Cecily. Isn't it great when a book triggers a wave of nostalgia?*And*
via you and Mr. Lawrence, I have discovered a word which was previously unknown to me!
Braggadocio
-meaning boastful or arrogant behaviour.
(Cue Cecily thinking, Oh, I thought that everyone knew that word!)
Kevin wrote: "An affectionate review, Cecily. Isn't it great when a book triggers a wave of nostalgia?*And*..."
Indeed it is, Kevin. Thank you.
Braggadocio is related to brag and braggart, - but with a fancy Italian suffix to make it appropriately impressive.
Wonderful review! I love phrases like, "Practice might be pricklier, but would be out of place in this bucolic idyll..."
Erika wrote: "Wonderful review! I love phrases like, "Practice might be pricklier, but would be out of place in this bucolic idyll...""Thank you, Erika. It's a sunny story. But with depth, as well.
As a youngster who also built dens of hay, I think it is fair to say that anyone who had a barn to play in as a child can never fully understand those impoverished souls who did not. I wonder if these stories are worthy of Cecily's wonderfully nostalgic review?
David wrote: "As a youngster who also built dens of hay"Greetings and thanks to a fellow farm kid.
David wrote: "I wonder if these stories are worthy of Cecily's wonderfully nostalgic review? "
There's only one way for you to be sure...
Caroline wrote: "Lovely quotes..."Thank you, Caroline.
Elyse wrote: "I enjoyed all three of your reviews - waking up here this morning, Cecily. ....beautiful ... like waking from a dream!"From a dream, or to a dream? ;)
Thanks, Elyse.
Cecily, I too liked the "drying off" scene. And you're right, one can't help thinking of Monet's paintings while reading this.
Greg wrote: "Cecily, I too liked the "drying off" scene. And you're right, one can't help thinking of Monet's paintings while reading this."Thanks, Greg. I'm glad you enjoyed that, in its own right, and presaging his later, more polished works.
