| Title | : | The Virgin and the Gipsy |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0679740775 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780679740773 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 160 |
| Publication | : | First published November 1, 1930 |
The Virgin and the Gipsy Reviews
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- The inner struggle of a young woman who realises herself being quite different from many around her.
- The frustration to break away, and 'find herself' and freedom.
- The difficulty of overcoming the hatred for others who don't seem at all making an effort to understand her, and then despite all this to continue behaving normally.
David Herbert Lawrence's The Virgin and the Gypsy is the story of a young woman, Yvette, who is going through changes in her life, is trying to figure things out by understanding herself, and coming to terms with the family and societal limitations.
The prose is pretty good, engaging and descriptive, particularly the exploration of the feelings and thoughts of an young Yvette. Lawrence describes nature and the living conditions very well. -
Here is a love story to my liking. No, I cannot start with that, it will be misunderstood. It is a love story and more.
Second try. Here is a story that captures the attraction that in the blink of an eye can spring up between two people. If you have felt this, you will know what I mean and recognize the feelings. They’re physical, emotional and all engulfing.
That is not enough either. The novel has more.
The story captures the tensions of family relationships. Emotions are felt as electricity. How is this achieved? Through the prose. Through what the characters say to one another.
The prose is stunning. The prose makes the book.
D.H. Lawrence, with just a few select words, gets across the contradictions that lie in what a person says, feels and thinks. Here is one example: with one word, the word hush repeated several times, Lawrence conveys quickly that one should not be thinking, saying or feeling what the person is thinking, saying or feeling.
What society demands of a person is conveyed too--the book is set after the First World War in the English Midlands. We are served up a rector's family...and a gipsy.
Here, in this short novel, Lawrence draws places and people superbly.
The story exudes the joy of life, if one dares to grab it. It skewers social conventions and hypocrisy.
I like how the story conveys, without being explicit, strong sexual attraction.
I like how the story ends—hinting at what the future may hold.
The version I listened to is the author's unaltered manuscript, discovered in 1930 after his death.
On buying the audiobook I was told the narrator would be Georgina Sutton, but it wasn’t! We are told both at the beginning and at its end that Margaret Hilton is the narrator. Perhaps the narrator uses two names? This is possible since many narrators do this. In any case, Margaret Hilton does a fantastic job. Her pacing and where she pauses are perfect. You want to have time to suck on the author’s words. This she gives you. Her tone of voice is perfect. If you choose to listen to this novel, I recommend you listen to Margaret Hilton’s narration. The narration I have given five stars. The recording I listened to is done by Recorded Books. It has the release date 12-27-13 and the title has a “y” instead of an “i” in gipsy! It has a red cover with a white square in the middle showing two figures standing between two trees. I picked it up at Audible in the US. Hope you can find it.
ETA: Audible.com has now corrected previously incorrect information--Margaret Hilton is the correct narrator of the audiobook!
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Sons and Lovers 1 star
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Lady Chatterley's Lover 1 star
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Love Among the Haystacks 3 stars
*
The Rainbow 4 stars
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The Virgin and the Gipsy 5 stars
*
The Ladybird 5 stars
*
Women in Love TBR
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The Lost Girl: Cambridge Lawrence Edition TBR -
The Virgin and the Gypsy is a rather short novel but it is deep and as turbulent as a whirlpool and it is the quintessential D.H. Lawrence
“When the vicar's wife went off with a young and penniless man the scandal knew no bounds. Her two little girls were only seven and nine years old respectively. And the vicar was such a good husband. True, his hair was grey. But his moustache was dark, he was handsome, and still full of furtive passion for his unrestrained and beautiful wife.
Why did she go? Why did she burst away with such an éclat of revulsion, like a touch of madness?”
D.H. Lawrence knows the answer – he is one of the most experienced swimmers in the dark undercurrents of human psyche.
Everyday life may easily turn into a prison – a cage of despotic upbringing, a gaol of conformity, a dungeon of religion, an oubliette of conventionalities…
“In his eyes, she was just brazening out the depravity that underlay her virgin, tender, bird-like face. She-who-was-Cynthia had been like this: a snowflower. And he had convulsions of sadistic horror, thinking what might be the actual depravity of She-who-was-Cynthia. Even his own love for her, which had been the lust love of the born cowed, had been a depravity, in secret, to him. So what must an illegal love be?
‘You know best yourself, what you have got,’ he sneered. ‘But it is something you had best curb, and quickly, if you don't intend to finish in a criminal-lunacy asylum.’
‘Why?’ she said, pale and muted, numbed with frozen fear. ‘Why criminal lunacy? What have I done?’”
And to escape this suffocating prison of everyday living we need some cataclysmic flood, some emotional quake to save us and set us free. -
I have read almost everything D.H. Lawrence wrote, loved all of it, and thought I had seen his best, that is until I picked up this short novel. It was found and published after his death, and in my view it may be his best work. His characters, especially his female characters, are some of the best in English literature, and that doesn’t change in this little jewel of repressed passion and temptation.
5 Stars. -
A lovely manner of rendering a lovely tale. Short enough but oddly interesting. And I was surprised to find myself immersed in a sort of happy version of George Eliot's famous novel, The Mill on the Floss. Well, that is to say not in the whole body of the text, but especially the ending. A good read, while I am still patiently chewing on these two simple sentences: "Be braver in your body, or your luck will go.", and "Listen for the voice of water." ;)
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4,5*
#novellasinnovember
“Estava lá à espera de que Leo a pedisse em casamento! Seria como esperar que o velho Rover, o cão Terra Nova, a pedisse em casamento. Ficar noiva de qualquer homem da terra? Não, Deus do céu, não era possível imaginar nada mais ridículo! (...)
- Há algo em mim que eles não vêem e nunca hão-de ver – disse ela, zangada, para si própria. E ao mesmo tempo, sentiu-se aliviada por eles não verem nem conseguirem ver. (...)
Ela não queria acasalar com um cão doméstico."
Muitos conflitos geracionais e uma enorme tensão sexual nesta novela soberba de D.H. Lawrence. As personagens mais velhas são detestáveis, extremamente bem caracterizadas no seu confronto com as duas raparigas mais jovens, filhas de um vigário hipócrita e de uma mulher que fugiu com um homem mais novo. D.H. Lawrence tem o condão de ser desconcertante. -
Since I saw that that someone had liked my review of Lady Chatterley's Lover, I looked for a novel I had not read by Lawrence and this short novel came up. It was not published in his lifetime. Sometimes I thought of it as a shorter version of Lady Chatterley, without all of the intense conversations about social and political issues; in other words, we just get to the sex! But just to say, nothing here is as explicit as Lady C, sorry, or maybe that works better for you.
Teresa, a young daughter of a rector, encounters a gypsy passing through town; he is Darcy, Heathcliff, dark, steamy, swarthy, arrogant, gorgeous. And she has never been looked at by anyone before as he looks at her. The object of desire, animal lust, but he is restrained, never acts as she takes this all in. She is a small town girl steeped in family and societal conventions, middle-class, and this man is a gypsy, a tramp, as her father makes clear to her. Trash! And her stuffy, religious grandmother also lays it on thick to her. Cold, proper, living within the lines. A repression of the body. And trust me, the gypsy is all body, all the time!
Girls get together at some points to discuss sex, lust, and morality. As in any Lawrence, desire--defamed by church and society--is a good thing, the purest spiritual experience! Holy! They know the profane, clueless boys in town who want sex: Not acceptable. Shallow. And life without boys: Also unacceptable. True desire is like a flame, it's special, it needs to be fed. And this gypsy might be something different than any man or boy she has encountered. But Teresa needs something to push her over the edge, or into his arms.
The big finish is--I won't say too much (restraint is very important in romance and reviews of romance, a mere suggestion may suffice)--about an actual dam breaking, the waters flowing, the very foundation of her house threatened. Too on the nose? Well, maybe, but let's just say this is a moment in which the gypsy is important in revealing possibilities for a different future for Teresa. I'd like to say more, but it's already obvious that this dramatic scene is heavily symbolic. I really liked it a lot, though, and recommend it if you want to try a shorter Lawrence with a little heat in it. The gypsy is not even named, though in the closing the narrator acknowledges that fact; he's a key to the beginnings of Teresa's self-understanding, a kind of symbol in himself. -
This is why God gave us writers. Literary perfection. Adding this to my all time favourites list.
Extended review.
The Virgin and the Gipsy
First published 1930
List of characters
Chapt. I
Vicar's delinquent wife Cynthia
Young penniless man, (who Cynthia took off with)
Arthur Saywell, the vicar/rector, aged 47 years
Lucille and Yvette, the vicar's two young daughters
The Mater - Granny, the Vicar's mother, over 70 years
Aunt Cissie, the Vicar's sister, over 40
Uncle Fred, the vicar's brother, aged 40
Chapt. II
Lucille, now nearly twenty-one
Yvette, now nineteen
The Framleys
Gerry Somercotes
Lottie Framley
Ella Framley
Bob Framley
Leo Wetherall
Lady Louth
Joe Boswell, the gipsy, served in Major Eastwood's regiment
Gipsy woman fortune teller, big, swathy, wolf-like, black hair
Elderly gipsy woman
Mrs Fawcett, finely formed 'little jewess', rich bourgeois, aged 36, divorced Simon Fawcett
Major Eastward, big blonde man, athletic, driver with Mrs Fawcett
Aunt Lucy
Aunt Nell
Aunt Alice
Quote p.19 'It is very much easier to shatter prison bars than to open undiscovered doors of life. As the younger generation find out somewhat to its chagrin.'
P. 64 'Yvette did not tell the rector or Granny about the Eastwards. It would only have started a lot of talk which she detested. The Rector wouldn't have minded, for himself, privately. But he to, knew the necessity of keeping as clear as possible from that poisonous, many-headed serpent, the tongue of the people.'
P. 68 'The rector heard about Yvette's intimacy with the Eastwoods, and she was somewhat startled by the result. She had thought he wouldn't care. Verbally, in his would-be humorous fashion, he was entirely unconventional, such a frightfully good sport. As he said himself, he was a conservative anarchist; which meant he was like a great many more people, a mere unbeliever. The anarchy extended to his humorous talk, and his secret thinking. The conservatism, based on a mongrel fear of anarchy, controlled every action. His thoughts, secretly, were something to be scared of. Therefore, in his life, he was fanatically afraid of the conventional.'
There is an interesting conversation between father and daughter on pages 68 to 71.
The rector sneeringly describes Major Eastward as 'the maquereau'. Yvette doesn't know what that is, 'but felt the poison of the rectors fangs.'
I looked up 'maquereau'. = mackeral (slang) from French
maquelel (mod. MAQUEREAU, - elle), broker, whence, also makelare. A procurer or procuress; a pimp.
The section on p.72 hits the same note, reference, mental approach as Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
'Outwardly she remained the same. It was part of her game. While circumstances remained as they were, she must remain, at least in appearance, true to what was expected of her.'
P.73 'Yvette lashes out in a mood of irritable depression. ". . .shutting Lucille and me out. We're nothing but outsiders in this beastly house!"
The rector was the perfect fascist. Threatening his daughter with the criminal insane asylum if and when she protested her independence.'
P.74 The Gipsy - 'Being of a race that exists to be harrying the outskirts of our society, forever hostile and living only by spoil, he was too much master of himself, and too wary, to expose himself openly to the vast and gruesome clutch of our law. He had been through the war. He had been enslaved against his will, that time.'
Lawrence's genius reminds us that there are alternatives to live in mind and body than to the line of conventional establishment expectations and rules. The voice of the great sub culture. -
A very beautiful short story by D. H. Lawrence that shows his mastery in describing and displaying the complex nature of the human drives, relationships, and sexuality! It is a daring story that - like many of his novels - addresses the hidden forces of the sexual drive and repression on person, which are pivotal in a materialistic world. A major theme that is reminiscent of his major novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is the role of the primitive forces, namely sex, in the human life and existence, which brings satisfaction and meaning to people’s life in the modern world. According to Lawrence modernity as well as industrialization affects human’s relationship and social life, to name a few. I loved the skillful depiction of the characters, the dynamic and dramatic plot, and the ups and downs in the life of the family. I particularly loved the relationship between Yvette and the gypsy Jo, and the non-verbal communication and mutual chemistry between both of them. It is a story that attracts your attention from the first page, and makes you unable to leave it until you have reached the last page. Finally, although this is a short story, but it is full of layers of meaning that one may discover upon reading it more than once.
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https://edebiyatdanostalji.blogspot.c... -
The first D.H. Lawrence story I read was "The Rocking-Horse Winner", a tale I found quite disturbing. His posthumous novella The Virgin and the Gypsy, I think, is equally disconcerting in terms of imagery and implication.
Yvette is unhappy with her current situation. She’s a rector’s daughter and is forced to cope with Mater, her domineering grandmother, and spinster Aunt, who consider her the reincarnation of her treacherous Mother. All Yvette desires is to have some peace and freedom to pursue her goals. (Picture a combination of Isabel Archer and Ursula Brangwen.) She’s passionate, her main desire being to find someone with whom she could fall desperately in love. She’s not especially enamored with the boys she knows from the town; she’s unsatisfied. There’s a dominance issue: She feels that she has more power and influence over them than they have over her. But then, she meets the gypsy.
The power this gypsy holds over Yvette was what I considered disturbing and creepy. The moment he stares into her eyes, boring into them, she becomes mesmerized and no longer has any voluntary control over her actions. She becomes his pawn, to do with as he pleases. I can sort of understand this gypsy mystery and influence, from the stories my mom told me about the gypsy children she met when she traveled in Ireland. But the strange thing is the implication that he’s not a born gypsy. This was the life he chose after serving in WW1—his way of coping with the post-traumatic stress. Another thing I didn’t quite like, is that she knows he has a gypsy “wife” and children. When she asks him how many children he has, he again peers into her eyes and responds, “Say five” —basically insinuating five babies he knows of. To Yvette, this revelation is negligible and doesn’t seem to matter.
Another aspect of the book that was equally disconcerting is the book’s take on aging. Initially, the descriptions were fine, there was even some humor interspersed across the text. However, the descriptions of Mater become so increasingly surreal and macabre that it was rather hard to mentally visualize. And to tell the truth, I’m glad of it; it’s definitely not a picture I want to have in my mind’s eye. I recently read Hardy’s
The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved and The Well-Beloved, a book that also describes aging and decrepitude, but in a completely different manner. Hardy adds humor to the descriptions, but there’s still respect there. Here, age is completely trashed.
Nevertheless, the ending is quite unexpected, and it redeemed the book for me. The little note and the visual picture it produces makes a great contrast to the image that’s portrayed across the novella. A great use of irony. Loved it! -
Este livro bem que se poderia chamar "A virgem, o cigano e a cheia", já que no final esta última é que resolveu, mais ou menos, a história toda. :P
Claro que a história não foi nada do que eu imaginei pelo título. Definitivamente tenho de me deixar dessas coisas de tentar adivinhar o enredo pelo título. Não é algo que aconteça frequentemente, mas quando acontece dá sempre asneira. :D
Uma história com uma protagonista intrigante,. Gostei da Yvette e não posso deixar de pensar que, depois do final do livro, ela foi ter com o Joe Boswell. Foi uma leitura agradável para uma tarde de sol como a de hoje. -
An incredible multi-layered short story - such an ingenious ending, if you read it carefully.
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Ya böyle kıpır kıpır, fıkır fıkır, cayır cayır bir kitap.
“... adam onun üstünde güç kazanmıştı. Gölgesi kızın üstündeydi.
Adamsa kahvesini üflerken tek bir şeyin, kızın bakireliğinin gizemli meyvesinin ve bedeninin olağanüstü tatlılığının farkındaydı.
[...]
Çingene onun orada olduğunun tüm varlığıyla farkındaydı, bir gölgenin özü, bekleyişi ve hep yerinde kalışı gibi onu bekliyordu.”
Yaşasaydı, bu sensual + sexual tavır new york times best sellerlar listesini sikip atardı.
İçim gıdıklandı, yüreğim hopladı, midem düğümlendi.
{Bir romance'dan başka ne bekliyorum zaten.}
Nys. Fangirlinge döneriz.
Şöyle bir aile var:
• Sümsük papaz baba
• Terk eden anne
• Yeşil histerik hala
• Özgüvenli selcen abla
• İktidardaki bencil babaanne
• Öfkeli bakir Yvette
• Gizemli seksi çingene
Müthiş bir coming of age desem kimse bana bişi diyemez. (Bunu google enter'ladım ve sonuç alamadım çok şaşkınım)
Müthiş bir ayrı dünyaların insanlarının yaz aşkı dersem de bişi diyemezsiniz. Hem zengin kız fakir oğlan, hem ırksal fark, hem forbidden (çingene evli), hem age gap,,, Yvette'nın tamamen zıttı bi de oh boy.
{Daha ne kadar trope lazım hojam}
Yvette'e asi/isyankar demektense öfkeli demeyi özellikle tercih ederim. Dönemine göre öyle olabilir ama o asiliğin temelinde öfke yatıyor diye düşünüyorum; Yvette ablası (ve arkadaşı ve yoldaşı) gibi şartları kabul edip etrafından dolaşmıyor, kodlanmış olan doğru/iyi - yanlış/kötü kalıplarına (en insancıl yorumla) görmezden gelerek devam etmiyor, elindekilerle de yetinmiyor; Yvette bir nevi Belle gibi "bu köyden daha fazlası var" inancıyla, ya da bilinçsiz talebiyle yanıyor.
Arzu demiyorum çünkü içtepiden gelen talep doğuruyor bu arzuyu. Arzusunun nesnesi de çingene oluyor, bu yüzden çingenenin bir adı yok (kitabın sonuna kadar). Ve Yvette'nin bekaretini kaybedişi, bacak arasındaki derinin değil bilincinin yırtılışla oluyor- daha fazlasının olduğunun farkına vararak. Kitap boyunca bakirelik saflık/temizlik olarak dillendirilse de sembolize ettiği şey farkında olmayış da aynı zamanda; sevgi, aşk, kendi, bedeni, cinselliği,,,
Annesi tarafından terk edilen, babaannesinin baskısı altında -yanında bonus deli hala ile- tecritvari bir ortamda yetişen bakireden de çok bişey beklenemez.
{İlk gördüğü bad boya düşer. Özür dilemicem}
'Adı anılmayan' annesinin de yırtılan bakireliği(!) dir belki de, babalarını terk edip beş parasız kendinden küçük bir adamla gitmesine sebep.
Kendi gibi.“... bir ucuz cinsellik var, bir de ucuz olmayan öbürü. Korkunç derece karmaşık gerçekten! Ben, sıradan insanlardan tiksiniyorum. Sıradan olmayan insanlara karşı da -cinsel sözcüğüne tiksintisini gösteren bir vurguyla-cinsel bir dürtü duymuyorum. Belki de ben cinsellik denen şeyden yoksunum.”
Abla Lucille'nin lafları. {Good girl}
Lawrence zaten her kitabında 'cinsel özgürlük diyerek ancak sığlaştırılabilecek' bir hürriyet anlatmıyor mu?“Korkak doğanlarsa doğal tutsaklardır ve derinlerdeki içgüdüleri, boyunduruklarının ansızın boyunlarına kilitleneceği korkusuyla onları zehirli bir dehşet içerisinde bırakır.”
Kendini gerçekleştiren kehanet kısmından çözümlemek hiç istemiyorum.
Lawrance'ın yaptığı diğer eleştirileri, yerden yere vuruşları [sadakat gibi]* aktarmaya keza gerek yok, ayrıca muazzam karakter analizleri var, papaz üzerine bile çokça konulabiliriz, en ilgi çekici olan ise hala benim için.
[*] Der ki s. 15 "Tedbir ve sadakat dünyayı yönetmeliydi! Varsın aile içinde olabildiğince nefret ve sürtüşme olsun. Dış dünyaya karşı parmaklıklarla çevrili bir birlik olmak zorundaydılar." Lawrence "To the outer world, a stubborn fence of unison" diyor buna, Yvette ve diğerleri, hem kendi hem biraradalıklarıyla gerçekten de hapis gibilerdir.
Ama konumuz bu değil.
Kitap bitince 'ulan hakketten' diyosun, tatlı ve öfkeli bakiremize sadık kalan bir Çingenedir, kendi tarz sadakatiyle; çünkü onu küçümseyen halkın 'bildiğinin' aksine yalan söylememiş, Yvette'i kandırmamıştır, Yvette'ten bir şey çalmamıştır, hatta o parmaklıklardan kurtulması için onu zorlamamıştır bile. {rivayet geçmiş zamanın bildirilmesini daha sıralayabilirim.}
{Aşırıyorumculuğu sizden öğrenecek değilim.}“... Yvette'nin yüreği artık koşullara karşı Çingene'nin bakırına vuran çekici kadar sert atıyordu. [...] Neredeyse onunla gidip, parya bir Çingene kadını olmayı yüreğinde bulabilecekti.”
Eh, bakiremiz de kafa karışıklığı ve oturmamış karakter ile ancak olumlanabilecek birsadakatsizliğeriyakarlığa sahip.
Bu kitabın Çingenenin evli olamayıp kızla kaçtığı ve bölge halkıyla mücadele ettiği historical erotik romance'ının yazılması lazım.Halaya neden yeşil dediğime dair bir fikrim yok ama bir bildiğim vardır, ona dememiş olma ihtimalim de var elbette
xoxoxo
iko
PS: 1970 yapımı uyarlamasını sevmedim. Joanna Shimkus katana gibi kalmış, Franco Nero da daha çok survivor finalisti gibi. Ve tabii ki 70 ruhuna yakışır salt cinsellik ve toplumsal propaganda öne geçmiş.
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Lawrence’ı seviyorum. Hatta benim favori İngiliz yazarlarımdan olduğunu söyleyebilirim rahatlıkla. Onun viktoryen ahlaka olan cesur karşıtlığını ilham verici buluyorum. Bu kitabında da ‘genel geçer baskıcı ahlak’ ile ‘özgür ruhu’ karşı karşıya getiriyor. Toplumun dışına itilmiş ve yasaklanmış bir yazar olarak duruşunu bozmaması, cinsellik konusundaki kararlı duruşunu sonuna kadar sürdürmesini saygıyla selamlıyorum. Lawrence gibiler sayesinde insanlar daha mutlu olacak, umuyorum. Âşık olun, sevin, sevişin ve Lawrence’ı okuyun tabiî ki.
İyi okumalar.
7/10 -
Talora fa male vedere immagini di modelli o attori dei quali fummo invaghiti lustri addietro, al tempo dei nostri anni verdi: spesso il tempo è stato inclemente con loro; e, al pari dei bellissimi d’antan, poiché habent sua fata libelli, non sempre i libri sanno invecchiar bene, andando anzi spesso incontro a fata decisamente tristi: benché ci si chieda qualche volta se, al contrario di modelli e attori, bellissimi lo fossero mai stati. Prendiamo, tanto per dire, questo romanzo breve (o racconto lungo, fate vobis; non ho mai ben compresa la differenza…), che, venendo da cotanto autore e con cotanto titolo, il lettore minimamente smaliziato già s’immagina dove vada a parare: io cerco appunto di mettermi nei panni d’un lettore di circa novant’anni fa, per figurarmi se e quanto potesse sonare rivoluzionario allora; ma non ostanti gli sforzi, non riesco a farmelo piacere. Va detto che dall’inizio alla fine non fa che sparare cannonate a lavorare di randello contro la rispettabilità borghese; ma sarà pure che codesta rispettabilità borghese nell’ultimo secolo, e viepiù nell’ultimo mezzo secolo, ha pigliato tante di quelle legnate che ormai c’ispira più simpatia e tenerezza che aborrimento, c’è da dire che Lawrence, a conti fatti, è assai meno rivoluzionario di quanto sembri e di quanto voglia. La famiglia rispettabile in cui vive la vergine del titolo non appartiene a quella borghesia solida e abbiente cui siamo avvezzi da tanta narrativa inglese: sono piccolissimi borghesi di campagna, praticamente popolani, col capofamiglia parroco, probabilmente metodista (e anticamente abbandonato da una moglie fedifraga, evidentemente stanca di quell’ambientino frizzante), ma in un paesello tetro, e una madre decrepita, lagnosa e tirannica, una sorella zitella e acidissima, un fratello scapolo sempre aggrondato, una serva che praticamente sembra non esserci, a forza di adattarsi all’umor festivo della maison, e appunto la protagonista e sua sorella. Lo Zingaro del titolo è (ovviamente) uno zingaro, il quale, al pari di tanti suoi consimili dell’epoca, vive facendo il calderaio, mentre la vecchia mamma legge la mano a prezzo modico e la moglie non si sa. Oggi se si pensa agli zingari vengono in mente uomini coi baffoni a lo sguardo truce, oppure donne infagottate in brutti cenci, che chiedono l’elemosina; ma in altri tempi si preferiva pensare alle zingarelle fascinose che girano il mondo e ballano il flamenco, e agli zingari dal fascino tenebroso e dalla vita errabonda e libera, fra i quali magari si possono celare perfino cortigiani e favorite caduti in disgrazia, come Zaida e Albazar nel Turco in Italia. Nella fattispecie, poi, lo zingaro è assieme oltremodo maschio ma anche delicato, di quelli che ti spogliano con un’occhiata ma nel contempo ti fanno sognare chi sa quali saporose, insinuanti delizie; ma il lettore che si aspettasse un’altra Lady Chatterley rimarrà fatalmente a bocca asciutta, perché qui, almeno sul piano fisico, tutto rimane sul piano della più virginea verecondia: tante chiacchiere ribellistiche dunque, ma fatti less than zero. Altro che in quella vecchia canzoncina del cacciator del bosco, nella quale il suddetto, incontrata una pastorella, “prima la prese per mano/ e poi la pose a sedere:/ dal gusto e dal piacere/la pastorella s’addormentò”: dove, a meno di non sospettare strane doti ipnagogiche nel cacciator del bosco, ciascuno si può figurare lo iato temporale fra il sedersi e il cadere addormentata lungo e piacimento e variamente animato. Qui, nisba. In compenso, Lawrence pare ghermito da un’incontenibile frenesia aggettivale. Ora, io non dovrei dir niente, perché quanto ad aggettivi non credo di essere particolarmente parco, né sono mai stato un adepto del famigerato less in more: però se s’intende scialare con gli aggettivi, occorre saperli metter lì con grazia, in modo che appaiano quantomeno inattesi o intelligenti: se tutto fa capire che una casa è brutta e che io sono triste, inutile scrivere dieci volte che la casa è brutta e che io sono triste; il lettore, se non è scemo affatto, lo capisce benissimo da solo. Certo, non bisognerebbe giudicare troppo male lo stile d’uno scritto basandosi solo su d’una traduzione: ma qui la mia sensazione è proprio che Lawrence non si accontenti di dire le cose, ma le voglia gridare. Tutto è costituito da categorie tagliate con l’accetta, ogni moto dell’animo è descritto in pieno giorno, squadernato e sviscerato con dovizia di definizioni e aggettivi; non esiste un angolino d’ombra confortevole, dove il lettore riesca per un attimo a respirare un refolo di ambiguità, una screziatura di elusività, un alito di chiaroscuro, una vena di je ne sais quoi; troppa luce radente viene presto un po’ a noia. E alla fine addirittura arriva un cataclisma con tanto d’inondazione distruttrice. A Lawrence, che detestava l’ipocrisia inglese, venne un’uggia incontenibile, probabilmente, anche nei confronti dell’understatement albionico. Purtroppo. Un pochino di understatement, invece, gli avrebbe proprio fatto bene.
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A very simple story elegantly told. The elegance grows out of an amazing level of skill at deploying language in an incremental, layered way; Lawrence literally titrates his depiction of the various characters or scenes, taking a word and repeating it in different contexts over a page or several pages until his portrayal achieves the desired level of completeness before moving on to the next person or scene. I was mesmerized by the technical mastery which perhaps only works when the story remains so simple, an allegory of passion, prejudice, and provincialism. A model for writers by a master....
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3,5 stars- English paperback
Review follows later. -
original read: 2008
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Note: I can usually appreciate a story for what it is regardless of its socio-political context. However in the spam of 89 pages D.H Lawrence has managed to produce the worst "story" I have ever read. By morphing as many forms of social and political oppression into one fictionalised universe.
* the notion of virginity is not telling of a persons character, not does it enhance it at such. This was my issue. Fine she's a virgin. But does her every movement and describable mannerism have to be referred as an attribute of her virginity. Every other young female character probably was a virgin, but this particular virgin had virginity radiating so powerfully through her that it was enough to promote her character to the level of the protagonist. Fine, oh wait no in making her a protagonist I will give her no other redeeming qualities whilst paralleling her to gypsies in order to comment badly against their oppressed race.
* sexism everywhere, fine appropriate for context (i guess, not really)
* racist
* anti-semitic (referring to a character as a Jewess, mentioning her name once or not even once, not going to check)
* classist - oh I'm angsty about my bourgeoisie lifestyle, I have two selves one in which I can be a gypsy without all of the oppression. Oh no I regret not falling in love with this gypsy man sooner, now I'm going to be bored in my comfortable house, as he has to travel around towns selling items he has made to survive.
* pointless: overall the worst ending I have ever experienced.
* the writing style was the only thing holding this piece of shit together
Overall if you wanna get butthurt its:
* offensive to women
* offensive to gypsies
* offensive to jews
* overall anyone who is part of the lower class of society
* the patriarchy personified
* white privilege at its peak
Mum recommended this to me. We are having a talk when she gets home. -
My first DH Lawrence book. I'll admit I'm not quite used to classic writing, so getting through this was a bit hard for me. Not to mention feeling like the storytelling was slow and that it was hard to relate to any of the characters. However, I read the reviews, and found that Lawrence is known for describing very well the human psyche, behaviour and sexual attraction. Which makes the book make much more sense, and helps me to appreciate it better. Because a lot of this book follows Yvette's thoughts and feelings, while illustrating very well her family and other individuals she encounters.
So... I didn't love this, but I appreciate it for what it is. Having said that, I'm gonna start including more classics into my reading list again! (and not just read them for Lit exam purposes hahahah) -
So Lawrence is obsessed with female sexuality? So he uses quite lurid prose to describe how we should run off and find a penis to worship? I am not sure if I'm supposed to like him or revile him, all I know is I both enjoy his writing and find it frustrating at the same time, and wherever I become too frustrated I have to remind myself of what he was trying to achieve, a state whereby men and particularly women could be honest about their sexuality. Yvette, the heroine, may come across as being hopelessly naive and downright annoying at times, but I still enjoyed reading this and found it quite powerful in places. The ending was rather abrupt though, but I suppose that is to be expected from a novella.
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بطل القصة الغجري الطريد وابنة القس الصغيرة إيفيت
تقع احداث القصة في إحدى أرياف انكلترا حيث يسكن القس مع عائلته المكونه من الأم ( والدة القس) العمه والعم وأبنتي القس لوسيل وإيفيت اما زوجة القس فأنها قد هربت مع عشيقها وتركت زوجها وبنتيها ��ذلك اصبح الاب يكره ذكر أسمها ويخشى على ابنتاه ان يفعلا ما فعلته امهم .. القصه ممله في البداية لكن النهاية كانت جديرة لأن تغير من طبعي على هذه الروايه .. المعروف عن هذا الكاتب انه ينتقد التقاليد الاجتماعية التي يعيشها الاوربيون بصورة عامه آنذاك لذلك كتب عنها بصورة روايات وكثيرا ما تعرض للتجريح والسجن بسبب ما كتب .. -
To be honest, after reading this novel, I still wasn't sure what it was about. The story focuses on Yvette, a girl caught in what she considers an unbearable situation at home with her bothersome 90 year old grandmother, her aunt, her uncle, her sister, and her father. Her mother, Cynthia (who must not be mentioned, kind of Voldemort) because she apparently ran off with another man. Yvette is bored to death with this town and its boys. None of them seem to excite her and she dismisses all of them. One day, a gispy camp came to town and the girls went to get their fortunes told and that's how Yvette meets the dark, handsome, forbidden gipsy.
It felt like the sweet sexualisation of a teenage girl and her fascination with the gipsy man who, by the way, was married and has kids. Even more preposterous, this man has the audacity to seduce her and tells her to come to visit him on Fridays. There was a connection there but the author kind of waffles on and off as Yvette loses interest and kind of forgets about him for a while. It was quite annoying to read because it's like she can't make up her mind.
It was rather short, so it felt like a novella and the story didn't seem complete but perhaps it is due to the fact that this was published after the author died so he couldn't really do anything about it. -
Okuduğum bir çok dönem romanını düşünerek yorum yaparsam eğer, kendi dönemi içerisinde değerlendirildiğinde gerçekten yankı uyandıracak bir kitap bu. Aristokrasi söz konusu değil burada ama kilise var, kilise papazının kızı ve bir çingenenin hikayesi.
Eleştirdiği şey de açık, sınıf ayrımcılığı, toplumun şartlandırılmışlığı ve sözde ahlak kuralları. Kitap belki biraz daha uzun olsaydı okuyucuya bu durum daha net bir şekilde hissettirilebilirdi. Ben dönemi az çok biliyorum, dolayısıyla kitap bana yeterli geldi. Betimlemeler yoğun, çeviriden zengin bir dille yazıldığı belli, eminim ki zor bir çeviriydi.
Anneleri, babalarını başka bir adam için terk eden iki kız çocuğu. Ruhsuz halaları ve oturduğu yere adeta kök salan, sinsi büyük anneleriyle yaşamaya başlıyorlar o olaydan sonra. Baba karakteri ise terk edilmişliği öyle sindirmiş ki, ezilmiş ve aslında olmayan gücünün, kendine saygı duymayışının sonucunda sinip kalmış bir adam.
Kızların küçü��ü yani Yvette için dik kafalı diyebilirim ama kötü anlamda değil. Eciş bücüş karakterlere sahip bu ailenin içinde belki de en sağlam temelli hayat onunkisi. İyi bir karakter.
Kitabı sevdim çünkü bile bile ateşle oynamanın istemsiz oluşunu ve o birbirine çekilme hissini, genç bir kadının farkındalığıyla birlikte havailiğini şeffaf olarak yansıtabildiğini düşünüyorum. -
The more I reflect on this easy to read, enjoyable novella, the more I like it. And it haunts me or at least causes me to think about some wonderful issues about female liberation and or confronting the repressive mores of the day. The story's resolution is weird at first read. You just don't see it coming out this way, with the intrusion of mother nature, but then upon reflection, I see how Lawrence in his usual tender manner elevates human nature in all its raw goodness and passion into the domain of something spiritual.
Nature in Lawrence's novella, and perhaps in his philosophy, washes away the baseness and provides a more meaningful dimension for human relations and intimacy.
THe note on the last page read: This work lacks the author's final revision, and has been printed form the manuscript exactly as it stands."
Interesting. It works wonderfully the way it is. Perhaps this time, it was a good thing that the author didn't have a chance to tinker with it, or perhaps he wouldn't have. -
I read it last night in one sitting. It's a rather beautiful story - Lawrence is so brilliant at building up his characters with layers of acutely observed detail. I loved the fact that they were all flawed and therefore real, even the lovely Yvette. She could so easily have been portrayed as totally innocent and dreamy, yet Lawrence seemed to have a knack of accessing the feminine, of entering into real thoughts, real feelings of real women. I can't help believing that there was a very feminine side to the man.
Without giving too much away to others who haven't read the story, I thought that the last chapter led deliciously to the simply heavenly ending - nothing ruined or broken, no illusions to be shattered later - maybe the most perfect sort of romance. Erotic too, in the best possible way - the way of the imagination. -
As with D.H. Lawrence's most famous books, this novella is a very passionate read. Young Yvette Saywell is the free-spirited but sheltered daughter of a village rector in early twentieth century England. Yearning for excitement and resisting the pressure to conform to her family's expectations, Yvette begins an affair with a charismatic gipsy. Although this is a sensual story that focuses on forbidden romance, it is also very much about Self-discovery and Yvette's need to be true to herself, even if it means defying the conventions of society. This is a compelling and unique story that fans of D.H. Lawrence will appreciate.
Jennifer Leigh Wells
Author of "Rebecca: The Making of a Hollywood Classic"
