Three ‘novelettes’, which Lawrence intended to be published together.
These three ‘novelettes’ display D. H. Lawrence’s brilliant and insightful evocation of human relationships – both tender and cruel – and the devastating results of war. He wrote them between November 1920 and December 1921, and they were enthusiastically received by his English publisher and his readers.
In The Fox, two young women living on a small farm during the First World War find their solitary life interrupted. As a fox preys on their poultry, a human predator has the women in his sights. The ending of the first version, written in December 1918, is given in an appendix. Lawrence added a ‘long tail’ two years later, expanding the story to about three times its original length.
In The Ladybird a wounded prisoner of war has a disturbing influence on the Englishwoman who visits him in hospital. The Ladybird also started out as a short story, but was completely rewritten; two manuscript pages omitted by the typist are here included for the first time.
The Captain’s Doll explores the complex relationship between a German countess and a married Scottish soldier in occupied Germany. The characters and the setting of The Captain’s Doll arose out of Lawrence’s visit to Austria in summer 1920.
Dieter Mehl, the book’s editor, gives all three composition histories including Lawrence’s wish to have them published together, problems with typists and in publication. There is also an appendix on the models for the two main characters and the setting of The Fox.
