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The Virgin and the Gypsy

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The Virgin and the Gypsy

By: D. H. Lawrence
Narrated by: Peter Joyce
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Summary

Written in 1926...and published posthumously [without the authors customary revision] in 1930, The Virgin and the Gypsy is a minor masterpiece in short story writing. It provides an excellent introduction to Lawrence’s work, being a succinct distillation of his ideas about sexuality and its ability to transcend class barriers.

Yvette and her sister Lucille come back from finishing school in Lausanne with a much broader outlook on life than the inhabitants of the cloistered world to which they return. Their mother left their father for another man leaving a pall of sterility in his newly gathered family: Uncle Fred, Aunt Cissie and Granny – the ‘Mater’ Stifled by the rigidity of life in the rectory in this small village in the East Midlands-a microcosm of established Christian belief the type of which Lawrence despised-Yvette finds herself drawn to a passing gypsy and her ‘budding flower’ is awakened by his interest.

In a torrential climax which symbolically sweeps away her old life she comes to fully realise and accept her sexual identity.

©2010 Assembled Stories (P)2013 Assembled Stories
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Classics
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My first DH Lawrence book. He deftly conjures scenes, people and places and then articulates them to perfection. Brilliantly read to. Five stars all round.

Such exquisite writing

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