The Captain's Doll:
My first short tale by Lawrence, and admitting that I'm not much into collections of short stories, I quite liked this one.
Lawrence manages to transmit the same essence, the same almost philosophical thoughts regarding love and human relationships in barely a hundred pages as he did in his best selling novels such as "Women in love" or in "Lady Chatterley's lover".
The story of a doomed love affair between a Scottish soldier, who is happily married to an older woman, and a Dutch Countess refugee during WWI, who knits dolls for a living.

The lives of these two characters get different paths as the years pass by, but a doll taking after the Captain created for the Countess while she was in despair after the Captain's rejection to leave his wife, brings them again together for better or for worse.
Touché, Mr. Lawrence, as usual.

The Fox:
My second short tale by this genius of a man, of whom I'd have fallen head over heals for, if only I had been his contemporary...

In this story we meet two independent women, who run a farm business on their own, and who live a quiet and undisturbed life. The future that awaits them seems certain and unadventurous and their biggest problems are such as getting rid of a fox who steals some of their hens.

But one day, a young cunning soldier appears at their door, disrupting their peace and provoking strange feelings to one of the girls, who tries to fight with all her might against this new attraction, without success, and eventually, this new found passion leads to disaster.

In barely a hundred pages, Lawrence does it again. The way to describe feminine and masculine roles, the fight for independence and the need to be loved and protected, the fruitless struggle of rationality against raw feelings which come from the pit of your stomach, the disappointment of getting what you most crave for...

The selfish human nature and the saying "all is fair in love and war" we all want to believe are left exposed as mere excuses we all accept so we don't have to think who we really are. We are either hens or foxes.

I'll only say Wow.

The ladybird:

A cunning tale which explores the human tendencies to be drawn to obscure and oppressive relationships.

Daphne, wife of a fair and kind soldier who is waiting to come back home, meets an old acquaintance in the hospital, an Austro-Hungarian Count who has become a war prisoner, a tormented soul, with no hope left neither in life nor in love.

In spite of his depressing mood, Daphne can't help being attracted to him and his eccentric views, which are a contrast to what's generally accepted, discovering that she might be of dark nature as well, and finding out the real Daphne as their friendship develops into something far deeper than any of them would have expected.

I loved the last paragraph of the story and its conclusion, life or death, love or hate, finality or eternity, two faces of a same coin...

I still wonder how a short story like this can behold such philosophical subjects presented in such a simple and reachable way,

Great reading, again.

St Mawr
The tale started well, even better than the previous ones.

Mother and daughter, tired of living bluntly, without aim or true feeling for anything, find a soul companion in a rebellious horse, St Mawr. The animal is half savage and tends to dislike people socially acceptable.

As the story advances, mother and daughter, following their most deeply hidden intuition, start making changes in their lives, leaving their comfortable English manors for an adventurous and rustic American ranch.

I loved the comparison between the characters of the story and St Mawr's, the horse. Some descriptions were splendid, the glance and elegance of the horse, the battle of wills, the strength and submission... but I think it felt too short in the end. The story ends quite abruptly and the metaphor isn't quite finished.

Not his best.

The Princess

This is a good one.

All the topics Lawrence was obsessed with appear again in this short story: natural impulses against rationality, women's expectations in relationships, freedom against submission, sexuality and irrational attraction for the wild and unknown.

The Princess is a woman of 38, grown up by her father among feathers, virginal and caste, not interested in the masculine world, she is a rare bird only keen on the cultivation of mind.
Everything changes when she meets Romero, a Spanish horse rider, who never speaks more than necessary and who looks at her with a special "glint" in his dark eyes, a glance which makes her feel a queer unease at the pit of her stomach, so much as to forget her manners and her aims in life.
Romero is a simple man, with earthly needs, but the Princess has other expectations and their advancing relationship leads them to an extreme situation where they are only guided by their bodies, and when body and mind don't go along together, dramatic consequences are on store.

I adore this man, one of my most favourite authors ever.

The virgin and the gypsy

Lawrence doesn't cease to surprise me.
My seventh tale, I think, and even though the topics are essentially the same, the grace, the picturesque characters and Lawrence's magic style works out fine once again.
In this new story, we meet Yvette, a young girl of 21, with unpolluted mind, virgin of soul and body. What bigger contrast to fair Yvette than a dark, slender gypsy, already a married man with five children, but who holds her glance and dominates her independent and young soul with only his direct gaze, with his manly influence.
Impossible relationship and nothing in common, yet attraction is strong on both parts, and young Yvette starts questioning what she expects of her life.
Superb ending, romantic, poetic and almost philosophical. Everything is in the mind.

"And only then she realised that he had a name".

Another triumph. Oh yeah.

The escaped cock

My last tale by Lawrence (for the moment).
And what a finale!
In this story Lawrence retells Jesus' resurrection, and I guess most of the clergy would accuse him of blasphemy for his daring approach. Christ falling in love, Christ succumbing to temptation, Christ desiring a woman's flesh.
He couldn't be more irreverent and sarcastic, but at the same time, he couldn't be more innocent and tender.
I just love him and his writings.
I'll be reading more by him, for sure! ( )