The virgin and the gipsy and other stories

the long version

"The stories in this volume are from the last four years of D.H. Lawrence's writing life. Two powerful novellas dominate the collection: The Virgin and the Gipsy and The Escaped Cock (also known as The Man Who Died). Both of these deal with themes of escape and sexual awakening, but in very different contexts. In the first, a young woman from a restrictive English rectory learns about further dimensions to life through her contact with a gipsy; in the second, an unnamed resurrected man - Lawrence's vision of Christ - escapes from the tomb and likewise has a first sexual experience. Related themes are explored by four short stories and three fragments. This edition restores Lawrence's latest forms of the texts, before the changes introduced by censorship, mistakes in transmission and various other forms of interference, with variants recorded. The introduction traces the history of the stories, while the notes offer help with allusions, contexts and other points of potential difficulty or interest."--Jacket.