The Virgin and the Gypsy

Written by D. H. Lawrence

Narrated by Georgina Sutton

In a claustrophobic household, oppressed by her blind, toad-like grandmother and a cowardly, conventional father, Yvette’s exuberance seems doomed to suppression. But meeting a gypsy awakens unfamiliar emotions in her, making her challenge the family’s accepted morality. As she wavers between conformity and rebellion, a flash flood threatens her home, her world and her life. This short novel deals with all the major themes of sexuality and identity that made Lawrence one of the most original and influential writers of the 20th century; and it is a satirical, atmospheric, moving and surprising masterpiece.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
• Release date: May 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781843794547

D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet remembered as one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers. His novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover garnered controversy for its graphic sexual content and was banned in the United States until 1959. Lawrence’s works, including Women in Love and Sons and Lovers, are now considered to be classics of English literature. He died in Vence, France, from complications of tuberculosis. 

Reviews for The Virgin and the Gypsy

[vwriter-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I devoured this novella. The ending was perfect and my favourite part.

[aubreyfs · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Almost nothing happens the entire book. Oppressive like The Great Gatsby feels. Two sisters, father and a fat matriarch propel the little action. Innocence and simplicity are squelched by distrust and self-righteousness. A flood at the end of the book brings in a bit of surrealism which doesn't feel like Lawrence at all.

[ggodfrey_8 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Aside from perhaps Women in Loveand Lady Chatterly, Lawrence's novels are just not worth the effort unless you're a big fan or a Literature grad student with a need to know the stuff. They're the very embodiment of "loose baggy monsters," with a wealth of potent thematic and symbolic material stewed in an artless and clumsy chowder.His short fiction, however, is elegantly contstructed, often as sharp in form and structure as anything by Fitzgerald, especially when compared to Lawrence's clunky novels. The Virgin and the Gipsy, as a novella, stands between the two forms in length, but fortunately takes its lustre from the former as opposed to the latter. This is the sharpest delineation of Lawrence's ideas about blood and sex and class I've read, and one of the more entertaining. Young Yvette's mother hit the road with her lover, ditching her daughters and their uptight rector father when they were small children. Now coming into womanhood, they live in the rectory with a spinster aunt who needs an orgasm badly, their father, an uncle, and a ninety-something crone granny who represents the repressing curse of civilization. The father is one of Lawrence's favorite types: a guy completely befuddled by Woman and Nature and Desire, whose existence is all surface, who rejects as sordid the urges of the blood and heart. Yvette meets a Gipsy by chance and immediately her blood awakens to the falsity of "love" and "marriage" as understood by the Victorians (funny how Lawrence's plots, when boiled down, can sound so Harlequin Romance-y). This is a longer meditation on the riff Lawrence played in "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter," with many of the same symbols; the one variant, of course, is the interracial attraction. Read it.

[nataliec7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first D.H.Lawrence book and I am pleasantly surprised. Sometimes when I pick up well rated books by 'Great authors', I worry a little. Because even though I'm supposed to like it, sometimes I don't! And naturally I review it saying that.Anyway, I genuinely enjoyed this little book. Beautiful story telling, great characters all within this tiny little book. It took me a few pages to get absorbed and then I was in. And I don't think I can say much more without giving away too much of it. Its short, its good and it's worth reading.

[reneepaule · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An incredible multi-layered short story - such an ingenious ending, if you read it carefully.