20th Century Virgin And The Gypsy [Paperback]

Discovered in France after D. H. Lawrence's death and never finalized by the author, The Virgin and the Gipsy is the fairy tale-like story of Yvette Saywell, a 19-year-old rector's daughter chafing against the moral "life unbelievers" that make up her family.

Although the "virgin" of the title, Yvette is no demure maiden. She is temperamental, strong willed, and aware of her father's "degrading unbelief, the worm which was his heart's core"-just as her fallen mother was. She enjoys being contrary and openly contemptuous of her middle-class, overtly moral, covertly disturbed family. Her every exposure to life leaves her harder; "She lost her illusions in the collapse of her sympathies." She loathes the rectory "with a loathing that consumed her life."

The most hated person in the Saywell family is the rector's ancient, blind mother, called "The Mater" or "Granny." Yvette hates her. Her sister Lucille hates her. Their aunt Cissie hates her. She is compared to a toad, a reptile, a fungus. Like the toad that snaps its jaws on all the bees exiting the hive and devouring all life around it, The Mater, who gave literal life to the family, absorbs the entire family's energy and life force. The gardener smashes the toad with a stone in oblique foreshadowing of The Mater's fate.

Yvette is keenly aware of her status as a "moral unbeliever" (like her mother, who ran off with young man when Lucille and Yvette were children) and her virgin power. When she finds herself in the company of a virile gipsy man and his "lonely, predative glance," she finds herself in his virile power, "gone in his will."

The gipsy represents her "free-born will," which separates her from the rest of the Saywells. He is an outsider, "on an old, old war-path against such as herself . . . Yes, if she belonged to any side, and to any clan, it was to his." Under the influence of the absent mother, an adulterous couple she encounters, and the defiant gipsy who "endures in opposition," Yvette is forced into a confrontation with her sneering father-a confrontation that brings out his hidden evil and self-righteousness.

The Virgin and the Gipsy is an odd novel, much of it written in the style of an adult fairy tale. "The Mater could be a variation of "The Wicked Queen," while "She-who-was-Cynthia," the "white snowflower" of a myth or tale, blooming in perpetuity, could be the prodigal Princess whose transformation into a degraded nettle threatens the self-satisfied and lethal stability of the Saywells. The deluge that puts an end to this uncomfortable status quo is at first mysterious in origin, purging the world as it does on a clear, sunny, rainless day. The gipsy could be the Prince or the traveler, come from afar and finally fulfilling his role in the tale as rescuer-literally and figuratively.

Lawrence was known for rewriting and editing many times over, and clearly The Virgin and Gipsy lacks his revision. Yet its themes of female sexuality, male power over it, the immorality of conventional morality, and the sacredness of vitality that are explored in depth in Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love, are here presented in a beautifully distilled form-perhaps more haunting for its very simplicity.

Diane L. Schirf, 18 August 2003.

The rector had a tragedy in his marriage. The woman whose virginal beauty and nature he had loved became frustrated with him, and left him with two young daughters for another man. Despite his loss of "she who was Cynthia," the rector still loves that memory. His younger daughter, Yvette, grows up to be a lot like her mother. That makes life tough for her, because her Grandmother and maiden Aunt rule the roost, and despise anything that or anyone who reminds them of "she who was Cynthia." Despite the encouragement of her more conventional older sister, Yvette is at sixes and sevens. She cannot stand her home, her family, or the young men who woo her. She feels totally bored and frustrated.

In the midst of her crisis after school ends, she notices a gypsy who seems to command and excite her at the same time. He is the only person who has ever positively moved her, and she doesn't know what to make of it. But her lack of focus keeps her from doing much about it. "She was born inside the pale. And she liked comfort, and a certain prestige." So the idea of running off with a married father of five children who lives in a caravan doesn't exactly thrill her.

The tension builds in the household as her rector father discovers she has made friends with "unsuitable" people (a couple living together prior to marriage, following the woman's divorce). Yvette cuts off her connection with them.

Probably nothing would have happened, but the gypsy returns one more time . . . and the unexpected happens. Vague thoughts must become bold action, or danger awaits!

The book's ending has many of the qualities of "The Lady or the Tiger" and you will be left to fill in the blanks of what happens next in your own mind.

The book left me feeling a little uncomfortable. The class distinctions, the hatred, the unpleasantness to one another, and the purposeless lives irritated me. I wasn't sure where Lawrence agreed with these views and where he did not. He seems to be coming down on the side of those who are "disreputable" but he is hard on them for having inappropriate qualities as well. It's almost as though Lawrence didn't like any of his characters, except perhaps the gypsy. Certainly, it is rewarding to read about complex characters who are flawed.

The book's main weakness is that the metaphors weigh a bit too heavily on the story. A little more subtlety would have made the story more appealing. For much of the book, I thought the structure stuck out too much. There is little action for most of the story, yet the character development is limited except for Yvette and her father.

Those who are used to modern novels will find all of the hinting around about sexual attraction to be a little strange. I thought that it was sort of charming in the context of a society that liked to pretend that such emotions only occurred on a limited basis within marriage.

After you enjoy the story (be sure to stick with it to the end!), I suggest that you think about where we deny emotions and attitudes that people have every day. What honesty and spontaneity are lost thereby?

Enjoy your honest emotions as well as your honest thoughts! Be kind to all you meet!