England, My England

D.H. Lawrence England, My England (1922)
Given that this was first published after Lawrence had taken to a semi-nomadic existence, having left England after some kids threw rocks at his wife, I'd assumed these ten short stories might represent an exercise in nostalgia - capturing moments of an English working class life which, for the author, had become past tense. However, it turns out that the stories were written between 1913 and 1921, albeit with some revision prior to publication, so I could be way off the mark. That said, I suspect there may be some element of attempting to capture a whiff of the old country even if it's hardly one seen through rose tinted spectacles. The cover promises the decline of a whole social ethos in the wake of the first world war, which is pretty much what it delivers, albeit as emotional conflicts - some fairly low level - which are surely as much part of the human condition as the hallmark of any one particular era. There's betrayal, drama, grief, and disappointment, although no more so than usual for one of Dave's books.

Unfortunately, a few of the tales don't really seem to do much beyond invoking the mood of a gloomy Sunday afternoon in rural Nottinghamshire, or at least I found them a little bogged down with their own introspection. Tickets, Please has its moments, and The Blind Man, Wintry Peacock, and You Touched Me are all blessed with just enough texture to keep things interesting; and Fanny and Annie opens with a paragraph so structurally startling as to foreshadow some of A.E. van Vogt's weirder excesses.

Flame-lurid his face as he turned among the throng of flame-lit and dark faces upon the platform. In the light of the furnace she caught sight of his drifting countenance, like a piece of floating fir. And the nostalgia, the doom of homecoming went through her veins like a drug. His eternal face, flame-lit now!

Regrettably, three day later I don't remember anything about Fanny and Annie, and it's the same for a couple of the others. England, My England has its moments, but it's probably not the one you want to start off with.