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The Prussian Officer
David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 - 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. -wikipedia
26 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1914
About the author
D.H. Lawrence
1,927 books3,670 followersDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism, and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct.
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H._Law...
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H._Law...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
April 7, 2024
The Prussian Officer was the first story by D. H. Lawrence I’ve read and ever since I became his fervent aficionado for never before I have met an author so masterfully navigating the dark currents of human psyche…
Odour of Chrysanthemums is a real milestone in the description of a human mind in the state of the utter autumnal sadness…
It’s the mastery of limning imperceptible nuances and infinitesimal details of human behavior that in the end makes a writer grand.
Gradually the officer had become aware of his servant's young, vigorous, unconscious presence about him. He could not get away from the sense of the youth's person, while he was in attendance. It was like a warm flame upon the older man's tense, rigid body, that had become almost unliving, fixed. There was something so free and self-contained about him, and something in the young fellow's movement, that made the officer aware of him. And this irritated the Prussian. He did not choose to be touched into life by his servant. He might easily have changed his man, but he did not.
Odour of Chrysanthemums is a real milestone in the description of a human mind in the state of the utter autumnal sadness…
Then she lighted a candle and went into the tiny room. The air was cold and damp, but she could not make a fire, there was no fireplace. She set down the candle and looked round. The candle-light glittered on the lustre-glasses, on the two vases that held some of the pink chrysanthemums, and on the dark mahogany. There was a cold, deathly smell of chrysanthemums in the room. Elizabeth stood looking at the flowers.
It’s the mastery of limning imperceptible nuances and infinitesimal details of human behavior that in the end makes a writer grand.
February 19, 2022
The Prussian Officer is perhaps the best-known of D.H. Lawrence's short stories, often included in anthologies, and cited as an example of queer (or crypto-queer) literature. The story is a brutal depiction of the horrible power of repression and denial, and portrays homoerotic attraction as a form of combat wherein wrestling with desire is unspeakably dangerous.
The story can also be seen through modern eyes as a depiction of abuse, sexual harassment, and the savagery of a cornered victim.
The orderly was a youth of about twenty-two, of medium height, and well built. He has strong heavy limbs, was swarthy, with a soft, black, young moustache. There was something altogether warm and young about him.
Once the officer becomes aware of his orderly's presence, resenting the "sureness of movement of an unhampered young animal," the Captain is disturbed, and becomes a tormentor—projecting his inner torment. Both men are doomed, and can lie together only in death.
The story can also be seen through modern eyes as a depiction of abuse, sexual harassment, and the savagery of a cornered victim.
The orderly was a youth of about twenty-two, of medium height, and well built. He has strong heavy limbs, was swarthy, with a soft, black, young moustache. There was something altogether warm and young about him.
Once the officer becomes aware of his orderly's presence, resenting the "sureness of movement of an unhampered young animal," the Captain is disturbed, and becomes a tormentor—projecting his inner torment. Both men are doomed, and can lie together only in death.
May 27, 2019
This is my first book by Lawrence, and I am greatly impressed. These short stories were published near the beginning of his writing career; yet they show a mature writer with a fully developed voice. Several qualities are immediately apparent. The first is Lawrence’s exquisite sensitivity to nature. The best prose in this volume is to be found in the many passages of natural description:
Lawrence’s primary subject is the rural poor. He is totally convincing in his depiction of the harried mother waiting for her drunkard husband to stumble home, or the sick widow trying to take care of her adult son. Unlike Hemingway, Lawrence has the rare talent of being able to write about people entirely unlike himself. His most memorable characters are consistently women, who normally show themselves to be superior in personality and intelligence to their male counterparts.
Insofar as these stories contain the germ of a philosophy, it is that passionate, sexual relationships allow people to be truly themselves. Thus, in “The Thorn in the Flesh,” the consummation of a relationship gives the couple a strange superiority over their circumstances; and in “Daughters of the Vicar,” the unhappy daughter who settled for a loveless marriage is contrasted with the self-assured daughter who marries for love.
But it would be wrong to call Lawrence a didactic writer, at least in this volume. The stories, for the most part, have no moral. They are concerned with the basic stuff of all prose literature: relationships—with oneself, with others, or with the rest of society. And as Melvyn Bragg says in the introduction, the stories are free of the traditional plot mechanics that are used to propel stories to pre-determined ends; instead Lawrence’s stories develop seamlessly, organically, without any noticeable push from the writer. I am looking forward to reading Lawrence’s novels.
The air was too scented, it gave no breath. All the lush green-stuff seemed to be issuing its sap, till the air was deathly, sickly with the smell of greenness. There was the perfume of clover, like pure honey and bees. Then there grew a faint acrid tang—they were near the beeches; and then a queer clattering noise, and a suffocating, hideous smell: they were passing a flock of sheep, a shepherd in a black smock, holding his hook.
Lawrence’s primary subject is the rural poor. He is totally convincing in his depiction of the harried mother waiting for her drunkard husband to stumble home, or the sick widow trying to take care of her adult son. Unlike Hemingway, Lawrence has the rare talent of being able to write about people entirely unlike himself. His most memorable characters are consistently women, who normally show themselves to be superior in personality and intelligence to their male counterparts.
Insofar as these stories contain the germ of a philosophy, it is that passionate, sexual relationships allow people to be truly themselves. Thus, in “The Thorn in the Flesh,” the consummation of a relationship gives the couple a strange superiority over their circumstances; and in “Daughters of the Vicar,” the unhappy daughter who settled for a loveless marriage is contrasted with the self-assured daughter who marries for love.
But it would be wrong to call Lawrence a didactic writer, at least in this volume. The stories, for the most part, have no moral. They are concerned with the basic stuff of all prose literature: relationships—with oneself, with others, or with the rest of society. And as Melvyn Bragg says in the introduction, the stories are free of the traditional plot mechanics that are used to propel stories to pre-determined ends; instead Lawrence’s stories develop seamlessly, organically, without any noticeable push from the writer. I am looking forward to reading Lawrence’s novels.
July 29, 2020
«O OFICIAL PRUSSIANO» (1914)
Um drama sexual entre um oficial prussiano e a sua ordenança, um soldado.
Um jogo de poder entre o dominador e o dominado intensificado pela diferença social e o ambiente militar.
O oficial esforçando-se por não assumir o arrebatamento que o domina; o soldado submisso à imposta disciplina da hierarquia militar, mas dividido entre uma aparente obediência humilde e o desejo de não fraquejar.
O senhor e o servo, um servo que não o é.
Um jogo de estratégia, como um jogo de xadrez, que ambos perdem num final trágico e irónico.
Destaco a excelente apresentação do tradutor Aníbal Fernandes, na qual aborda as relações entre senhores e servos em Teresa de Ávila, Sade e Richard Connell, entre outros.
Um drama sexual entre um oficial prussiano e a sua ordenança, um soldado.
Um jogo de poder entre o dominador e o dominado intensificado pela diferença social e o ambiente militar.
O oficial esforçando-se por não assumir o arrebatamento que o domina; o soldado submisso à imposta disciplina da hierarquia militar, mas dividido entre uma aparente obediência humilde e o desejo de não fraquejar.
O senhor e o servo, um servo que não o é.
Um jogo de estratégia, como um jogo de xadrez, que ambos perdem num final trágico e irónico.
Destaco a excelente apresentação do tradutor Aníbal Fernandes, na qual aborda as relações entre senhores e servos em Teresa de Ávila, Sade e Richard Connell, entre outros.
December 19, 2013
I do not know why the editor of the anthology where I found this story says that D. H. Lawrence "shows here a prophetic insight into the roots of the perverse cruelty that flourished later under the Nazis." There is a palpable sexual tension here, at the beginning, between the Prussian officer (a Captain) and his young orderly so unless the editor is saying that Nazism was borned out of a cruelly repressed homosexuality of key Nazi leaders, I'd say that reading historical meaning into this is a little bit of a stretch.
The descriptive prose, however, is gorgeous and the story's heft and bulk mainly come from it. Like:
"During the night the lightning fluttered perpetually, making the whole sky white. He must have walked again. The world hung livid round him for moments, fields a level sheen of grey-green light, trees in dark bulk, and the range of clouds black across a white sky. Then the darkness fell like a shutter, and the night was whole. A faint flutter of a half-revealed world, that could not quite leap out of the darkness!--Then there again stood a sweep of pallor for the land, dark shapes looming, a range of clouds hanging overhead. The world was a ghostly shadow, thrown for a moment upon pure darkness, which returned ever whole and complete."
Somebody help me with the ending, though. Why were there two dead bodies, and not just one???
December 21, 2023
Il conflitto interiore che lega il capitano prussiano e il suo giovane attendente sembra non trovare spiegazioni plausibili e quindi vie di sbocco: il capitano, di nobile aspetto, abile cavallerizzo, rispettato dai sottoposti, diventa irascibile, esacerbato da una violenza verbale che trascende nell'aggressività fisica nel rapporto con l'attendente, nascondendo nel proprio animo un sentimento, che non sa spiegarsi o non vuole spiegarsi, di attrazione/repulsione. Questa conflittualità non potrà che sfociare in tragedia. Racconto cupo e fosco appena rischiarato dalle visioni di un paesaggio selvaggio e magico.
September 19, 2021
An impoverished aristocratic who lost his wealth by gambling is met with a position as a Captain in the military in order to keep some respectability. Having an irritable personality, his men become used to his outbursts from time to time. His orderly, Schöner, a young soldier with much self-respect, does his utmost to serve his Captain and make himself as invisible as possible; he might soon be off and able to be with his girlfriend; he only has to endure a few months more. Yet, the Captain finds in this young man the source of all his frustration and up to a point, his sexual impulses. There's not a good future ahead.
As we progress along with the book we get to know that the Captain's obsession with the orderly has been amounting for a time already, with more and more demands, not to mention the physical and verbal abuse. D. H. Lawrence makes it clear along with the short story that there is a sexual component in the Captain's attitude toward his orderly. Regardless of the Captain's sexuality, homosexual or heterosexual, the fact is that there is a very sadistic personality in him. Despite Schöner's endurance to push through the situation, as an objectified source of pleasure for his Captain he knows that either he shall bend as much and long as possible or else he might break. And here is the tragedy, because the Captain's personality is not mere explosive sadistic; it is tyrannical as if a way to suppress his social position downfall, his sexual impulses, regardless of his sexuality.
Here is also a question about power, for the one that has an upper hand knows that he might use his tools to accomplish what he/she wants, as in a boss/employee situation, though is much usual to notice such a personality in books/movies/news that deals with the military. Some officials will make as much use as possible of the power they are given to express their rage, frustration, prejudice, personal/political/religious conceptions of the world, etc., against those at their will. And those who endure it shall not be seen through a masochistic lens but as survivors of a sick society, as I have recently read in Moffie by André Carl van der Merwe.
D. H. Lawrence's writing greatly builds up the tension. I haven't read much of his books, but here is a fine writing.
As we progress along with the book we get to know that the Captain's obsession with the orderly has been amounting for a time already, with more and more demands, not to mention the physical and verbal abuse. D. H. Lawrence makes it clear along with the short story that there is a sexual component in the Captain's attitude toward his orderly. Regardless of the Captain's sexuality, homosexual or heterosexual, the fact is that there is a very sadistic personality in him. Despite Schöner's endurance to push through the situation, as an objectified source of pleasure for his Captain he knows that either he shall bend as much and long as possible or else he might break. And here is the tragedy, because the Captain's personality is not mere explosive sadistic; it is tyrannical as if a way to suppress his social position downfall, his sexual impulses, regardless of his sexuality.
Here is also a question about power, for the one that has an upper hand knows that he might use his tools to accomplish what he/she wants, as in a boss/employee situation, though is much usual to notice such a personality in books/movies/news that deals with the military. Some officials will make as much use as possible of the power they are given to express their rage, frustration, prejudice, personal/political/religious conceptions of the world, etc., against those at their will. And those who endure it shall not be seen through a masochistic lens but as survivors of a sick society, as I have recently read in Moffie by André Carl van der Merwe.
D. H. Lawrence's writing greatly builds up the tension. I haven't read much of his books, but here is a fine writing.
June 27, 2013
I find ‘The Prussian Officer’ as an example of the creativity and insightfulness of D. H. Lawrence. In this work he showed a great understanding of psychoanalysis and the role of the defensive mechanism of the self, particularly the role of repression. The disturbing homoerotic impulses the Prussian office felt toward his orderly, paired with his sadistic tendency were very creatively and clearly depicted by the great novelist. The inner conflict between fulfilling his urges and his unacceptable (by himself as well as society; i.e. the Superego) desires toward his orderly, drove the officer to show masked cynicism and bullying toward the young peasant orderly. That is, because yielding to his urges will bring in a threat to his own self, image, reputation, and social class; and will lead to adverse impacts. D. H. Lawrence used a poetic language that reflected the pure soul of the orderly, and the comforting role that nature played in consoling him in his agony. A beautiful work by a great novelist and poet.
November 10, 2021
Beautifully written, this story about a Prussian officer and his orderly, is dark and disturbing in an eloquent way. Lawrence has a talent for getting into the minds of his characters and showing their deepest desires. The officer seems to vent his frustrations, sexual and otherwise, on this young man and their relationship is doomed from the start. How we perceive others and our twisted ideas that should never come to light are brought to the surface in a way in which anyone can understand. I enjoyed the darkness in the same way I enjoy Poe, and look forward to reading more Lawrence.
November 26, 2014
Astonishingly good. This is very early Lawrence, and it's easy to see how he got slated for the hit and miss quality of some of his earlier work, but whilst these works aren't the finished article in the rich vein of Women in Love, or even Sons and Lovers, they are without doubt masterpieces in their own right.
I feel that Lawrence struggles with endings, and nowhere is this more apparent than in The Prussian Officer. It's as though he had wrestled with his demons and got it out of his system, and so decided to just be done with it. The result is that many of these pieces end with an almost brutal abruptness. It's actually rather amusing at times. But the intense beauty that only Lawrence seems able to grapple with is here, and every tale is a true delight, leaving you at times, quite truly, gasping with the mastery of it all. He seems to be on a different plane to other writers, even in this early form.
And too you can see his favoured runs and grooves here already. Family, mothers, magnetic attractions to peculiar lovers, washing out the pit dirt, the whole edifice of working class uncertainty. This is what makes Lawrence's work seem to glow with authenticity. He's writing about his own world, and it's more immediate than the lofty ambitions of the better classes. He's no patronising Dickens, and the old staple English Lit concerns about property and a good marriage never rear up. It's the old Hadean brew of birth, sex and death, and it's intoxicating enough. I'd say that he comes closest to Hardy, with a deft grasp of the pastoral aura that surrounds and isolates the moral dilemmas and flippant tragedies of his characters' lives.
It's also interesting to read 'The Daughters of the Vicar', since it's so clearly a prototype for Women in Love and this gives it an extra layer of intrigue and depth.
All told this is another great work, redolent with Lawrence's astonishing vision and insight. It left me with such a complex and beautiful feeling that I couldn't describe it and truly do it justice. Wonderful.
I feel that Lawrence struggles with endings, and nowhere is this more apparent than in The Prussian Officer. It's as though he had wrestled with his demons and got it out of his system, and so decided to just be done with it. The result is that many of these pieces end with an almost brutal abruptness. It's actually rather amusing at times. But the intense beauty that only Lawrence seems able to grapple with is here, and every tale is a true delight, leaving you at times, quite truly, gasping with the mastery of it all. He seems to be on a different plane to other writers, even in this early form.
And too you can see his favoured runs and grooves here already. Family, mothers, magnetic attractions to peculiar lovers, washing out the pit dirt, the whole edifice of working class uncertainty. This is what makes Lawrence's work seem to glow with authenticity. He's writing about his own world, and it's more immediate than the lofty ambitions of the better classes. He's no patronising Dickens, and the old staple English Lit concerns about property and a good marriage never rear up. It's the old Hadean brew of birth, sex and death, and it's intoxicating enough. I'd say that he comes closest to Hardy, with a deft grasp of the pastoral aura that surrounds and isolates the moral dilemmas and flippant tragedies of his characters' lives.
It's also interesting to read 'The Daughters of the Vicar', since it's so clearly a prototype for Women in Love and this gives it an extra layer of intrigue and depth.
All told this is another great work, redolent with Lawrence's astonishing vision and insight. It left me with such a complex and beautiful feeling that I couldn't describe it and truly do it justice. Wonderful.
June 13, 2013
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
What a pity, this story was to short.
What a pity, this story was to short.
December 10, 2023
D.H.Lawrence mi ha stupita con questo magnifico racconto, ma anche per il contenuto.
Diciamo che lui disprezzava il desiderio omoerotico e che con questo racconto voleva narrarci a cosa si va incontro, ma in realtà, ha costruito un racconto una una tensione sessuale altissima. La cosa mi diverte.
In più c’è tutto il lato introspettivo dei due personaggi essendo lui uno studioso di Freud e del pensiero sull’inconscio.
Tutto il racconto mi ha devastata, mi ci vorrà una lettura leggera per riprendermi!
Racconto breve, circa 57 pagine scritto scorrevole, divinamente.
Diciamo che lui disprezzava il desiderio omoerotico e che con questo racconto voleva narrarci a cosa si va incontro, ma in realtà, ha costruito un racconto una una tensione sessuale altissima. La cosa mi diverte.
In più c’è tutto il lato introspettivo dei due personaggi essendo lui uno studioso di Freud e del pensiero sull’inconscio.
Tutto il racconto mi ha devastata, mi ci vorrà una lettura leggera per riprendermi!
Racconto breve, circa 57 pagine scritto scorrevole, divinamente.
January 23, 2022
მესმის რატომ იყო ლოურენსი მნიშვნელოვანი ავტორი და თვითონ მთავარი მოთხრობაც ბევრი რამითაა საინტერესო, მაგრამ საშინლად მოსაწყენია და რა ვქნა :დ
July 5, 2016
I chose to read this famous short story by D H Lawrence as it was mentioned in my writing group as containing a classic example of "unverbing" . The story has all the tension and relational intensity one expects from Lawrence as well as hints of homoeroticism. Like Doestoevesky Lawrence discusses how the act of killing places the individual outside of society and although the world continues to turn, the sun to rise and wild life to carelessly exist the perpetrator has by his act cut himself off from the sustenance of living,
This is a powerfully felt story, its bleakness alleviated by Lawrence"s calml and beutiful descriptions of trees and mountains, and sunshine which frames the fatal relationship between the sadistic Prussian Officer and his servant.
This is a powerfully felt story, its bleakness alleviated by Lawrence"s calml and beutiful descriptions of trees and mountains, and sunshine which frames the fatal relationship between the sadistic Prussian Officer and his servant.
July 1, 2015
This was my second reading of the short story: THE PRUSSIAN OFFICER, about a tyrannical Captain, who becomes obsessed with a young orderly, and begins inexplicably bullying and abusing the poor soldier. As expected, it does not end well for either character.
It just so happens that I watched the movie UNBROKEN, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand, where the protagonist is victimized by a cruel and violent POW camp guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe, this same weekend.
It just so happens that I watched the movie UNBROKEN, based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand, where the protagonist is victimized by a cruel and violent POW camp guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe, this same weekend.
June 23, 2013
The tale of a Captain and his orderly...
December 12, 2021
Το βιβλίο περιέχει μερικές από τις καλύτερες ιστορίες του Λώρενς όπως "Πρώσσος Αξιωματικός", "Μία φορά", "Μοντέρνα Μάγισσα", και "Μία σκιά στον κήπο με τις τριανταφυλλιές". Η μετάφραση του Μάκη Βαϊνά, αν και τα έχει τα χρονάκια της, είναι αρκετά καλή. Η έκδοση του Αιγόκερου πάλι, μάλλον πρόχειρη και αφρόντιστη, γεμάτη λάθη στη στίξη και τον τονισμό. Αν μπορείτε να το παραβλέψετε αυτό, το βιβλίο είναι ένα καλό δείγμα της γραφής του Λώρενς. Πέρασα ένα πολύ ευχάριστο βράδυ διαβάζοντάς το και πήρα και μία, δύο ιστορίες για τον δρόμο, που λένε.
February 6, 2018
The title story and one thereafter left me a bit cold to be quite honest... D.H. crammed them full of sentiment, description, and anxiety, but their clenched atmosphere never relented and so lost its force quickly, plus both were of a theme. Then again, all of the stories in this collection certainly share thematic concerns, setting, and sentiment. The others just do a better job.
'Daughters of the Vicar' was a fine short story and everything after that point was smooth reading. I suppose I could go back and read the first two to see if it was just a problem of acclimatization. But there's many books to read, and thinking back I don't think they'll reward me much.
Great book of short stories. Good characters. Heartbreak. Quiet anguish. In addition, I hadn't read D.H. in so long I'd almost forgotten how turn of the century English colliers spoke.
'Daughters of the Vicar' was a fine short story and everything after that point was smooth reading. I suppose I could go back and read the first two to see if it was just a problem of acclimatization. But there's many books to read, and thinking back I don't think they'll reward me much.
Great book of short stories. Good characters. Heartbreak. Quiet anguish. In addition, I hadn't read D.H. in so long I'd almost forgotten how turn of the century English colliers spoke.
August 18, 2016
Chocou-me um pouco este livro. E não encontrei o cenário o idílico de " O amante de Lady Chattelery", que tinha adorado. Este pelo contrário não me conquistou. Até considero pervertido. Um livro que retrata a relação entre senhor e servo. Demonstrando a violência e os desejos reprimidos de certos oficiais. Neste caso um oficial prussiano que possui uma obsessão por um soldado. Não compreendi foi a natureza dos sentimentos do servo. Uma vez que Lawrence retrata melhor o oficial, que acaba por ter o destino que merecia. Considero este livro mais polémico do que o livro anterior que li! Uma vez que o outro possui uma beleza singela, sentimentos puros e verdadeiros. Enquanto este mostra-nos um ambiente opressivo, e sentimentos violentos. Apenas a escrita do autor me encanta...
March 5, 2020
I read quite a bit of DH Lawrence when I was a teenager. The 1900s and 1910s seemed a long time ago back in the 1970s.
Oddly, now that I'm in my fifties, looking back to the changes between 1900 and 1979, and then 1979 to 2020, the beginning of the 20th Century doesn't seem as long ago as it did then. I suppose it's a matter of perspective.
Anyway. Big domestic violence and racism warning, of course. These stories were written a long time ago.
Very literary, in that not much overtly happens. Lots of discontented couples in bad marriages. Lots of frustrated women and men who need something more. Lots of frankly erotic lingering descriptions of male bodies.
Oddly, now that I'm in my fifties, looking back to the changes between 1900 and 1979, and then 1979 to 2020, the beginning of the 20th Century doesn't seem as long ago as it did then. I suppose it's a matter of perspective.
Anyway. Big domestic violence and racism warning, of course. These stories were written a long time ago.
Very literary, in that not much overtly happens. Lots of discontented couples in bad marriages. Lots of frustrated women and men who need something more. Lots of frankly erotic lingering descriptions of male bodies.
April 8, 2016
One of the Great Books of the Western World, this story didn’t do anything for me.
Beautifully written, tension right to the end, nevertheless, when it came to the end end, I felt it was much to do about nothing.
The last line
‘The bodies of the two men lay together, side by side, in the mortuary, the one white and slender, but laid rigidly at rest, the other looking as if every moment it must rouse into life again, so young and unused, from a slumber’
can be, and probably has been analysed to death, but it hardly recompenses for all the words it took to get there.
Beautifully written, tension right to the end, nevertheless, when it came to the end end, I felt it was much to do about nothing.
The last line
‘The bodies of the two men lay together, side by side, in the mortuary, the one white and slender, but laid rigidly at rest, the other looking as if every moment it must rouse into life again, so young and unused, from a slumber’
can be, and probably has been analysed to death, but it hardly recompenses for all the words it took to get there.
September 12, 2016
The only reason why I'm not giving this a 5/5 is because the story felt a bit monotonous in some places. It's divided into four chapters, with the last one being the most poignant, and succinct. The first three chapters are longer and describes the relation between the officer and the orderly in great detail. That is where the monotony came in.
Save that, it makes for an excellent read. Lawrence's knack for including the finest of details makes the text very touching.
Save that, it makes for an excellent read. Lawrence's knack for including the finest of details makes the text very touching.
October 2, 2015
Internal human frailties laid bare in the way that only Lawrence can do. Not all of the stories rate among his best works, but you cannot miss some early moments of genius which he practised in these stories, and then perfected in his novels. Not likely to convert any new to his writing, but a must for any existing Lawrence fans.
October 28, 2015
Fairly average. The Thorn in the Flesh was the one exception. It found greatness. Daughters of the Vicar was my second favorite.
I think I am going to take Lawrence out of my rotation. After three books, I feel I have gotten an accurate impression of him, and I don’t feel drawn to reading more.
I think I am going to take Lawrence out of my rotation. After three books, I feel I have gotten an accurate impression of him, and I don’t feel drawn to reading more.
December 12, 2022
''He felt as in a blackish dream: as if all the other things were there and had form, but he himself was only a consciousness, a gap that could think and perceive''.
Themes: war and the death of the self, sense of loss, disillusionment, altered attitude towards death, and moral vs instincts.
December 29, 2021
A disturbing short story with a homoerotic theme which results in violence. The description of the natural world is Lawrence at his best.
January 10, 2022
"No one should ever know. It was between him and the Captain. There were only the two people in the world now - himself and the Captain"
February 28, 2024
Lawrence seems to have created The Prussian Officer as a study exploring the psychological issues of jealousy and/or fear of homosexual impulses, cruelty, inequality of power, rage, and even temporary insanity or PTSD from trauma.
The physical characters and the scene are beautifully described, and the psychological and emotional states of the characters are deeply developed during the anecdotal time period, but there is little else in the way of character development, dialogue, plot or narrative arc, which is why I see it more as a study than a story. This also explains the abrupt nature of the ending - the psychological possibilities explored, the author quickly brought the anecdote to a close.
N.B., there is nothing overtly homosexual in the text; however, the sexual angst and the unjustified anger and cruelty of the captain is commonly attributed to such feelings by modern readers, particularly when combined with the caution hidden in the abrupt ending that
PG13 for violence and cruelty. No language nor overt sexual content.
The physical characters and the scene are beautifully described, and the psychological and emotional states of the characters are deeply developed during the anecdotal time period, but there is little else in the way of character development, dialogue, plot or narrative arc, which is why I see it more as a study than a story. This also explains the abrupt nature of the ending - the psychological possibilities explored, the author quickly brought the anecdote to a close.
N.B., there is nothing overtly homosexual in the text; however, the sexual angst and the unjustified anger and cruelty of the captain is commonly attributed to such feelings by modern readers, particularly when combined with the caution hidden in the abrupt ending that
PG13 for violence and cruelty. No language nor overt sexual content.
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January 30, 2023I've only read the key story, The Prussian Officer, in another collection of stories, The Riverside Anthology of Short Fiction.
It's an outstanding story. Becomes mystical in its depiction of the interaction between two men, a captain and his orderly. The prose is finely tuned.
The captain begins to focus on his orderly with repressed homoerotic fervour expresses as resentment and cruelty. The orderly tries to endure dumbly.
There's a passage one night that suggests strongly of rape. The orderly wakes up bruised and sickened. The Captain shutting guilt out of his mind.
The next day, on a company march, the captain dismounts from his horse and trips. The orderly jumps on him and breaks his neck. Then wanders mysteriously through the forest until he dies from indescribabed causes.
The struggle between good and evil? The fall of man's innocence?
It's an outstanding story. Becomes mystical in its depiction of the interaction between two men, a captain and his orderly. The prose is finely tuned.
The captain begins to focus on his orderly with repressed homoerotic fervour expresses as resentment and cruelty. The orderly tries to endure dumbly.
There's a passage one night that suggests strongly of rape. The orderly wakes up bruised and sickened. The Captain shutting guilt out of his mind.
The next day, on a company march, the captain dismounts from his horse and trips. The orderly jumps on him and breaks his neck. Then wanders mysteriously through the forest until he dies from indescribabed causes.
The struggle between good and evil? The fall of man's innocence?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2022
Very sad but a very real insight into the classist and racist social hierarchy that was a prevalent issue before the war, so making the transition into relying on the “second class citizens” is something a lot of the first class, high ranking people struggled with, thus presenting the war with many individuals who became obsessed with power and therefore abused it and others due to feeling insecure in their position.
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