Five Leaves Publications

Book details

The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, DH Lawrence’s first collection of short stories, was published in England in 1914 and in the USA in 1916. It contains some of the greatest stories he ever wrote, with settings ranging from the mining community of Eastwood to Germany before the First World War. This pamphlet presents two of those stories as they were originally published.

‘Goose Fair’ is set against the backdrop of the industrial troubles caused by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. A young woman is torn between her need for a lover and her contempt for what she perceives to be his dishonesty about the burning down of a mill.

‘A Fragment of Stained Glass’ relates a story, supposedly discovered in a document from the Middle Ages, which tells of the possible triumph of love and the human spirit over the forces of religion, superstition, and social injustice.

About the Author

David Herbert Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. He trained to be a teacher, but left the profession after a serious illness and briefly returned to Nottinghamshire before eloping to Germany with Frieda Weekley. They returned to England in 1914, and spent much of the war years at Tregerthen in Cornwall. Between 1919 and 1925 Lawrence and Frieda travelled the world, then returned to Europe as his health continued to deteriorate. He died on 2 March 1930 at Vence in the south of France. Lawrence wrote poetry, novels, short stories, plays, essays and criticism. His many works are autobiographical and the influence of his early experiences in Nottinghamshire can be seen throughout.