The acclaimed author of Sons and Lovers explores the effects of war on humanity in three novellas. Written between November 1920 and December 1921, these novellas were enthusiastically received by D. H. Lawrence’s readers. Including the original ending of The Fox, the Cambridge edition adds new depth to the legacy of Lawrence’s story of a disruptive fox in a troublesome time. A visit to Austria in 1920 inspired the characters and settings of The Captain’s Doll, diving into a storied relationship between a Scottish soldier and a German countess in occupied Germany. Also featuring the original unedited edition of The Ladybird, a heartbreaking tale of a wounded soldier and the English nurse who tended his wounds, this is a complete collection of three of Lawrence’s brilliantly crafted war stories about human emotions and relationships.

Set during World War I, a married Scottish soldier, instead of returning home, courts a displaced German countess in occupied Germany. The narrative revolves around a relationship that is not condoned by the society. The complexities of a love that is not reciprocated and whose boundaries are not defined. D. H. Lawrence's fascinating novella deala with the dehumanising effects of war on an English captain.

The Captain's Doll is a short story or novella by the English author D. H. Lawrence. It was written in 1921 and first published by Martin Secker in March 1923 in a volume withThe Ladybird and The Fox. It was the basis of the 1983 TV film of the same name with Jeremy Irons as the Captain. The story chronicles the journey of fallen German aristocrat Countess Johanna 'Hannele' zu Rassentlow as she dates a Scottish officer of unusual philosophy. The relationship develops into one of D. H. Lawrence's idiosyncratic 'wicked triangles'. The intimate relationship between Captain Alexander Hepburn and Hannele is intruded upon when the captain's wife Evangeline travels to Germany suspicious of foul play. The plot unfolds with two parallel narratives; one in the symbolic domain, the other a traditional short story narrative about these protagonists. The concurrent symbolic tale that unfolds centers around the central image of The Captain's Doll-after which the story gains its title. This doll is a striking portrait of the Captain, with his "slender legs" and mesmerizing dark stare encapsulated in the silks and calico of a lifeless, inanimate object. This doll is an ongoing motif throughout the story as it acts as a metaphor for the dehumanizing effects of war on Hepburn - an English gentleman who had been part of the war machine and in the aftermath has come to believe that "we are worth so very little". Another profound metaphor and image employed by Lawrence is the great 'glacier' described from afar to be "cold, angry" and a reflection of the captain's deep seated desire to subjugate Hannele and arguably conquer her "physically, sexually and from the inside" as she muses in free indirect speech narration. The couple ascend the mountain together, and the sheer enormity of this natural wonder prompts discussion of the smallness of a human being in comparison, bringing the captain to make megalomaniacal claims that he is indeed bigger than the mountain. He projects this onto the vast ice, its "soft flesh like" described with uncanny similarity to the earlier descriptions of Hannele swimming in the lake near her new home in Austria. Critics have debated the symbolic meaning of this ice monument, as the captain's determination to conquer it points to the obvious metaphorical domination of Hannele who "watches from below" as the crazed captain scrambles to the summit. Reaching the top, the captain is invigorated, yet Lawrence's narration becomes quite introspective of the transformation of the captain's worldview implicitly coupled with description of this barren vista of ice-"a world of ice"-that is "sufficient unto itself in its lifelessness". Akin to the gender commentary in The Fox on how the war had created a paradigm shift in the social roles within English society, this compelling narrative imparts to the reader a more intimate account of the death of a spirit and the dissemblance of class. The introduction of D. H. Lawrence, Three Novellas, an anthology that collates The Fox, The Captain's Doll, and The Ladybird, makes a comparison between the poetic works ofWilfred Owen and these stories as literary exploration of war that 'pity war'. This comes across in many of Lawrence's letters and implicitly in these texts, as each of the characters is in some way impacted by World War I. Lawrence must have been a keen observer of the social and personal ramifications of WWI, having written and published soon after the war, in 1923.

The Captain's Doll by D. H. Lawrence Down the road strayed the tourists like pilgrims, and at the closed end of the valley they could be seen, quite tiny, climbing the cut- out road that went up like a stairway. Just by their movements you perceived them. But on the valley-bed they went like rolling stones, little as stones. A very elegant mule came stepping by, following a middle-aged woman in tweeds and a tall, high-browed man in knickerbockers. The mule was drawing a very amusing little cart, a chair, rather like a round office-chair upholstered in red velvet, and mounted on two wheels. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive classic literature collection. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts, We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. Also in books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. We use state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. The story chronicles the journey of fallen German aristocrat Countess Johanna 'Hannele' zu Rassentlow as she dates a Scottish officer of unusual philosophy. The relationship develops into one of D. H. Lawrence's idiosyncratic 'wicked triangles'. The intimate relationship between Captain Alexander Hepburn and Hannele is intruded upon when the captain's wife Evangeline travels to Germany suspicious of foul play.

The Captain's Doll is a short story or novella by the English author D. H. Lawrence. It was written in 1921 and first published by Martin Secker in March 1923 in a volume with The Ladybird and The Fox. It was the basis of the 1983 TV film of the same name with Jeremy Irons as the Captain. The story chronicles the journey of fallen German aristocrat Countess Johanna 'Hannele' zu Rassentlow as she dates a Scottish officer of unusual philosophy. The relationship develops into one of D. H. Lawrence's idiosyncratic 'wicked triangles'.