The Virgin and the Gypsy is a short story by English author D. H. Lawrence, about personal and sexual liberation. It was written in 1926 and published posthumously in 1930. The Virgin and the Gypsy has become a classic and is one of Lawrence’s most vibrant short novels.

A runaway slave with a shadowy past, sixteen-year-old Persephone has spent four long years toiling beneath the leering gaze of her despised owner and dreaming of a life where she is free to shape her own destiny. Then, one night, a chance encounter with a handsome chicken thief named Azriel changes her life forever. Sold to him for a small bag of gold coins, Persephone soon discovers what she already suspected: namely, that Azriel is not what he seems. And when she realizes that he believes Persephone has a special destiny—she is determined to escape him and his impossibly broad shoulders. But things are no longer as simple as they once were. Torn between her longing for freedom and her undeniable feelings for the handsome thief with the fast hands and the slow smile, Persephone faces the hardest choice she will ever have to make. And no one—least of all her—could have imagined the shocking truth her decision will reveal.