BOOK
REVIEW – D H LAWRENCE – ODOUR OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS 1914 various editions.
One
of Lawrence’s saddest stories, and as with many of his best works, a harsh,
realistic look at life in a grim Northern mining community.
The
opening of the story is deceptively idyllic. A train, transporting miners back
from the collieries, stops near the home of a miner’s wife, Elizabeth, and she
is saddened to see that he is not getting off, or even on board. Along with her
children, she dreads what this means. He has gone to the pub again. In the past
when he has done so, he has returned home abusive and violently drunk,
frightening his wife, and her children.
The
later it gets, the more drunk and dangerous they each imagine him to be when he
arrives, but it gets so unusually late that Elizabeth puts the children to bed
and goes out, leaving them unattended to investigate. The husband is not at the
pub, so she walks to the colliery itself, where she meets his weeping Mother.
The husband has been killed in a pit collapse, leaving him buried alive and
suffocated.
The
body is recovered and brought home to Elizabeth’s house, where she is torn
between grief, concern for her children and a sense that she is finally free
from the brutality of a man she could never really love anyway. The title
refers to the flowers he always gave her to express apologies when he had
sobered up. She knows the Chrysanthemums she associates with his violence again
will never nauseate her.
Lawrence’s
description of the house, the slow passage of time as the woman waits for news
or the arrival of her husband, the Mother, who alone seems to genuinely love
the man, (it is even hinted that his death was no accident, implying that he
was despised even by co-workers) is masterful.
Wikipedia
link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odour_of_Chrysanthemums
Arthur
Chappell
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