BOOK
REVIEW – D. H LAWRENCE – THE FOX
One of Lawrence’s finest novellas, the tragic story of two women struggling to run a small farm together and how they are undermined and destroyed by a fox and a man.
Bamford & March may or may not be having a lesbian relationship in their partnership. They seem inseparable and happy, despite the struggles in maintaining their failing business. Poor crops and cattle escaping lead them to reduce their stock, until they are left mainly breeding poultry, but a cunning fox keeps killing the chickens and hens, despite their efforts to catch and kill the fox.
Suddenly, a young man, a soldier, arrives at the farm. He is descended from its former owners and claims to be trying to make contact with his former community. The women agree to let him stay for a while, and he soon drives a dangerous wedge between them. March clearly falls head over heels in love with him, though Bamford, is jealous and mistrustful of him, and not without reason. He shows open contempt for Bamford and a desire to take complete control over March. He is very fox like himself, and manages to kill the rival fox, taking charge of the women’s destinies.
March has stark dreams of her girl-friend lying dead and wrapped in fox-furs in her coffin, and eventually, the man, Henry, kills Bamford, in an accident that may or may not be intentional, causing a tree he is felling to topple on top of her. He takes the distraught March as his bride, but he fails to make her stop thinking of the woman who died. His possession of her can never be complete due to March’s grief, so neither man or bride can ever be happy again.
Lawrence at his bleakest and most impressive in terms of description and sense of impending doom.
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
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