The Fox

[NOIRTRASH]

THE FOX by D.H. Lawrence

5 stars

Jill Banford and Nellie March live together, alone, on a small Berkshire farm at the end of World War 1. Both women are older than thirty and unmarried. The farm is too much work and losing money. A fox slowly kills all their chickens, Nellie March lacks the will power to kill the fox.

Then Henry comes along. Henry's grandfather once owned the farm, and Henry was raised there. The grandfather died while Henry was away at war. News to Henry. He moves in with Jill and Nellie. He wants Nellie. Henry is twenty years old.

Now, every lit perfesser there ever was tries and makes this book about lesbians and the battle of the sexes and feminism but it isn't any of it. Lawrence's books tend to be about people becoming mature. Nellie isn't hot for Jill, she's hot for Henry, but set in her ways, as is Jill. Henry laughs at them, and about the first action he takes is hunting enough birds and game to keep the girls from starving. Then he saws enough logs to keep their cottage warm thru the winter. The war ended November 1918.

My grandparents had a similar collision. In the 20s my grandmother was 30, my grandfather was around 20. She was a rich flapper forced to wait tables. He was a newly minted civil engineer. They met at her diner. They married and had 9 kids.

I think literature is straight up story telling.

 

[ishtat]

Doris Lessing did a pretty decent analysis of this story in her preface to an edition that came out in about 2000. In particular she explained the relationship of the two women, pointing out that women at the time could be close, dependent, and they might even sleep together, but that did not make them lesbians.

The story irritates me because the plot doesn't fit the facts. The farm is failing apparently but in fact the period 1914 to 1920 was the most profitable period ever for farmers in UK. Prices were sky high because of wartime shortages. (My grandfather farmed between 1909 and 1970 and claimed he made more in the two wars than the whole of the rest of his life)

Until about 1934 the Poor Law in England was administered by "Boards of Guardians" who qualified as tenants or owners of land. They had the power to direct any unemployed person (including retirees) in the parishes under their control to work where they were most needed which as often as not was on farms. Labour would not have been a problem for the women. My great grandfather was chairman of a Board for years. His first principle was that it was better for a man to die through work than ever live on hand outs. His son claimed he gave men the chance to prove the point often enough!

Further, farmer's sons went to war in 1914 but the government quickly realized their value was greater as food producers than soldiers, and they were made reserved occupations - not liable for military service - but definitely available to service a landowning neighbor.

Finally, to a neighboring farmer, no single woman with her own farm or tenancy is ever unattractive. Farmers can't help it , the greed for more land trumps everything.

Lawrence's books are riddled with these kinds of issues wherever they are set. Even Lessing suggests that Lawrence was a countryman at heart. But the truth is neither Lawrence nor Lessing knew anything much about how country life actually worked.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Doris Lessing did a pretty decent analysis of this story in her preface to an edition that came out in about 2000. In particular she explained the relationship of the two women, pointing out that women at the time could be close, dependent, and they might even sleep together, but that did not make them lesbians.

The story irritates me because the plot doesn't fit the facts. The farm is failing apparently but in fact the period 1914 to 1920 was the most profitable period ever for farmers in UK. Prices were sky high because of wartime shortages. (My grandfather farmed between 1909 and 1970 and claimed he made more in the two wars than the whole of the rest of his life)

Until about 1934 the Poor Law in England was administered by "Boards of Guardians" who qualified as tenants or owners of land. They had the power to direct any unemployed person (including retirees) in the parishes under their control to work where they were most needed which as often as not was on farms. Labour would not have been a problem for the women. My great grandfather was chairman of a Board for years. His first principle was that it was better for a man to die through work than ever live on hand outs. His son claimed he gave men the chance to prove the point often enough!

Further, farmer's sons went to war in 1914 but the government quickly realized their value was greater as food producers than soldiers, and they were made reserved occupations - not liable for military service - but definitely available to service a landowning neighbor.

Finally, to a neighboring farmer, no single woman with her own farm or tenancy is ever unattractive. Farmers can't help it , the greed for more land trumps everything.

Lawrence's books are riddled with these kinds of issues wherever they are set. Even Lessing suggests that Lawrence was a countryman at heart. But the truth is neither Lawrence nor Lessing knew anything much about how country life actually worked.

Ditto slavery and emancipation here in America. The reality of each is very different from the conventional wisdom, which is fanciful at best.

 

[lovecraft68]

His first principle was that it was better for a man to die through work than ever live on hand outs.

The US Government has drastically changed that way of thinking. Now you get more with your hand out than the people working every day.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

What government does is make an industry of every problem but rarely helps the problem, and often makes the problem worse. Government workers are mostly pencil-pushing clerks with heads fulla rules more than hearts fulla love.

 

[rjordan]

The US Government has drastically changed that way of thinking. Now you get more with your hand out than the people working every day.

And yet you apparently work, as do more than 90% of those able to work. Did you leave something out, like maybe, the truth?

rj