The Virgin and the Gypsy by D H Lawrence (Naxos Audiobooks)
Abandoned by their mother who left her vicar husband for a fling, Yvette and her sister Lucille return from their education abroad to the oppressive small town.
They sense there is more to life than the dreary round of visits and the constraints laid down by their austere grandmother and bitter aunt. And there is – in the shape of a chance encounter with a group of gypsies whose old fortune teller’s reading changes Yvette’s life for ever. Through looks and the odd bluff exchange, Yvette – the virgin – and the male gypsy forge a connection, and, in her, an unfamiliar longing.
This neat novella was published after D H Lawrence’s death (and not revised by him to his exacting standards) and is a sharply observed piece about women in society.
The pivotal conversation Yvette has with her father the rector will shock our independent-minded 21st century girls but this is a memorable tale with an unexpected ending.
Actress Georgina Sutton reads at just the right pace. This is a great companion for keen students of Lawrence.