DH Lawrence is back in Italy and enjoying domestic chores…
The Lawrences’ are on the move again, heading to Baden-Baden to spend time with Frieda’s in-laws. When Lawrence can no longer keep up the pretence of playing the charming ‘house spaniel’ they head to Spotorno on the Italian Riviera where they pay £25 for Villa Bernarda till March 1926. The property was rented to them by a certain Angelo Ravagli, the man whom Lawrence’s wife, Frieda, would soon begin an affair with and later marry in 1950.
Living in Italy is very cheap, costing them an estimated five shillings a day. But Lawrence doesn’t have the energy ‘to write from one’s deep inside’ and claims ‘Tisn’t worth it.’ There are two reasons for his ennui: the censorship of Movements in European History and still being owed money by his former publisher, Thomas Seltzer. But one thing that does bring him pleasure is domestic chores:
‘I’ve got my little stock of red and white wine – from the garden of this house – we eat fried chicken and pasta and smell rosemary and basilic in the cooking once more – and somebody is always roasting coffee.’
These video essays are based on the letters of D.H. Lawrence one hundred years ago and are published monthly as part of the D.H. Lawrence Memory Theatre project.
To see previous Locating Lawrence videos from 1922, click here, from 1923, click here, from 1924, click here, from 1925, click here.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
