The Lost Girl
Encyclopedia
The Lost Girl is a novel
by D. H. Lawrence
, first published in 1920. It was awarded the 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
in the fiction category.
Lawrence started to write 200 pages of it in 1913 and abandoned it before he finished it in 1920.
Alvina Houghton, the daughter of a widowed Midlands draper, comes of age just as her father’s business is failing. In a desperate attempt to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s proper upbringing, James Houghton buys a theater. Among the traveling performers he employs is Ciccio, a sensual Italian who immediately captures Alvina’s attention. Fleeing with him to Naples, she leaves her safe world behind and enters one of sexual awakening, desire, and fleeting freedom.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
, first published in 1920. It was awarded the 1920 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
in the fiction category.
Lawrence started to write 200 pages of it in 1913 and abandoned it before he finished it in 1920.
Alvina Houghton, the daughter of a widowed Midlands draper, comes of age just as her father’s business is failing. In a desperate attempt to regain his fortune and secure his daughter’s proper upbringing, James Houghton buys a theater. Among the traveling performers he employs is Ciccio, a sensual Italian who immediately captures Alvina’s attention. Fleeing with him to Naples, she leaves her safe world behind and enters one of sexual awakening, desire, and fleeting freedom.
Editions
- The Lost Girl (1920), edited by John WorthenJohn WorthenJohn Worthen taught at universities in North America and Wales before becoming Professor of D. H. Lawrence Studies at the University of Nottingham, where he remains Emeritus Professor. His inaugural lecture as Professor of D H Lawrence Studies was published under the title Cold Hearts and Coronets...
, pub. Cambridge University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-521-22263-X. - The Lost Girl, pub. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1921. Online edition at Google Books. Snippet view, USA Only.