''The Ladybird'' is a 1927

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

by D. H. Lawrence. It was first drafted in 1915 as a short story entitled ''The Thimble''. Lawrence rewrote and extended it under a new title in December 1921 and sent the final version to his English agent on 9 January 1922. It was collected with two other tales, '' The Captain's Doll'' and '' The Fox'', and the three novellas were then published in London by Martin Secker in March 1923 under the title ''The Ladybird'' and in New York by Thomas Seltzer as ''The Captain's Doll'' in April 1923.

Plot introduction

A wounded German officer, Count Psanek, shares his philosophies on life and love with a local acquaintance, Lady Daphne, while interned in London during the final months of the First World War. Lady Daphne finds herself alternately attracted and repulsed by the Count, and when her husband returns home from the front she finds her feelings toward him are equally ambiguous.

Standard edition

* ''The Ladybird, The Fox, The Captain's Doll'' (1923), edited by Dieter Mehl, Cambridge University Press, 1992,

References

Short stories by D. H. Lawrence 1923 short stories Martin Secker books British novellas {{1920s-story-stub