Perhaps D. H. Lawrence’s most beautiful, thoroughly contemporary love story, The Lost Girl charts the journey of a woman caught between two worlds and two lives: one mired in convention in industrial England, the other promising sensual liberation in the vibrant landscape of Italy. 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 Naples-born Cicio, a vaudeville dancer who draws Alvina into a dance of seduction, awakening her desire as she defies her stifling upper-class life for a fleeting chance at freedom.
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"A fascinating, lesser-known Lawrence novel that uses vaudeville as its backdrop and features a really terrific female protagonist. Well worth reading! "
— David (4 out of 5 stars)
" Perfect study of a woman's dilemma, as relevant today as it was in the early 20th Century. One frustration: I never felt I truly trusted any of the characters. "
— Tasha, 6/5/2010" A great read in parts, although quite verbose in others, it seems like perfect material for Materpiece Theater. Not the best DH Lawrence book but a quick, entertaining read. "
— Alison, 6/22/2008" i really admire his writing style but i couldn't like the story as much = "
— la, 12/17/2007D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was a British writer of novels, poems, essays, short stories, and plays. Some of the books he wrote in the early 1900s became controversial because they contained direct descriptions of sexual relations. His best-known books are Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Johanna Ward (a.k.a. Kate Reading) is an Audie Award–winning narrator and has received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. She is also a theater actor in the Washington, DC, area and has been a member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, among others. She and her husband live in Hyattsville, Maryland, with their two children.