TНЕ ROCKING-HORSE WINNER

D.H. Lawrence (1885—1930) — a novelist and a poet who influenced a great deal thedevelopment of the English literature of the 20th century. He was born in Nottinghamshire in the family of a minor, whose wife was a' former schoolteacher. His childhood and green years and later his outlook was notably coloured by the conficts in the family that were brought on by the contradictory interests of his parents: the father's powerful working class character and his mother's restless aspirations to social and moral refinement. Another important factor that influenced his outlook a great deal was the clashing of industrialization with the older agricultural life. In 1898 Lawrence won a scholarship to the Boys' High School in Nottingham and finally after some years of work and studies he became a qualified teacher in 1908. In 1911 he published his first novel "The White Peacock". This book and the two which followed it in 1912 "The Trespasser" and in 1913 "Sons and Lovers" introduced a number of themes and ideas that the writer later developed in all his other works; a man should liveand actually lives by instinct and impulse rather than by conscious mind; that every man suffers from some unfulfilled ambition; that man becomes morally de­stroyed and provincial life becomes physically ruined by industrialization. "Sons and Lovers" can also be read as a solid, evocation of working class life.

Lawrence and his wife who was German by nationality were in England when the First World War broke out ant! Lawrence opposed it. They were subjected to local persecution, and finally expelled from the country. After 1919 Lawrence travelled a lot looking for a place to settle in. He visited Sardinia, Ceylon and Australia. In 1.922 he went to Mexico, New York and London. In 1923 he wrote a novel "Kangaroo" which is largely autobiographical. From 1926 he lived mainly in Italy. His later потек are coloured with mysticism, symbolism and ideas of God.

His last novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover"(1928) was тегу much criticized and. actually banned from publication for its being overloaded with sex.

Besides novels Lawrence published some collections of short stories, several volumes of poetry and some plays which have recently been revived on the stage successfully. He was also doing some painting.

The plot of the story "The Rocking-Horse Winner" seems to be quite extraor­dinary — a little boy developing the power to foretell: things.

But such an improbable plot serves to emphasize quite real aspects of life -happiness and luck are often equated with money and the impact, of the power of money on the vulnerable soul of a child may be really disastrous.