The Trespasser

The manuscript of Lawrence's second novel, The Trespasser, survives, and this edition presents the text for the first time as Lawrence wrote it, restoring his sentence-structure and punctuation and correcting numerous errors. Elizabeth Mansfield's introduction explores the background of the novel, presents the publishing history and the novel's reception.

D. H. Lawrence's second novel The Trespasser is based on the tragic love affair of his friend Helen Corke and her violin teacher. After reading Miss Corke's diary, Lawrence first urged her to write her story and then received her permission to do it himself. Between his rapid composition of the first draft in the spring and summer of 1910 and his final revisions in early 1912, Lawrence's view of Helen Corke, and consequently of her story, changed. The manuscript survives, and this edition presents the text for the first time as Lawrence wrote it, restoring his sentence-structure and punctuation and correcting numerous typesetters' errors. In her substantial introduction Elizabeth Mansfield explores the background of the novel, presents the complications of the publishing history and the novel's reception. A full textual apparatus records the history of the text and the editor annotates topical and other references.