Siegmund is a professional musician approaching forty, he feels trapped in his marriage and falls in love with his student Helena, feeling torn between her and his four children (he does not consider his wife all that much). Siegmund and Helena spend a week on the Isle of Wight together, which makes up the main part of the novel. Although it is not long, it took me a long time to read it, because the reading is slow - for many chapters, nothing really happens. The couple spend their time swimming, walking and talking, sometimes quarreling, and well - being emotional. The writing is almost cinematic when the landscape, and especially the sea, is described, and it is heavy with metaphors and symbols, requiring a slower reading pace. The feelings of uncertainty, longing, despair, attachment and resentment are reflected by nature - the sea, the vegetation, the wind, the moon. It seems like every day just drags on, without any certain outcome.
This somewhat changes when they return to London and Siegmund has to face the fact that he cannot go on like this, but has to make a decision. The atmosphere in his family home is suffocating and cold, which Lawrence conveys in a poignant way, and in a stark contrast to the openness of the days on the island.

I found reading this rather depressing because I was frustrated with the characters. I missed the determination and stamina some of Lawrence's later characters show. However, I am still glad I read it, because the writing is truly stellar and will leave a lasting impression, and I did like the end with its tentative signs of hope. ( )

This was Lawrence’s second novel, published the year after The White Peacock. It was apparently based on the diaries of a friend of Lawrence, whose lover, a married man, committed suicide. It seems a bit, well, off, especially since the female lead in the novel is called Helena, which is not much different from Helen, the name of Lawrence’s friend. Helena is a young woman studying how to play the violin under Siegmund, a married man. The two enter into an affair, but the book pretty much focuses on a trip the two take together – partly by accident – to the Isle of Wight. They know that once the holiday is over they must return to their respective lives, and any affair between the two must end. On his return home, Siegmund realises his relationship with his wife and children has been forever tainted by his affair, even if they did not know of it (although his wife certainly suspected). Like the earlier novel – and some of his later ones – Lawrence’s prose is at its best when it’s describing the landscape. The dialogue, and the characters’ emotions, seem over-emphatic to modern readers, and though Lawrence had a good ear for dialogue it often jars with the over-emotional prose. I can understand why he’s no longer as popular, or as read, as he once was, but I still think he’s an important author in British literature, and it’s a shame he’s best-known these days for TV miniseries adaptations of his work. ( )

D.H. Lawrence is an author I have not come round to read too much, although the works I have read were fully satisfactory. Surprisingly, this short work has very few readers on LT, at least as a separate edition.

So, I enjoyed reading The trespasser. However, it must be said that it was a laborious read. I could not read it very fast, and each time, I would only read a number of pages. The story is simple enough, but the descriptions of nature, and the landscape, and the way they are symbolically intertwined with the mood of the characters calls for slow reading. While some readers might be put off by the symbolism, the tragedy has a very deep sense of realism, as the story draws on the experience of one of Lawrence's friends. ( )

sad, sad story. ( )