The Rocking Horse Winner

Hester appears to have it all - marriage, a nice home, three children and a stimulating job. But it is not enough. For no matter how much she and her husband earn, she spends more. Driven by a desire to be loved by his mother, young Paul starts betting on the horses with the family's gardener. He wins, wins and just keeps winning. But, as quickly as he hands her the money, Hester has splurged it away. Then, as Derby day approaches, the spooky secret of Paul's endless run of luck is revealed. As tragedy beckons, will Paul win his mother's love? This book is perfect for fans of Edgar Allan Poe and Ernest Hemingway. It was made into the 1949 fantasy film 'The Rocking Horse Winner', starring John Howard Davies, Valerie Hobson and John Mills. DH Lawrence (1885-1930) was an English writer and poet. He was at the centre of a great deal of controversy during and after his life, with the explicit nature of some of his novels leading to censorship and protests. Many critics admired his imaginative and deeply descriptive style, though. Among his best-known novels are 'Sons and Lovers', 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', 'The Rainbow' and 'Women in Love'.

"The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. The story describes a young middle-class Englishwoman who "had no luck." Though outwardly successful, she is haunted by a sense of failure; her husband is a ne'er-do-well and her work as a commercial artist doesn't earn as much as she'd like. The family's lifestyle exceeds its income and unspoken anxiety about money permeates the household. Her children, a son Paul and his two sisters, sense this anxiety; moreover, the kids even claim they can hear the house whispering "There must be more money." Paul tells his Uncle Oscar Cresswell about betting on horse races with Bassett, the gardener. He's been placing bets using his pocket money and has won and saved three hundred twenty pounds. Sometimes he says he is "sure" of a winner for an upcoming race, and the horses he names do in fact win, sometimes at remarkable odds. Uncle Oscar and Bassett both place large bets on the horses Paul names. After further winning, Paul and Oscar arrange to give the mother a gift of five thousand pounds, but the gift only lets her spend more. Disappointed, Paul tries harder than ever to be "lucky." As the Derby approaches, Paul is determined to learn the winner. Concerned about his health, his mother rushes home from a party and discovers his secret. He has been spending hours riding his rocking horse, sometimes all night long, until he "gets there," into a clairvoyant state where he can be sure of the winner's name. Paul remains ill through the day of the Derby. Informed by Cresswell, Bassett has placed Paul's bet on Malabar, at fourteen to one. When he is informed by Bassett that he now has 80,000 pounds, Paul says to his mother: "I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I'm absolutely sure - oh absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!" "No, you never did," said his mother. The boy dies in the night and his mother hears her brother say, "My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner."

A moving novel about the resilience of Ari Appleton who struggles to grow past the trauma of her upbringing while unraveling the mystery of a missing friend. With wit, tenacity, and meddling from Jasper -- the seahorse in her head -- she rides waves of calamity and creation, abandonment and atonement on a journey to find herself.

These thirteen short stories were written between 1924 and 1928. Eleven were collected in The Woman Who Rode Away (1928), though 'The Man Who Loved Islands' appeared in the American edition only and the other two in The Lovely Lady (1933). An unpublished fragment 'A Pure Witch' is also included.

This book looks beyond fidelity to emphasize how each adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s short stories functions as a creative response to a text, foregrounding the significance of its fluidity, transtextuality, and genre. The adaptations analysed range from the first to the most recent and draw attention to the fluidity of textual sources, the significance of generic conventions and space in film, the generic potentialities latent within Lawrence’s tales, and the evolving nature of adaptation. By engaging with recent advances in adaptation theory to discuss the evolving critical reception of the author’s work and the role of the reader, this book provides a fresh, forward-looking approach to Lawrence studies.

Members of an upper-class urban family struggling to make ends meet deal with their economic troubles in different ways—while the matriarch of the family bemoans her lot in life, her son focuses on trying to use luck as way to earn a better life. When the son develops the mysterious ability to predict the winners at the local horse race, he attempts to alleviate his family’s troubles with his race-track winnings, but it soon becomes clear that money is just a symptom of larger issues. "The Rocking Horse Winner" is a story about obsession, dissatisfaction and misplaced values. Like many of Lawrence’s stories it deals with the unfulfilling nature of modern, industrialized life. "The Rocking Horse Winner" was made into a full-length film starring John Howard Davies in 1949. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.