阅读弗莉達·勞倫斯 Frieda von Richthofen在小说之家的作品!!! | |||
婚的日子並不好過，社會壓力大，勞倫斯又沒錢，兩人去美國新墨西哥州過好年。無休無止的爭吵，相互咆哮，甚至互揪頭髮毆，誰也不曾想到當初熱烈的愛，會孕育出這等場。這暗無天日的生活，把勞倫斯造就成靈魂的礦工，他知道自己衹有通過不停的寫作，才能匍匐穿越煉獄，見到心靈的陽光。他開始進入創作盛年，《虹》（1915）、《戀愛中的女人》（1920）、《亞倫的手杖》（1922）、《羽蛇》（1926），一部長篇就是通往靈魂天堂的一級階，不知道《查泰萊夫人的情人》（1928）問世時，他是否見到一綫曙光？弗麗達是深愛勞倫斯的，有時候恰恰因為愛，相互磨得死去活來。
勞氏1930年死於旅途，先埋在法國小鎮溫斯的公墓，五年由弗麗達取出火化。她挑一隻精緻的花瓶，委托朋友拉瓦利裝上勞氏的骨灰，帶往新墨西哥州北部的陶斯鎮——那是勞氏夫婦流亡時最喜歡的地方。這拉瓦利是何許人呢？是弗麗達的熱烈追求者，對她是有求必應，可要他帶情人亡夫的骨灰越洋旅行，實在是受不了，他嘴上答應着，卻在去馬賽的路上，找個靠近羅訥河的地方，把大文豪的骨灰一把撒掉，隨在紐約裝上一些不知哪兒弄來的骨灰運到陶斯安葬。這是拉瓦利來良心現，自己承認的。
在黑暗中流浪，這是勞倫斯的命。他的骨灰早已被地中海的暖風吹到世界的各個角落，想來這也符他的願望。曾經讀過一篇描述非洲礦難的文章，說礦工們為少消耗氧氣，躺在地下等待施救，黑暗中衹有礦長有，氧氣僅能維持三個半小時。大要求礦長每熬過半小時就報個信，這樣好知道自己離死期還有多遠。礦長呢，有意拖延報信的時辰，衹有他知道，其實等待的時間早已過極限。來救援隊終於到達，大兒在奄奄一息中救，衹有礦長死。跟勞倫斯相比，我們都是在蒙昧中求生的礦工。
(瀋東子零度漂流)
Life
Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen (also known as Frieda Weekley, Frieda Lawrence, and Frieda Lawrence Ravagli) was born in Metz. Her father was Baron Friedrich Ernst Emil Ludwig von Richthofen (1844-1916), an engineer in the German army, and her mother was Anna Elise Lydia Marquier (1852-1930).
In 1899, she married a British philologist and professor of modern languages, Ernest Weekley, with whom she had three children, Charles Montague (born 1900), Elsa Agnès (born 1902) and Barbara Joy (born 1904). They settled in Nottingham, where Ernest worked at the university. During her marriage with Weekley, she started to translate pieces of German literature, mainly fairy tales, into English and took considerable pride in their publication in book form.
In 1912 she met D. H. Lawrence, at the time a former student of her husband. She soon fell in love with him and the pair eloped to Germany, leaving her children behind. During their stay, Lawrence was arrested for spying and, after the intervention of Frieda's father, the couple walked south, over the Alps to Italy. Following her divorce from Weekley, Frieda and Lawrence married in 1914. They intended to return to the continent, but the outbreak of war kept them in England, where they endured official harassment and censorship. They also struggled with limited resources and D.H. Lawrence's already frail health.
Leaving post-war England at the earliest opportunity, they travelled widely, eventually settling at the Kiowa Ranch (now D. H. Lawrence Ranch) near Taos, New Mexico and, in Lawrence's last years, at the Villa Mirenda, near Scandicci in Tuscany. After her husband's death in Vence, France in 1930, she returned to Taos to live with her third husband, Angelo Ravagli. The ranch is now owned by the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.
Mainly through her elder sister Else von Richthofen, Frieda became acquainted with many intellectuals and authors, including the socioeconomist Alfred Weber and sociologist Max Weber, the radical psychoanalyst Otto Gross (who became her lover), and the writer Fanny zu Reventlow.
By approving the dramatization for the theatre of Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover - thought to be based partly on her own relationship as an aristocrat with the working class Lawrence - it became his only novel ever to be staged. John Harte's play was the only dramatization to be accepted by her, and she did her best to get it produced. Although she loved the play when she read it, the copyright to Lawrence's story had already been acquired by Baron Philippe de Rothschild, who was a close friend. He only relinquished it in 1960. John Harte's play was first produced at The Arts Theatre in 1961, five years after her death.
Frieda Lawrence died on her 77th birthday in Taos.
Further reading
Frieda Lawrence: "Not I, but the Wind...", Rydal/Viking, 1934.
Janet Byrne: A Genius for Living - A Biography of Frieda Lawrence, Bloomsbury, 1995.
Green, Martin Burgess: The Von Richthofen Sisters