The Overtone

‘The Overtone’ was written by D H Lawrence in 1923. It was the forty-fourth of his sixty-seven short stories, all of which will be published individually in ebook format by the Blackthorn Press. 'The Overtone' looks at a sterile marriage with no children and no spontaneous sexual feeling between the couple. Lawrence seems to lose interest in the story, although he introduces a younger woman, who walks away baffled at the end. His purpose seems to be to analyse the relationship between men and women in religious terms - Christianity for the women and the old Pan religion for the men. Lawrence produces some fine writing but the argument at the end of the story seems contrived.