Monkey Nuts

‘Monkey Nuts’ was written by D H Lawrence in 1922. It was the forty-first of his sixty-seven short stories, all of which will be published individually in ebook format by the Blackthorn Press. 'Monkey Nuts' turns the traditional love story on its head. It is the woman (the new liberated woman Lawrence had little time for) who does the chasing and the boy who is reluctant. Lawrence seems to be saying it is the unspoken love between the two men in the story which is more satisfying than the possible love between the man and the woman which the boy rejects. Although the older man goes through the motions of chasing the girl, even he seems to realise the sterility of one-sided love.