Frieda, wife of novelist D H Lawrence

[Guest Pete Wood]

In a couple of books, I have read that DH Lawrence, the celebrated novelist (Sons and Lovers is a favourite of mine), was hounded for much of his life by the British public, who thought that he and his German wife, Frieda, were (had been) spies and making signals to U-boats.

While I was looking for some more information on this lady, I read (on the web) that some sites suggest that she was the Red Baron's sister. I thought Frieda was a cousin of MvR.

I checked a couple of old threads at the Aerodrome, but there appears to be some confusion there also.

Anyone know the real story...??

[Clive Maier]

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, she was Frieda Weekley (née von Richthofen), the wife of a Nottingham professor. They lived in Germany and Italy, and were eventually married in England in 1914 after Frieda's divorce. They lived for a while in rural Cornwall and attracted hostility not only for Frieda’s nationality but also because of Lawrence's pacifism. They were suspected of signalling to German submarines and left Cornwall in 1917 to spend the rest of the war in London and Derbyshire. EB says they “were expelled from the county” but is that possible or likely? I don’t know. They went to Italy in 1919 and never again lived in England.

Chambers Biographical Dictionary adds that they eloped in 1912 and that Frieda was a cousin of Manfred von Richtofen.

Their time in Cornwall would have coincided with a growing reputation and even a prosecution for obscenity for Lawrence. I suspect this had a lot to do with their problems.

[Jackie]

I read a book about him by somebody very sensible (sorry - can't remember who) and he did have a sister, but it wasn't Freida. I'm sure there was a film made in Australia about her and Lawrence, who was played by Colin Friel, and it talked about him as being her cousin.

I'm pretty sure they were cousins, not siblings.

But don't put money on it!

Jackie

[Dragon]

According to many lit crit books, Frieda was the sister of Manfred von Richthofen, but I believe that she deliberately obfuscated her relationship to Manfred, which appears to have been only distant. See: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/resear...old_hearts.html

for a lecture supporting this. Many sources have bought into her own mythology.

At the time she met D H Lawrence, she was married to Ernest Weekley, his former tutor at University College, Nottingham, where he trained to be a teacher. Frieda and D H eloped in 1912 and married in 1914.

The army rejected him and the couple lived in Cornwall, but were marginalized, distrusted and under constant surveillance, partly because of Frieda’s origins, partly because of the social circles in which Lawrence had moved and partly because of his opposition to the War.

If you read German, which I don't, it might be worth doing a search on Frieda von Richthofen or even Frieda Weekley.

The film, by the way, was Coming Through, with Helen Mirren and Kenneth Branagh. There's also Priest of Love, about Lawrence's later years and his work on Lady Chatterley's Lover.

Mr Teapots, as you admire Sons and Lovers, have you read the unexpurgated version, which was published in 1992 by Cambridge? It’s much less coy than the original, truncated version and the parts which Edward Garnett cut have been reinstated. As the parts on William have been restored, the title (‘Sons’) makes better sense; and there is more incisive examination of Paul’s sexuality and the parent/ parent, mother/son relationship.

Gwyn

[Guest pmirl]

OK, let's clear this up. Manfred had one sister and two brothers. His sisters name was Ilse and his brothers were Lothar and Karl Bolko. Frieda MAY have been a cousin, but she was definately NOT his sister.

Paul

[robbie]

I'm sure there was a film made in Australia about her and Lawrence,

Jackie,

D.H. Lawrence wrote "Kangaroo" while he and Frieda were in Australia. It may be the film of that book that you're thinking of.

Robbie

[Potter]

Frieda von Richtofen was indeed a distant cousin of the Red Baron. She was born in 1879 in Metz (then part of Germany). Her father had been a professional soldier but had been wounded in the Franco-Prussian war (he lost a forefinger) and was put onto a reserve commission.

She married Ernest Weekly, who was Professor of French at University College, Nottingham, in 1899. She met Lawrence in 1912 and they eloped. Weekly divorced her and was given custody of their two children. She and Lawrence married in July 1914.

In late 1915, the Lawrences moved to Cornwall, mostly living at Zennor on the north coast. As a German, Frieda was an object of suspicion and the pair were under police surveillance. Lawrence wrote "Women in Love" during this time. They left Cornwall in 1917. The chapter "The Nightmare" in "Kangaroo" is a fictionalised account of this period of his life.

Lawrence was examined for military serve in June 1916 but rejected for being consumptive. He was examined again in June 1917 and classifed C3. He was never called up.

Lawrence died in 1930. Frieda died in 1956. She is buried at Taos in New Mexico, close to Lawrence's ashes