St Mawr is a short novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 (or novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

) written by D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...

. It was first published in 1925.

The heroine of the story, Lou Witt, abandons her sterile marriage and a brittle, cynical post-First World War England

Post-WWI recession

The post–World War I recession was an economic recession that hit much of the world in the aftermath of World War I.In many nations, especially in North America, this growth continued during the war as nations mobilized their economies to fight the war in Europe. After the war ended, however, the...

. Her sense of alienation is associated with her encounter with a high-spirited stallion, the St Mawr whose name provides the title for this tale. She eventually settles in a remote ranch set high in the mountains of New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, near Taos

Taos, New Mexico

Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...

.

Lawrence wrote most of this brief novel whilst spending five months of the summer of 1924 at what is now known as the D. H. Lawrence Ranch

D. H. Lawrence Ranch

The D. H. Lawrence Ranch, as it is now known, was the New Mexico home of the English novelist, D. H. Lawrence for about two years during the 1920s...

, a property which he and wife, Frieda

Frieda von Richthofen

Frieda Freiin von Richthofen , a distant relative of the "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, who is best known for her marriage to the British novelist D. H. Lawrence.-Life:...

, acquired from Mabel Dodge Luhan

Mabel Dodge Luhan

Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan , née Ganson was a wealthy American patron of the arts. She is particularly associated with the Taos art colony.-Early life:...

earlier that year.

'St Mawr' first appeared in 'St Mawr and Other Stories' which, in addition to the novella, consists of two short stories 'The Overtone' and 'The Princess', and two unfinished stories 'The Wilful Woman' and 'The Flying Fish'. All these works were written during Lawrence's stay in America between 1922 and 1925.

Standard edition

• St Mawr and other stories (1925), edited by Brian Finney, Cambridge University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-521-22265-6