D. H. Lawrence's classic two-part story, originally published as 'The Escaped Cock', is a re-imagining of the Biblical story of the Resurrection. The author himself described the story in a letter to his friend Earl Brewster thusly:
'I wrote a story of the Resurrection, where Jesus gets up and feels very sick bout everything, and can't stand the old crowd any more - so cuts out - and as he heals up, he begins to find what an astonishing place the phenomenal world is, far more marvellous than any salvation or heaven - and thanks his stars he needn't have a mission any more.'
