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D.H.Lawrence

tutorials, biographical notes, web links, commentary, and literary criticism

tutorials, study guides,, and literary criticism

Complete Critical Guide to D.H.Lawrence

May 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

biography, guidance notes, and literary criticism

D.H.Lawrence is not an easy writer to categorise. We think of him mainly as a novelist – but he is equally influential (if not so highly regarded) as a poet and a writer of novellas and short stories. He also wrote plays, but these tend to be overlooked in favour of his fiction. This guide to his work comes from a new series by Routledge which offers comprehensive but single-volume introductions to major English writers. They are aimed at students of literature, but are accessible to general readers who might like to deepen their understanding. The approach taken could not be more straightforward.

The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.LawrencePart one is a potted biography of Lawrence, placing his life and work in a relatively neutral socio-historical context. Thus we get his early influences and his complex relations with women; but we are also nursed through an introduction to the literary Modernist movement of which he formed an important part. Part two provides a synoptic view of Lawrence’s stories, novels, and poetry.

The works are described in outline, and then their main themes illuminated. This is followed by pointers towards the main critical writings on these texts and issues.

Part three deals with criticism of Lawrence’s work. This is presented in chronological order – from contemporaries such as T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster to critics of the present day who tend to focus on Lawrence’s psychological insights. Feminist writers have been particularly critical of what they see as misogyny in Lawrence’s work. .

The book ends with a commendably thorough bibliography which covers biography, criticism in books and articles, plus pointers towards specialist Lawrence journals.

An excellent starting point for students who are new to Lawrence’s work – and a refresher course for those who would like to keep up to date with criticism.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Fiona Becket, The Complete Critical Guide to D. H. Lawrence, London: Routledge, 2002, pp.186, ISBN 0415202523


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D.H.Lawrence close reading

March 21, 2014 by Roy Johnson

a tutorial in literary analysis

This tutorial features a close reading exercise on the opening two paragraphs of D.H.Lawrence’s story Fanny and Annie, taken from his collection England, My England which was first published in 1922. It tells the story of a young woman Fanny, returning with some trepidation to her home town in the north of England, to meet her young man, Harry.

In the tutorial notes that follow, each sentence is considered separately, with comments highlighting whichever features of the prose seem noteworthy. The focus of attention is largely on Lawrence’s choice of vocabulary and some of the rhetorical devices he employs.

A close reading exercise is not a guessing game or a treasure hunt: it is an attempt to understand the mechanisms by which a narrative is constructed and its meanings generated. However, a really successful close reading can only be made when you know the work as a whole. So, if you wish to read the complete story in conjunction with these tutorial notes, it is available free at Project Gutenberg.

redbtn Fanny and Annie


D.H.Lawrence portrait

D.H.Lawrence – portrait


Fanny and Annie – the text

Flame-lurid his face as he turned among the throng of flame-lit and dark faces upon he platform. In the light of the furnace she caught sight of his drifting countenance, like a piece of floating fir. And the nostalgia, the doom of homecoming went through her veins like a drug. His eternal face, flame-lit now! The pulse and darkness of red fire from the furnace towers in the sky, lighting the desultory industrial crowd on the wayside station, lit him and went out.

Of course he did not see her. Flame-lit and unseeing! Always the same with his meeting eyebrows, his common cap, and his red-and-black scarf knotted round his throat. Not even a collar to meet her! The flames had sunk, there was shadow.


D.H.Lawrence close reading

01.   In the first sentence Lawrence plunges straight into the use of alliteration and repetition to give dramatic emphasis to his scene. ‘Flame-lurid his face’ is the first of many alliterative uses of f and l in the passage, and the term flame is repeated within the sentence at ‘flame-lit’. Moreover the single word ‘flame’ itself contains the two alliterated letters. This is very much in keeping with the theme of the story, which is about sexual passion and the physical attraction between Fanny and Harry, despite her reservations about his status as a working-class male. Fire, heat, and flame are all traditionally associated with passion.

Moreover, ‘lurid’ is a rather emotionally charged term – an item of vocabulary taken very much from the literary register. Note too that the sentence lacks a main verb: there is an implied (but missing) verb was in ‘Flame-lurid his face’.

And the term ‘upon’, where today we would just write ‘on’, gives the sentence quite a serious tone: it has an almost Biblical ring to it. Lawrence was very influenced by his non-conformist religious background, and uses lots of its imagery in his work.

02.   ‘Furnace’ and ‘floating fire’ continue the use of alliteration. They lend an incantatory rhythm to the narrative voice, which is actually giving Fanny’s point of view.

A simile is used to compare his face (poetically described as ‘his drifting countenance’) with the piece of fire. And ‘drifting’ here seems to carry two meanings: both literally as in ‘moving along the platform’, and metaphorically as ‘independent and untroubled’. We subsequently learn that this is how Fanny perceives Harry. ‘Countenance’ is another literary and quasi-Biblical term. And ‘a piece of floating fire’ is a fairly striking image – but perfectly in keeping with the charged manner of Fanny’s perceptions.

03.   Following ‘nostalgia’ the term ‘doom of homecoming’ is almost a tautology, but Lawrence is obviously piling on emphasis here – as the onomatopoetic ‘doom’ illustrates. ‘Doom’ gives a sense of heavy inevitability, as though her life is predictably blighted by her origins.

Note too that he is using the phenomenon of nostalgia in its negative sense (it can mean both ‘homesickness’ or ‘sentimental regret’.) The simile ‘like a drug’ is another strongly emotive comparison.

04.   The adjective ‘eternal’ is used to powerful effect here as it again suggests inevitability. The word ties in with the biblical vocabulary noted earlier. ‘Eternal’ usually describes God and therefore it is positive, but in the context of the passage it works in a negative way to suggest that Fanny feels trapped.

I take it to represent Fanny’s annoyance: she does after all resent the fact that she is having to come back to Harry. And I support this reading by pointing to Lawrence’s use of the exclamation mark to indicate that the sentence is a segment of narrative written from Fanny’s point of view.

05.   ‘The pulse and darkness of red fire’ gives a very strong impressionistic image in the sense that although very literally red fire cannot possess darkness, we know that Lawrence means alternating periods of lightness and dark. And the terms ‘pulse’, ‘darkness’, ‘red’, and ‘fire’ are all charged with very elemental connotations relating to life in a very primitive sense. This is appropriate as it is an important point in Fanny’s emotional development.

06.   ‘Of course’ is rather conversational in tone, and it is an expression which reinforces the fact that we are seeing the events from Fanny’s point of view.

07.   ‘Flame-lit’ is the fifth occasion of the f/l alliteration in these two paragraphs: this is Lawrence being unashamedly rhetorical in his prose style. Rhetoric is ‘the art of speakers or writers to persuade, inform, or motivate their audience’. Here Lawrence is using these rhetorical devices to show Fanny’s emotional turmoil. .

‘Unseeing’ is another term which is not immediately clear: I take it to mean ‘not paying attention’. In Fanny’s implied voice, this is a statement of bitter irony where ‘flame-lit’ is ‘literally juxtaposed with ‘unseeing’, suggesting that he is blinded by his own light. The sentence as a whole is another which is very impressionistic — incomplete in the strictly grammatical sense.

08.   This sentence too omits an implied ‘He was’ at its beginning: (the technical term for this device is elision). ‘Meeting’ is being transferred from its use as a verb to be an adjective. The effect of this is to animate his features by implying that the eyebrows are conscious, and ‘meeting’ each other.

09.   This is another grammatically incomplete sentence in which, apart from the last word ‘her’, we are almost in Fanny’s mind. Lawrence is using a form of stream of consciousness here to reflect the technical incompleteness and sometimes fragmentary nature of our thoughts. His third exclamation mark reinforces this impression.

10.   The very absence of rhetorical devices in this sentence seems to indicate that Lawrence is preparing the reader for a transition to a less highly charged and impressionistic narrative manner. This proves to be the case in the next part of the story.


Red button Selected Stories of D.H.Lawrence – Amazon UK

Red button The Fox, The Captain’s Doll, The Ladybird – Amazon UK


Close reading – general

In your own close reading of this text you might have noticed features different than those listed here. These points are just examples of what can be said and claimed about a text, and help us to understand the technical details of how prose fictions work.

In literary studies there are various types of close reading. It is possible and rewarding to scrutinise a text closely, keeping any number of its features in mind. These can reveal various layers of significance in the work which might not be apparent on a superficial reading. You might focus attention on the text’s –

  • language
  • meaning
  • structure
  • philosophy

The most advanced forms of close reading combine all these features in an effort to reveal the full and even hidden meanings in a work.


D.H.Lawrence close readingStudying Fiction is an introduction to the basic concepts and the language you will need for studying prose fiction. It explains the elements of literary analysis one at a time, then shows you how to apply them. The guidance starts off with simple issues of language, then progresses to more complex literary criticism.The volume contains stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Katherine Mansfield, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, and Charles Dickens. All of them are excellent tales in their own right. The guidance on this site was written by the same author.
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Close reading tutorials

redbtn Sample close reading of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House

redbtn Sample close reading of Katherine Mansfield’s The Voyage

redbtn Sample close reading of Virginia Woolf’s Monday or Tuesday


Other work by D.H.Lawrence

Sons and LoversSons and Lovers This is Lawrence’s first great novel. It’s a quasi-autobiographical account of a young man’s coming of age in the early years of the twentieth century. Set in working class Nottinghamshire, it focuses on class conflicts and gender issues as young Paul Morrell is torn between a passionate relationship with his mother and his attraction to other women. He also has a quasi-Oedipal conflict with his coal miner father. If you are new to Lawrence and his work, this is a good place to start. This novel has become a classic of early twentieth-century literature.
Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

The RainbowThe Rainbow This is Lawrence’s version of a family saga, spanning three generations of the Brangwen family in the north of England. It is the women characters in this novel who remain memorable as they strive to express their feelings and break free of traditions. The story concludes with the struggle of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, to liberate themselves from the stifling pressures of Edwardian English society. The two young women also feature in his next and some say greatest novel, Women in Love – so it would be a good idea to read this first.
Alejo Carpentier greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
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D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

D.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.

© Roy Johnson 2014


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D.H.Lawrence web links

December 9, 2010 by Roy Johnson

a selection of web-based archives and resources

This short selection of D.H.Lawrence web links offers quick connections to resources for further study. It’s not comprehensive, and if you have any ideas for additional resources, please use the ‘Comments’ box below to make suggestions.

D.H. Lawrence - portrait

D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.


D.H.Lawrence - Cambridge Companion The Cambridge Companion to Lawrence contains fourteen chapters by leading international scholars. These specially-commissioned essays offer diverse and stimulating readings of Lawrence’s major novels, short stories, poetry and plays, and place Lawrence’s writing in a variety of literary, cultural, and political contexts, such as modernism, sexual and ethnic identity, and psychoanalysis. The concluding chapter addresses the vexed history of Lawrence’s critical reception throughout the twentieth century. Features a detailed chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading.

© Roy Johnson 2010


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DH Lawrence and Cinema

May 28, 2016 by Roy Johnson

film adaptations of D.H. Larence’s novels and stories

Lawrence had a great deal of trouble getting his work to the public. Many of his major novels were first censored then banned for reasons that now seem ridiculous. He was one of the first major writers to bring honest and explicit consideration of human sexuality into the realms of literature, and he did so using language that was frank and realistic.

It is therefore slightly ironic that his work has been so readily and popularly adapted for film and television. (The same is true of plays he wrote, many of which were not performed during his own lifetime.) The selection listed below vary in both their quality and their fidelity to the original texts, but they are all good examples of translation from one medium to another.


Sons and Lovers (novel 1913 – TV film 2013)

Paul Morel is the sensitive son of a rough miner and an artistic mother living in the Nottingham coal fields. He is caught between the two worlds they represent. As he grows to maturity he tries to establish relationships with women, but he is hampered by his attachment to his mother. When she dies he is left with nothing.

Directed by Stephen Whittaker. Screenplay by Simon Burke. Starring – Sarah Lancashire, Hugo Speer, James Murray, Rupert Evans, Lyndsay Marshall, and Esther Hall. Filmed on the Isle of Man.

DH Lawrence and Cinema Sons and Lovers – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Details of the film – [different version] – IMDb

DH Lawrence and Cinema Sons and Lovers – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Sons and Lovers – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US


Lady Chatterley’s Lover (novel 1928 – film 2006)

This is a French adaptation based on the second less well known version of the novel. Directed by Pascale Ferran. Screenplay by Ferran and Roger Bohbot. Starring – Marina Hands (Constance Chatterley), Jean-Louis Coulloch (Mellors), Hippolyte Giradot (Sir Clifford Chatterley), Helene Alexandridis (Mrs Bolton), Helene Filleres (Hilda). Filmed in Limousin, Correze, and Ambazac, France.

There is an earlier French version (1955) directed by Marc Allegret, and a version directed by Just Jaekin in 1981 which features the soft-porn actress Sylvia Kristel. Most recently, the BBC produced a TV film version directed by Jed Mercurio (2015).

DH Lawrence and Cinema Lady Chatterley’s Lover – 2006 adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

DH Lawrence and Cinema Lady Chatterley’s Lover – a tutorial and study guide

DH Lawrence and Cinema Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Collins Classics – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Collins Classics – Amazon US


The Rainbow (novel 1915 – film 1989)

This is Lawrence’s version of a family saga. The novel traces the history of three generations of Derbyshire farmers the Brangwens. Ken Russell’s film focuses attention on Ursula, the younger of two sisters. She dreams of emancipating herself, becomes entangled in a lesbian relationship with an older woman, then trains to be a teacher. She has a passionate affair with a Polish soldier, but in the end chooses to remain independent.

Directed and produced by English maverick Ken Russell (1989). Screenplay by Ken and Vivian Russell. Starring – Glenda Jackson (Anna Brangwen), Sammi Davis (Ursula Brangwen), Paul McGann (Anton Skrebensky), Amanda Donohoe (Winifred Inger), David Hemmings (Uncle Henry). Filmed in Borrowdale and Keswick, Lake District, England.

DH Lawrence and Cinema The Rainbow – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

DH Lawrence and Cinema The Rainbow – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema The Rainbow – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US


Women in Love (novel 1920 – film 1969)

This story is a continuation of The Rainbow, following the development of Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen. The sisters explore new types of relationships with two men who are good friends. The results are successful in essence but ambiguous in one case, and disastrous in the other. A very stylish and successful adaptation by maverick British director Ken Russell, with very good performances from an all-star cast.

Directed by Ken Russell. Screenplay by Larry Kramer. Starring – Alan Bates (Rupert Birkin), Oliver Reed (Gerald Critch), Glenda Jackson (Gudrun Brangwen), Jenny Linden (Ursula Brangwen), Eleanor Bron (Hermione Roddice), Vladel Sheybal (Loerke). Filmed in Derbyshire, Gateshead, Sheffield, England, and Zermatt, Switzerland.

DH Lawrence and Cinema Women in Love – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

DH Lawrence and Cinema Women in Love – a tutorial and study guide

DH Lawrence and Cinema Women in Love – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Women in Love – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US


The Virgin and the Gipsy (novella 1926 – film 1970)

Yvette and Lucille are the daughters of a vicar in a drab and stifling village in the English West Midlands. Their home life is pervaded by a life-killing sense of meanness and puritanism, and they are dominated by their tyrannical grandmother. Yvette encounters a gypsy family who awaken her sense of rebellion and sensuality. When a flood engulfs the village Yvette is saved by the gypsy, who breathes life back into her, whilst her grandmother drowns nearby.

Directed by Christopher Miles. Screenplay by Alan Plater. Starring – Joanna Shimkus (Yvette), Franco Nero (The Gypsy), Honor Blackman (Mrs Fawcett), Maurice Denham (The Rector), Mark Burns (Major Eastwood). Filmed in Derbyshire and Lee International Studios, England.

DH Lawrence and Cinema The Virgin and the Gypsy – film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema Details of the film – Internet Movie Database

DH Lawrence and Cinema The Virgin and the Gypsy – collected novellas – Amazon UK

DH Lawrence and Cinema The Virgin and the Gypsy – collected novellas – Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2016


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DH Lawrence biographies and bibliographies

September 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

arranged in chronological order of publication

DH Lawrence biographies
1. D.H.Lawrence – Bibliographies, Handbooks, Journals

Warren Roberts, A Bibliography of D.H. Lawrence, 1963; revised. [The revised edition of this important Lawrence bibliography includes a section on the criticism].

Graham Holderness, Who’s Who in D.H. Lawrence, 1976.

Keith Sagar, D.H.Lawrence: A Calendar of His Works, 1979.

Keith Sagar, A D.H.Lawrence Handbook, 1982.

James C Cowan, D.H.Lawrence: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him, Vol I (1909-60) 1982; Vol II (1961-75) 1985.

Thomas Jackson Rice, D.H.Lawrence: A Guide to Research, 1983.

The D H Lawrence Review, founded in 1968 by James C Cowan at the University of Delaware, is published three times a year. DHLR includes regular bibliographical updates as well as essays on a wide range of subjects to do with Lawrence, and reviews of recent work. Etudes Laurentiennes, founded in 1985, is published by the University of Paris X [Nanterre].


The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.LawrenceThe Complete Critical Guide to D. H. Lawrence is a good introduction to Lawrence criticism. Includes a potted biography of Lawrence, an outline of the stories, novels, plays, and poetry, and pointers towards the main critical writings – from contemporaries T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster to critics of the present day. Also includes a thorough bibliography which covers biography, criticism in books and articles, plus pointers towards specialist Lawrence journals.


2. Select Biography

R. West, D.H. Lawrence, London: Martin Secker, 1930.

A. Lawrence, Young Lorenzo: Early Life of D.H.Lawrence, Containing Hitherto Unpublished Letters and Articles and reproductions of Pictures, Florence: G. Orioli, 1931.

A. Lawrence and S.G. Gelder, Young Lorenzo: Early Life of D.H.Lawrence, Containing Hitherto Unpublished Letters and Articles and reproductions of Pictures, London: Martin Secker, 1932.

John Middleton Murry, Son of Woman: The Story of D.H.Lawrence, London: Jonathan Cape, 1931.

M. Dodge Luhan, Loenzo in Taos, New York: Knopf, 1932.

Aldous Huxley (ed), The Letters of D.H. Lawrence, London: Heinemann, 1932.

John Middleton Murry, Reminiscences of D.H. Lawrence, London: Jonathan Cape, 1933.

John Middleton Murry, Between Two Worlds: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 1935.

D. Brett, Lawrence and Brett: A Friendship, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1933.

Catherine Carswell, The Savage Pilgrimage: A Narrative of D.H.Lawrence, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932.

Frieda Lawrence, Not I, But the Wind…, New York: Viking Press, 1934.

E.T. [Jessie Chambers], D.H. Lawrence: A Personal Record, London: Cape, 1935.

K. Merrild, A Poet and Two Painters, London: Routledge, 1938.

Frieda Lawrence, The Memoirs and Correspondence [ed Tedlock] 1964.

E. Brewster and A. Brewster, D.H. Lawrence: reminiscences and correspondence, London: Secker, 1934.

Piero Nardi, La Vita di D.H.Lawrence, 1947. [The first full biography of DHL]

Richard Aldington, D.H.Lawrence: Portrait of a Genius, But…, London: Heinemann, 1950.

Harry T. Moore, The Life and Works of D.H. Lawrence, London: Unwin Books, 1951.

E. Nehls (ed), D.H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography, 3 vols, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.

Harry T. Moore, A D.H. Lawrence Miscellany, London: Heinemann, 1961.

Harry T. Moore (ed), The Collected Letters of D.H. Lawrence, London: Heinemann, 1962.

Harry T. Moore, The Priest of Love, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1954, revised 1974.

H.D. [Hilda Doolittle], Bid Me To Live, New York: Grove Press, 1960.

E.W. Tedlock Jr (ed), Frieda Lawrence: the Memoirs and Correspondence, London: Heinemann, 1961.

H. Corke, D.H. Lawrence: The Croydon Years, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1965.

Harry T. Moore and Warren Roberts, D.H.Lawrence and his World [illustrated] 1966.

Edward Nehls (ed), D.H.Lawrence: A Composite Biography (3 vols, 1957-9).

Emile Delavenay, [trans. K.M. Delavenay] D.H.Lawrence: The Man and His Work. The Formative Years: [1885-1919], London: Heinemann, 1972.

Robert Lucas, Frieda Lawrence: The Story of Frieda von Richtofen and D.H.Lawrence, 1973.

H. Corke, In Our Infancy: An Autobiography Part I: 1882-1912, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975.

Paul Delany, D.H.Lawrence’s Nightmare: The Writer and his Circle in the Years of the Great War, Hassocks: Harvester, 1979.

Keith Sagar, The Life of D.H.Lawrence: An Illustrated Biography, 1980.

G. Neville (ed. C. Baron), A Memoir of D.H. Lawrence: (The Betrayal), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Anthony Burgess, Flame Into Being: The Life and Works of D.H.Lawrence, 1985.

Keith Sagar, D.H.Lawrence: Life Into Art, 1985.

John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: A Literary Life, 1989.

Jeffrey Meyers, D.H.Lawrence: A Biography, 1990.

John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: The Early Years: 1885-1912: The Cambridge Biography of D.H. Lawrence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Elaine Feinstein, Lawrence’s Women: The Intimate Life of D.H. Lawrence, London: Harper Collins, 1993.

Peter Preston, A D.H.Lawrence Chronology, 1994.

R. Jackson, Frieda Lawrence, Including ‘Not I, But the Wind’ and other Autobiographical Writings, London: Pandora, 1994.

Brenda Maddox, The Married Man: A Biography of D.H.Lawrence, London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1994.

Janet Byrne, A Genius for Living: A Biography of Frieda Lawrence, London: Bloomsbury, 1995.

M. Kinkead-Weekes, D.H.Lawrence: Triumph to Exile: 1912-1922, The Cambridge Biography of D.H.Lawrence 1885-1930, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

J.T. Boulton (ed), The Selected Letters of D.H. Lawrence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

D. Ellis, D.H. Lawrence: Dying Game 1922-1930, The Cambridge Biography of D.H.Lawrence 1885-1930, vol. 3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

© Roy Johnson 2004 with thanks to Damian Grant


D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.


More on D.H. Lawrence
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Filed Under: D.H.Lawrence Tagged With: Bibliography, Biography, D.H.Lawrence, Literary studies, Modernism

DH Lawrence critical essays

September 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

DH Lawrence critical essayscriticism, novels, poetry, stories

These collections of essays and commentary often provide the best evidence of the state of D.H.Lawrence criticism at the time of their publication. The introductions in these works can also provide useful perspectives on Lawrence criticism – especially those in Hoffman/Moore (1953), Spilka (1963), Bloom (1986), and Jackson/Jackson (1988).

Collections of Essays

Frederick J Hoffman and Harry T Moore (eds), The Achievement of D.H.Lawrence, 1953.

Harry T Moore (ed), A D.H.Lawrence Miscellany, 1959.

Modern Fiction Studies 5, (1959) [DHL Number]

Mark Spilka (ed), D.H.Lawrence: A Collection of Critical Essays, 1963.

Ronald Draper (ed), D.H.Lawrence: The Critical Heritage, 1970.

W T Andrews (ed), Critics on D.H.Lawrence, 1971.

Harry Coombes (ed), D.H.Lawrence: A Critical Anthology, 1973.

Leo Hamalian (ed), D.H.Lawrence: A Collection of Criticism, 1973.

Stephen Spender (ed), D.H.Lawrence: Novelist, Poet, Prophet, 1973.

Andor Gomme (ed), D.H.Lawrence: A Critical Study of the Major Novels, 1978.

Anne Smith (ed), Lawrence and Women, 1978.

Robert B Partlow and Harry T Moore (eds), D.H.Lawrence: The Man Who Lived, 1979.

Peter Balbert and Phillip L Marcus (eds), D.H.Lawrence: A Centenary Consideration, 1985.

Jeffrey Meyers (ed), D.H.Lawrence and Tradition, 1985.

Harold Bloom (ed), D.H.Lawrence: Modern Critical Views, 1986.

Christopher Heywood (ed), D.H.Lawrence: New Studies, 1987.

Jeffrey Meyers, (ed) The Legacy of D.H.Lawrence: New Essays, 1987.

Dennis and Fleda Jackson (eds), Critical Essays on D.H.Lawrence, 1988.

Gamini Salgado and G K Das (eds), The Spirit of D.H.Lawrence: Centenary Studies, 1988.

Peter Preston and Peter Hoare (eds), Lawrence in the Modern World, 1989.

Keith Brown (ed), Rethinking Lawrence, 1990.

Michael Squires and Keith Cushman (eds), The Challenge of D.H.Lawrence, 1990.

Aruna Sitesh (ed), D.H.Lawrence: An Anthology of Recent Criticism, 1990.

Peter Widdowson (ed), D.H.Lawrence, [Longman Critical Readers] 1992.


The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.LawrenceThe Complete Critical Guide to D. H. Lawrence is a good introduction to Lawrence criticism. Includes a potted biography of Lawrence, an outline of the stories, novels, plays, and poetry, and pointers towards the main critical writings – from contemporaries T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster to critics of the present day. Also includes a thorough bibliography which covers biography, criticism in books and articles, plus pointers towards specialist Lawrence journals.


Other genres

Tom Marshall, The Psychic Mariner…The Poems of D.H.Lawrence, 1970.

Sandra M Gilbert, Acts of Attention: The Poems of D.H.Lawrence, 1972.

M J Lockwood, Thinking In Poetry: A Study of the Poems of D.H.Lawrence, 1987. [This book contains a comprehensive bibliography of criticism of Lawrence’s poetry, in books, articles, and reviews]

A Banerjee, D.H.Lawrence’s Poetry: Demon Liberated, 1991.

Sylvia Sklar, The Plays of D.H.Lawrence, 1975.

INDIVIDUAL PROSE WORKS

Sons and Lovers

J.W.Tedlock (ed), Sons and Lovers: Sources and Criticism, 1965.

Julian Moynahan (ed), Sons and Lovers: Viking Critical Edition, 1968.

Gamini Salgado (ed), Sons and Lovers: A Casebook, 1969.

Judith Farr (ed) Twentieth-century Interpretations of Sons and Lovers, 1970.

Brian Finney, D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1990.

Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Rick Rylance (ed), Sons and Lovers: A New Casebook, 1996.

The Rainbow and Women in Love

Colin Clarke (ed), The Rainbow and Women in Love: A Casebook, 1969.

Stephen Miko (ed), Twentieth-century Interpretations of Women in Love, 1969.

Mark Kinkead-Weekes (ed), Twentieth-century Interpretations of The Rainbow, 1971.

P.T.Whelan, Myth and Magic in The Rainbow and Women in Love, 1988.

Duane Edwards, The Rainbow: A Search for New Life, 1990.

Charles L.Ross, Women in Love: A Novel of Mythic Realism, 1992.

[both these books appear in the Twayne Masterwork Series]

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

C.H.Rolfe, The Trial of Lady Chatterley, 1960.

Derek Britton, Lady Chatterley: The Making of the Novel, 1988.

The Short Stories

Kingsley Widmer, The Art of Perversity: D.H.Lawrence’s Shorter Fiction, 1962.

Keith Cushman, D.H.Lawrence at Work: The Emergence of the Prussian Officer Stories, 1978.

J.Temple, The definition of innocence: the short stories of D.H.Lawrence, 1979.

© Roy Johnson 2004 – with thanks to Damian Grant


D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.


More on D.H. Lawrence
More on the novella
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More on short stories


Filed Under: D.H.Lawrence Tagged With: D.H.Lawrence, Literary criticism, Literary studies, Modernism

DH Lawrence critical studies

September 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

in chronological order of publication

D.H.Lawrence critical studies
Books on D.H.Lawrence

Stephen Potter, D.H.Lawrence: A First Study, 1930.

John Middleton Murry, Son of Woman: The Story of D.H.Lawrence, 1931.

Catherine Carswell, The Savage Pilgrimage: A Narrative of D.H.Lawrence, 1932.

Frederick Carter, D.H.Lawrence and the Body Mystical, 1932.

Anais Nin, D.H.Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study, Paris: Edward W. Titus, 1932.

Horace Gregory, Pilgrim of the Apocalypse: A Critical Study of D.H.Lawrence, 1933.

William York Tindall, D.H.Lawrence and Susan His Cow, 1939.

William Tiverton [Martin Jarrett-Kerr], D.H.Lawrence and Human Existence, 1951.


The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.LawrenceThe Complete Critical Guide to D. H. Lawrence is a good introduction to Lawrence criticism. Includes a potted biography of Lawrence, an outline of the stories, novels, plays, and poetry, and pointers towards the main critical writings – from contemporaries T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster to critics of the present day. Also includes a thorough bibliography which covers biography, criticism in books and articles, plus pointers towards specialist Lawrence journals.


Mary Freeman, D.H.Lawrence A Basic Study of His Ideas, 1955.

F.R.Leavis, D.H.Lawrence: Novelist, London: Chatto and Windus, 1955.

Mark Spilka, The Love Ethic of D.H.Lawrence, 1955.

Graham Hough, The Dark Sun: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, New York: Capricorn Books, 1956.

Eliseo Vivas, D.H.Lawrence: The Failure and the Triumph of Art, 1960.

Kingsley Widmer, The Art of Perversity: D.H.Lawrence’s Shorter Fiction, 1962.

Eugene Goodheart, The Utopian Vision of D.H.Lawrence, 1963.

Julian Moynahan, The Deed of Life: The Novels and Tales of D.H.Lawrence, 1963.

George Panichas, Adventure in Consciousness: Lawrence’s Religious Quest, 1964.

Helen Corke, D.H. Lawrence: The Croydon Years, Austin (Tex): University of Texas Press, 1965.

George Ford, Double Measure: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, 1965.

H M Daleski, The Forked Flame: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, Evanston (Ill): Northwestern University Press, 1965.

Keith Sagar, The Art of D.H.Lawrence, 1966.

David Cavitch, D.H.Lawrence and the New World, 1969.

Colin Clarke, River of Dissolution: D.H.Lawrence and English Romanticism, 1969.

Baruch Hochman, Another Ego: Self and Society in D.H.Lawrence, 1970.

Keith Aldritt, The Visual Imagination of D.H.Lawrence, 1971.

R E Pritchard, D.H.Lawrence: Body of Darkness, 1971.

John E Stoll, The Novels of D.H.Lawrence: A Search for Integration, 1971.

Frank Kermode, D.H. Lawrence, London: Fontana, 1973.

Scott Sanders, D.H.Lawrence: The World of the Major Novels, 1973.

F.R.Leavis, Thought, Words, and Creativity in Lawrence, 1976.

Marguerite Beede Howe, The Art of the Self in D.H.Lawrence, 1977.

Keith Cushman, D.H. Lawrence at Work: The Emergence of the ‘Prussian Officer’ Stories, Hassocks: Harvester Press, 1978.

Alastair Niven, D.H.Lawrence: The Novels, 1978.

Anne Smith, Lawrence and Women, London: Vision Press, 1978.

R.P. Draper (ed), D.H. Lawrence: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1979.

John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence and the Idea of the Novel, London: Macmillan, 1979.

Aidan Burns, Nature and Culture in D.H.Lawrence, 1980.

L D Clark, The Minoan Distance: Symbolism of Travel in D.H.Lawrence, 1980.

Roger Ebbatson, D.H.Lawrence and the Nature Tradition, 1980.

Alastair Niven, D.H.Lawrence: The Writer and His Work, 1980.

Philip Hobsbaum, A Reader’s Guide to D.H.Lawrence, 1981.

Kim A.Herzinger , D.H.Lawrence in His Time: 1908 – 1915, 1982.

Graham Holderness, D.H.Lawrence: History, Ideology and Fiction, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1982.

Hilary Simpson, D.H.Lawrence and Feminism, London: Croom Helm, 1982.

Gamini Salgado, A Preface to D.H. Lawrence, London: Longman, 1983.

Judith Ruderman, D.H.Lawrence and the Devouring Mother, 1984.

Anthony Burgess, Flame Into Being: The Life and Work of D.H.Lawrence, 1985.

Sheila McLeod, Men and Women in D.H.Lawrence, 1985.

Henry Miller, The World of Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation [1930] 1985.

Keith Sagar, D.H.Lawrence: Life Into Art, 1985.

Mara Kalnins (ed), D.H. Lawrence: Centenary Essays, Bristol: Classical Press, 1986.

Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: The Early Fiction, London: Macmillan, 1986

Peter Scheckner, Class, Politics, and the Individual: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, 1986.

Cornelia Nixon, D.H.Lawrence’s Leadership Novels and the Turn Against Women, 1986.

Colin Milton, Lawrence and Nietzsche, 1988.

Peter Balbert, D.H.Lawrence and the Phallic Imagination, 1989.

Wayne Templeton, States of Estrangement: the Novels of D.H.Lawrence 1912-17, 1989.

Janet Barron, D.H.Lawrence: A Feminist Reading, 1990.

Keith Brown (ed), Rethinking Lawrence, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990.

James C Cowan, D.H.Lawrence and the Trembling Balance, 1990.

John B Humma, Metaphor and Meaning in D.H.Lawrence’s Later Novels, 1990.

G M Hyde, D.H.Lawrence, London: Macmillan, 1990.

Allan Ingram, The Language of D.H. Lawrence, London: Macmillan, 1990.

Nancy Kushigian, Pictures and Fictions: Visual Modernism and D.H.Lawrence, 1990.

Tony Pinkney, Lawrence Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Weatsheaf, 1990.

Leo J.Dorisach, Sexually Balanced Relationships in the Novels of D.H.Lawrence, 1991.

Nigel Kelsey, D.H.Lawrence: Sexual Crisis, 1991.

Barbara Mensch, D.H.Lawrence and the Authoritarian Personality, 1991.

John Worthen, D H Lawrence, London: Arnold, 1991.

Michael Bell, D.H.Lawrence: Language and Being, 1992.

Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Virginia Hyde, The Risen Adam: D. H. Lawrence’s Revisionist
Typology
, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992.

James B.Sipple, Passionate Form: life process as artistic paradigm in D.H.Lawrence, 1992.

Kingsley Widmer, Defiant Desire: Some Dialectical Legacies of D.H.Lawrence, 1992.

Anne Fernihough, D.H.Lawrence: Aesthetics and Ideology, 1993.

Linda R Williams, Sex in the Head: Visions of Femininity and Film in D.H.Lawrence, 1993.

Katherine Waltenscheid, The Resurrection of the Body: Touch in D.H.Lawrence, 1993.

Robert E.Montgomery, The Visionary D.H.Lawrence: Beyond Philosophy and Art, 1994.

James C Cowan, Lawrence, Freud, and Masturbation, 1995.

Leo Hamalian, D.H.Lawrence and Nine Women Writers, 1996.

© Roy Johnson 2004 – with thanks to Damian Grant


D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.


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Filed Under: D.H.Lawrence Tagged With: D.H.Lawrence, Literary criticism, Literary studies, Modernism

DH Lawrence greatest works

September 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

DH Lawrence greatest worksnovels, novellas, stories, poems

D.H.Lawrence is a writer who excites great passions – which is entirely appropriate, since that is how he wrote. He is the first really great writer to come from the working class, and much of his work deals with issues of class, as well as other fundamentals such as the relationships between men, women, and the natural world. At times he becomes mystic and visionary, and his prose style can be poetic, didactic, symbolic, and bombastic all within the space of a few pages. He also deals with issues of sexuality and politics in a manner which is often controversial. Critical opinion tends to be divided between those who believe that he provides illuminating insights into the human psyche, and others who believe that closer study reveals a profound misogyny and some crackpot ideas – particularly in the fields of social and political matters.

 

Sons and LoversSons and Lovers is Lawrence’s first great novel. It’s a quasi-autobiographical account of a young man’s coming of age in the early years of the twentieth century. Set in working class Nottinghamshire, it focuses on class conflicts and gender issues as young Paul Morrell is torn between a passionate relationship with his mother and his attraction to other women. He is also engaged throughout the novel in an Oedipal struggle with his father. If you are new to Lawrence and his work, Sons and Lovers is a good place to start.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

The RainbowThe Rainbow is Lawrence’s version of a social saga, spanning three generations of the Brangwen family. It is the women characters in this novel who remain memorable as they strive to express their feelings. The story concludes with the struggle of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, to liberate themselves from the stifling pressures of Edwardian English society. They also feature in his next and some say greatest novel, Women in Love – so it’s a good idea to read this first.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

Women in LoveWomen in Love begins where The Rainbow leaves off and features the Brangwen sisters as they try to forge new types of liberated personal relationships. The men they choose are trying to do the same thing – so the results are problematic and often disturbing. Many regard this as his finest novel, where his ideas are matched with passages of superb writing. The locations combine urban Bohemia with a symbolic climax which takes place in the icy snow caps of the Alps.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

Lady Chatterley's LoverLady Chatterley’s Lover is Lawrence’s most controversial novel, and perhaps the first serious work of literature to explore human sexuality in explicit detail. It features some of his most lyrical and poetic prose style alongside the theme of class conflict – acted out between the aristocratic Constance Chatterley, and her gamekeeper-lover Mellors. Some feminist critics now claim the novel to be deeply misogynistic, because part of its argument is that women will reach true fulfillment only by submitting themselves to men. Lawrence wrote the novel three times, and it made important historical impacts twice over: one when it was first published in 1928, and the second in the famous obscenity trial in 1960.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

D.H.Lawrence - The Collected Short StoriesThe Complete Short Stories Lawrence contributed to the development of the modern short story by following the post Chekhov approach, which excludes high drama and easy snap endings. Instead, he focuses on moments of personal revelation in the same way as James Joyce did with his ‘epiphanies’. He also features symbolism and a flexible prose style which changes according to its subject. His central theme is personal and sexual relationships and dramas acted out in those parts of the English class system which had been previously left unexamined.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

The Penguin versions of Lawrence reproduce the scholarly editions originally published by Cambridge University Press. They are based on the most accurate versions of the texts, and they include a critical essay of introduction; bibliography of criticism; explanatory notes; alternative and missing chapters; plus glossaries of dialect terms where required. Very good value.

D.H.Lawrence - The Short NovelsThe Short Novels Lawrence was especially fond of the short novel or novella as a literary form. These feature his usual subjects and characters but, as with most successful novellas, they operate at a deeply symbolic level. For example, they feature cosmic elements – as in The Woman Who Rode Away (the sun) The Fox (animal nature) and The Virgin and the Gypsy (flood). Many of these have been successfully translated to the cinema.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

D.H.Lawrence - The Collected PoemsThe Complete Poems Many people believe that Lawrence was just as successful a poet as he was a writer of prose. He writes in a very free verse form, unbounded by traditional structures. The results are fresh, arresting, and full of verbal dexterity. He was especially fond of writing about animals, flowers, and other aspects of nature – usually in a deeply symbolic manner. This collection includes all the poems from the incomplete Collected Poems of 1929 and from the separate smaller volumes issued during Lawrence’s lifetime; uncollected poems; an appendix of juvenilia and another containing variants and early drafts; and all Lawrence’s critical introductions to his poems. It also includes full textual and explanatory notes.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

 

The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.LawrenceThe Complete Critical Guide to D. H. Lawrence is a good introduction to Lawrence criticism. Includes a potted biography of Lawrence, an outline of the stories, novels, plays, and poetry, and pointers towards the main critical writings – from contemporaries such as T.S. Eliot and E.M. Forster to critics of the present day. Also includes a thorough bibliography which covers biography, criticism in books and articles, plus pointers towards specialist Lawrence journals.

D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
D.H.Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US


D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.

© Roy Johnson 2004


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Filed Under: D.H.Lawrence Tagged With: D.H.Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Literary studies, Modernism, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

March 26, 2010 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, textual history, study resources, and web links

Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) is Lawrence’s most controversial novel, and perhaps the first serious work of literature to explore human sexuality in explicit detail. It features some of his most lyrical and poetic prose style alongside the theme of class conflict – acted out between the aristocratic Constance Chatterley, and her gamekeeper-lover Mellors. Some feminist critics now claim the novel to be deeply misogynistic, because part of its argument is that women will reach true fulfillment only by submitting themselves to men. Lawrence wrote the novel three times, and it made important historical impacts twice over: one when it was first published in 1928, and the second in the famous obscenity trial in 1960.

D.H.Lawrence portrait

D.H.Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence is a writer who excites great passions in his readers – which is entirely appropriate, since that is how he wrote. He is the first really great writer to come from the (more or less) working class, and much of his work deals with issues of class, as well as other fundamentals such as the relationships between men, women, and the natural world.

At times he becomes mystic and visionary, and his prose style can be poetic, didactic, symbolic, and bombastic all within the space of a few pages. He also deals with issues of sexuality and politics in a manner which is often controversial.


Lady Chatterley’s Lover – textual history

There were in fact three different versions of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The first, written in 1926, is now known as The First Lady Chatterley. Its main focus is on social and political aspects of a mining community, and it has none of the explicit sex scenes or the frank language for which the third version became famous. The first version was not published until 1944.

The second version was called, rather coyly, John Thomas and Lady Jane. The relationship between Constance Chatterley and her gamekeeper (then called Oliver Parkin) is treated in a more gentle manner. Indeed, Lawrence had Tenderness as an alternative title. It was first published in an Italian translation by Mondadori in 1954.

When he finished the third version in 1928 Lawrence encountered immediate opposition to its publication – both by his agents and his publishers. Nobody would touch the book unless he made substantial cuts – which he refused to make. Lawrence was a veteran of battles with publishers and censors, but he believed very passionately that writers should be free to express themselves openly about matters which they believed to be important and true.

Lady Chatterley's Lover - Penguin coverHe reverted to an old-fashioned strategy for publication and raised money by subscriptions, comissioning a Florentine bookseller named Guiseppe Orioli to print the book in his Tipografia Giuntina using Lawrence’s own capital. The 1,000 copies of this first edition printed in July 1928 were sold through Lawrence’s close personal friends. At only two pounds, the book sold quickly, so that by December, this first version was completely sold out. In November, he published another cheaper edition of 200 copies which sold just as quickly as the first.

The novel quickly developed a scandalous reputation, both because of its explicit sexual scenes and because of Lawrence’s (very occasional) use of words such as cunt and fuck which were regarded as completely taboo terms at the time. Lawrence did indeed make money out of the venture, which he shrewdly put into successful investments on the New York Stock Exchange. But two things conspired against him making even more.

Because the book had been privately published, it was not formally copyrighted, and because of its reputation many other printers and publishers issued pirated copies, which sold well and made them, but not Lawrence, healthy profits. The book was pirated on both sides of the Atlantic.

In response to this, Lawrence put forth a second edition in November 1928, again from the tiny Florentine print shop, and then a cheap edition in May 1929 of 3,000 copies in Paris. This edition sold out by August at sixty francs and was the first to include his prefatory essay entitled ‘My Skirmish with Jolly Roger’. This was a defense, explication, and history of the novel that was published posthumously as A Propos of Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

Lawrence became extremely ill in late 1929 and moved to the Swiss Alps and then to the South of France, where he died in 1930. With the death of Lawrence, publishers felt at liberty to expurgate the novel at will. Without a copyright, a publisher who could come up with a clean version had the promise of the novel’s preceding reputation to back up its success.

In 1932, two expurgated versions were published, 2,000 copies in America and 3,440 copies in England. The publishers of this version euphemistically referred to it as an `abridged’ edition. Whole pages were left out with nothing but confusing asterisks left to mark their omissions. There was no consistency in the use of these astriks; some deleted pages were not even mentioned. Every description of the act of sex and all four-letter words which could have been remotely objectional were left out.

The National Union Catalog records fifteen different printings of expurgated versions between the years 1932 and 1943 in America, England, and Paris. A considerable number of these novels were sold, and the black market still carried a full line of assorted unexpurgated copies. The novel continued to have an underground existence and a high reputation as a banned or forbidden work in the post-war years.

When the full unexpurgated edition was published in Britain in 1960, the trial of the publishers, Penguin Books, under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law. The 1959 act, introduced by Roy Jenkins, had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of literary merit. One of the objections was for the frequent use of the word ‘fuck’ and its derivatives.

Various academic critics, including E. M. Forster, Helen Gardner and Raymond Williams, were called as witnesses, and the verdict, delivered on November 2, 1960, was not guilty. This resulted in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing explicit material in the UK. The prosecution was ridiculed for being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked if it was the kind of book ‘you would wish your wife or servants to read’.

[With thanks to Randall Martin.]


Lady Chatterley’s Lover – study resources

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – annotated Kindle eBook edition

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Signet Classics – Amazon UK

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover –  Signet Classics – Amazon US

Lady Chatterley's Lover The First Lady Chatterley’s Lover – first version – Amazon UK

Lady Chatterley's Lover The Second Lady Chatterley’s Lover – second version – Amazon UK

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – plain text edition at Project Gutenberg

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – audioBook on CD – Amazon UK

Lady Chatterley's Lover Lady Chatterley’s Lover – Cambridge scholarly edition – Amazon UK

Pointer The Complete Critical Guide to D.H. Lawrence – Amazon UK

Red button The Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence – Amazon UK

Red button The Complete Short Novels of D.H.Lawrence – Amazon UK


Lady Chatterley’s Lover – plot summary

Connie Reid is raised as a cultured bohemian of the upper-middle class, and is introduced to love affairs – intellectual and sexual liaisons – as a teenager. In 1917, at 23, she marries Clifford Chatterley, the scion of an aristocratic line. After a month’s honeymoon, he is sent to war, and returns impotent, paralyzed from the waist down.

After the war, Clifford becomes a successful writer, and many intellectuals flock to the Chatterley mansion at Wragby Hall. Connie feels isolated; the intellectuals she meets prove empty and bloodless, and she resorts to a brief and dissatisfying affair with a visiting playwright, Michaelis.

Lady Chatterley's Lover Connie longs for real human contact, and falls into despair, as all men seem scared of true feelings and true passion. There is a growing distance between Connie and Clifford, who has retreated into the meaningless pursuit of success in his writing and in his obsession with coal-mining, and towards whom Connie feels a deep physical aversion. A nurse, Mrs. Bolton, is hired to take care of the handicapped Clifford so that Connie can be more independent, and Clifford falls into a deep dependence on the nurse, his manhood fading into an infantile reliance on her services.

Into the void of Connie’s life comes Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on Clifford’s estate, newly returned from serving in the army. Mellors is aloof and derisive, and yet Connie feels curiously drawn to him by his innate nobility and grace, his purposeful isolation, his undercurrents of natural sensuality.

After several chance meetings in which Mellors keeps her at arm’s length, reminding her of the class distance between them, they meet by chance at a hut in the forest, where they have sex. This happens on several occasions, but still Connie feels a distance between them, remaining profoundly separate from him despite their physical closeness.

One day, Connie and Mellors meet by coincidence in the woods, and they have sex on the forest floor. This time, they experience simultaneous orgasms. This is a revelatory and profoundly moving experience for Connie; she begins to adore Mellors, feeling that they have connected on some deep sensual level. She is proud to believe that she is pregnant with Mellors’ child. He is a real, ‘living’ man, as opposed to the emotionally dead intellectuals and the dehumanized industrial workers. They grow progressively closer, connecting on a primordial physical level, as woman and man rather than as two minds or intellects.

Connie goes away to Venice for a vacation. While she is gone, Mellors’ old wife returns, causing a scandal. Connie returns to find that Mellors has been fired as a result of the negative rumors spread about him by his resentful wife, against whom he has initiated divorce proceedings. Connie admits to Clifford that she is pregnant with Mellors’ baby, but Clifford refuses to give her a divorce. The novel ends with Mellors working on a farm, waiting for his divorce, and Connie living with her sister, also waiting.


Lady Chatterley’s Lover – principal characters
Clifford Chatterley landowner, disabled WW1 veteran, and businessman
Constance Chatterley his wife, an intellectual and social progressive
Oliver Mellors ex-soldier, ex-blacksmith, intellectual, and the gamekeeper at Wragby Hall
Mrs (Ivy) Bolton Clifford’s devoted housekeeper
Michaelis successful Irish playwright
Sir Macolm Reid Connie’s father, a painter
Hilda Reid Connie’s sister
Tommy Dukes an intellectual friend of Clifford’s
Duncan Forbes an artist friend of Connie and Hilda
Bertha Coutts Mellor’s wife – who does no appear in the novel

Film version

2007 French adaptation of the second version of the novel

Pointer See reviews of the film at the Internet Movie Database


Further reading

Biography

Pointer Frieda Lawrence, Not I, But the Wind…, New York: Viking Press, 1934.

Pointer Harry T. Moore, The Life and Works of D.H. Lawrence, London: Unwin Books, 1951.

Pointer Keith Sagar, The Life of D.H.Lawrence: An Illustrated Biography, London: Eyre Methuen, 1980.

Pointer John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: The Early Years: 1885-1912: The Cambridge Biography of D.H. Lawrence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Pointer Brenda Maddox, The Married Man: A Biography of D.H.Lawrence, London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1994.

Letters

Pointer J.T. Boulton (ed), The Selected Letters of D.H. Lawrence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Criticism

Pointer David Ellis, D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’: A Casebook, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Pointer John Worthen, The First ‘Women in Love’ (Cambridge Edition of the Works of D.HLawrence), Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Pointer Graham Handley, Brodie’s Notes on D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’, London: Macmillan, 1992.

Pointer Harold Bloom, D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’ (Modern Critical Interpretations), Chelsea House Publishers, 1991.

Pointer Anne Fernihough, The Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Pointer Fiona Becket, The Complete Critical Guide to D.H. Lawrence, London: Routledge, 2002.


D.H.Lawrence painting - The Holy Family

Painting by Lawrence – ‘The Holy Family’


Background reading

Pointer button Mary Freeman, D.H.Lawrence A Basic Study of His Ideas, Grosset and Dunlap, 1955.

Pointer button F.R.Leavis, D.H.Lawrence: Novelist, London: Chatto and Windus, 1955.

Pointer button Mark Spilka, The Love Ethic of D.H.Lawrence, Dobson, 1955.

Pointer button Graham Hough, The Dark Sun: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, New York: Capricorn Books, 1956.

Pointer button Eliseo Vivas, D.H.Lawrence: The Failure and the Triumph of Art, General Books 1960.

Pointer button Kingsley Widmer, The Art of Perversity: D.H.Lawrence’s Shorter Fiction, University of Washington Press, 1962.

Pointer button Eugene Goodheart, The Utopian Vision of D.H.Lawrence, Transaction Publishers, 1963.

Pointer button Julian Moynahan, The Deed of Life: The Novels and Tales of D.H.Lawrence, Oxford University Press, 1963.

Pointer button George Panichas, Adventure in Consciousness: Lawrence’s Religious Quest, Folcroft Library Editions, 1964.

Pointer button Helen Corke, D.H. Lawrence: The Croydon Years, Austin (Tex): University of Texas Press, 1965.

Pointer button George Ford, Double Measure; A Study of D.H.Lawrence, New York: Holt Reinhart and Winston, 1965.

Pointer button H M Daleski, The Forked Flame: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, Evanston (Ill): Northwestern University Press, 1965.

Pointer button Keith Sagar, The Art of D.H.Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 1966.

Pointer button David Cavitch, D.H.Lawrence and the New World, Oxford University Press, 1969.

Pointer button Colin Clarke, River of Dissolution: D.H.Lawrence and English Romanticism, London: Routledge, 1969.

Pointer button Baruch Hochman, Another Ego: Self and Society in D.H.Lawrence, University of South Carolina Press, 1970.

Pointer button Keith Aldritt, The Visual Imagination of D.H.Lawrence, Hodder and Stoughton, 1971.

Pointer button R E Pritchard, D.H.Lawrence: Body of Darkness, Hutchinson, 1971.

Pointer button John E Stoll, The Novels of D.H.Lawrence: A Search for Integration, University of Missouri Press, 1971.

Pointer button Frank Kermode, D.H. Lawrence, London: Fontana, 1973.

Pointer button Scott Sanders, D.H.Lawrence: The World of the Major Novels, Vision Press, 1973.

Pointer button F.R.Leavis, Thought, Words, and Creativity: Art and Thought in Lawrence, Chatto and Windus, 1976.

Pointer button Marguerite Beede Howe, The Art of the Self in D.H.Lawrence, Ohio University Press, 1977.

Pointer button Alastair Niven, D.H.Lawrence: The Novels, Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Pointer button Anne Smith, Lawrence and Women, London: Vision Press, 1978.

Pointer button R.P. Draper (ed), D.H. Lawrence: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1979.

Pointer button John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence and the Idea of the Novel, London: Macmillan, 1979.

Pointer button Aidan Burns, Nature and Culture in D.H.Lawrence, London: Macmillan, 1980.

Pointer button L D Clark, The Minoan Distance: Symbolism of Travel in D.H.Lawrence, University of Arizona Press, 1980.

Pointer button Roger Ebbatson, D.H.Lawrence and the Nature Tradition: A Theme in English Fiction 1859-1914, Humanities Oress, 1980.

Pointer button Alastair Niven, D.H.Lawrence: The Writer and His Work, New York: Scribner, 1980.

Pointer button Philip Hobsbaum, A Reader’s Guide to D.H.Lawrence, Thames and Hudson, 1981.

Pointer button Kim A.Herzinger , D.H.Lawrence in His Time: 1908-1915, Bucknell University Press, 1982.

Pointer button Graham Holderness, D.H.Lawrence: History, Ideology and Fiction, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1982.

Pointer button Hilary Simpson, D.H.Lawrence and Feminism, London: Croom Helm, 1982.

Pointer button Gamini Salgado, A Preface to D.H. Lawrence, London: Longman, 1983.

Pointer button Judith Ruderman, D.H.Lawrence and the Devouring Mother, Duke University Press, 1984.

Pointer button Anthony Burgess, Flame Into Being: The Life and Work of D.H.Lawrence, London: Heinemann, 1985.

Pointer button Sheila McLeod, Lawrence’s Men and Women, London: Heinemann, 1985.

Pointer button Henry Miller, The World of Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation, London: Calder Publications, [1930] 1985.

Pointer button Keith Sagar, D.H.Lawrence: Life Into Art, London: Penguin Books, 1985.

Pointer button Mara Kalnins (ed), D.H. Lawrence: Centenary Essays, Bristol: Classical Press, 1986.

Pointer button Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: The Early Fiction, Cambridge University Press, 1986

Pointer button Peter Scheckner, Class, Politics, and the Individual: A Study of the Major Works of D.H.Lawrence, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986.

Pointer button Cornelia Nixon, D.H.Lawrence’s Leadership Novels and the Turn Against Women, University of California Press, 1986.

Pointer button Colin Milton, Lawrence and Nietzsche: A Study in Influence, Mercat Press, 1988.

Pointer button Peter Balbert, D.H.Lawrence and the Phallic Imagination: Essays on Sexual Identity and Feminist Misreading, London: Macmillan, 1989.

Pointer button Wayne Templeton, States of Estrangement: the Novels of D.H.Lawrence 1912-17, Whiston Publishing, 1989.

Pointer button Janet Barron, D.H.Lawrence: (Feminist Readings), Prentice Hall, 1990.

Pointer button Keith Brown (ed), Rethinking Lawrence, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990.

Pointer button James C Cowan, D.H.Lawrence and the Trembling Balance, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990.

Pointer button John B Humma, Metaphor and Meaning in D.H.Lawrence’s Later Novels, University of Missouri Press 1990.

Pointer button G M Hyde, D.H.Lawrence (Modern Novelists), London: Macmillan, 1990.

Pointer button Allan Ingram, The Language of D.H. Lawrence, London: Macmillan, 1990.

Pointer button Nancy Kushigian, Pictures and Fictions: Visual Modernism and the Pre-War Novels of D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1990.

Pointer button Tony Pinkney, Lawrence (New Readings), Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Weatsheaf, 1990.

Pointer button Leo J.Dorisach, Sexually Balanced Relationships in the Novels of D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1991.

Pointer button Nigel Kelsey, D.H.Lawrence: Sexual Crisis (Studies in 20th Century Literature), London: Macmillan, 1991.

Pointer button Barbara Mensch, D.H.Lawrence and the Authoritarian Personality, London: Macmillan, 1991.

Pointer button John Worthen, D H Lawrence (Modern Fiction), London: Arnold, 1991.

Pointer button Michael Bell, D.H.Lawrence: Language and Being, Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Pointer button Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Pointer button Virginia Hyde, The Risen Adam: D. H. Lawrence’s Revisionist Typology, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992.

Pointer button James B.Sipple, Passionate Form: life process as artistic paradigm in D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1992.

Pointer button Kingsley Widmer, Defiant Desire: Some Dialectical Legacies of D.H.Lawrence, Southern Illinois University Press, 1992.

Pointer button Anne Fernihough, D.H.Lawrence: Aesthetics and Ideology, Clarendon Press, 1993.

Pointer button Linda R Williams, Sex in the Head: Visions of Femininity and Film in D.H.Lawrence, Prentice Hall, 1993.

Pointer button Katherine Waltenscheid, The Resurrection of the Body: Touch in D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1993.

Pointer button Robert E.Montgomery, The Visionary D.H.Lawrence: Beyond Philosophy and Art, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Pointer button Leo Hamalian, D.H.Lawrence and Nine Women Writers, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.

Pointer button Anne Fernihough, The Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Pointer button Fiona Becket, The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.Lawrence, London: Routledge, 2002.

Pointer button James C Cowan, D.H. Lawrence: Self and Sexuality, Ohio State University Press, 2003.

Pointer button John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider, London: Penguin, 2006.

Pointer button David Ellis (ed), D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’: A Casebook, Oxford University Press, 2006.


Other work by D.H.Lawrence

Sons and LoversSons and Lovers This is Lawrence’s first great novel. It’s a quasi-autobiographical account of a young man’s coming of age in the early years of the twentieth century. The setting is working class Nottinghamshire, and the story it focuses on class conflicts and gender issues as young Paul Morrell is torn between a passionate relationship with his mother and his attraction to other women. He is also locked insomething of an Oedipal struggle with his coal-miner father. If you are new to Lawrence and his work, this is a good place to start.
Lady Chatterley's Lover Buy the book at Amazon UK
Lady Chatterley's Lover Buy the book at Amazon US

Women in LoveWomen in Love begins where his previous big novel The Rainbow leaves off and features the Brangwen sisters as they try to forge new types of liberated personal relationships. The men they choose are trying to do the same thing – and the results are problematic and often disturbing for all concerned. Many regard this as his finest novel, where his ideas are matched with passages of superb writing. The locations combine urban Bohemia with a symbolic climax which takes place in the icy snow caps of the Alps.
Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US


D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.

© Roy Johnson 2010


More on D.H. Lawrence
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories


Filed Under: D.H.Lawrence Tagged With: D.H.Lawrence, English literature, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Literary studies, Study guides, The novel

Women in Love

February 17, 2010 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, textual history, study resources, and web links

Women in Love (1921) begins where Lawrence’s earlier novel The Rainbow leaves off and features the Brangwen sisters as they try to forge new types of liberated personal relationships. The men they choose are trying to do the same thing – so the results are problematic and often disturbing. Many regard this as his finest novel, where his ideas are matched with passages of superb writing. The locations combine urban Bohemia with a symbolic climax which takes place in the icy snow caps of the Alps.

Women in Love

D.H. Lawrence is a writer who excites great passions in his readers – which is entirely appropriate, since that is how he wrote. He is the first really great writer to come from the (more or less) working class, and much of his work deals with issues of class, as well as other fundamentals such as the relationships between men, women, and the natural world.

At times he becomes mystic and visionary, and his prose style can be poetic, didactic, symbolic, and bombastic all within the space of a few pages. He also deals with issues of sexuality and politics in a manner which is often controversial.


Women in Love – textual history

Both The Rainbow and Women in Love have their origins in a 1913 draft called ‘The Sisters.’ The next year, Lawrence revised it further into a novel entitled The Wedding Ring, which Methuen agreed to publish in 1914. The outbreak of war late that year caused the publisher to renege on the agreement, and Lawrence decided to rework the source material, separating it into two novels.

The Rainbow, treating the early lives of the sisters, was suppressed shortly after its publication in 1915 on grounds of obscenity. Lawrence then spent four years revising the remainder of The Wedding Ring into a second novel, shopping it to publishers without success until 1920, when Thomas Seltzer published the first American edition.

Women in Love - first editionWomen in Love was originally published in New York City as a limited edition (1250 books), available only to subscribers; this was due to the controversy caused by The Rainbow. Because the two books were originally written as parts of a single novel, the publisher had decided to publish them separately and in rapid succession. The first book’s treatment of sexuality, while tame by today’s standards, was rather too frank for the Edwardian era. There was an obscenity trial and The Rainbow was banned in the UK for 11 years, although it was available in the US. The publisher then backed out of publishing the second book in the UK, so it first appeared in the US in 1920.

It was printed in England the following year by Martin Secker. Although both editions were based on the same copies prepared by Lawrence, the fate of The Rainbow led Secker to limit his exposure by cutting sections of the text which might run foul of the censors. In fact, in the English second printing, Heseltine’s threat to sue for libel resulted in changes to the descriptions of Halliday and the Pussum, changing the one from pale and fair-haired to swarthy and the other from red-haired to blonde.

In fact such are the textual complications behind the text that there are now two or more versions, some of which reproduce the original, and others which include formerly deleted scenes. The most authoritative are those published in the Cambridge University Press series of the definitive works of D.H.Lawrence.


Women in Love – study resources

Red button Women in Love – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

Red button Women in Love – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

Red button Women in Love – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

Red button Women in Love – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

Red button Women in Love – Kindle eBook edition

Red button Women in Love – York Notes – Amazon UK

Red button Women in Love – A Casebook (Criticism) – Amazon UK

Red button The First Women in Love – definitive edition – Amazon UK

Red button Women in Love – eBook editions at Project Gutenberg

Red button Women in Love – audioBook edition at LibriVox

Red button Women in Love – audioBook (Talking Classics) – Amazon UK

Red button The Complete Critical Guide to D.H. Lawrence – Amazon UK

Red button The Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence – Amazon UK

Red button The Complete Short Novels of D.H.Lawrence – Amazon UK


Women in Love – plot summary

Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen are two sisters living in the Midlands of England in the 1910s. Ursula is a teacher, Gudrun an artist. They meet two men who live nearby, school inspector Rupert Birkin and coal-mine heir Gerald Crich. The four become friends. Ursula and Birkin become involved, and Gudrun eventually begins a love affair with Gerald. The dynamics between them all are complicated, however, by the strong connection between the sisters, as well as the more ambiguous bond between the two male friends.

Women in LoveAll four are deeply concerned with questions of society, politics, and the relationship between men and women. Ultimately however, the two relationships go in very different directions. The initial strife between Birkin and Ursula over his lingering attachment to the controlling Hermione Roddice is resolved by his eventual willingness to break off their relationship, and Birkin and Ursula give up their jobs as teachers to take up a more bohemian lifestyle.

Gerald and Gudrun begin on the firm ground of mutual sexual attraction, and their bond intensifies when Gerald’s ailing father invites Gudrun to become the art tutor for the family’s young daughter Winifred.

At a party at Gerald’s estate, Gerald’s sister Diana drowns. Soon Gerald’s coal-mine-owning father dies as well, after a long illness. After the funeral, Gerald goes to Gudrun’s house and spends the night with her, while her parents sleep in another room.

Birkin asks Ursula to marry him, and she agrees. Gerald and Gudrun’s relationship, however, becomes stormy. The four vacation in the Alps. Gudrun begins an intense friendship with Loerke, a physically puny but emotionally commanding artist from Dresden. Gerald is enraged by Loerke, by Gudrun’s verbal abuse, and by his own destructive nature. He tries to murder Gudrun, and when he fails he retreats back over the mountains and falls to a sort of voluntary death in the snow.


Principal characters
Rupert Birkin a schoolteacher
Ursula Brangwen a schoolteacher
Gudrun Brangwen her sister, an artist
Gerald Crich the son of a wealthy industrialist
Loerke a German artist

Film version

Director Ken Russell 1969
Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden

Red button See reviews of the film at the Internet Movie Database


Further reading

Biography

Pointer Frieda Lawrence, Not I, But the Wind…, New York: Viking Press, 1934.

Pointer Harry T. Moore, The Life and Works of D.H. Lawrence, London: Unwin Books, 1951.

Pointer Keith Sagar, The Life of D.H.Lawrence: An Illustrated Biography, London: Eyre Methuen, 1980.

Pointer John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: The Early Years: 1885-1912: The Cambridge Biography of D.H. Lawrence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Pointer Brenda Maddox, The Married Man: A Biography of D.H.Lawrence, London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1994.

Letters

Pointer J.T. Boulton (ed), The Selected Letters of D.H. Lawrence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Criticism

Pointer David Ellis, D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’: A Casebook, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Pointer John Worthen, The First ‘Women in Love’ (Cambridge Edition of the Works of D.HLawrence), Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Pointer Graham Handley, Brodie’s Notes on D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’, London: Macmillan, 1992.

Pointer Harold Bloom, D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’ (Modern Critical Interpretations), Chelsea House Publishers, 1991.

Pointer Anne Fernihough, The Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Pointer Fiona Becket, The Complete Critical Guide to D.H. Lawrence, London: Routledge, 2002.


Background reading

Pointer button Mary Freeman, D.H.Lawrence A Basic Study of His Ideas, Grosset and Dunlap, 1955.

Pointer button F.R.Leavis, D.H.Lawrence: Novelist, London: Chatto and Windus, 1955.

Pointer button Mark Spilka, The Love Ethic of D.H.Lawrence, Dobson, 1955.

Pointer button Graham Hough, The Dark Sun: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, New York: Capricorn Books, 1956.

Pointer button Eliseo Vivas, D.H.Lawrence: The Failure and the Triumph of Art, General Books 1960.

Pointer button Kingsley Widmer, The Art of Perversity: D.H.Lawrence’s Shorter Fiction, University of Washington Press, 1962.

Pointer button Eugene Goodheart, The Utopian Vision of D.H.Lawrence, Transaction Publishers, 1963.

Pointer button Julian Moynahan, The Deed of Life: The Novels and Tales of D.H.Lawrence, Oxford University Press, 1963.

Pointer button George Panichas, Adventure in Consciousness: Lawrence’s Religious Quest, Folcroft Library Editions, 1964.

Pointer button Helen Corke, D.H. Lawrence: The Croydon Years, Austin (Tex): University of Texas Press, 1965.

Pointer button George Ford, Double Measure; A Study of D.H.Lawrence, New York: Holt Reinhart and Winston, 1965.

Pointer button H M Daleski, The Forked Flame: A Study of D.H.Lawrence, Evanston (Ill): Northwestern University Press, 1965.

Pointer button Keith Sagar, The Art of D.H.Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 1966.

Pointer button David Cavitch, D.H.Lawrence and the New World, Oxford University Press, 1969.

Pointer button Colin Clarke, River of Dissolution: D.H.Lawrence and English Romanticism, London: Routledge, 1969.

Pointer button Baruch Hochman, Another Ego: Self and Society in D.H.Lawrence, University of South Carolina Press, 1970.

Pointer button Keith Aldritt, The Visual Imagination of D.H.Lawrence, Hodder and Stoughton, 1971.

Pointer button R E Pritchard, D.H.Lawrence: Body of Darkness, Hutchinson, 1971.

Pointer button John E Stoll, The Novels of D.H.Lawrence: A Search for Integration, University of Missouri Press, 1971.

Pointer button Frank Kermode, D.H. Lawrence, London: Fontana, 1973.

Pointer button Scott Sanders, D.H.Lawrence: The World of the Major Novels, Vision Press, 1973.

Pointer button F.R.Leavis, Thought, Words, and Creativity: Art and Thought in Lawrence, Chatto and Windus, 1976.

Pointer button Marguerite Beede Howe, The Art of the Self in D.H.Lawrence, Ohio University Press, 1977.

Pointer button Alastair Niven, D.H.Lawrence: The Novels, Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Pointer button Anne Smith, Lawrence and Women, London: Vision Press, 1978.

Pointer button R.P. Draper (ed), D.H. Lawrence: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1979.

Pointer button John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence and the Idea of the Novel, London: Macmillan, 1979.

Pointer button Aidan Burns, Nature and Culture in D.H.Lawrence, London: Macmillan, 1980.

Pointer button L D Clark, The Minoan Distance: Symbolism of Travel in D.H.Lawrence, University of Arizona Press, 1980.

Pointer button Roger Ebbatson, D.H.Lawrence and the Nature Tradition: A Theme in English Fiction 1859-1914, Humanities Oress, 1980.

Pointer button Alastair Niven, D.H.Lawrence: The Writer and His Work, New York: Scribner, 1980.

Pointer button Philip Hobsbaum, A Reader’s Guide to D.H.Lawrence, Thames and Hudson, 1981.

Pointer button Kim A.Herzinger , D.H.Lawrence in His Time: 1908-1915, Bucknell University Press, 1982.

Pointer button Graham Holderness, D.H.Lawrence: History, Ideology and Fiction, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1982.

Pointer button Hilary Simpson, D.H.Lawrence and Feminism, London: Croom Helm, 1982.

Pointer button Gamini Salgado, A Preface to D.H. Lawrence, London: Longman, 1983.

Pointer button Judith Ruderman, D.H.Lawrence and the Devouring Mother, Duke University Press, 1984.

Pointer button Anthony Burgess, Flame Into Being: The Life and Work of D.H.Lawrence, London: Heinemann, 1985.

Pointer button Sheila McLeod, Lawrence’s Men and Women, London: Heinemann, 1985.

Pointer button Henry Miller, The World of Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation, London: Calder Publications, [1930] 1985.

Pointer button Keith Sagar, D.H.Lawrence: Life Into Art, London: Penguin Books, 1985.

Pointer button Mara Kalnins (ed), D.H. Lawrence: Centenary Essays, Bristol: Classical Press, 1986.

Pointer button Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: The Early Fiction, Cambridge University Press, 1986

Pointer button Peter Scheckner, Class, Politics, and the Individual: A Study of the Major Works of D.H.Lawrence, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1986.

Pointer button Cornelia Nixon, D.H.Lawrence’s Leadership Novels and the Turn Against Women, University of California Press, 1986.

Pointer button Colin Milton, Lawrence and Nietzsche: A Study in Influence, Mercat Press, 1988.

Pointer button Peter Balbert, D.H.Lawrence and the Phallic Imagination: Essays on Sexual Identity and Feminist Misreading, London: Macmillan, 1989.

Pointer button Wayne Templeton, States of Estrangement: the Novels of D.H.Lawrence 1912-17, Whiston Publishing, 1989.

Pointer button Janet Barron, D.H.Lawrence: (Feminist Readings), Prentice Hall, 1990.

Pointer button Keith Brown (ed), Rethinking Lawrence, Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1990.

Pointer button James C Cowan, D.H.Lawrence and the Trembling Balance, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990.

Pointer button John B Humma, Metaphor and Meaning in D.H.Lawrence’s Later Novels, University of Missouri Press 1990.

Pointer button G M Hyde, D.H.Lawrence (Modern Novelists), London: Macmillan, 1990.

Pointer button Allan Ingram, The Language of D.H. Lawrence, London: Macmillan, 1990.

Pointer button Nancy Kushigian, Pictures and Fictions: Visual Modernism and the Pre-War Novels of D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1990.

Pointer button Tony Pinkney, Lawrence (New Readings), Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Weatsheaf, 1990.

Pointer button Leo J.Dorisach, Sexually Balanced Relationships in the Novels of D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1991.

Pointer button Nigel Kelsey, D.H.Lawrence: Sexual Crisis (Studies in 20th Century Literature), London: Macmillan, 1991.

Pointer button Barbara Mensch, D.H.Lawrence and the Authoritarian Personality, London: Macmillan, 1991.

Pointer button John Worthen, D H Lawrence (Modern Fiction), London: Arnold, 1991.

Pointer button Michael Bell, D.H.Lawrence: Language and Being, Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Pointer button Michael Black, D.H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Pointer button Virginia Hyde, The Risen Adam: D. H. Lawrence’s Revisionist Typology, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992.

Pointer button James B.Sipple, Passionate Form: life process as artistic paradigm in D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1992.

Pointer button Kingsley Widmer, Defiant Desire: Some Dialectical Legacies of D.H.Lawrence, Southern Illinois University Press, 1992.

Pointer button Anne Fernihough, D.H.Lawrence: Aesthetics and Ideology, Clarendon Press, 1993.

Pointer button Linda R Williams, Sex in the Head: Visions of Femininity and Film in D.H.Lawrence, Prentice Hall, 1993.

Pointer button Katherine Waltenscheid, The Resurrection of the Body: Touch in D.H.Lawrence, Peter Lang Publishing, 1993.

Pointer button Robert E.Montgomery, The Visionary D.H.Lawrence: Beyond Philosophy and Art, Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Pointer button Leo Hamalian, D.H.Lawrence and Nine Women Writers, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.

Pointer button Anne Fernihough, The Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Pointer button Fiona Becket, The Complete Critical Guide to D.H.Lawrence, London: Routledge, 2002.

Pointer button James C Cowan, D.H. Lawrence: Self and Sexuality, Ohio State University Press, 2003.

Pointer button John Worthen, D.H.Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider, London: Penguin, 2006.

Pointer button David Ellis (ed), D.H.Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’: A Casebook, Oxford University Press, 2006.


Other work by D.H.Lawrence

Sons and LoversSons and Lovers This is Lawrence’s first great novel. It’s a quasi-autobiographical account of a young man’s coming of age in the early years of the twentieth century. Set in working class Nottinghamshire, it focuses on class conflicts and gender issues as young Paul Morrell is torn between a passionate relationship with his mother and his attraction to other women. He also has a quasi-Oedipal conflict with his coal miner father. If you are new to Lawrence and his work, this is a good place to start.

Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Lawrence greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US

The RainbowThe Rainbow This is Lawrence’s version of a social saga, spanning three generations of the Brangwen family. It is the women characters in this novel who remain memorable as they strive to express their feelings. The story concludes with the struggle of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, to liberate themselves from the stifling pressures of Edwardian English society. They also feature in his next and some say greatest novel, Women in Love – so it would be a good idea to read this first.

Alejo Carpentier greatest works Buy the book at Amazon UK
Alejo Carpentier greatest works Buy the book at Amazon US


D.H.Lawrence – web links

D.H.Lawrence web links D.H.Lawrence at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, study guides, videos, bibliographies, critical studies, and web links.

Project Gutenberg D.H.Lawrence at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the novels, stories, travel writing, and poetry – available in a variety of formats.

Wikipedia D.H.Lawrence at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, social background, publishing history, the Lady Chatterley trial, critical reputation, bibliography, archives, and web links.

Film adaptations D.H.Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of Lawrence’s work for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors, actors, production, box office, trivia, and even quizzes.

D.H.Lawrence D.H.Lawrence archive at the University of Nottingham
Biography, further reading, textual genetics, frequently asked questions, his local reputation, research centre, bibliographies, and lists of holdings.

Red button D.H.Lawrence and Eastwood
Nottinhamshire local enthusiast web site featuring biography, historical and recent photographs of the Eastwood area and places associated with Lawrence.

D.H.Lawrence The World of D.H.Lawrence
Yet another University of Nottingham web site featuring biography, interactive timeline, maps, virtual tour, photographs, and web links.

Red buttonD.H.Lawrence Heritage
Local authority style web site, with maps, educational centre, and details of lectures, visits, and forthcoming events.

© Roy Johnson 2010


More on D.H. Lawrence
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories


Filed Under: D.H.Lawrence Tagged With: D.H.Lawrence, Literary studies, Modernism, study guide, The novel, Women in Love

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