Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of D(avid) H(erbert Richards) Lawrence, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 13820 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Soon the primroses are strong on the ground. There is a bank of small, frail crocuses shooting the lavender into this spring. And then the tussocks and tussocks of primroses are fully out, there is full morning everywhere on the banks and roadsides and stream-sides, and around the olive roots, a morning of primroses underfoot, with an invisible threading of many violets, and then the lovely blue clusters of hepatica, really like pieces of blue sky showing through a clarity of primrose. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautifully Written Travel Narrative
D.H. Lawrence is better known for his various novels, i.e., Women in Love; Lady Chatterly's Lover; and Sons and Lovers than for his travel writing.With that said, I highly recommend this book.Personally I love Lawrence's writing style and this particular book is exceptional even for Lawrence.You will feel as though you are there with him experiencing the moment he is describing.The people and places of Italy come alive through his prose.His writing moves, at times, from reality and physical descriptions to abstraction and philosophy, but it is so wonderfully written, you will cherish every word and never question the move from one to the other.Images abound in this work and the scenes he describes are beautifully sensual.I have read this work twice and plan on reading it numerous other times throughout my life. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
Take off that mute, do!' cried Louisa, snatching her fingers from the piano keys, and turning abruptly to the violinist. Helena looked slowly from her music.'My dear Louisa,' she replied, 'it would be simply unendu-rable.' She stood tapping her white skirt with her bow in a kind of a pathetic forbearance. 'But I can't understand it,' cried Louisa, bouncing on her chair with the exaggeration of one who is indignant with a beloved. 'It is only lately you would even submit to muting your violin. At one time you would have refused flatly, and no doubtabout it.' 'I have only lately submitted to many things,' replied Helena, who seemed weary and stupefied, but still sententious. Louisa drooped from her bristling defiance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Lawrence feels too Impressionable
The Trespasser is the tragic tale of Siemund, a music teacher with an unhappy family life, and his student, who becomes his lover.It isn't a worthless book, but your time would definately be better spent reading oneof the famous Lawrence books - this is clearly the creation of a young,impressionable mind.For instance, Lawrence makes constant reference toWagner's 'Ring' in the book, rubbing the reader's nose profusely inheavyhanded hints that Siemund is borrowed from the German composer's work. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Download Description
She replied to everybody in a soft voice, a strange, soft aplomb that was very attractive. And she moved round with rather mechanical, attractive movements, as if her thoughts were elsewhere. But she had always this dim far-awayness in her bearing: a sort of modesty. The strange man by the fire watched her curiously. There was an alert, inquisitive, mindless curiosity on his well-coloured face. ... Read more

Book Description
These three novellas explore human relationships and the devastating results of war. In The Fox, a predator targets two young women living on a small farm during the First World War. The Captain’s Doll explores the complex relationship between a German countess and a married Scottish soldier in occupied Germany. In The Ladybird, a wounded prisoner of war has a disturbing influence on the Englishwoman who visits him in the hospital.
* Uses the restored texts of the Cambridge edition
* Includes a new introduction, chronology, and further readingDownload Description
D.H. Lawrence wrote these three novelettes between November 1920 and December 1921. The ending of the first version of The Fox, written in 1918, is given in an appendix; Lawrence later added a "long tail". The Ladybird also started out as a short story, but was completely rewritten; two manuscript pages omitted by the typist are included for the first time. The Captain's Doll arose out of Lawrence's visit to Austria in the summer of 1920. Professor Dieter Mehl gives the composition histories, and relates problems with typists and in publication. There is an appendix on the models for the main characters and the setting of The Fox. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Doll's Captain
In " The Captain's Doll" the reader experiences a relationship that is not well-accepted by society. The Captain Hepburn and his mistress Hannele. The love in an affair is not a twosided love, usually one person ends up giving themselves more than the other person involved.Hannele questions herself throughout her relationship with the Captain and the intergery of their love. He does not want to love her and all she wants to do is love him.The story is very easy to read and short. It is a great book and I truly recommend it.

The title fits the content
I had to read this book for a literature class, and it was chosen to be our favorite by far.The discussions deepened from lesbians,co-dependancy, and control.Of the three main characters we actually foundfive.Each lady has a different personality depending on what name she iscalled by.We may be reaching but it was interesting backing it up withthe text.If you enjoy D.H. Lawrence you will love this novella. ... Read more

Book Description
David Herbert Lawrence was born in Eastwood, England, in 1885. In 1914, he married Frieda Von Richtofen, a German national and distant cousin of the German war ace, "The Red Baron" von Richthofen. While living on the Coast of Cornwall in 1917, they were harassed and accused of being spies for Germany.

By 1921, the Lawrences were living in Italy and D. H. had won international acclaim for his writings. Mabel Dodge Sterne invited the pair to her home in Taos, New Mexico. Traveling by way of Ceylon, Australia, Tahiti, and, finally, San Francisco, the Lawrences set foot in New Mexico for the first time in 1922. Although he traveled all over the world, Lawrence was never as happy anywhere as he was in Taos.

Arthur Bachrach has lived in Taos for over twenty years, and he has come to know people who freely recalled the Lawrences. They shared information about the circle of artists and friends who surrounded the Lawrences and their lifestyles. Bachrach provides information on Lawrence's writings and the influence living in the mountains of New Mexico had upon him.

D. H. Lawrence died of tuberculosis while visiting France in 1930, and five years later, his ashes were placed in a memorial on his beloved Kiowa Ranch near Taos. Given to the University of New Mexico in the 1950s by D. H.'s widow, the ranch is known today as the D. H. Lawrence Ranch.

Recollections of Lawrence's life and friends in 1920s Taos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The vital sap
Lawrence began with imitative Georgian verse filled with archaic turns and cliched tropes. But influenced by Whitman he turned to a kind of free verse, and so began his long life in creating a vital poetry. Lawrence's poetry is the expression of his most initimate feelings. The poems which are most renowed are those which express his relation to nature,"The Snake" perhaps being the most well- known of them. He also has however especially towards the end , poetry which simply argues and derides those who oppose him.
His poetry becomes so ' free ' at time that it would seem closer to 'prose poetry' than Poetry itself.
His poems are short, and have sudden turns which may spring the lines to life.
I find however a shortcoming in what I would call a lack of 'memorable lines'.

Great Collection!
The collection of poems is great.The book is very complete and organized in a easyto read format.I'm really glad I bought this book.

D.H.
I became acquainted with Lawrence's novels my sophomore year in college, and was hooked. A couple of years down the line, a professor recommended I take a look at his poetry, which he suggested was equally great, if not greater. He said he was like a British Whitman. Investigating the analogy, I came across this quote of Lawrence's: "Whitman, the great poet, has meant so much to me. Whitman, the one man breaking a way ahead. Whitman, the one pioneer. And only Whitman. No English pioneers, no French. No European pioneer-poets. In Europe the would-be pioneers are mere innovators. The same in America. Ahead of Whitman, nothing. Ahead of all poets, pioneering into the wilderness of unopened life, Whitman. Beyond him, none." Hyperbolic? Could be, and I'm admittedly a poor judge of poetry, much of it passing over my head, but there is more than enough in this hefty 1,000+ page paperback edition to convince me of Lawrence's greatness in verse. The book is split into "Rhyming poems," "Unrhyming poems," "Pansies," "Nettles," "Last poems" and "Uncollected poems." A couple of the shorter ones--
SUNSET
"There is a band of dull gold in the west, and say what you like
again and again some god of evening leans out of it
and shares being with me, silkily
all of twilight."
REVOLUTIONS AS SUCH!
"Curiously enough, actual revolutions are made by robots,
living people never make revolutions,
they can't, life means too much to them."
TALK OF FAITH
"And people who talk about faith
usually want to force somebody to agree with them,
as if there was safety in numbers, even for faith."
LUCIFER
"Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
But tell me, tell me, how do you know
that he lost any of his brightness in falling?
He only fell out of your ken, you orthodox angels,
you dull angels, tarnished with centuries of conventionality."

A must for all Special Forces.
This is the best book that i have. It is a must read for all who can read and all Special Forces. It put life on hold as you read it.

The most moving is "self pity"

I never saw a wild thingsorry foritself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever havingfelt sorry for itself. --D. H. Lawrence

To this reader,poems and essays of DHL are his best works.
This book of poems shares the top spot in my bookcase with Whitman's"Leaves of Grass".They are accessible, highly perceptive,pertinent and intensely personal.My favorites are:

"FIDELITY"- "...The wonderful slow flow of the sapphire..."

"GOD IS BORN" - "...And so we see, Godis notuntil he is born.And also weseethere is no end to the birthofGod."

"SHIP OF DEATH" (Appendix III version) -"...Pulling the long oars of a lifetime's courage, ...and eating the brave bread of a wholesomeknowledge..."

"GRIEF" - "...How am I clotted togetherOut of this soft matrix...The air, theflowing sunshine and brightdust..."

"WEDLOCK" - "...How sure the future iswithin me.I am like a seed with a perfectflower enclosed..."

Finally, as a scientist I marvel at hisintuitive grasp of relativity in "SPACE" and"RELATIVITY" - ..."As if the atom were an impulsive thingalways changing its mind."

I would be delighted to share myenthusiasm with other readers. ... Read more

Book Description

Amazon.com
This is another good book to have at your desk for those between-chapter breaks: flip it open and read from this distillation of over 300 letters written by D. H. Lawrence.There are letters to lords and ladies, culture barons, chambermaids and pals, discoursing widely on Whitman, wilderness ("the big old pagan cosmos"), German gingerbread, and Mexican railways--the selections are fun and lively, and they illuminate an era.Plus, his political predictions tend to be right on the money: "Chaos," Lawrence writes, "is necessary for Russia." For the peripatetic author, too: Lawrence never stayed in one place too long.The better to keep up the letters.Book Description
D.H. Lawrence's renowned creativity is conspicuous in his letters. He wrote to aristocrats, fellow authors, painters, publishers, and others from the intelligentsia--but with equal concern to his sisters, a childhood friend suffering from tuberculosis, a post office clerk or an Italian servant-girl. Lawrence reveled in the act of communication, using a direct, unvarnished but invariably vivid style appropriate to each correspondent. In this book, over 330 of Lawrence's letters, carefully chosen from the authoritative seven-volume Cambridge Edition exemplify Lawrence's artistry and humanness. In his introductory essay James T. Boulton provides a rare critical assessment of Lawrence's epistolary achievement. There are annotations to the letters, a biographical list of correspondents, brief chronological and descriptive introductions to each section and a full general index. This selection will appeal to Lawrence aficionados and will make good companion reading to his works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Judith Petres Balogh
The book was not quite what I expected. It did not add much to my store of knowledge, and did not sharpen my perceptions. It is one of those "must" books, which is generally thought to be of importance, and nobody dares argue with thedecree. I did not mind reading it, but I lacked the necessary enthusiasm for it.

Ego overcomes environment
I could only read about 20 pages of this book, it was
not clear to me that Lawrence needed to leave England to
write this . The new Landscapes, villages, and people only
seem an excuse to get a never ending internal dialogue involving
his views and prejudices. I want a travel book to be like
good reporting, with the author only visible by the style of writing.
Joseph Mitchell is without peer in this method.

It might be more enjoyable if his views were not uniformly obvious or
boring.

Thoughtful and Beautiful
These essays are classics. Etruscan Places almost single-handedly revived "modern" interest in the Etruscans and was essential to the preservation and study of their tombs and paintings. Throughout, Lawrence is sensitive and insightful. An added patina to these works is the fact that they were written in the 1930s during the build-up toward WWII. There is an immediacy mixed with nostalgia here that is compelling.

Over the Alps with a stolen German girlfriend...
If i were to read only two travel books then this would be the second one, although both my wife and an English friend read it in German translation and reported that it was terrible. Maybe it doesn't translate well. Lawrence, as young man, describes a thread running through his life as he starts the journey by heading south toward Italy on foot from Bavaria with Frida, a way of travel that many Germans still understand very well. Descriptions of people are attractive, like the one-legged Italian who tried to seduce the cold, northern women at a dance. I liked best his description of his own Alpüberquerung, his description therein of the hurried English hiker, the way that Italins have ruined the alpine valleys with industrialization. And I felt loss at his growing distance from Frida. The book made me want to see the lemon and olive trees above Lago di Garda and the villages high above the lake, but we haven't done that in spite of our nearness to the region. Gardasee is completely overrun by German tourists now, not just by those wearing heavy hiking boots.

Journal of Italian travel....
D.H. LAWRENCE AND ITALY is composed of three stories: 'Twilight in Italy', 'Sea and Sardinia' and 'Etruscan Places'. The firsttwo "books" seem to be based on journals he wrote while traveling with his German born lover then wife Frieda, whom he refers to as q-b for queen bee, through various villages on the mainland of Italy and the island of Sardinia. Lawrence does not record his experience of "famous" sights in these two books, in fact he says he is not interested in historical places, museums etc. but rather he wishes to see the people and the places in the out-of-the way areas of Italy. He and Frieda travel by bus, train, and boat--close to the ground.

Those who have read Lawrence's fiction will recognize his writing. He describes what he encounters with a visceral language--people, clothing, food, establishments. Some of the places are stunning and some so filthy you wonder how he could have stayed overnight. He visits lemon and olive groves and various high places along the coast and in the interior valleys. His writing is graphic--the reader will be as appalled and enchanted. He reflects Italy just before and after WWI.

In the third book, 'Etruscan Places', Lawrence describes his visits to various Etruscan sites, including the painted tombs of Tarquinia. His writing is less descriptive than that of the first two books. He is concerned with nothing less than the meaing of life, and the conflict between religion and truth (he died a few short years later at age 44 so his reflections seem almost prescient). He muses that societies are organized around death or life. He speaks of the use of fertility symbols such as fish and lambs for Christians and dolphins and eggs for Etruscans; the significance of the color vermillion -- male body painting by warrior classes where red paint connotes power contrasted with the the red skin coloring of the Etruscan tomb portraits which seems to have connoted the blood of life. He says the Etuscans loved life and the Romans who subdued them loved power.

Lawrence's book provides good background for those who would know more about Italy. Many of the places he describes have changed since the 1920s--some for the better. The people have changed--their clothing, homes, etc. are less unique and colorful, but they are better fed, warmer in winter, and cleaner. Hopefully their lives are better, but I don't think Lawrence would agree. ... Read more

Book Description
Written in the years following World War I and set in postwar England and Italy, Aaron's Rod questions many of the accepted social and political institutions of Lawrence's generation, and raises issues as valid for our own time as they were for his. The novel's hero is an Everyman who flees the destruction in England and his failing marriage and who, like Lawrence himself, becomes absorbed in discovering and understanding the nature of the political and religious ideologies that shaped western civilization. Aaron's Rod was completed in 1921 and was censored by both Lawrence's American and English publishers. The Cambridge Edition, based on the only authoritative, surviving typescript, restores these cut passages and eliminates the errors and house-styling of previous editions.The volume contains an introduction that describes the novel's genesis, its transmission, publication history, and reception. Extensive explanatory notes and textual apparatus are also included.Download Description
Written in the years following World War I and set in postwar England and Italy, Aaron's Rod questions many of the accepted social and political institutions of Lawrence's generation, and raises issues as valid for our own time as they were for his. The novel's hero is an Everyman who flees the destruction in England and his failing marriage and who, like Lawrence himself, becomes absorbed in discovering and understanding the nature of the political and religious ideologies that shaped western civilization.Aaron's Rod was completed in 1921 and was censored by both Lawrence's American and English publishers. The Cambridge Edition, based on the only authoritative, surviving typescript, restores these cut passages and eliminates the errors and house-styling of previous editions.The volume contains an introduction that describes the novel's genesis, its transmission, publication history, and reception. Extensive explanatory notes and textual apparatus are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Blue Ball'd
Strangely, this was my first full-length D.H. Lawrence novel.Thankfully, I'd read enough of his short stories and essays to know that Aaron's Rod isn't indicative of his artistic capabilities.I was more impressed by the concept behind the novel than its execution.Essentially, Aaron Sisson's abandonment of his family and job in order to join a travelling orchestra is meant to symbolize the power and passion of "individual freedom," "personal friendship", "masculinity" and "art".I think he only half-succeeds.Just as Aaron comes across as an "incomplete" man searching for meaning in post World War I Europe, I think the novel is too loosely constructed, and Lawrence's characters, too thinly drawn.But on a symbolic level, they are full of Lawrentian psychology.The characters of Rawden Lilly, Struthers, the Bricknells, and others all overtly represent various aspects of male and female polarities; however, they are un-memorable and sometimes difficult to relate to.

I was hoping this would be more of an "artist's novel" containing interesting descriptions of Aaron's life in Florence with his bohemian friends, and to a certain extent it is, but Lawrence seemed more interested in symbolism than in telling a good story.Though scattered as a story, the concepts of individuality and society are clearly portrayed throughout "Aaron's Rod", and towards the end, when the anarchist's bomb goes off, we sense a "breaking" (the blue ball/ornament at the beginning, and the flute/rod at the end) of an outdated mode of thinking (i.e. patriarchy, male dominance, etc.) in favor not necessarily of feminity, but an integration of the two.This particular Penguin edition has an excellent introduction and helpful end-notes by Steven Vine which help explain Lawrence and his symbolism to those unfamiliar with his works.I might re-read this novel once I've read more of Lawrence, and come back to it one day from a different viewpoint, but for now, I'd have to say that unless you're a real Lawrence afficionado, I'd hold off on this one until you figure out whether or not you like Lawrence enough to proceed to something as scattered, cold, and dry as this novel comes across.

An odyssey of passion, individuality and art
Aaron Sisson, a coal miner and amateur flutist in the Midlands, abandons his wife and two children and escapes to Italy in the hope of throwing off the trammels of his environment and realising his individual potentials. His dream is to become recognised as a master flutist. In Florence, he mixes in intellectual and artistic circles and has an affair with an aristocratic lady who redeems him in his own eyes. Like the majority of Lawrence's novels, the central theme is the relations between men and women, though this time, it is given a twist owing to Lawrence nourishing his mind on a reading of Nietzsche, who was then gradually becoming recognised in England. In his analysis of the concept of "love" between the sexes, Lawrence perceives it as a function of the will to power, a cycle of reciprocal domination and surrender, in which the man must conquer and the woman must submit. Elements of the rejection of the "herd morality" on Aaron's part and his endeavour at self-development are both ideas of peculiarly Nietzschean provenance. The fact that Aaron realises himself through music is another echo of Nietzsche, who regarded music as the purest and most supreme of the arts, in which the passions achieve immense gratification. The title refers to the rod of Aaron in the Old Testament, one of Moses's renegade priests who built the golden calf in the desert for the worship of the Israelites. The rod, his symbol of authority and independence, finds its echo in Aaron's flute, which is broken later in the novel during an anarchist riot. There is a price to pay, Lawrence seems to imply, for daring to oppose orthodoxy and to try to create a new life for oneself. Unlike Lawrence's more famous works, such as "Lady Chatterly's Lover" and "Women in Love", which are both admirable for their rich, poetic prose, "Aaron's Rod" is drably written and occasionally tedious, with a narrative that is sometimes poorly connected, as it dwells on irrelevancies. However, the message, that of an individual fulfilling his duty to himself, is an encouraging and refreshing one.

For aficionados only
If you've not read any Lawrence this is not the book to start with. It fails as a novel because there is no story to speak of, just a string of scenes to initiate discussion of the issues Lawrence wished to explore. Apologists describe it as picaresque, but there is far more unity to most novels that deserve that descriptor. Nonetheless, there are wonderful scenes that fitfully jar this book to life, Lawrence's admirable command of language, and a brooding homoeroticism aching to burst out. Try this book after you've hit the major works (i.e. Women in Love, etc.).

'Tis was a very elequently written book.
"Aaron's Rod" was a very elequently written book combining both powerful imagery along with a keen sense of imagination.The majority of D.H. Lawrence's books' are written in much the same style.'Tis unfortunate that the written word of his day is not as visible in ours. ... Read more

Book Description
This seductive and engaging biography uncomfortable in his ownskin. Lawrence's fascination with the body and his determination toarticulate its every experience brought about his notorious reputation, andultimately, his literary redemption. What emerges in John Worthen'sportrait is an intimate and absolutely compelling study of an individual inangry revolt against his class, culture, and country--a man passionatelystruggling to live in accordance with his beliefs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

David Herbert Lawrence: A coalminer's son who became a famous author of literary classics
David Herbert Lawrence was born to a miner in the coalmining community of Eastwood located eight miles from Nottingham.The village is located in the middle of what was once Sherwood Forrest deep in the English Midlands. When Lawrence was born the area was an ugly coalmining region. His mother Lydia made the sickly, thin, bookish boy her favorite. His father Arthur was a near-illiterate spending time in the pub. The family had several children who went on to live routine lives. Only the genius of Lawrence burns brightly.
Lawrence was always an outsider, lonely wanderer. He taught school for several years even though he hated it. He graduated from Nottingham College with a certificate in teaching but did not go on for a BA degree.
Lawrence is known for the sexual explicit and sensual prose of such classic novels as : "The Rainbow", "Sons and Lovers."; "Women in Love"; "Kangaroo", "The Virgin and the Gypsy," and such short stories as "The Fox." His most famous book is "Lady Chatterly's Lover" which was banned in Britain until 1960. This sexy love story sold more than all of his other works combined! He also wrote travel essays, literary criticism and reams of poetry. Lawrence is one of those authors who could write anywhere about almost anything. His chief themes were:
a. The need for honest and open love between the sexes. He was adept at describing the feeling a woman has during lovemaking.
b. The destruction of nature and the natural harmony of life through crass industrialism and materialistic pursuit of money.
c. His hatred of the rigid English class system which was restrictive and hypocritical.
Lawrence has been accused of anti-semitism and the need for meen to be superior in relationships with women. Worthen is fair in exploring these attitudes. Lawrence had many characters flaws. He could be explosively angry, often hit women and could be cruel to animals. He could also be charming, loving and kind. A man of contradictions not easily pigeonholed.
Lawrence had an active sex life. He forsook the girl who loved him Jessie Chambers and several other lasses in the Nottingham region. He ran away with Frieda Richtofen Chambers who left her husband and three children to live with him. Though the two never divorced they were both unfaithful engaging in several affairs. Frieda was a big, strong German woman distantly related to the Red Baron. During World War I the British thought she might be a spy; the Lawrences were closely watched during this horrible time by the British authorities.
Lawrence was a Gypsy who lived in England, Italy, New Mexico, Mexico, France and Ceylon. He died at the age of 44 due to advanced tuberculosis.
He was poor and his books were out of favor at the time of his death.
John Worthen is a British scholar who has done a fine job of following Lawrence on the many stops he made across the globe in a complex life. Lawrence was a great writer due to the power, emotion and descriptive brilliance of his sparkling prose. This comprehensive biography is worth time and money.

Portrait of the artist as a courageous invalid
In reading D. H. Lawrence's SONS AND LOVERS I was struck by how much it cut to the core, and was curious as to how closely autobiographical the story was. That led me to an an excellent excerpt from this book that is available on the Web, that tells about Lawrence's nostalgia for his youth when he spent so much time at the Haggs farm (Leivers farm in SONS AND LOVERS). That excerpt as well as other material told me that Lawrence's fiction about this youthful part of his life was very thinly disguised.

The time and circumstances in which Lawrence lived seem so different from today. He grew up in Victorian England, the son of a coal miner, in the industrial age before the heyday of the automobile and all the communicative devices that have so changed our lives. From an early age it was evident that he did not have the physical capacity to follow his father's footsteps if he ever wanted to, which apparently he never did. Contrary to the toughened practicality of physical labor, he found refuge in books, which put him at odds with the rough and tumble ways of many of his peers, who later recalled that he preferred to play with girls. His coming of age involved the inner conflict presented by his mother, who was strong and imparted on him mental strength necessary to survive and even flourish despite being very susceptible to illness, but who also imparted demands as from one whose life's longings had been thwarted.

I don't know if I quite buy the author's emphasis of Lawrence as the Outsider, at least not in terms of his legacy. Certainly, the man marched to the tune of a different drummer. No doubt he had faults, but the excesses, which have been noted from evidence extracted from his writing, need to be measured against the strict conformity of the Victorian Age. Perhaps his greatest work, THE RAINBOW, was banned for reasons that seem laughable by comparison to today. Certainly, he exhibited a ruthlessness in being a writer, as in his relations with Jessie Chambers, which would make many a would-be writer wonder if it was all worth it; but writing about his experiences, whether they were thinly disguised or not, was an obsession, and became a psychological necessity. At a certain point, he really could not be anything but a writer, and it became his means of self-discovery, certainly a different tack from most people of the time who were marching blindly into battle or blindly into debilitating jobs. He persisted despite the fact that for years he could barely make a living and constantly had to depend on the kindness of friends and relatives. If anything, that dependence despite his overall independence, showed that he was more of an insider, one who had gained acceptance in the path he chose to follow. No doubt, his habitual exile and publishing difficulties depict him as the Outsider, but when it came down to it, he showed himself to be a courageous human being especially in facing a debilitating illness and refusing self-pity.

The best one- volume biography
Benjamin Kunkel reviews this work very favorably in 'The New Yorker'. It is he maintains the best one- volume biography of Lawrence that has as yet been written. In the key passage of his review Kunkel cites a letter of Lawrence as containing the heart of his perception of life. His commentary then follows:

"The real way of living is to answer to one's wants. Not "I want to light up with my intelligence as many things as possible" but "For the living of my full flame-I want that liberty, I want that woman, I want that pound of peaches, I want to go to sleep, I want to go to the pub and have a good time, I want to look abeastly swell today, I want to kiss that girl, I want to insult that man." Instead of that . . . we talk about some sort of ideas. I'm like Carlyle, who, they say, wrote 50 volumes on the value of silence.

Kunkel interprets this passage as follows:
"Everything is here; in half a paragraph Lawrence comprehends his life. There is the sense, gained from Frieda, of having no obligations but to desire; the virtually pre-Socratic tendency to see all life as a species of flame (in Lawrence, to be alive is always described as being on fire); the tone simultaneously of great casualness and authority; the pleasure taken in vituperation ("I want to insult that man"); and, of course, the awareness that to marshal all one's eloquence, education, and discipline in defense of mute, dark, instinctual life is a crowning paradox, like Carlyle with his fifty volumes on silence."

Kunkel goes on then to note how great a part the theme of Lawrence's isolation plays in this biography. Isolated from his place of birth, from his family, from the aristocratic dabblers in the world of art he was continually meeting up with. Isolated from social conventions. Isolated from conventional morality, and from an ordinary place of home. Isolated by the frailty of his body , and by the frequent rejection of the literary establishment. Isolated too from the mores of his time.

This focusing on the personal life drama does not however help us solve the one real mystery connected with Lawrence, the fact of his literary genius.
It too perhaps goes too far in excusing Lawrence's Fascism, for Fascism turned out to be something other than the eccentric privilege of a few misguided idealists, and instead turned into one of the most murderous movements in human history.
Lawrence's story is in a sense a tragic one as he poor and sick died before reaching the age - of- forty- five. Yet he burned in his literary life with a gem-like flamelife and gave to the world a beauty in words, rich and strange. ... Read more