Books with author D H. 1885-1930 Lawrence

Women in Love is widely regarded as D. H. Lawrence’s greatest novel. The novel continues where ‘The Rainbow’ left off with the third generation of Brangwens: Ursula Brangwen, now a teacher at Beldover, a mining town in the Midlands, and her sister Gudrun, who has returned from art school in London. The focus of the novel is primarily on their relationships, Ursula’s with Rupert Birkin, a school inspector, and Gudrun’s with Gerald Crich, an industrialist.

Women in Love is widely regarded as D. H. Lawrence’s greatest novel. The novel continues where ‘The Rainbow’ left off with the third generation of Brangwens: Ursula Brangwen, now a teacher at Beldover, a mining town in the Midlands, and her sister Gudrun, who has returned from art school in London. The focus of the novel is primarily on their relationships, Ursula’s with Rupert Birkin, a school inspector, and Gudrun’s with Gerald Crich, an industrialist.

For many of us DH Lawrence was a schoolboy hero. Who can forget sniggering in class at the mention of ‘Women In Love’ or ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’? Lawrence was a talented if nomadic writer whose novels were passionately received, suppressed at times and generally at odds with Establishment values. This of course did not deter him. At his death in 1930 at the young age of 44 he was more often thought of as a pornographer but in the ensuing years he has come to be more rightly regarded as one of the most imaginative writers these shores have produced. As well as his novels he was also a masterful poet (he wrote over 800 of them), a travel writer as well as an author of many classic short stories. Here we publish ‘Aaron’s Rod’. Once again Lawrence shows his hand as a brilliant writer. Delving into situations and peeling them back to reveal the inner heart.

The protagonist of this picaresque novel, Aaron Sisson, is a union official in the coal mines of the English Midlands, trapped in a stale marriage. He is also an amateur, but talented, flautist. At the start of the story he walks out on his wife and two children and decides on impulse to visit Italy. His dream is to become recognised as a professional musician. During his travels he encounters and befriends Rawdon Lilly, a Lawrence-like writer who nurses Aaron back to health when he is taken ill in post-war London. Having recovered his health, Aaron arrives in Florence. Here he moves in intellectual and artistic circles, argues about politics, leadership and submission, and has an affair with an aristocratic lady. The novel ends with an anarchist or fascist explosion that destroys Aaron’s instrument. Many incidents in the novel have direct parallels with events in Lawrence's own life.

"This intimate portrait of a coal-miner’s family fastens on each member in turn: Walter Morel, the collier; Gertrude, his wife; and the children: William, Annie, Arthur, and Paul. When Mrs. Morel begins to be estranged from her husband because of his poor financial sense and his drinking habits, she comes to inhabit the lives of her children – most particularly, her sons. She is determined that they will grow to be something more than men that come home blackened with coal dust every day and roaring with drink every night. As each grows up and moves away, she must release him. But Paul, she holds; they have a bond that defies time and the attractions of young women.Lawrence originally intended the book’s title to be “Paul Morel” and it is on this son – and his lovers – that he spends the bulk of his tale. The strong mother can make a success of her son, but if he cannot learn to leave his mother’s apron strings, will he really be a better man than his father?"

The Rainbow tells the story of three generations of the Brangwen family, a dynasty of farmers and craftsmen who live in the east Midlands of England, on the borders of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The book covers a period from the 1840s to 1905, and shows how the love relationships of the Brangwens change against the backdrop of the increasing industrialization of Britain. The first central character, Tom Brangwen, is a farmer whose experience of the world does not stretch beyond these two counties; while the last, Ursula, his granddaughter, studies at university and becomes a teacher in the progressively urbanized, capitalist and industrial world.

D. H. Lawrence's 1915 novel "The Rainbow" is the story of three generations of the Brangwens family. While tame by today's standards, "The Rainbow", for its frank treatment of human sexuality, caused Lawence to be prosecuted on an obscenity charge in England when it was first published. Through richly personal characterizations, "The Rainbow" deals profoundly with the very nature of human relations as it explores the sexuality of Ursula Brangwen and her mother, Anna Brangwen.

Set against the backdrop of a rapidly industrializing England, the bewildering shift in social structure, the fading away of traditions and the advent of new ways of life, The Rainbow by DH Lawrence depicts how one family's story becomes the story of a society.Originally planned as a novel titled The Sisters, Lawrence finally split the theme into two separate novels after many revisions and rewrites. The Rainbow is the first novel in the Brangwen family saga.Tom Brangwen is a small time farmer in rural Nottinghamshire. He meets Lydia Lensky, an aristocratic Polish refugee and widow who has a daughter, Anna, from her previous marriage. Tom is fascinated by Lydia's “foreignness” and soon proposes marriage. The couple lives a happy and contented life. They have two sons of their own. They live quietly, and the smooth tenor of their lives is interrupted occasionally by Anna's restlessness and haughty ways. When Will, who is Tom's distant relative, comes to visit, Anna falls in love with him. The family is happy and supportive and the two marry in the local church. However, Anna's illusions are soon shattered. Will is also bewildered by the changes he finds in Anna when she becomes a mother. Their daughter Ursula becomes his support and confidant.The Rainbow was subjected to severe criticism and censorship when it was first published in 1915. Lawrence's frank treatment of human desires and women's feelings was considered to be a corrupting influence and the book was condemned in an obscenity trial in the same year. This resulted in it being banned for more than a decade in Britain. Copies of the book were seized and burnt. However, modern day readers may find it relatively “tame” and free of anything offensive. The Rainbow is a sensitive and compassionate view of the human condition and the three women characters are extremely memorable and remarkably portrayed. Lawrence later wrote the sequel, Women in Love which follows the lives of Ursula and her sister Gudrun.Another notable feature in The Rainbow is Lawrence's close connection with Nature. Added to this is the sweeping scale and scope of the narrative which spans a long half century in time. In The Rainbow, we find many memorable lesser characters and side plots, which make it a complete and extremely fulfilling work of art.As a novel by a writer known for his concern about the dehumanizing effect of industrialization, the emotional health of people and their conflict with rigid social structures and attitudes, The Rainbow is indeed a great book to experience.