Reading this sort of article makes me feel like I failed in my life as I can not go along with it, get it, as I do not think I ever read all of one of his books, picked them up, know of them, yet D H Lawrence is pretty much one of the required writers if one is to be ‘well read’ and I did not read him.
T E Lawrence I read a good bit though… Anyway I thank Unherd for having this sort of article, I really liked it, although did not really get most of it. More please, it is great to get away from news stuff, and more arts, aesthetics, Literature, because I do rarely now.
I have 250 lineal feet of built in bookcases I just made this year, 1 X 8 clear yellow pine, (42, 10 ft long, 1″ x 8″ boards in all) polyurethaned, actual carpenter built and excellent, and am bringing together my books, and all the ones from my parents house are being shipped here, (which survived the cull), and will have an actual library, many really great books indeed – and even my boyhood science fiction that I loved. I know there is some DH Lawrence in the boxes – And some PG Wodehouse I look forward to, and all kinds of things, going back all my life.
I’ve never been sure about the rest of his oeuvre, but Women in Love is fantastic.
AD
Andrew D
3 years ago
Lawrence was a bit of a plonker in some respects, but I remember reading The Rainbow for A-level and being inspired (like Salvador Dali and Hermann Hesse, he inspires adolescents). That would have been 1977, so he hadn’t been cancelled then. I don’t remember any mention of Kate Millett, or the ideas behind her book, which I suspect reached only a minority. Sadly those ideas are now not just mainstream, but de rigueur. As Fraser B says, many of DH’s strongest characters were women, and that I suspect is part of ‘the problem’. As a ‘s h i t t y’ male, Lawrence cannot have shared in the ‘lived experience’ of women. Millett and all the other single-issue fanatics that plague our lives today admit no possibility of nuance, empathy, creativity, complexity or contradiction. How dull their world must be, and how dull and unpleasant is the world they’re imposing on the rest of us.
FB
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago
I spent a lot of my childhood in the area where Lawrence grew up and would still visit regularly until about 20 years ago. Certain surnames that peopled his life and books, including that of my own relatives (Severn), can still be seen on signboards etc.
I have read pretty much everything he wrote – including Sons And Lovers for A level – along with various biographies and studies etc. I even have a book called D H Lawrence Fifty Years On Film by Louis K Greiff.
I revere him and find it strange that he should have been cancelled by the feminists when he so often wrote from the female point of view and created many strong female characters, celebrating their ‘life force’ or whatever in the process.
In fact, the female characters in his books are invariably stronger than the male characters. For instance, Gudrun Brangwen (or is it the other sister?) is surely the strongest character in Women In Love and defeats the man who walks off into the Alpine snow to his death.
It is indeed Gudrun who drives Gerald Crich to his suicide. Her sister Ursula ends up hitched to Rupert Birkin.
CD
Claire D
3 years ago
Great article, thank you Frances Wilson.
I have always liked D H Lawrence, never read Kate Millet and never will. The Rainbow and Sons and Lovers, two of my favourite books when I was younger. Sometimes I find DH’s urgings and surgings a bit much but that’s alright, it was brave writing. Snake has to be one of the greatest poems ever written.
poetryfoundation.org/poems/148471/snake-5bec57d7bfa17
(Not sure how to create a link I’m afraid, best I can do)
Last edited 3 years ago by Claire D
MJ
Mickey John
3 years ago
Great to read my favourite opening line again. “Sea and Sardinia” is both one of his most neglected works and the best writing on the Mediterranean that you will ever see.
AJ
Alan Jackson
3 years ago
Yes we live in an era which seems incapable of appreciating the great Lawrence yet which needs to find out more about him. I think the writer here gets it right that he is the last of the great Romantics: he shares much with Blake. In the sixties opinions were shaped by F. R. Leavis’ wonderful book on him bringing out the greatness of Women in Love and The Rainbow. Leavis helped us see why these novels were so much greater than the rather sadly limited Lady Chatterley which is the only novel most have heard about because of the notorious trial. Yes we badly need to start re-reading him.
DM
dommckeever3
3 years ago
A friend of mine had a number of the books written by Ernest Weekley, first husband of Frieda. He loved those books which were on the origin of names, word etymology etc;
He couldn’t understand how she could have left a genuine scholar for a writer of ‘silly nonsense’ as he called Lawrence.
Reading this sort of article makes me feel like I failed in my life as I can not go along with it, get it, as I do not think I ever read all of one of his books, picked them up, know of them, yet D H Lawrence is pretty much one of the required writers if one is to be ‘well read’ and I did not read him.
T E Lawrence I read a good bit though… Anyway I thank Unherd for having this sort of article, I really liked it, although did not really get most of it. More please, it is great to get away from news stuff, and more arts, aesthetics, Literature, because I do rarely now.
I have 250 lineal feet of built in bookcases I just made this year, 1 X 8 clear yellow pine, (42, 10 ft long, 1″ x 8″ boards in all) polyurethaned, actual carpenter built and excellent, and am bringing together my books, and all the ones from my parents house are being shipped here, (which survived the cull), and will have an actual library, many really great books indeed – and even my boyhood science fiction that I loved. I know there is some DH Lawrence in the boxes – And some PG Wodehouse I look forward to, and all kinds of things, going back all my life.
I’ve never been sure about the rest of his oeuvre, but Women in Love is fantastic.
Lawrence was a bit of a plonker in some respects, but I remember reading The Rainbow for A-level and being inspired (like Salvador Dali and Hermann Hesse, he inspires adolescents). That would have been 1977, so he hadn’t been cancelled then. I don’t remember any mention of Kate Millett, or the ideas behind her book, which I suspect reached only a minority. Sadly those ideas are now not just mainstream, but de rigueur. As Fraser B says, many of DH’s strongest characters were women, and that I suspect is part of ‘the problem’. As a ‘s h i t t y’ male, Lawrence cannot have shared in the ‘lived experience’ of women. Millett and all the other single-issue fanatics that plague our lives today admit no possibility of nuance, empathy, creativity, complexity or contradiction. How dull their world must be, and how dull and unpleasant is the world they’re imposing on the rest of us.
I spent a lot of my childhood in the area where Lawrence grew up and would still visit regularly until about 20 years ago. Certain surnames that peopled his life and books, including that of my own relatives (Severn), can still be seen on signboards etc.
I have read pretty much everything he wrote – including Sons And Lovers for A level – along with various biographies and studies etc. I even have a book called D H Lawrence Fifty Years On Film by Louis K Greiff.
I revere him and find it strange that he should have been cancelled by the feminists when he so often wrote from the female point of view and created many strong female characters, celebrating their ‘life force’ or whatever in the process.
In fact, the female characters in his books are invariably stronger than the male characters. For instance, Gudrun Brangwen (or is it the other sister?) is surely the strongest character in Women In Love and defeats the man who walks off into the Alpine snow to his death.
It is indeed Gudrun who drives Gerald Crich to his suicide. Her sister Ursula ends up hitched to Rupert Birkin.
Great article, thank you Frances Wilson.
I have always liked D H Lawrence, never read Kate Millet and never will.
The Rainbow and Sons and Lovers, two of my favourite books when I was younger. Sometimes I find DH’s urgings and surgings a bit much but that’s alright, it was brave writing.
Snake has to be one of the greatest poems ever written.
poetryfoundation.org/poems/148471/snake-5bec57d7bfa17
(Not sure how to create a link I’m afraid, best I can do)
Great to read my favourite opening line again. “Sea and Sardinia” is both one of his most neglected works and the best writing on the Mediterranean that you will ever see.
Yes we live in an era which seems incapable of appreciating the great Lawrence yet which needs to find out more about him. I think the writer here gets it right that he is the last of the great Romantics: he shares much with Blake. In the sixties opinions were shaped by F. R. Leavis’ wonderful book on him bringing out the greatness of Women in Love and The Rainbow. Leavis helped us see why these novels were so much greater than the rather sadly limited Lady Chatterley which is the only novel most have heard about because of the notorious trial. Yes we badly need to start re-reading him.
A friend of mine had a number of the books written by Ernest Weekley, first husband of Frieda. He loved those books which were on the origin of names, word etymology etc;
He couldn’t understand how she could have left a genuine scholar for a writer of ‘silly nonsense’ as he called Lawrence.
I visited San Christobel recently..anyone interested?