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D.H. Lawrence


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D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. "Snake" and "How Beastly the Bourgeoisie is" are probably his most anthologized poems.

David Herbert Lawrence was born on September 11, 1885, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, central England. He was the fourth child of a struggling coal miner who was a heavy drinker. His mother was a former schoolteacher, greatly superior in education to her husband. Lawrence's childhood was dominated by poverty and friction between his parents. He was educated at Nottingham High School, to which he had won a scholarship. He worked as a clerk in a surgical appliance factory and then for four years as a pupil-teacher. After studies at Nottingham University, Lawrence matriculated at 22 and briefly pursued a teaching career. Lawrence's mother died in 1910; he helped her die by giving her an overdose of sleeping medicine.

In 1909, a number of Lawrence's poems were published by Ford Max Ford in the English Review. The appearance of his first novel, The White Peacock(1911), launched Lawrence into a writing career. In 1912 he met Frieda von Richthofen, the professor Ernest Weekly's wife and fell in love with her. Frieda left her husband and three children, and they eloped to Bavaria. Lawrence's novel Sons and Lovers appeared in 1913 and was based on his childhood . In 1914 Lawrence married Frieda von Richthofen, and traveled with her in several countries. Lawrence's fourth novel, The Rainbow (1915), was about two sisters growing up in the north of England. Lawrence started to write The Lost Girl in Italy. He dropped the novel for some years and rewrote the story in an old Sicilian farmhouse near Taormina in 1920.

During the First World War Lawrence and his wife were unable to obtain passports and were targets of constant harassment from the authorities. They were accused of spying for the Germans and officially expelled from Cornwall in 1917. The Lawrences were not permitted to emigrate until 1919, when their years of wandering began.


Lawrence's best known work is Lady Chatterly's Lover, first published privately in Florence in 1928. It tells of the love affair between a wealthy, married woman, and a man who works on her husband's estate. The book was banned for a time in both UK and the US as pornographic. Lawrence's other novels from the 1920s include Women In Love (1920), a sequel to The Rainbow.

Aaron's Rod (1922) shows the influence of Nietzsche, and in Kangaroo (1923) Lawrence expressed his own idea of a 'superman'. The Plumed Serpent (1926) was a vivid evocation of Mexico and its ancient Aztec religion. The Man Who Died (1929), is a bold story of Christ's Resurrection. Lawrence's non-fiction works include Movements In European History(1921), Psychoanalysis And The Unconscious (1922) and Studies In Classic American Literature (1923).

D.H. Lawrence died in Vence, France on March 2, 1930. He also gained posthumous renown for his expressionistic paintings completed in the 1920s.

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Recent Forum Posts on D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawerence and Russian

I have no means of getting any biography of D.H. Lawrence, and I am interested in knowing how and when he learned Russian. I have tried the internet and I was unable to find anything there, save some snipped clips. If anyone has a biography of him, could you please quote any passages about how and when he learned Russian. I also read that he translated some of Shestov's works, if you know Russian and have read the original, how do you find his translation?

Posted By imatitle at Thu 19 Jun 2008, 8:34 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 5 Replies

Help Finding Quote

I am currently using Sons and Lovers for an eassy I am writing for class, and there was this one passage I was thinking of quoting but I cannot now recall what chapter it was in. And becasue I do not know the exzact wording used I could not find it when I tried to use the online-text search, so if anyone could tell me what chapter this scene was in, it would be apperciated. If not I do have another quote in mind I could use. Miriam is with Paul and she picks up her little brother and his holding him to her, and keeps saying/asking how much her bother loves her, and he is asking to be let go and struggling to get free, and than finally she releases him and afterwords, I think Paul says something to crtizie her.

Posted By Dark Muse at Wed 14 May 2008, 4:30 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 0 Replies

what is "the song of the mexican forest"?

Hello, When I was reading a book, I found a reference to D. H. Lawrence's "the song of the Mexican forest". I do not know what work of Lawrence it refers to (it does not look like "Mornings in Mexco" or "The Plumed Serpent"). I am interested in Lawrence. But I just read a few books and does not know about him and his works well. I will be glad if someone tell me what the title of this work can be.

Posted By azert at Sat 29 Mar 2008, 4:47 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 0 Replies

Looking fro a quote

Can you help me find where in his writings did D.H.Lawrence say: "it is an even more fearful thing to fall out of them (God's hands)."

Posted By sattouta at Mon 14 Jan 2008, 12:06 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 1 Reply

Authors similar to D.H. Lawrence

i have recently got into Lawrence's work and i must say that it is fantastic. i am looking for authors of similar prose style, philosophy, themes, etc. i heard thomas hardy is very similar as well. any suggestions?

Posted By fairchild at Mon 19 Nov 2007, 10:20 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 8 Replies

D. H. Lawrence and Women

I do not know much about D. H. Lawrence's personal life, and views, perhaps I should look into it, but an intresting observation I have notcied in his writing is that he does seem to be very sesnetive to women. In the works I have read of his, he creates strong women characters whom often seem to be seeking to find some sort of indepdence and trying to find a way to stand upon thier own two feet without having to rely upon him. Women whom want equality, and something more from themselves. Such things that were rather unpopular views during the time in which he was writing them. I was wondering if anyone knew if in his personal life, he was an activie paprticpant in supporting women's rights?

Posted By Dark Muse at Tue 6 Nov 2007, 11:14 AM in Lawrence, D.H. || 7 Replies

Relationships in his writing

I have a while back read the book Rainbow and now I am nearly down with Sons and Lovers and I have noticed that D. H. Lawrence has a very unique way of portraying human relationships that play a very predominant role in both these books, and I was curious if anyone else has read him, or knows anything about his personal life that can offer insight in the way he conveys the way people treat each other and the human emotion within intimate relationships. In his books he has a very strong sense of this sort of Love-hate, of a relationship being a struggle of push and pull, with very strong highs, and very strong lows, and little peace and harmony, or little down time. The chars are often either very passionate with each other, or very cruel to each other. There is little sweetness or tenderness, but it is chaos and battle when two chars are intimate with each other in his books. Sometimes it feels like he is examining relationships from the outside in, that is he is taking the inner feelings a person might have but keep restrained and exposing them.

Posted By Dark Muse at Mon 5 Nov 2007, 1:31 AM in Lawrence, D.H. || 1 Reply

is he really patient??

A wind comes from the north . Blowing little flocks of birds Like spray across the town, And a train, roaring forth, Rushes stampeding down With cries and flying curds Of steam, out of the darkening north. Whither I turn and set Like a needle steadfastly, Waiting ever to get The news that she is free; But ever fixed, as yet, To the lode of her agony. this is a poem from DHlawrence called "patience". in the first period ,he describes a train and some birds to symbolise the situation and in the second period ,i don't understand what the author means compeletly.is he worried about his lover??did thay stay with each other at that time ??if so .he is really careing about “she".i am so moved yet anyone who can help me understand this poem?? reply soon``

Posted By rosepaoo at Fri 26 Oct 2007, 11:05 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 6 Replies

"Those who have not exploded"

Hey, I know that D.H. Lawrence said this, but does anyone know where in his literature he says it?

Posted By lrothenburger at Mon 1 Oct 2007, 9:44 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 0 Replies

D.H. Lawrence and his domain of expression

I do not know why I get emotionally highly swayed when I read some English poems. I am a student of English literature and then when I was students reading poems were tedious and tiresome efforts. I read them for I had pass the exam. Now I am no longer a student and nor a teacher of literature and now i enjoy reading much particularly poems. Today I read a poem by D.H. Lawrence. I was acquainted with his ideas through his two novels Sons and Lovers and Women in love and I have but now only faint memories of what I read then. Today the poem I read him is titled Piano. It starts with a line: Softly, in the dust, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vistas of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings and pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. That he was a perfect artist is very much evident here. He was a writer who distasted things of civilization,for civilization has taken man away from closeness with nature, and he is uprooted with his roots in the air. Imagine you were in a cave with your family members and playing with antelopes and little monkeys. The state of mind when you are close to things of nature and now with your technological sophistications. We can not live that now, for going to nature is a course that goes reversally. Yet visiting them through flights of imagination is a thing indeed of fascination. I relive my days of babyhood when I was somewhere in the lap of some mountain.

Posted By blazeofglory at Fri 21 Sep 2007, 1:32 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 15 Replies

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