Literature Network » D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence


Advanced Search
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.

The above biography is copyrighted. Do not republish it without permission.

  • Quizzes on D.H. Lawrence

    No quizzes available to take yet.

Please submit a quiz here.

Recent Forum Posts on D.H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence, Ship of Death

With the somewhat success of The Man With the Blue Guitar thread, I thought it may be a good idea to start a thread on this great poem by D. H. Lawrence, The Ship of Death - available here: http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/D.H._Lawrence/15630 I Now it is autumn and the falling fruit and the long journey towards oblivion. The apples falling like great drops of dew to bruise themselves an exit from themselves. And it is time to go, to bid farewell to one's own self, and find an exit from the fallen self. ................................ V Build then the ship of death, for you must take the longest journey, to oblivion. And die the death, the long and painful death that lies between the old self and the new. Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised, already our souls are oozing through the exit of the cruel bruise. Already the dark and endless ocean of the end is washing in through the breaches of our wounds, Already the flood is upon us. Oh build your ship of death, your little ark and furnish it with food, with little cakes, and wine for the dark flight down oblivion. Any takers - what do you make of it? Seems a strange sort of poem to me, loaded with a dark sort of irony - I'll post more on it later with some other observations if other people feel like responding.

Posted By JBI at Thu 23 Jul 2009, 11:45 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 86 Replies

The Ladybird - D.H Lawrence

I'm having some trouble understanding the importance and what the ladybird and the thimble represent in the story. I have an idea about the thimble but i'm quite lost as what to think about the ladybird. Help would be much appreciated.

Posted By limajean at Wed 24 Jun 2009, 9:39 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 2 Replies

'People' ?

Hello All. I am searching for a D.H.Lawrence poem that may be entitled 'People'. It contains the lines ' I like people' '...as long as I can see their aloneness alive inside of them' '...have the illusion that there is space enough within the world'. Please help me, it would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

Posted By Lyrabel at Wed 27 May 2009, 9:04 AM in Lawrence, D.H. || 0 Replies

Dh's children question

Ive been doing some reasearch on Dh and havent found any info about whether he had any children...? Anyone have any ideas? Seems the answer is "no" though as far as I can tell...

Posted By sivvy at Sat 10 Jan 2009, 8:00 AM in Lawrence, D.H. || 6 Replies

d.h.lawrence on town planning and suburbs

Hi This is my first post so please do let me know if I'm doing something wrong... Town planner Thomas Sharp in his book Town Planning (1940) cites D.H.Lawrence: "a great scrabble of ugly pettiness over the face of the land" " don't know how to build a city, how to think of one, how to live in one" "they are all suburban, pseudo-cottagy and not one of them knows how to be truly utban" However, Sharp does not give the reference. Would you know the source of these quotations? Are you aware of any work by Lawrence in which he may criticise town planning or suburbs? Thank you so much in advance I promise to read more D.H. Lawrence in the future... lorenza

Posted By lorenza at Wed 12 Nov 2008, 11:04 AM in Lawrence, D.H. || 2 Replies

Is it necessary to read 'The Rainbow' before 'Women in love'?

Is it necessary to read 'The Rainbow' before 'Women in love'? I accidentally bought 'Women in love'. Later I came to know that it is a sequel to Rainbow. Please clarify..shall I start reading the book...wouldn't there be any plot confusions?

Posted By Sorceress at Sat 11 Oct 2008, 11:01 PM in Lawrence, D.H. || 4 Replies

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, 7:34 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, 3:30 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, 3:47 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, 11:06 AM in Lawrence, D.H. || 1 Reply

Post a New Comment/Question on Lawrence



Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets!
Join our Sonnet-A-Day Newsletter and read them all, one at a time.
Email:
As Seen In: USA Today "Hot Sites"