Authors similar to D.H. Lawrence

[fairchild]

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?

[Virgil]

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?

Well, faifchild, we have a group here that loves to discuss D.H. Lawrence. I would love for you to join us.

As to similar writers, Hardy was an important influence to Lawrence and there are some similarities, but there are also differences too. Walt Whitman was also an influence on Lawrence.

As to writers influenced by Lawrence, I would say Ted Hughes in poetry, Raymond Carver in short stories, and Alduous Huxley and Anthony Burgess in the novel. I found this on the internet of women writers who were supposedly influenced by Lawrence, but I can't vouch for it:

Among creative writers who were influenced by Lawrence were H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Doris Lessing, Anais Nin, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, Eudora Welty, Elizabeth Bishop, Denise Levertov (with the other Black Mountain poets), Adrienne Rich, Kay Boyle, Carson McCullers, Meridel LeSeuer, Margaret Laurence, Dorothy Livesay, Margaret Drabble, Mollie Skinner, Katherine Susannah Pritchard, Barbara Hanrahan, Margaret Barbalet, Helen Dunmore, and A. S. Byatt. A number of these have written about Lawrence. Editors/poets who aided Lawrence and accepted his work for publication in his lifetime included well-known women--Amy Lowell, Harriet Monroe, and Marianne Moore. Rebecca West wrote a memorable obituary essay on him, and H. D.'s "The Poet" is thought to refer to him. (See also Leo Hamalian's D. H. Lawrence and Nine Women Writers [1996].)

[ClickForth]

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[Virgil]

E.M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, A.S. Byatt, Colm Tóibín

There are some thematic similarities between Lawrence and Forster, now that you mention it. However I cannot agree about Conrad and Lawrence at all. In what way do you see similarities? Lawrence did greatly admire Melville's Moby Dick though and should be mentioned, although I'm not sure it actually influenced him. Yes, perhaps it does when you consider the primitive cultures that both writers were intersted in. As to Byatt and Toibin, I have never read them, so I can't comment.

[Janine]

Virgil, I am listening now, to an audio CD set of "Women in Love" (I finished reading S&L - yeah!), and in the 'Introduction' the narrator mentions the influences of Dostoievsky on L's work, or at least on this particular book, WIL, in particular. He may have read it around the same time period; I will check on that. One review L's long essay in L's book "Selected Literary Criticism". Also, in the book is a fine essay on Thomas Hardy pointing out exactly what he agreed with and what he disagreed with. Also included in the book are essays on Whitman and Melville, and many others. I think one could say all of these writers influenced Lawrence in his work one way or the other. As far as with Dostoievsky is concerned, it seemed to me (on my brief reading of this essay) that he was impressed and oft-times critical of the author's work, but he apparently was impressed with many elements of the Russian novelist's writing. I have a copy online of the critique Lawrence wrote on one of his works, or about "The Inquisitor", if anyone is interested in reading this article; I can sent it to you via an email.

I know from my biography readings that Lawrence was an very avid reader and he also was friends with Forster, Huxley, Doolittle, Katherine Mansfield and many other authors and artists. I think one could say he was influenced by all the authors he read or meet. He was very interested in Melville and also Whitman, although Lawrence had his criticisms on both, as well.

Lawrence was also influenced by writings of Freud and other psychoanalysts of the time, which is more prominent in L's early works, don't you think, V?

Hi fairchild, and welcome to Lit Net. We have been having several great discussion this year on Lawrence - you might look up these threads -
Women in Love
Sons and Lovers
Lawrence Short Story
Lawrence Baby Tortoise

Most active at this time is "Sons and Lovers" and "Short Stories". We will probably revive the others from time to time - threads never really close, you see, so feel free to add any comments to any of these threads.

Next spring/summer we plan a reading of "Lady Chatterly's Lover", possibly we can also fit in a reading/discussion next year of "To The Rainbow". Short Stories will continue with the choosing of another fine story. So far we have done about 5 or 6, I think. They all were quite good and different from each other.

I hope you can come and join us in one of these fine discussions. We have a wonderful group of people now who are highly interested in Lawrence's work.
It would be great to add you into these discussion. Hope to see you there soon. J

PS: I have read Thomas Hardy extensively. So I would recommend his novels highly. One has to understand that the time period is earlier but I feel there are many similarities between Lawrence's work and Hardy's work. I know a number of people who read Hardy and then Lawrence and enjoyed them both very much so. They are in the same tone I think and both written very poetically. Both men were poets, as well as novelists and both wrote other works besides novels. There are many parallels. One is particular is that both men defied convention and wrote as they felt they had to inspite of social standards of acceptance.

Hope all of this information helps you, fairchild.

[Virgil]

Lawrence was also influenced by writings of Freud and other psychoanalysts of the time, which is more prominent in L's early works, don't you think, V?

Oh absolutely, although his psychology is different than Freud's. I didn't mention his philosophic influences. He was very heavily influenced by the German Romantics.

[Janine]

Oh absolutely, although his psychology is different than Freud's. I didn't mention his philosophic influences. He was very heavily influenced by the German Romantics.

Virgil, I hadn't thought of the German Romantics - that is interesting.

Lawrence also was influenced by various myths and central American Indian Cultures and myths, Etruscans, Egyptians, etc. Astronomy, the Bible and botany, etc.

[Virgil]

Virgil, I hadn't thought of the German Romantics - that is interesting.

Lawrence also was influenced by various myths and central American Indian Cultures and myths, Etruscans, Egyptians, etc. Astronomy, the Bible and botany, etc.

Good points. From my Thesis on Lawrence:

John B. Vickery has outlined Lawrence's interest in myth and ritual (Vickery 280-4) and its impact on him and the extent of its entering his work. A survey of Lawrence's known reading list [Rose Marie Burwell, "A Checklist of Lawrence's Reading" (Sagar, DHL Handbook 59-125)] reveals he had read many of the leading anthropologists and classicists of his day. Among them are Jane Harrison's Ancient Art and Ritual, Gilbert Murray's The Four Stages of Greek Religion, E. B. Tyler's Primitive Cultures, W. M. F. Petrie's The Religions of Egypt, Zelia Nuttall's Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Religions, Lewis Spence's The Gods of Mexico, and a whole group of books on Etruscan culture. In addition, Lawrence had read Sir James George Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy and The Golden Bough, which Lawrence actually picked up three times, in 1915, 1922, and 1928. While the full impact of The Golden Bough on Lawrence has yet to be assessed--Vickery, perhaps, overstates his case by stating that to confront Lawrence's fiction "is to confront the full extent and depth of his involvement in a mythopoeic vision grounded in substantial measure in the figurative patterns of The Golden Bough" (Vickery 294)--one can agree with Vickery that "Lawrence's acquaintance with Frazer sharpened his sense of man's participation in the divine" (294). It is also interesting to note that in Lawrence's works prior to 1915, his religious bearings are more Biblical, after 1915, the year he started Women in Love, more classical, and after 1922, while still at times classical, more aboriginal.

[Janine]

Thanks Virgil, this is very helpful.

[Emmy Castrol]

Has anybody else read Yukio Mishima's work? I feel that his style and writing, on a psychological and instinctive level, is quite similar to D.H. Lawrence.

I thought Patrick White's Tree of Man was similar too but that none of his other books (that I've read) were.

[Virgil]

No I haven't read Mishima or Patrick White. Thanks for pointing that out Emmy. Perhaps one day i will.

Edit: I just looked up Mishima and he sounds like an interesting individual.