First post?

[sivvy]

Seems no one has posted anything under Aarons Rod yet...thought I would.

Just finished reading it and loved it - but like nearly all of DH's main male characters, I cant get the image of him out of my head. I felt Aaron was more DH than many of his other characters - any thoughts?

Great novel - slowly working my way through every one of his works~!

Somehow, I dont want it to end...

:)

[Virgil]

I have never read it, and I've read a lot of Lawrence. It's not considered one of his great works. What specifically do you like about Aaron's Rod? Are you reading his works in sequence? Which other Lawrence novel does Aaron's Rod seem like?

[sivvy]

Im not really reading them in sequence - though maybe I should have...

Aaron's Rod isnt like any other of his works so much. I can see how people have branded it a bit sexist - I definetly saw that - but somehow it made sense in context ( if thats possible! )...the main character leaves his wife and children and feels amazingly good after he does - with no real guilt attached.

I think now people are more and more realising its not that bad - although I know it was written really hastily and heavily censored - its still, to me, one of his most interesting works. I like the idea that it was a hasty novel - straight off the top of his head.

I know there are works of his I love better ( Sons and Lovers/Lady Chat/The Lost Girl...) but this one was a surprise after all the flack it has received.

Would love others to read it and tell their opinion.

[Geoff58]

I have recently come across a 1923 first edition of Kangaroo, while I can obviously read it, I seem to be having trouble finding anything about the book itself, how did it rate by critics of DH Lawrence?

[Frankie Anne]

I read this quite a long time ago and don't remember much of it. I do recall that I didn't like it very much. I just couldn't quite wrap myself around Aaron or sympathize with him. I wish I could remember why, darn it! Didn't the book have a lot of political/religious/philosophical discussions it it, too? I have read that a lot of people think "Aaron's Rod" is autobiographical. I don't think it was his most well received book. I've kept a few copies of D.H Lawrence's books I have read, but this one I gave away!

[Dick Shane]

I read this about twenty-five years ago when I was about 20, but can still remember many scenes from it vividly. I was too young, I think, to have much sense of what it was really about. I don't think I understood the fairly ad hoc discussion of the relations of power and love in the later parts, and I wasn't at all troubled by Aaron's lack of guilt after leaving his wife or, especially, his apparent lack of any further interest in his children, which I think I would see now as a real flaw.

At the time, I read it more as a colourful adventure story of a man fleeing the constraints of dark, rainy England for the bright, sunny warmth of Italy. I can still remember the whole sequence of scenes: the frosty Christmas Eve, Covent Garden market, the dark square garden, 'gli Alpi', Florence and David, the bright Tuscan countryside with the wide, shallow river...it's this ability to create a such a vivid sense of being in the world and to make life appear such an intense, immediate adventure for which I have always loved Lawrence.

If I read it again now I think I'd be more aware of its artless, diary quality but, nevertheless, it's still Lawrence.