This book examines the literary career of D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), one of the most prolific of the English writers to dominate the high period of literary modernism even whilst he appeared to inhabit its margins, an intellectual who was deeply suspicious of the mental life, and an important critic of his culture. His legacy is a vast corpus of work in practically every major literary genre, he also painted. Lawrence was one of England’s most controversial literary figures: censors balked at his representations of the sexual lives of men and women and, in the period of the Great War (1914-18), at what they perceived to be anti-patriotic sentiments in his work. Few readers remain indifferent to Lawrence’s writing, and the seventy-two years since his death have produced a range of critical responses from admiration to vilification.
Part I of this book, Life and Contexts, provides a synopsis of the main events in Lawrence’s life and the broad contexts which informed his thought and writing. In Part II, Works, details are given of the novels, novellas, short stories, plays, poetry and discursive, or non-fiction, writing. In Part III, Criticism, clear guidance is given on some main directions in Lawrence studies from the responses of his contemporaries to the present. Special attention is given to the influence of the Cambridge critic F.R. Leavis, and then to more recent reassessments of the work and its4general significance. With this aim, the section identifies a number of clearly defined areas: Lawrence and psychoanalytic criticism; Lawrence and society; Lawrence and feminist criticism; Lawrence and questions of language.
The Complete Critical Guide to D.H. Lawrence thus provides a synopsis of Lawrence’s life and contexts, a detailed introduction to his oeuvre, and an up-to-date account of the principal directions in Lawrence criticism. Read through, it is a comprehensive introduction to Lawrence’s work and preoccupations; alternatively, cross-references between the sections make it possible to pursue a particular line of enquiry within the book, supported by an extensive bibliography.