Content deleted Content added
Undid revision 1247907250 by Kyleinu2007 (talk) who says they were obscene? We can't say that in wikipedia's voice unless we are quoting something else |
m Removed erroneous space and general fixes (task 1) |
||
Line 26:
-->
'''David Herbert Lawrence''' (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His [[Literary modernism|modernist]] works reflect on [[modernity]], [[social alienation]] and [[industrialization]], while championing sexuality, vitality and instinct. Four of his most famous novels — ''[[Sons and Lovers
(1913), ''[[The Rainbow
Lawrence's opinions and artistic preferences earned him a controversial reputation; he endured contemporary persecution and public misrepresentation of his creative work throughout his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile that he described as a "savage enough pilgrimage".<ref>Warren Roberts, [[James Boulton|James T. Boulton]], and Elizabeth Mansfield (eds.), ''The Letters of D. H. Lawrence'', 2002, letter to J. M. Murry, 2 February 1923, p. 375</ref> At the time of his death, he had been variously scorned as tasteless, avant-garde, and a pornographer who had only garnered success for erotica; however, English novelist and critic [[E. M. Forster]], in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation".<ref>E. M. Forster, letter to ''[[The Nation and Atheneum]]'', 29 March 1930</ref> Later, English literary critic [[F. R. Leavis]] also championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness.<ref>Robertson, P. J. M. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-09670-1_5 "F. R. Leavis and D. H. Lawrence]</ref><ref>Bilan, R. P. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44233595 "Leavis on Lawrence: The Problem of the Normative"]</ref>
Line 36:
The fourth child of Arthur John Lawrence, a barely literate miner at [[Brinsley Colliery]], and Lydia Beardsall, a former [[pupil-teacher]] who had been forced to perform manual work in a lace factory due to her family's financial difficulties,<ref>{{cite web |last=Gillespie |first=Gavin |date=9 February 2024 |title=D.H. Lawrence - An illustrated biography. His life, death, and thereafter, containing unique photographs of the area where he was born. |url=https://www.dh-lawrence.co.uk/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020604112958/http://www.lawrenceseastwood.co.uk/ |archive-date=4 June 2002 |access-date=24 May 2001 |website=DH Lawrence's Eastwood}}</ref> Lawrence spent his formative years in the [[coal mining]] town of [[Eastwood, Nottinghamshire|Eastwood]], [[Nottinghamshire]]. The house in which he was born, 8a Victoria Street, is now the [[D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum]]. His working-class background and the tensions between his parents provided the raw material for a number of his early works. Lawrence roamed out from an early age in the patches of open, hilly country and remaining fragments of [[Sherwood Forest]] in [[Felley]] woods to the north of [[Eastwood, Nottinghamshire|Eastwood]], beginning a lifelong appreciation of the natural world, and he often wrote about "the country of my heart"<ref>Letter to [[Rolf Gardiner]], 3 December 1926.</ref> as a setting for much of his fiction.
The young Lawrence attended Beauvale Board School<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/13/dh.lawrence D.H. Lawrence] (22 July 2008). ''TheGuardian.com''. Retrieved 15 September 2018.</ref> (now renamed Greasley Beauvale D. H. Lawrence Primary School in his honour) from 1891 until 1898, becoming the first local pupil to win a [[county council]] scholarship to [[Nottingham High School]] in nearby [[Nottingham]]. He left in 1901,<ref name="nottingham1">{{cite web | url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/lawrence/biography.aspx | title=Brief Biography of DH Lawrence - the University of Nottingham}}</ref> working for three months as a junior clerk at Haywood's [[Surgical instrument|surgical appliances]] factory, but a severe bout of [[pneumonia]] ended this career. During his convalescence he often visited Hagg's Farm, the home of the Chambers family, and began a friendship with Jessie Chambers, one of the daughters who would go on to inspire characters in his writing. An important aspect of this relationship with Chambers and other adolescent acquaintances was a shared love of books,<ref name="nottingham1908">{{cite web | url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/lawrence/extendedbiography/chapter1.aspx | title=Chapter 1: Background and youth: 1885-1908 - the University of Nottingham}}</ref> an interest that lasted throughout Lawrence's life.
In a private letter written in 1908, Lawrence voiced support for eugenics by the method of a "lethal chamber" to dispose of "all the sick, the halt, the maimed".
[[File:DH Lawrence 1906.jpg|thumb|upright|Lawrence at age 21 in 1906]]
Line 45:
=== Early career ===
In the autumn of 1908, the newly qualified Lawrence left his childhood home for London.<ref name="nottingham1908"/> While teaching in Davidson Road School, [[Croydon]], he continued writing.<ref name="nottingham2">{{cite web | url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/lawrence/extendedbiography/chapter2.aspx | title=Chapter 2: London and first publication: 1908-1912 - the University of Nottingham}}</ref> Jessie Chambers submitted some of Lawrence's early poetry to [[Ford Madox Ford]] (then known as Ford Hermann Hueffer), editor of the influential ''[[The English Review]]''.<ref name="nottingham2"/> Hueffer then commissioned the story ''[[Odour of Chrysanthemums]]'' which, when published in that magazine, encouraged [[Heinemann (book publisher)|Heinemann]], a London publisher, to ask Lawrence for more work. His career as a professional author now began in earnest, although he taught for another year.
[[File:DH Lawrence plaque.jpg|thumb|upright|Commemorative plaque in Colworth Road, [[Croydon]], south London ]]
Line 62:
During his stay in Italy, Lawrence completed the final version of ''Sons and Lovers''. Having become tired of the manuscript, he allowed Edward Garnett to cut roughly 100 pages from the text. The novel was published in 1913 and hailed as a vivid portrait of the realities of working class provincial life.
Lawrence and Frieda returned to Britain in 1913 for a short visit, during which they encountered and befriended [[Literary criticism|critic]] [[John Middleton Murry]] and [[New Zealanders in the United Kingdom|New Zealand-born]] short story writer [[Katherine Mansfield]].
Also during that year, on 28 July, Lawrence met the Welsh tramp poet [[W. H. Davies]], whose nature poetry he initially admired. Davies collected [[
After the couple returned to Italy, staying in a cottage in Fiascherino on the [[Gulf of Spezia]] Lawrence wrote the first draft of what would later be transformed into two of his best-known novels, ''[[The Rainbow]]'' and ''[[Women in Love]]'', in which unconventional female characters take centre stage. Both novels were highly controversial and were [[Book censorship|banned]] on publication in the UK for [[obscenity]], although ''[[Women in Love]]'' was banned only temporarily.
Line 79:
While working on ''Women in Love'' in [[Cornwall]] during 1916–17, Lawrence developed a strong relationship with a Cornish farmer named William Henry Hocking, which some scholars believe was possibly romantic, especially considering Lawrence's fascination with the theme of homosexuality in ''Women in Love''.<ref>Maddox, Brenda (1994), ''D. H. Lawrence: The Story of a Marriage.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 244 {{ISBN|0-671-68712-3}}</ref> Although Lawrence never made it clear their relationship was sexual, Frieda believed it was.<ref>Spalding, Francis (1997), ''[[Duncan Grant]]: A Biography''. p. 169: "Lawrence's views [i.e., warning [[David Garnett]] against homosexual tendencies], as [[Quentin Bell]] was the first to suggest and S. P. Rosenbaum has argued conclusively, were stirred by a dread of his own homosexual susceptibilities, which are revealed in his writings, notably the cancelled prologue to ''Women in Love.''"</ref> In a letter written during 1913, he writes, "I should like to know why nearly every man that approaches greatness tends to homosexuality, whether he admits it or not...."<ref>Letter to Henry Savage, 2 December 1913</ref> He is also quoted as saying, "I believe the nearest I've come to perfect love was with a young coal-miner when I was about 16."<ref>Quoted in ''My Life and Times, Octave Five, 1918–1923'' by [[Compton MacKenzie]] pp. 167–168</ref> However, given his enduring and robust relationship with Frieda it is likely that he was primarily what might be termed today [[bi-curious]], and whether he actually ever had homosexual relations remains an open question.<ref>Maddox, Brenda (1994), ''The Married Man: A Life of D. H. Lawrence.'' Sinclair-Stevenson, p. 276 {{ISBN|978-1-85619-243-9}}</ref>
Eventually, Frieda obtained her divorce from Ernest Weekley. Lawrence and Frieda returned to Britain shortly before the outbreak of [[World War I]] and were legally married on 13 July 1914. During this time, Lawrence worked with London intellectuals and writers such as [[Dora Marsden]], [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Ezra Pound]], and others connected with [[The Egoist (periodical)|''The Egoist'']], an important [[Literary modernism|Modernist]] [[literary magazine]] that published some of his work. Lawrence also worked on adapting [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]]'s ''[[Manifesto of Futurism]]'' into English.<ref>See the chapter "Rooms in the ''Egoist'' Hotel," and esp. p. 53, in ''Clarke, Bruce (1996). Dora Marsden and Early Modernism: Gender, Individualism, Science.'' U of Michigan P. pp. 137–72. {{ISBN|978-0-472-10646-2}}.</ref> He also met the young Jewish artist [[Mark Gertler (artist)|Mark Gertler]], with whom he became good friends for a time; Lawrence would later express his admiration for Gertler's 1916 anti-war painting, [[Merry-Go-Round (Gertler painting)|''Merry-Go-Round'']] as "the best ''modern'' picture I have seen. . . it is great and true."<ref>Haycock, (2009) ''A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War.'' p. 257</ref> Gertler would inspire the character Loerke (a sculptor) in ''Women in Love''.
Frieda's German parentage and Lawrence's open contempt for [[militarism]] caused them to be viewed with suspicion and live in near-destitution during wartime Britain; this may have contributed to ''[[The Rainbow]]'' being suppressed and investigated for its alleged [[obscenity]] in 1915.<ref>Worthen, John (2005) ''D.H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider.'' Allen Lane. p.164</ref> Later, the couple were accused of spying and signaling to [[U-boat|German submarines]] off the coast of [[Cornwall]], where they lived at [[Zennor]]. During this period, Lawrence finished his final draft of ''[[Women in Love]]''. Not published until 1920,<ref name="newyorker.com">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/12/19/the-deep-end|title=The Deep End|first=Benjamin|last=Kunkel|magazine=The New Yorker|date=12 December 2005}}</ref> it is now widely recognized as a novel of great dramatic force and intellectual subtlety.
Line 88:
===Exile===
After the wartime years, Lawrence began what he termed his "savage pilgrimage", a time of voluntary exile from his native country. He escaped from Britain at the earliest practical opportunity and returned only twice for brief visits, spending the remainder of his life travelling with Frieda. This [[wanderlust]] took him to Australia, Italy, [[British Ceylon|Ceylon]] ([[Sri Lanka]]), the United States, Mexico and the [[Southern France|South of France]]. Abandoning Britain in November 1919, they headed south, first to the [[Abruzzo]] region in central Italy and then onwards to [[Capri]] and the Fontana Vecchia in [[Taormina]], Sicily. From Sicily they made brief excursions to [[Sardinia]], [[Monte Cassino]], [[Malta]], Northern Italy, Austria and Southern Germany.
Many of these places appear in Lawrence's writings, including ''[[The Lost Girl]]'' (for which he won the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction), ''[[Aaron's Rod (novel)|Aaron's Rod]]'' and the fragment titled ''[[Mr Noon]]'' (the first part of which was published in the Phoenix anthology of his works, and the entirety in 1984). He wrote [[novellas]] such as ''[[The Captain's Doll]]'', ''[[The Fox (novella)|The Fox]]'' and ''[[The Ladybird]]''. In addition, some of his short stories were issued in the collection ''[[England, My England and Other Stories]]''. During these years Lawrence also wrote poems about the natural world in ''[[Birds, Beasts and Flowers]]''.
Lawrence is often considered one of the finest travel writers in English. His travel books include ''Twilight in Italy'', ''Etruscan Places'', ''[[Mornings in Mexico]]'', and ''[[Sea and Sardinia]]'', which describes a brief journey he undertook in January 1921 and focuses on the life of [[Sardinia]]’s people.<ref>Luciano Marrocu, ''Introduzione'' to Mare e Sardegna (Ilisso 2000); [[Giulio Angioni]], ''Pane e formaggio e altre cose di Sardegna'' (Zonza 2002)</ref> Less well known is his eighty-four page introduction to [[Maurice Magnus]]'s 1924 ''Memoirs of the Foreign Legion'',<ref>Maurice Magnus. ''Memoirs of the Foreign Legion'' (Martin Secker, 1924; Alfred A. Knopf, 1925), introduction by D. H. Lawrence. Introduction reprinted in ''Phoenix II: Uncollected, Unpublished, and Other Prose Works by D. H. Lawrence'' (The Viking Press, Inc. 1970); in [https://archive.org/details/memoirofmauricem00lawr Lawrence, D. H., ''Memoir of Maurice Magnus'', Cushman, Keith, ed., Black Sparrow Press, 1987]; in ''Introduction and Reviews'' in ''The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence'' (2004); and in ''Life With a Capital L'', [[Penguin Group|Penguin Books Limited]] (also published by [[New York Review Books]] as ''The Bad Side of Books''), essays by D. H. Lawrence chosen and introduced by [[Geoff Dyer]] (2019).</ref> in which Lawrence recalls his visit to the monastery of [[Monte Cassino]]. Lawrence told his friend [[Catherine Carswell]] that his introduction to Magnus's ''Memoirs'' was "the best single piece of writing, as ''writing'', that he had ever done".<ref>Lawrence, D. H., ''Memoir of Maurice Magnus'', p. 9 (introduction by Keith Cushman).</ref>
Line 108:
The return to Italy allowed him to renew old friendships; during these years he was particularly close to [[Aldous Huxley]], who was to edit the first collection of Lawrence's letters after his death, along with a memoir.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Poller |first=Jake |date=January 2010 |title=The philosophy of life-worship: D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A243877849/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=d06fd8eb |journal=D.H. Lawrence Review |volume=34-35 |via=Gale}}</ref> After Lawrence visited local archaeological sites (particularly old tombs) with artist [[Earl Brewster]] in April 1927, his collected essays inspired by the excursions were published as ''[[Sketches of Etruscan Places and other Italian essays|Sketches of Etruscan Places]]'', a book that contrasts the lively past with [[Benito Mussolini]]'s fascism.
Lawrence continued to produce short stories and other works of fiction such as ''[[The Escaped Cock]]'' (also published as ''The Man Who Died''), an unorthodox reworking of the story of Jesus Christ's [[Resurrection of Jesus|Resurrection]].
During his final years, Lawrence renewed his serious interest in oil painting. Official harassment persisted and an exhibition of his paintings at the Warren Gallery in London was raided by the police in mid 1929 and several works were confiscated.
Line 202:
*''[[On the Rocks (2008 play)|On the Rocks]]'': a 2008 stage play by [[Amy Rosenthal]] showing Lawrence, his wife Frieda Lawrence, short-story writer Katherine Mansfield and critic and editor John Middleton Murry in Cornwall in 1916–17.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsR/rosenthal-amy.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070304070315/http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsR/rosenthal-amy.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 March 2007|title=Guide to Rosenthal's Plays}}</ref>
*''LAWRENCE – Scandalous! Censored! Banned!'': A musical based on the life of Lawrence. Winner of the 2009 Marquee Theatre Award for Best Original Musical. Received its London premiere in October 2013 at the [[Bridewell Theatre]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catherinebrown.org/academic/reviews/review-of-lawrence-scandalous-censored-banned/|title=LAWRENCE: Scandalous! Censored! Banned!|publisher=catherinebrown.org|access-date=9 February 2020|archive-date=8 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208154433/https://catherinebrown.org/academic/reviews/review-of-lawrence-scandalous-censored-banned/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*''Husbands and Sons'': A stage play adapted by [[Ben Power]] from three of Lawrence's plays, ''[[The Daughter-in-Law]]'', ''A Collier’s Friday Night'', and ''[[The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd]]'', which were each based on Lawrence's formative years in the mining community of [[Eastwood, Nottinghamshire|Eastwood]], [[Nottinghamshire]]. ''Husbands and Sons'' was co-produced by the [[
*''Frieda: The Original Lady Chatterley'' ([[Hodder & Stoughton]], 2019): a novel by [[Annabel Abbs]].
Line 293:
*''[[Late Essays and Articles]]'', edited by James T. Boulton, Cambridge University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-521-58431-0}}
*''[[Selected Letters]]'', Oneworld Classics, 2008. Edited by James T. Boulton. {{ISBN|978-1-84749-049-0}}
*''[[The New Adelphi]]'',
* Memoir of [[Maurice Magnus]], Keith Cushman, ed. 1 December 1987, Black Sparrow Press. {{ISBN|978-0-87685-716-8|0-87685-716-0}} This book includes the unexpurgated version of Lawrence's introduction to Magnus's ''Memoirs of the Foreign Legion'' and related material.
Line 332:
==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|2}}
===Bibliographic resources===
Line 444 ⟶ 445:
==External links==
{{
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/d-h-lawrence}}
*{{Gutenberg author |id=123}}
| |||