Book contents
- How D. H. Lawrence Wrote
- How D. H. Lawrence Wrote
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1Lawrence as Text-Gambler
- Chapter 2Sons and Lovers
- Chapter 3‘Foreword’ to Sons and Lovers and the Prussian Officer Stories
- Chapter 4‘Study of Thomas Hardy’ and The Rainbow
- Chapter 5Twilight in Italy and ‘The Crown’
- Chapter 6The Two Versions of Women in Love
- Chapter 7Staged Encounters in 1920–1921
- Chapter 8Taking ‘the Imaginative Line’ in Etruscan Places and Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 2 - Sons and Lovers
1911–1913
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2026
Book contents
- How D. H. Lawrence Wrote
- How D. H. Lawrence Wrote
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Chapter 1Lawrence as Text-Gambler
- Chapter 2Sons and Lovers
- Chapter 3‘Foreword’ to Sons and Lovers and the Prussian Officer Stories
- Chapter 4‘Study of Thomas Hardy’ and The Rainbow
- Chapter 5Twilight in Italy and ‘The Crown’
- Chapter 6The Two Versions of Women in Love
- Chapter 7Staged Encounters in 1920–1921
- Chapter 8Taking ‘the Imaginative Line’ in Etruscan Places and Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Sons and Lovers (1913) struggles to contain conflicting early directions in Lawrence’s prose fiction: a yearning of his own to show his characters’ psycho-emotional states – dramatically and situationally rendered, as encouraged by his mentors Ford Madox Ford and Edward Garnett – to be also diagnostic of broader cultural crises. Examination of the successive versions of the novel and of its immediate predecessor The Trespasser (1912), novels whose stages of writing, rewriting and revision weave chronologically around one another, helps explain Lawrence’s denigration of artistic form – his mentors’ touchstone – even as he was learning how to master it. His dissatisfaction with the result would push his writing along demanding new paths.
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- How D. H. Lawrence WrotePerformance on the Page, pp. 18 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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