Note

DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE (1885–1930) was born in Eastwood, England, the fourth son of a Nottingham coal miner and a former schoolteacher. He was a sickly child, but his mother insisted on furthering his education. He graduated from a teacher-training course at University College in Nottingham, and shortly thereafter became a schoolmaster in a London suburb. In 1909 some of his poetry was published in The English Review, and by 1911 he had published his first novel (The White Peacock). Lawrence would go on to publish some of the most outstanding and controversial novels and short stories of the twentieth century. Among his works’ preeminent themes are the ongoing relationship between sexual and emotional life, and the far-reaching implications of class difference for both the individual psyche and the family. The public found his stunning psychological realism provocative, and protested both the sensuous nature of his writing as well as the overt sexual freedom he depicted. Consequently, numerous accusations of obscenity were leveled against him, and several of his books were banned. Today, however, he is praised for his artistic ingenuity and integrity, and is considered an essential part of the English literary canon. Lawrence emphasized honest emotions and impulses, a concept that he expressed clearly in 1912 when he wrote, “What the blood feels, and believes, is always true.” He also wrote a number of travel books, essays, translations, and plays.

The present volume includes Lawrence’s finest achievements over several literary genres, from his masterpiece, Sons and Lovers (1913), a semi-autobiographical novel which chronicles a young man’s progression into adulthood, to a selection of short stories, poems, and a non-fiction work on psychoanalytic theory.