From Library Journal
The published editions of Women in Love , probably Lawrence's
greatest novel, have always been remarkably corrupt due to a
lengthy, complex process of revision and transcription, a
threatened libel suit, and numerous unauthorized bowdlerizations.
The editors of this new Cambridge Edition have labored scrupulously
to produce an authoritative text. What emerges, if not dramatically
different, is fresher and more immediate. The introduction provides
a valuable history of the novel's composition, revision,
publication, and reception, and though the elaborate textual
apparatus is strictly for advanced students of bibliography, the
notes are splendid. Lawrence's 1919 Foreword and two early
discarded chapters are also included. The recovery of a modern
classic.
Keith Cushman, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro
Download Description
Privately printed in 1920 and published commercially in 1921,
Women in Love is the novel Lawrence himself considered his
masterpiece. Set in the English Midlands, the novel traces the
lives of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, and the men with whom they
fall in love. All four yearn for fufillment in their romantic
lives, yet struggle in a world that is increasingly violent and
destructive. Commenting on the novel, which was composed in the
midst of the First World War in 1916, Lawrence wrote, "The
bitterness of the war may be taken for granted in the characters."
Rich in symbolism and lyrical prose, Women in Love is a complex
meditation on the meaning of love in the modern world.
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by D.H. Lawrence, privately printed in 1920 and published
commercially in 1921. Following the characters Lawrence had created
for The Rainbow (1915), Women in Love examines the ill effects of
industrialization on the human psyche, resolving that individual
and collective rebirth is possible only through human intensity and
passion. Women in Love contrasts the love affair of Rupert Birkin
and Ursula Brangwen with that of Gudrun, Ursula's artistic sister,
and Gerald Crich, a domineering industrialist. Birkin, an
introspective misanthrope, struggles to reconcile his metaphysical
drive for self-fulfillment with Ursula's practical view of
sentimental passion. Their love affair and eventual marriage are
set as a positive antithesis to the destructive relationship of
Gudrun and Crich. The novel also explores the relationship between
Birkin and Crich. According to critics, Birkin is a self-portrait
of Lawrence, and Ursula represents Lawrence's wife, Frieda.
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