D. H. Lawrence

The Rainbow

Liked the beginning and end, not the middle

Lucy Howe

“The Rainbow” is a 1915 novel by D. H. Lawrence. It follows a Nottinghamshire farming family through the transition from the pre-industrial to the industrial age, with a particular focus on the young and aspiring Ursula who dreams of a more fulfilling life. Lawrence's 1920s "Women in Love" is the sequel to this book and continues to follow the lives of the Brangwen Sisters. David Herbert Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English poet and writer. Lawrence's works mainly explore the effects that industrialisation had on people and society through looking at issues including vitality, emotional health, sexuality, and instinct. Although he was considered little more than a pornographer until his untimely death, he is now hailed as a significant writer of classic English literature. Other notable works by this author include: “Women in Love” (1920), “The Trespasser” (1912), and “Sons and Lovers” (1913). Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this fantastic novel now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned biography of the author.

Nona G

For my first Lawrence, I didn't really know what to expect. I was afraid of the book being too chick-lit for my taste, but I wanted something "easy" for the end of the year/beginning of the new one. Easy, however, is not the way I would describe it. It is anything but. 

What it is, however, is amazing. Mindblowing. Deeply, purely honest. Raw. Intense. I don't remember ever reading a book so focused on the inner life of the characters, so equally knowledgeable about the psyche of both men and women, so unjudgemental. 

I've read that The Rainbow was quite the scandal in its time and for good reason. The characters question everything, from religion to social issues. It is, if you make abstraction of the specifics of the era, a very current story. The erotism is there, raw and intense, but so is the religious aspect, which different characters question in their own way. It has lesbianism, which I'm sure was quite an obscene topic for the beginning of the 1900s, but it is also one of the most accurate and real stories about relationships I've ever read. More accurate and more real than the so-called self-help books on relationships.

I hope Women in Love rises up to the challenge, because - let me tell you - The Rainbow is quite amazing and hard to follow.

The Rainbow

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