Characteristics of Lawrence's Novel Writing

Characteristics of Lawrence's novel creation:More psychological depth excavation, good at metaphors and symbols; the structure is flexible and unconventional; naturalism and symbolism are the main elements of creation.

David Herbert Lawrence was a 20th-century British writer, one of the most important figures in 20th-century English literature and one of the most controversial. His major accomplishments include novels, poetry, plays, essays, travelogues, and letters.

Lawrence's best-known works of fiction include Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915), Women in Love (1920), and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928).

The stories in these novels all take place in the writer's hometown of Nottinghamshire, a mining area with harsh natural conditions. Despite the fact that the real-life Lawrence chose to uproot himself from his home, time and again he depicted the place where he was born and raised in his own novels.

Expanded profile:

Character Controversy

Because Lawrence's writing remains essentially realistic, the book's portrayal of emotion and sexuality seems very straightforward and unapologetic. This was rare in his time. The Rainbow was banned for a time because of the lesbianism it contained, while one publisher claimed, "Sons and Lovers is one of the raunchiest books I have ever read."

"Lady Chatterley's Lover" once sparked a major obscenity scandal in Britain. Because of the explicit sexuality of the book (and perhaps because the "lovers" were from the working class), the British courts even opened a case for "obscenity". However, Penguin Books, the publisher, eventually won the case.