“Let us hesitate no longer to announce that the sensual passions and mysteries are equally sacred with the spiritual mysteries and passions,” wrote D. H. Lawrence in Women in Love, his masterpiece heralding the erotic consciousness of the twentieth century. Lawrence explores love, sex, passion, and marriage through the eyes of two sisters, Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen. Intelligent, incisive, and observant, the two very different sisters pursue thrilling, torrid affairs with their lovers, Rupert and Gerald, while searching for more mature emotional relationships. Against a haunting World War I backdrop of coal mines, factories, and a beleaguered working class, Gudrun and Ursula’s temperamental differences spark an ongoing debate regarding their society, their inner lives, and the mysteries between men and women. Lawrence considered this to be his best novel.
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English writer of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction. Born and brought up in a Nottinghamshire mining village, he set several of his early novels in the industrialized East Midlands countryside. In 1912, he began a relationship with Frieda Weekley (née von Richtofen), who became his lifelong companion on travels through Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. Industrialization and modernity, social alienation, and sexuality were major themes in Lawrence’s work. He died of complications from tuberculosis in France in 1930.View all by D. H. Lawrence
