The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence (The Cambridge Edition of the Letters of D. H. Lawrence) - Hardcover

Lawrence, D. H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521401151 ISBN 13: 9780521401159

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1997

Synopsis

D.H. Lawrence's renowned creativity is conspicuous in his letters. He wrote to aristocrats, fellow authors, painters, publishers, and others from the intelligentsia--but with equal concern to his sisters, a childhood friend suffering from tuberculosis, a post office clerk or an Italian servant-girl. Lawrence reveled in the act of communication, using a direct, unvarnished but invariably vivid style appropriate to each correspondent. In this book, over 330 of Lawrence's letters, carefully chosen from the authoritative seven-volume Cambridge Edition exemplify Lawrence's artistry and humanness. In his introductory essay James T. Boulton provides a rare critical assessment of Lawrence's epistolary achievement. There are annotations to the letters, a biographical list of correspondents, brief chronological and descriptive introductions to each section and a full general index. This selection will appeal to Lawrence aficionados and will make good companion reading to his works.

About this title

Review:

This is another good book to have at your desk for those between-chapter breaks: flip it open and read from this distillation of over 300 letters written by D. H. Lawrence. There are letters to lords and ladies, culture barons, chambermaids and pals, discoursing widely on Whitman, wilderness ("the big old pagan cosmos"), German gingerbread, and Mexican railways--the selections are fun and lively, and they illuminate an era. Plus, his political predictions tend to be right on the money: "Chaos," Lawrence writes, "is necessary for Russia." For the peripatetic author, too: Lawrence never stayed in one place too long. The better to keep up the letters.

Book Description:

Lawrence is one of the best English letter-writers: this is a selection of over 330 from the Cambridge Edition. Ranging across his writing career, they were addressed to the intelligentsia SH but also to a local politician in his home town, a Post Office clerk and an Italian servant-girl. Lawrence's epistolary skills whether describing the natural world, presenting a comic scene, denouncing some folly, hypocrisy or injustice, conveying sympathy on the death of a friend, expressing love for his wife-to-be, are all here, and much more besides.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0521401151
• ISBN 13: 9780521401159
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 584
• Editor: Boulton James T.