Written during and immediately after the 1914-18 War, Lawrence's major fictions - notably The Rainbow and Women in Love - trace the growth and contemplate the state of industrial England in the twentieth century. Michael Black's introductory chapters show the theoretical interest of Lawrence's writing-method, and how in discarded draft material he was seeking the narrative modes of the great novels which followed. The analysis of these finds Lawrence seeking a modern form of spirituality as well as rediscovered sexual relationships.

MICHAEL BLACK is Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, formerly University Publisher, Cambridge University Press. He is author of D.H. Lawrence: The Early Fiction and D.H. Lawrence: The Early Philosophical Work.