Jack Seney Reviews a Biography of D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence: The Story of a Marriage is Brenda Maddox's biography of the controversial English novelist. Like so many such books, it does not necessarily have the specific focus the title says it does and is really a detailed portrait of Lawrence, period. But one that must needs include his irrepressible battle axe of a wife Frieda in detail as well.

Lawrence was born to the working-poor family of a coal miner in the rough English countryside in 1885. From the beginning it was clear that he had artistic sensibilities and an appreciation for nature that his father lacked (to put it mildly). His poorish health kept dear old dad from trying to bully him otherwise.

Lawrence had a strong attachment to his strict Protestant mother and a stronger than usual attraction to females in general. He taught himself to camp out and live rough and simply, while at the same time beginning to write from seemingly as soon as he was able.

Resisting the usual pressures to be a merry British patriot, join the army, worship the queen, etc., Lawrence worked as a teacher while trying to get his stories published. He resented having to resort to his iffy health as a reason to avoid conscription in World War I, believing that conscientious objection alone should be enough.

Lawrence had many intellectual and artistic "friends" before he was well-known. The quote marks are because he could be irascible in his views and ideas and often alienated people with his insistence that they bow to his opinions.

Lawrence had never-realized visions of organizing "love colonies" or cults of which he would of course be the leader. His political-social views were all over the place and could flip on a dime. One minute he was being called a radical pacifist, the next a racist, the next a fascist. Racism charges make no sense as Lawrence wrote stories about white women mating with dark men, and concluded his life with a positive novel about a mixed couple.

As for other political philosophies, Lawrence flirted with several from time to time without ever settling on one. Neither was he the anti-Christian he was made out to be, as he liked to visit churches of both Catholic and Protestant background.

Lawrence's books finally began to be published and caused a big British splash because of their sexual content. What today would be considered only the mildest eroticism was in Lawrence's time a big deal in England. His writings were partially censored there and some other countries aimed to do the same, so he made it his goal to publish in countries friendlier to his work. Then and now, the situation with censorship has never made any sense and always contradicts itself regarding who gets censored and for what. Involving central governments in it never fails to make the matter worse.

Meanwhile, Lawrence had met an older German woman named Frieda. They ran off together, her leaving behind a wealthy husband and teen children for the still-penniless Lawrence. Sinful it was, and turbulent was the relationship with the aggressive Frieda, but they did marry once Frieda was divorced and they did remain together until Lawrence's death.

According to Maddox's research, Lawrence was soon doing better financially thanks to his book sales than the popular view of him as a wandering literary vagabond would have one believe. He and Frieda began to literally travel the world, partially in search of a good climate for Lawrence's lungs, which by now were causing him regular bouts of suffering due to his chronic tuberculosis. Lawrence and Frieda ranged from Sri Lanka to Australia to the U.S. to Mexico in their travels. Frieda had to drag Lawrence away from the Mexican bull fights as he shouted at the cheering fans for their cowardly barbarity (clearly being a man after my own heart).

Lawrence was then writing novels like "Kangaroo," based on fascists he had met in Australia, and publishing essays on pornography meant to define why he was not a pornographer, using an approach that would be alien to the porno-liberals of today.

Lawrence has come under fire in recent times for "supporting pedophiles." But Maddox shows how Lawrence actually withdrew support from some arty types he was friendly with once their child-molestation desires became clear.

I am less impressed with Maddox's drive to link Lawrence to homosexuality. Again and again she seems to attempt this, although the "evidence" is ephemeral and Lawrence's later "lack of physical desire" for women can easily be explained by his chronic illness.

Lawrence died in France in 1930 at the age of 44. But the talk of his writing and what it meant had only just begun. Most new readers of it are struck by how little it actually has to do with sex. For example I started with Lawrence by reading his story "The Rocking-Horse Winner" in college. It has ZERO to do with sex, instead giving an account of a little rich boy who would do anything to please his money-obsessed mother. He imagines that his house itself is intoning the words "Ohh, there MUST be more money!"

I later would gobble up one Lawrence novel after another AFTER I returned to Catholic belief. I have always found his books to be about his unique view of humanity and nature, and only somewhat "about sex." I do not find him chauvinistic as his "Women In Love" is as endearing a book as you can find about women, from either sex of author.

And I do not find Lawrence to be "someone who's writing worsened as his disease bore down on him," because in my view his "Lady Chatterly's Lover" and "The Virgin and the Gypsy," his last books, are actually his best. Both end positively, to boot.

"The Virgin and the Gypsy" concludes Lawrence's career in its last chapter with a realistically touching letter from the gypsy to his white girlfriend, and it is as good a way as could likely be conceived for the terminally ill Lawrence to leave this world literarily.