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Aaron's Rod
There was a large, brilliant evening star in the early twilight, and underfoot the earth was half frozen. It was Christmas Eve. Also the War was over, and there was a sense of relief that was almost a new menace. A man felt the violence of the nightmare released now into the general air. Also there had been another wrangle among the men on the pit-bank that evening.Aaron Sisson was the last man on the little black railway-line climbing the hill home from work. He was late because he had attended a meeting of the men on the bank. He was secretary to the Miners Union for his colliery, and had heard a good deal of silly wrangling that left him nettled.He strode over a stile, crossed two fields, strode another stile, and was in the long road of colliers' dwellings. Just across was his own house: he had built it himself. He went through the little gate, up past the side of the house to the back. There he hung a moment, glancing down the dark, wintry garden.
Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1922
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About the author
D.H. Lawrence
2,085 books4,179 followersDavid Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism, and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct.
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H._Law...
Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation." Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence's fiction within the canonical "great tradition" of the English novel. He is now generally valued as a visionary thinker and a significant representative of modernism in English literature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H._Law...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
January 20, 2018
What a sad, sad story! And painfully true and honest as well.
Written in the aftermath of the First World War, it illustrates the alienation and loss after the catastrophe on a personal level, symbolised in the rejection of pre-war life style and values. The main character, Aaron Sisson, leaves his life in a Northern mining community behind to escape his unhappy marriage. He embarks on a journey to find a place for himself in a world that has broken down, lost all meaning, given up on the optimistic outlook of the 19th century.
Reflecting on the relationships between men and women, he concludes that marriage is incompatible with happiness in the way it dogmatically prescribes and structures something that starts with spontaneous emotion and attraction. By its very definition, it is bound to fail, he thinks. Breaking away from the bourgeois ideals of his ancestors, like a child of Mr Thornton and Margaret in North and South, a child who has lost all romantic belief and who sees beyond the happy wedding day and understands what life does to couples in the long run, he puts his last hope in the South, in Italy, and in his art, - playing the flute. Through his music, he occasionally finds relief from the pain of modernity, despite a growing sense of meaninglessness. What is the point in creating beautiful art in the post-war intellectual society? The war, it seems to the traumatised characters, turns music into dissonance, and song into screams.
Aaron's failure to find solace in a love affair, or in company or art, is dramatically emphasised when he witnesses a terrorist attack from a politically radicalised group, throwing a random bomb into the place where he is spending the evening. Not being physically hurt, he is nonetheless left scarred by the violence, as his flute is broken:
"Aaron was dumbfounded by the night's event: the loss of his flute. Here was a blow he had not expected. And the loss was for him symbolistic. It chimed with something in his soul: the bomb, the smashed flute, the end.
"There goes Aaron's Rod, then", he said to Lilly."
The devastating effect of the complete break-down of pre-war life is made perfectly clear: man is alone, without a muse, without symbols of hope, in a world that needs to wait for new reeds to grow before another tune can be played.
In the meantime, Aaron's friend concludes, he has to live without a rod...
A psychological case study of the lost generation! Incredibly painful, yet worthwhile - playing the same sad, sad tune that Hesse picked up with Rosshalde in 1914, at the beginning of the war.
Written in the aftermath of the First World War, it illustrates the alienation and loss after the catastrophe on a personal level, symbolised in the rejection of pre-war life style and values. The main character, Aaron Sisson, leaves his life in a Northern mining community behind to escape his unhappy marriage. He embarks on a journey to find a place for himself in a world that has broken down, lost all meaning, given up on the optimistic outlook of the 19th century.
Reflecting on the relationships between men and women, he concludes that marriage is incompatible with happiness in the way it dogmatically prescribes and structures something that starts with spontaneous emotion and attraction. By its very definition, it is bound to fail, he thinks. Breaking away from the bourgeois ideals of his ancestors, like a child of Mr Thornton and Margaret in North and South, a child who has lost all romantic belief and who sees beyond the happy wedding day and understands what life does to couples in the long run, he puts his last hope in the South, in Italy, and in his art, - playing the flute. Through his music, he occasionally finds relief from the pain of modernity, despite a growing sense of meaninglessness. What is the point in creating beautiful art in the post-war intellectual society? The war, it seems to the traumatised characters, turns music into dissonance, and song into screams.
Aaron's failure to find solace in a love affair, or in company or art, is dramatically emphasised when he witnesses a terrorist attack from a politically radicalised group, throwing a random bomb into the place where he is spending the evening. Not being physically hurt, he is nonetheless left scarred by the violence, as his flute is broken:
"Aaron was dumbfounded by the night's event: the loss of his flute. Here was a blow he had not expected. And the loss was for him symbolistic. It chimed with something in his soul: the bomb, the smashed flute, the end.
"There goes Aaron's Rod, then", he said to Lilly."
The devastating effect of the complete break-down of pre-war life is made perfectly clear: man is alone, without a muse, without symbols of hope, in a world that needs to wait for new reeds to grow before another tune can be played.
In the meantime, Aaron's friend concludes, he has to live without a rod...
A psychological case study of the lost generation! Incredibly painful, yet worthwhile - playing the same sad, sad tune that Hesse picked up with Rosshalde in 1914, at the beginning of the war.
October 17, 2020
Labelled incorrectly as a “picaresque” on Wikipedia, this freewheeling novel concerns a misanthropic flautist fed up with working-classness who travels into the realm of bourgeois country houses and opera attendees with the aid of his tuneful rod. One of Lawrence’s improvisatory novels, Aaron’s Rod is more concerned with barbed dialogues between thinly-veiled realsters (the character of Aaron is supposed to be J. Middleton Murry), most of which are overlong and untrimmed and pretty entertaining. The plotless plot sees Aaron hopping to Italy, mirroring Lawrence’s own experiences in Milan and Florence, in search of the mate to whose will the mate wishes him to bend. There’s a tension between Lawrence’s overwritten novels like The Rainbow, and these shaggier, ramblier unrevised novels replete with original typos. Yes, it is like quibbling over two kinds of delicious muffin. You are quite correct.
D.H. Lawrence RANKED
D.H. Lawrence RANKED
April 16, 2015
My experiment with D.H. Lawrence has come to an end. This is the third novel of his I have read in the last two years (the others being The Rainbow and Lady Chatterly's Lover) and all three novels I have strongly disliked. I really wanted to respect Lawrence even if I did not particularly enjoy reading him. However, after this novel, I can't even fake respect.
Before I get into why, I wanted to share this hysterical passage from Aaron's Rod. A bomb has just exploded in a cafe: "But Aaron looked in vain for his own hat. The bomb had fallen near the stand where he had hung it and his overcoat. 'My hat and coat?' he said to Lilly." And then Lawrence describes a "crowd of excited angry men. . . wrestling over overcoats that were mixed up with a broken marble table-top."
Really? A bomb goes off any everyone starts freaking out about their hats and coats? How very English.
The best thing I can say about this novel is that it sharpened my reasons for why I do not like Lawrence. It may be the only good thing. At least with The Rainbow, there were some lovely passages.
Aaron Sisson, a working class man, quits his job and leaves his wife and children in the beginning of the novel. His reason? His plans? Well, beyond playing his flute, even Aaron is not sure. When asked, he has no answer. This brings me to my first issue with Lawrence. He liked to write characters who lack self-awareness. They "feel," but they don't understand why they feel. They just ooze feelings left and right, moving from one extreme to another, with no attempt to make sense of it all. Which brings me to my next issue.
Love and hate are the same thing to Lawrence. Well to his characters anyway. No one can say they love someone without immediately saying that they also hate the person. Hate? Really? The drama, jeez.
Most of the book, Aaron finds himself in the company of upper-class types who sit around and debate various issues. Intellectual discussion is one thing, but these characters just seem to enjoy crying about the things that make them unhappy. They wallow in torment, whether it be how the war torments them, or class conflicts, or politics, or sex. And boy oh boy does sex torment them.
There are a number of discussions between the men about sex and how women ruin sex by initiating it, that women use sex to get control of men, that the only good sex is when women are submissive and men are the only initiators. Yeah, that discussion wiped away any good will toward Lawrence I may have had (what little was left after LCL anyway). Aaron has sex a few times in the book and each time, he hates the woman afterward and blames her for his lust. Good ole misogyny.
The misogyny in the book gets worse, with a grand scene where a group of men really get their lady-bashing in over tea and crumpets. "Terrible thing, the modern woman" one says. That was just the most convenient sound byte, but it's the essence of the whole scene.
I knew straightaway that the flute was a phallic symbol. And it's no coincidence that Aaron's children were both girls and that the one scene they are given, they are greedy and destructive. The message I got from the book parallels the message I got from LCL, that women need a man to give them a life's purpose and that a man's best tool in this endeavor is his dick.
Hey Lawrence, suck mine.
Before I get into why, I wanted to share this hysterical passage from Aaron's Rod. A bomb has just exploded in a cafe: "But Aaron looked in vain for his own hat. The bomb had fallen near the stand where he had hung it and his overcoat. 'My hat and coat?' he said to Lilly." And then Lawrence describes a "crowd of excited angry men. . . wrestling over overcoats that were mixed up with a broken marble table-top."
Really? A bomb goes off any everyone starts freaking out about their hats and coats? How very English.
The best thing I can say about this novel is that it sharpened my reasons for why I do not like Lawrence. It may be the only good thing. At least with The Rainbow, there were some lovely passages.
Aaron Sisson, a working class man, quits his job and leaves his wife and children in the beginning of the novel. His reason? His plans? Well, beyond playing his flute, even Aaron is not sure. When asked, he has no answer. This brings me to my first issue with Lawrence. He liked to write characters who lack self-awareness. They "feel," but they don't understand why they feel. They just ooze feelings left and right, moving from one extreme to another, with no attempt to make sense of it all. Which brings me to my next issue.
Love and hate are the same thing to Lawrence. Well to his characters anyway. No one can say they love someone without immediately saying that they also hate the person. Hate? Really? The drama, jeez.
Most of the book, Aaron finds himself in the company of upper-class types who sit around and debate various issues. Intellectual discussion is one thing, but these characters just seem to enjoy crying about the things that make them unhappy. They wallow in torment, whether it be how the war torments them, or class conflicts, or politics, or sex. And boy oh boy does sex torment them.
There are a number of discussions between the men about sex and how women ruin sex by initiating it, that women use sex to get control of men, that the only good sex is when women are submissive and men are the only initiators. Yeah, that discussion wiped away any good will toward Lawrence I may have had (what little was left after LCL anyway). Aaron has sex a few times in the book and each time, he hates the woman afterward and blames her for his lust. Good ole misogyny.
The misogyny in the book gets worse, with a grand scene where a group of men really get their lady-bashing in over tea and crumpets. "Terrible thing, the modern woman" one says. That was just the most convenient sound byte, but it's the essence of the whole scene.
I knew straightaway that the flute was a phallic symbol. And it's no coincidence that Aaron's children were both girls and that the one scene they are given, they are greedy and destructive. The message I got from the book parallels the message I got from LCL, that women need a man to give them a life's purpose and that a man's best tool in this endeavor is his dick.
Hey Lawrence, suck mine.
January 17, 2013
I wasn't really sure what to expect with this book. I am a D.H. Lawrence fan, but this one did not have very high reviews, so I went in skeptical. I have to say I really enjoyed it. It is typical Lawrence.. beautifully written, but not very likable characters. All in all, if a Lawrence fan, a very enjoyable read.
December 16, 2013
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
Quotations:
"Do you think, Lilly, we're the world? said Robert ironically. "Oh, yes, I guess w're shipwrecked in this box, like Robinson Crusoes. And what we do on our own little island matters to us alone. As for the infinite crowds of howling savages outside there in the unspeakable, all you've got to do is mind they don't scrap you."
When you love, your soul breathes in - when your soul breathes out, it's bloody revolution.
A man should remain himself, not try to spread himself over humanity. He should pivot himself on his own pride.
Love was a battle in which each party strove for the mastery of the other's soul. So far, man had yielded the mastery to woman. Now he was fighting for it back again. And too late, for the woman would never yield.
Like the Invisible Man, we are only revealed through our clothes and our masks.
Give thyself, but give thyself not away. That is the lesson written at the end of the long strange lane of love.
5* Women in Love
4* Sons and lovers
5* Lady Chatterley's Lover
4* The Rainbow
3* The Fox
3* The Virgin and the Gipsy
3* The Prussian Officer
3* Daughters of the Vicar
3* The White Stocking
3* England, My England
4* The Ladybird
3* The Captain's Doll
3* The Plumed Serpent
3* Aaron's Rod
TBR The Trespasser
TBR Studies in Classic American Literature
Quotations:
"Do you think, Lilly, we're the world? said Robert ironically. "Oh, yes, I guess w're shipwrecked in this box, like Robinson Crusoes. And what we do on our own little island matters to us alone. As for the infinite crowds of howling savages outside there in the unspeakable, all you've got to do is mind they don't scrap you."
When you love, your soul breathes in - when your soul breathes out, it's bloody revolution.
A man should remain himself, not try to spread himself over humanity. He should pivot himself on his own pride.
Love was a battle in which each party strove for the mastery of the other's soul. So far, man had yielded the mastery to woman. Now he was fighting for it back again. And too late, for the woman would never yield.
Like the Invisible Man, we are only revealed through our clothes and our masks.
Give thyself, but give thyself not away. That is the lesson written at the end of the long strange lane of love.
5* Women in Love
4* Sons and lovers
5* Lady Chatterley's Lover
4* The Rainbow
3* The Fox
3* The Virgin and the Gipsy
3* The Prussian Officer
3* Daughters of the Vicar
3* The White Stocking
3* England, My England
4* The Ladybird
3* The Captain's Doll
3* The Plumed Serpent
3* Aaron's Rod
TBR The Trespasser
TBR Studies in Classic American Literature
February 12, 2011
Some parts of book were excellent, the writing straight from the heart, the way the author describes passion, self-loathing, etc. Story line, however, very jumbled, and several times the same device used - a group of people meeting, debating - the pub in England, the dinner party at Bricknell's, the crowd at Sir William Franks', the gatherings with the ex-pat colony in Florence. Some of the figures were not developed, and it was just dialogue, no character developments, speechifying, really. I kept waiting for Josephine Ford, or Sir William to re-appear later in the narrative, but they didn't. It seemed like I wasted time getting into their characters, and then, nothing. Liked how "frenemies" were sketched, either Lilly or the Marchese. Some of the gatherings and characters (Dekker, for example) had homosexual overtones, and in particular, the way Lilly washes Aaron when the latter has the flu. The book seems very much of its time, the way it goes on about WWI, Bolshevism, anarchists, etc.
PS - second time I read this book, the first time in 1971. I think it had more impact on me then, than now. When Aaron walks out on family, early in book, that got my attention 40 years ago, resonating with my own history.
PS - second time I read this book, the first time in 1971. I think it had more impact on me then, than now. When Aaron walks out on family, early in book, that got my attention 40 years ago, resonating with my own history.
January 21, 2017
Another hidden gem of literature, the story of many characters who undergo the experience of becoming lost emotionally, intellectually, existentially. A shaman born in civilization, DHL points out the healthy elements of such a disorientation and thereby makes his novel a work of healing. So he should be forgiven very consciously by the reader for his occasional preachiness, seeming misogyny, and instances of muddy reasoning. Under the mesmerizing force of everything and everyone he turns his attention to, scenery, furniture, characters, ideas and ideologies, he is often consciously tentative in giving name to what he senses. He gets inside these and loves them without taking their sides. He is not to develop a doctrine. I like to imagine him as a shaman delivering a campfire story.
September 4, 2012
Not one of D.H's best known novels but well worth a read if you are a fan of his writing. The story follows the tale of a flute playing mine worker from Nottinghamshire, Aaron Sisson, who sets out on a journey of discovery and exploration across post-war Europe after becoming disillusioned with his life at home. Along the way he comes into contact with numerous characters who seek to influence his outlook on life as he struggles with the true purpose of his existence. Lawrence returns to many of the issues already addressed in earlier works, including the relationship between the sexes and the dynamics of marriage and individualism. It's fairly obvious that Sisson's character is based upon himself and many of the experiences he has in London, Milan and Florence are semi-autobiographical.
As ever Lawrence's prose is superb and he draws the reader into the atmosphere and surroundings of Florence with poetic language. I was surprised to learn after finishing the book that he actually had great difficulty completing it. He complained to friends that he desperately hoped Aaron's Rod would 'bud and flower'. Whether he succeeds in doing so you'll have to read the book and decide for yourself but as a fan of D.H Lawrence I recommend it as a both an interesting read and a fascinating insight into the thoughts and beliefs of the author in the wake of the Great War.
As ever Lawrence's prose is superb and he draws the reader into the atmosphere and surroundings of Florence with poetic language. I was surprised to learn after finishing the book that he actually had great difficulty completing it. He complained to friends that he desperately hoped Aaron's Rod would 'bud and flower'. Whether he succeeds in doing so you'll have to read the book and decide for yourself but as a fan of D.H Lawrence I recommend it as a both an interesting read and a fascinating insight into the thoughts and beliefs of the author in the wake of the Great War.
March 30, 2021
Almost as bad as Sons and Lovers, but not quite. Again with the non-ending, indecisive and wishy-washy text. May it's just the semi-biographical works that I'm having a problem with, but I think I can make the pronouncement that I do not like Lawrence's works.
In the words of evil Willow, bored now.
In the words of evil Willow, bored now.
August 25, 2020
Seriously don't bother with this one!
April 16, 2022
In a writing room at a post office in Florence, Lawrence ruminates (and writes a letter!) about things that end. Will he move on to Venice? Or back to England and wife? Or stand on the terrace of his ten-francs-a-day pensionne and stare into the town square? Never much bothered by his sexuality, 1,000 francs says on the terrace he remains: a room with a view of eternal muscular, naked men in marble.
July 24, 2025
i hope i never have to read another DHL novel again bc what the hell was this. idk how this man got published
May 29, 2021
Despite the book being a very slow read and at times exuding not only ennui, but borderline boredom-ness, I am still inclined to give it a high rating, due to its saving grace, that being the insights into the topic of living with(out) others.
The book explores in the main the dynamics of married couples and/or love in general and the theme of that battle of the sexes in our (or rather the author’s) modern times (1920s); however, I believe this theme or insight can be expanded to any type of human relationship:
The insight *as I see it* is that any other person - whether lover, spouse, best friend, parent or even your own kids (and to some extent cats and dogs as well) – would be found to be insufferable after spending sufficiently long time with. Our craving for having no company but ourselves, of breathing the air alone, will increase proportionally to the time we spend with others.
However, while spending time alone, we increasingly start craving for something, and by extension trying to fill that gap through the company of others, until at some point we must enter back into connections and time-spending with significant or even less significant (for us) others.
If the above is true and universal, then it can explain a lot about tensions between people, since hitting the right balance between togetherness and aloneness - even with two people only, each bringing into the relationship their own dynamics of this dichotomy – seems a very improbable feat indeed.
Having said that, the last couple of pages in the book propose a rather disturbing solution upon which people’s only escape route from this malady is to subject themselves willingly to some charismatic and powerful individual.
The book explores in the main the dynamics of married couples and/or love in general and the theme of that battle of the sexes in our (or rather the author’s) modern times (1920s); however, I believe this theme or insight can be expanded to any type of human relationship:
The insight *as I see it* is that any other person - whether lover, spouse, best friend, parent or even your own kids (and to some extent cats and dogs as well) – would be found to be insufferable after spending sufficiently long time with. Our craving for having no company but ourselves, of breathing the air alone, will increase proportionally to the time we spend with others.
However, while spending time alone, we increasingly start craving for something, and by extension trying to fill that gap through the company of others, until at some point we must enter back into connections and time-spending with significant or even less significant (for us) others.
If the above is true and universal, then it can explain a lot about tensions between people, since hitting the right balance between togetherness and aloneness - even with two people only, each bringing into the relationship their own dynamics of this dichotomy – seems a very improbable feat indeed.
Having said that, the last couple of pages in the book propose a rather disturbing solution upon which people’s only escape route from this malady is to subject themselves willingly to some charismatic and powerful individual.
December 31, 2018
A powerful philosophical treatment of the social and political disillusionment in postwar Europe through the prism of an individual rebellion against social norms and bourgeois values, as well as trappings of unhappy family life and economic bureaucracy. Pursuit of individuality, expression, art, passion takes the center stage, while both ostensible bohemian intellectualism and stale middle-class mediocrity are satirized. A premonition of the “strong leader” cult and the turn toward rejection of liberalism for collectivist alternatives of the 1930s. Though the text may be uneven and have loose ends, the powerful style of Lawrence’s expression more than makes up the difference to make it an aesthetically rich novel full of symbolism and provocative thought. Set in England and Italy, the novel raises questions that are no less relevant today, questioning society and institutions.
September 5, 2018
Repetitive
Lawrence became very repetitious throughout this book. It was as if his characters had some sort of social flaw. And while we are on the subject of social views, that was Lawrence's message throughout this book. He took on religion, love, poverty, adultery, politics...so much packed into this novel that it could be overwhelming.
A book like this could have some impact on today's society with the division of the left and right although I think this book leaned more to the left.
I did not like Aaron Sisson at all. He was arrogant and a cheater that seemed full of hate for his wife. This isn't something I would normally pick up and read, but thanks to the 1001 books list, I can now cross this one off.
Lawrence became very repetitious throughout this book. It was as if his characters had some sort of social flaw. And while we are on the subject of social views, that was Lawrence's message throughout this book. He took on religion, love, poverty, adultery, politics...so much packed into this novel that it could be overwhelming.
A book like this could have some impact on today's society with the division of the left and right although I think this book leaned more to the left.
I did not like Aaron Sisson at all. He was arrogant and a cheater that seemed full of hate for his wife. This isn't something I would normally pick up and read, but thanks to the 1001 books list, I can now cross this one off.
April 15, 2018
Lawrence is my favourite author because I am drawn to his fearlessness and psychological acuity. He invites controversy, not for the sake of it, but rather, to question the establishment – class structures, social conventions, etc. I love that about him. He is in fine form with Aaron’s Rod. Taking place after the war, Lawrence’s Aaron is adrift. This novel is about Aaron’s journey both physically and psychologically as he tries to find his place in a new world. Lawrence gives his readers plenty to mull over.
October 24, 2011
Well, it's finally happened. I have found a British writer I hate. Reading this was reminiscent of reading Anna Karenina; dull plotline involving a character I find so nauseatingly self-absorbed and tedious that I want to smack him/her.
Unless someone can tell me all DH Lawrence is not like this, I will never read another of his works.
Unless someone can tell me all DH Lawrence is not like this, I will never read another of his works.
Read
September 3, 2012I've officially given up Lawrence for good. Great writer, maybe the best all time; but for me, he's poison.
November 25, 2023
Aaron Sisson, a Northern Englishman, a union official in the coal mines (so presumably a step or two up the class ladder from the actual miners) and gifted amateur flute-player leaves his wife and children (I won't say this is hardly a footnote in Lawrence's worldview, there is some drama around it) and heads off to Italy, perennial destination for the early 20th century English who suspect there is more to life.
Aaron's Rod is a biblical reference to a walking stick as a symbol of authority, and in turn refers to Sisson's flute and, Lawrence being Lawrence, perhaps there is some addition double entendre.
Aaron's Rod is a biblical reference to a walking stick as a symbol of authority, and in turn refers to Sisson's flute and, Lawrence being Lawrence, perhaps there is some addition double entendre.
November 17, 2021
The good points: very well observed horrible little girls at the beginning, I thought I was going to enjoy this. But every character is unlikeable, and that makes for very tough reading.
Another good point: the descriptions of Italy.
As for the rest, there are pages and pages of stilted dialogue and far too much of the love-urge nonsense. It really is only one for DHL completists.
Another good point: the descriptions of Italy.
As for the rest, there are pages and pages of stilted dialogue and far too much of the love-urge nonsense. It really is only one for DHL completists.
October 5, 2020
This was a re-reading. What's different? Back in the 70s, Lawrence was quite popular and lots of folks read his stuff. Today? The book felt dated and a bit wore out. Dull stuff.
July 16, 2020
Just finished the book... I have never seen some of these ideas in words before. Much of it is like a preacher but to no religion I've ever heard of. Right now, I'm stunned by the last 2 chapters which recounts Aaron's flute being broken (metaphorically his world is destroyed) and his chat with the enigmatic Lilly, whose character needs a deeper look into to make sense of his ideas.
Lilly: He is a married man who can often be found without his wife. He is a friend to everyone, but loyal to no-one. He will give you the shirt off his back (like he does with Aaron when he nurses him back to health) but then will discard you when you don't submit to his will//his ideas about life.
It is these ideas emphatically stressed in the last chapter that we the reader are left to ponder. Discarding the will to love (whether to an individual, humanity or to a God) and delving into the more darker life force the will to power. Not in the Nietzschean sense as Lilly makes clear, but this will to dominate and control is the essential need of the individual.
As well, Lilly admonishes Aaron to be his true self. It is explained fully in the chapter, not in the new age, be yourself, love yourself ideology, but in the sense that a dandelion will ripen into a dandelion. Our destiny and journey is already designed or formed so if we deny it or yield ourselves to another we are in fact disfiguring our own soul. He calls on us to look into that soul and accept it and as he says"sit on it like a hen to its egg.
These are powerful calls and would mark a major departure in my life towards the love force and the God force. He chides me as a seeker. and maybe he is right. Is it time to put away these unsatisfying wants?
Lawrence's own life must come under scrutiny. His unhappiness and vagabond lifestyle. He reneging of country and class.
Lilly denounces socialism as someone else's problem and not of his concern. He vows not to be concerned with any of society's efforts to create a just and fair system. But he also could care less for a system built on slavery - although he predicts it will one day come to pass. Can anyone help me understand these ideas? Is Lawrence being sincere?
Lilly: He is a married man who can often be found without his wife. He is a friend to everyone, but loyal to no-one. He will give you the shirt off his back (like he does with Aaron when he nurses him back to health) but then will discard you when you don't submit to his will//his ideas about life.
It is these ideas emphatically stressed in the last chapter that we the reader are left to ponder. Discarding the will to love (whether to an individual, humanity or to a God) and delving into the more darker life force the will to power. Not in the Nietzschean sense as Lilly makes clear, but this will to dominate and control is the essential need of the individual.
As well, Lilly admonishes Aaron to be his true self. It is explained fully in the chapter, not in the new age, be yourself, love yourself ideology, but in the sense that a dandelion will ripen into a dandelion. Our destiny and journey is already designed or formed so if we deny it or yield ourselves to another we are in fact disfiguring our own soul. He calls on us to look into that soul and accept it and as he says"sit on it like a hen to its egg.
These are powerful calls and would mark a major departure in my life towards the love force and the God force. He chides me as a seeker. and maybe he is right. Is it time to put away these unsatisfying wants?
Lawrence's own life must come under scrutiny. His unhappiness and vagabond lifestyle. He reneging of country and class.
Lilly denounces socialism as someone else's problem and not of his concern. He vows not to be concerned with any of society's efforts to create a just and fair system. But he also could care less for a system built on slavery - although he predicts it will one day come to pass. Can anyone help me understand these ideas? Is Lawrence being sincere?
April 6, 2014
This was an interesting novel. A lesser known D.H. Lawrence novel written in 1922 about a coal miner (who doesn't live in grinding poverty) Aaron Sisson who walks away from his wife and three daughters (making sure there's money in the bank for them) and wanders Europe. He can play the flute--well enough to play for opera orchestras. He floats around the edge of the haute monde of London and observes. Interested but not terribly. Then he gets the flu and survives with the help of one of his new friends. He follows him off to Europe and the rest of the novel takes place in Florence, Italy.
He's a seeker---but he is not sure what it is his spirit needs.
I love Lawrence's descriptive ability--so well lit and decorative. His parade of characters are all quirky (apparently he based them on people he knew and some wanted to sue him).
The ennui here is stultifying--the general malaise of the lost generation after World War I permeates the book. But the philosophical discussions are intriguing. Sisson is the binoculars on the expats and minor nobility living in European cafes and tidy salons discussing music, life in general and love. Their lives marginally interesting-- and the real world seems to barely intrude--save at the end.
Not my favorite Lawrence but worth the read.
He's a seeker---but he is not sure what it is his spirit needs.
I love Lawrence's descriptive ability--so well lit and decorative. His parade of characters are all quirky (apparently he based them on people he knew and some wanted to sue him).
The ennui here is stultifying--the general malaise of the lost generation after World War I permeates the book. But the philosophical discussions are intriguing. Sisson is the binoculars on the expats and minor nobility living in European cafes and tidy salons discussing music, life in general and love. Their lives marginally interesting-- and the real world seems to barely intrude--save at the end.
Not my favorite Lawrence but worth the read.
March 3, 2013
I did not like it. Do I just not get it? I'm not sure if it's DH Lawrence that hates women, or just the main character, Aaron Sisson. Either way, this novel made me angry.
We start with the inddiffernet Aaron Sisson leaving his wife & children in post (WWI?) war England to wander to and around London. Not only is he indifferent to her, he really doesn't actually fight with her. He lets her talk and he just looks at her, decides she's suffocating him, and leaves. In London, he's a flautist for an orchestra, hangs out with various people, and has an affair. He falls ill (poor baby) and is taken care of by a male acquaintance, Lilly. When Lilly leaves town to somewhere in Italy, Aaron follows, not really knowing where to go. There, he has another affair, meets up with Lilly, and gets by performing for rich friends. When finally he survives an anarchist bombing, flute destroyed, he asks friend Lilly what to do next. "Your soul will tell you", replied Lilly. The End.
Obviously, Lawrence has had an effect on me because I've never written this involved of a review. I liked "Lady Chatterly's Lover", so I will read more from him. I just hope his other work isn't so misogynistic.
We start with the inddiffernet Aaron Sisson leaving his wife & children in post (WWI?) war England to wander to and around London. Not only is he indifferent to her, he really doesn't actually fight with her. He lets her talk and he just looks at her, decides she's suffocating him, and leaves. In London, he's a flautist for an orchestra, hangs out with various people, and has an affair. He falls ill (poor baby) and is taken care of by a male acquaintance, Lilly. When Lilly leaves town to somewhere in Italy, Aaron follows, not really knowing where to go. There, he has another affair, meets up with Lilly, and gets by performing for rich friends. When finally he survives an anarchist bombing, flute destroyed, he asks friend Lilly what to do next. "Your soul will tell you", replied Lilly. The End.
Obviously, Lawrence has had an effect on me because I've never written this involved of a review. I liked "Lady Chatterly's Lover", so I will read more from him. I just hope his other work isn't so misogynistic.
May 30, 2019
I think this book is highly underrated and some parts/moments of it could only be understood by someone with highly evolved consciousness. I am surprised at the explanation of what soul's desires mean and what it means to be in a state of complete peace with oneself. Aaron is a flutist who walks through life without goal wanting to explore and not be tied to something. His friend and mentor, Lilly is in the same boat but unlike Aaron who is clueless as to how to deal with his lost soul, Lilly has some pretty convincing solutions.
Aaron, a married man for over a decade walks away from his wife and four children because married life isn't cutting him any more interest. And he was in a constant battle with his wife for who is the superior between the two. So he makes a journey through London, Milan and Florence making aquaintances, having flings with some exceptional women. All through, he couldn't feel to let himself loose or share himself with another without restraint. He builds relationships and tears them away to be a free soul. At the end Lilly teaches him what it means to not search for something outside of himself and build his soul,his inner God by staying rooted..
Aaron, a married man for over a decade walks away from his wife and four children because married life isn't cutting him any more interest. And he was in a constant battle with his wife for who is the superior between the two. So he makes a journey through London, Milan and Florence making aquaintances, having flings with some exceptional women. All through, he couldn't feel to let himself loose or share himself with another without restraint. He builds relationships and tears them away to be a free soul. At the end Lilly teaches him what it means to not search for something outside of himself and build his soul,his inner God by staying rooted..
July 5, 2024
I believe I read this as either a junior or senior in high school. I went to a private school, so our English classes were very similar to the classes I took in college. One marking period, we read at least 10 DH Lawrence novels, including Aaron's Rod. It was my least favorite of the bunch. I do not remember much about it, other than I was not a fan. I had saved "Women in Love" and "Sons and Lovers" which meant I loved them. (We owned the books as they were part of the tuition our parents paid each year). I saved the ones I love, and still have them more than 50 years later, with my maiden name written inside the cover. Lady Chatterley's Love was NOT part of the curriculum, however, but I did read it years later to find out why it was excluded. It was risqué for the era in which it was written, but really, so many of Lawrence's books could be described that way, but was very tame by today's standards. I loved it! Who would not swoon over Mellors the gardener? I have remembered his name all these years!
December 21, 2012
The synopsis I read before reading described this as a comedy novel, but I think I missed the jokes.
That said, I found this to be the most readable of the Lawrence novels I have read. The central character rather selfishly abandons his working class family and goes to discover his fate with the bohemian set in London. Set shortly after the First World War, the novel touches on passing politics and changing social structures as Europe enters a modern age but doesn't dwell on this. The reader is left entirely at their own devices as to how they wish to apply these changing times to Aaron's actions.
Some sections made me cringe, but this is due to my reading from a modern perspective - in the context of when the book was written the exploration of love, sexuality and the interactions between men and women were quite sharp.
I'm not a Lawrence fan and am unlikely to revisit this book or any of his other work.
That said, I found this to be the most readable of the Lawrence novels I have read. The central character rather selfishly abandons his working class family and goes to discover his fate with the bohemian set in London. Set shortly after the First World War, the novel touches on passing politics and changing social structures as Europe enters a modern age but doesn't dwell on this. The reader is left entirely at their own devices as to how they wish to apply these changing times to Aaron's actions.
Some sections made me cringe, but this is due to my reading from a modern perspective - in the context of when the book was written the exploration of love, sexuality and the interactions between men and women were quite sharp.
I'm not a Lawrence fan and am unlikely to revisit this book or any of his other work.
April 2, 2023
The book starts with much promise, a particularly stinging portrait of a marriage which has turned to a nasty-ass stalemate between husband and wife. Unfortunately there is one fatal flaw: Aaron is a po-faced little turd of a man. This is not a judgement on his actions or his attitudes towards women and marriage, he's just a deeply uninteresting character and once he breaks free and goes off on his merry way the novel becomes a tedious slog. I like DH Lawrence, I don't have a problem with his philosophical wrangles, I'm not offended by his offensive views in the slightest but this novel just feels like a one-note sketch. Like Frieda really pissed him off one day so he wrote this instead of smashing a teapot. Turgid.
October 9, 2011
My first D H Lawrence and I'm sure I didn't pick a good one to start with. I should have picked a more familiar tale. This one was interesting to read, the story of a mining community worker who walks out on his wife and children without a backward glance and goes off to pursue a life as a wandering flute player. He seems to slip into the circles of classes higher than him so easily and is accepted right away, they tempt him away to Italy. I didn't find Aaron Sisson a particularly likeable character, in fact I didn't really take to any of them. This may sound negative, but quite the opposite, I did enjoy reading it, but also have to confess that I've been glad to finish it.
June 7, 2017
This makes me weary. I am beginning to think that Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is right
about Lawrence. - the short fiction is fantastic while the novels are absurd. Lawrence has given our society much, without question, but novels like this are the result of ideas triumphing over poetry and it's a pattern with too much of his full length fiction. The dialogue is trash - we can talk about the style of the time, sure, but laying heavy handed adverbs on every third line of dialogue suggests a shocking tone-deafness for such a presumably major author. Thank God some swaths of poetry come through - Lawrence's descriptive powers are often enormous and frequently evocative.
about Lawrence. - the short fiction is fantastic while the novels are absurd. Lawrence has given our society much, without question, but novels like this are the result of ideas triumphing over poetry and it's a pattern with too much of his full length fiction. The dialogue is trash - we can talk about the style of the time, sure, but laying heavy handed adverbs on every third line of dialogue suggests a shocking tone-deafness for such a presumably major author. Thank God some swaths of poetry come through - Lawrence's descriptive powers are often enormous and frequently evocative.
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