Apocalypse: And the Writings on Revelation

by D.H. Lawrence

Apocalypse is D. H. Lawrence's last book, written during the winter of 1929 30 when he was dying. It is a radical criticism of our civilisation and a statement of Lawrence's unwavering belief in man's power to create 'a new heaven and a new earth'. Ranging over the entire system of his thought on God and man, on religion, art, psychology and politics, this book is Lawrence's final attempt to convey his vision of man and the universe. Apocalypse was published after Lawrence's death, and in a highly inaccurate text. This edition is the first to reproduce accurately Lawrence's final corrected text on the basis of a thorough examination of the surviving manuscript and typescript. In the introduction the editor has discussed the writing of Apocalypse and its place in Lawrence's works, its publication and reception, and the significance of Lawrence's other writings on the Book of Revelation.

Genres: Religion

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1980

About the author

David 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...

Reviews

[Rick Wilmot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the Penguin 1974 edition with introduction by Richard Aldington. First read in the 70s, quite an eye opener!

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

hardly the most cutting-edge new testament exegesis you'll find - dhl wouldn't claim that it is - but it's a fascinating way for the author, at the end of his life, to articulate a philosophy built around the antinomies or paradoxes of love/power, community/individual, mind/body, sun/moon, and so forth. some parts are tedious - the parts in which dhl appears to be plagiarizing one of the 2-3 secondary sources he used to write this, for the sake of "filler" - but other parts, the parts he wrote, are inspired. you need to read all the material in the appendix, too, because many of the best bits about mind/body, community/individual, pagan-jew/christian, etc. were left on the cutting room floor. some praise for mussolini and criticism for lenin was left in, though (this was the very early 30s, after all)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice "final" book that drafts together a writers philosophy and beliefs. From Wikipedia, DH's collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. Some of the issues Lawrence explores are sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.

Some thought he was a pornographer who squandered his potential.

There's something here in the is work though that's quite smart and a slight precursor to the anti-oedipal movement.

[John Martindale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Lawrence seemed to be drawn to the Apocalypse for its images and astrology, and his usage of the book seems to be in the spirit of Romanticism. He doesn't want mere pursuit of fortune and horoscopes; instead, he wants that wonder that the Chaldeans likely felt when looking up at the heavens. The modern world made the moon nothing but a pockmarked rock and the sun merely a burning ball of gas. The deeper meaning and emotional power were emptied.
There is the material object, such as a rose, and the thing itself can be quantified, prodded, and described. But then there is the lover who gives his beloved a rose, and her experience of the rose is on another level. It seems the ancients had a deeper experience with the heavens and the earth--it was rich with meaning and significance, but then rationalism and scientificism exorcised the meaning, rendering reality nothing but matter, some even going so far as saying consciousness is an illusion; an accidental and inconsequential phenomenon, foaming up without purpose.
What makes life worth living it is not music--scientifically described-- but it is being caught up in music.