Lawrence's Women: The Intimate Life of D.H. Lawrence

by Elaine Feinstein

Explores the intimate relationships of D.H. Lawrence and traces the evolution of the writer's provocative theories of love and sex

Genres: Biography, History, Literary Criticism

280 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

About the author

Elaine Feinstein was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leicester. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as an editor for Cambridge University Press (1960-62), as Lecturer in English at Bishop's Stortford Training College (1963-6), as Assistant Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Essex (1967-70), and as a journalist.

She has contributed to many periodicals, including the Times Literary Supplement, and was formerly Writer in Residence for the British Council in Singapore and Tromsø, Norway.

Of Russian-Jewish ancestry, she has been influenced by Russian writers, especially Marina Tsvetayeva and Anna Akhmatova.

She is the author of a number of plays for television and radio and several biographies, including singer Bessie Smith, writer D. H. Lawrence, Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and Anna Akhmatova.

Reviews

[James]

This is a well written and thoughtful study of the relationships of D. H. Lawrence. Feinstien provides carefully wrought parallels between Lawrence's Relations with women and other friends and their appearances as characters in his stories and novels. This is the best of this book. And it makes you want to read some of his novels and stories. But the author has an axe to grind and goes over the edge describing Lawrence as a petulant, demanding, dominating, sometimes vicious andeventually impotent husband to his great love and wife, Frieda. His ambivalent relations with other women also portray him in a less than favorable light. Frieda's contribution to their marital strife is skimmed over lightly (other biographers give a more balanced view). There is hardly any description of his great charm as a conversationalist, wit, nor of his loyalty and compassion for friends. Nor is there much about what drove his genius as a writer. So the bio is lop-sided, but interesting, and it does explore his dark side, probably better than others have done.