Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dyer (Broadsword Calling Danny Boy) selects and introduces an uneven but fascinating array of essays by D.H. Lawrence (1885--1930). Comprising 38 selections from the earlier collections Phoenix and Phoenix II, the book demonstrates Lawrence's mastery of multiple genres, from philosophical tract ("Of Being and Not-Being") and book review ("Death in Venice by Thomas Mann"), to memoir ("Myself Revealed") and nature writing ("Flowery Tuscany"). Dyer edits with a light hand, presenting the essays in strict chronological order so readers can "follow the twists and turns of Lawrence's writing and thought over time." Occasionally, his editorial presence proves too recessive, with minimal footnotes. The wide variety of topics--one stretch of essays considers, in turn, Cézanne, pornography, Christianity, and the mines of Lawrence's home county of Nottingham--makes it likely that any reader can find something of interest, but unlikely that the entirety will appeal consistently to those new to Lawrence. Such neophytes will also find that some of Lawrence's thoughts regarding race, ethnicity, and gender jar discordantly against modern norms. Nonetheless, it's an impressive example of a curious mind grappling with big issues, and samples the work of a writer of great intelligence and wit. (Nov.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An assortment of nonfiction works by Lawrence (1885-1930) encompassing memoir, literary criticism, and riffs on travel and religion.Lawrence is best known for novels like Lady Chatterley's Lover and The Rainbowor perhaps more precisely, the controversies that erupted upon their publication. In "Pornography and Obscenity," he addresses the matter directly, drawing a line between pornography ("the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it") and his own mission to loosen sexuality from Victorian constraints. Lawrence wasn't entirely successful, and he was a man out of time for much of his short life, impatient with British prudery but skeptical of modernism too; rolling his eyes at Joyce and Proust, he wrote that "some convulsion or cataclysm will have to get this serious novel out of its self-consciousness." Editor Dyer's selections reveal Lawrence at his most pointed and well reasoned (as in the superb "Morality and the Novel," in which he argues for the importance of candor and integrity in fiction) as well as his most absurdly woolly. For example, an extended selection from an essay on Thomas Hardy gasses about distinctions between men and women, replete with botany and transportation metaphors. But if Lawrence's ideas about fiction and gender are debatable, his writing is often pure pleasure. He writes exquisitely about the flora of Tuscany, the sunlight in New Mexico ("arching with a royalty almost cruel over the hollow, uptilted world"), and the resurrection of Christ. Lawrence was at heart a sensualist, but he also had a dishier, snarkier side: "Memoir of Maurice Magnus" is a brutal extended dismissal of a spendthrift aspiring author, and he stomps hard on life in London: "I am being dulled! My spirit is being dulled! My life is dulling down to London dullness."A quirky, wide-ranging compendium, revealing Lawrence's character and debates over life, art, and faith between the world wars. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
