One of the most widely discussed and renowned twentieth-century authors, D. H. Lawrence remains intriguing and problematic in terms of his biography, his writings, and his prophetic role. In his relatively short life, he was a prolific author of fictions, poetry, travel essays, speculative polemics, and other works. His writing, it is widely agreed, ranges from extremely good to extremely bad. He was, and continues to be, a provocative figure.

Lawrence's origins were unusual for a British writer of his time. Born into the working class in the industrial Midlands--his father was a lifelong coal miner--he was as a boy frail, hypersensitive, and bright. Physically and psychologically marred by his restricted background and by parental conflict, he gradually rebelled. In a strongly class-conscious society, the working-class youth became a school-teacher and an aspiring writer. By his middle twenties he had been published and critically recognized as a lyric...