SOURCE: "Lawrence on Love: The Courtship and Marriage of Tom Brangwen and Lydia Lensky," in The D. H. Lawrence Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, Fall, 1975, pp. 358-70.

In the following essay, Heldt analyses the relationship of Tom Brangwen and Lydia Lensky, based on the theories of love propounded by Lawrence in his other writings.

Precisely what D. H. Lawrence means by the term "love," as opposed to what other writers mean, has perplexed even his most careful readers. In part, this problem of definition stems from Lawrence's conviction that a spurious "moon-love" predominates in the modern world and from his consequent determination always to emphasize his objections to this corrupt emotion. In both The Rainbow and Women in Love, for example, the novelist portrays a whole series of unsatisfactory sexual relationships, those between Anna and Will, Ursula and Skrebensky, Hermione and Birkin, Gudrun and Gerald, to demonstrate the devastating effects...