Approaching a Lawrence novel

Abstract

Let us imagine that you have just read a novel by D. H. Lawrence. The chances are that you will have enjoyed it, for Lawrence is one of the great authors of English literature who is also popular and whose novels are very widely read. Things will have puzzled you, but the experience should have been more pleasurable than painful. Yet your enjoyment might be somewhat difficult to reconcile with the fact that you are going to have to study this same novel for an exam. Similarly, while you might feel that the problems Lawrence addresses are directly relevant to your own life, you may also be aware that he has the reputation of being a difficult and obscure author. Moreover, he seems to excite strong feelings of a positive or negative nature. Obviously it is not going to be easy sorting out what you are ‘supposed to think’ in order to do well in the exam.