Genesis of WIL Flashcards
Sisters
DHL began the composition of the sisters in the spring of 1913. It was the manuscript who eventually gave birth to WIL
→ Meant to tell about Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen’s relationships with their parents and grandparents. VS WIL = don’t speak a lot about it
Material was getting out of hand so he decided to split the sisters into two volumes :
The Rainbow (1915)
Women in Love (1920). (but in btw ++ steps)
The sisters I : 1st version of WIL March/june 1913, 296 pages
The sisters II : first version of The Rainbow, august 113- january 1917, 380p
→ The Wedding Ring = the combination of 2 : February-May 1914, 60p. Accepted by Methuen but returned at the outbreak of war. Split into 2 manuscripts of 500 pages each
The rainbow, nov 1914- march 1915, 811p
The sisters III, split into Women in love
Typescript Ia, 666 pages
Typescript Ib July 1916-January 1917
Typescript II, January- March 1917
Women in love March 1917- Sept 1919, 766 pages
⇒ Typescript disséminés
Letter to Edward = what he meant this book to
“It was meant to be for the “jeune filles” but already it has fallen from grace. I can only write what I feel pretty strongly about : and that, at present, is the relations btw men and women. After all, it is the problem of today, the establishment of a new relation, or the readjustment of the old one btw men and women”
⇒ when dating frieda
DHL told Edward Garnett that, in a few days he would send
the first half of the sister– which I should rather call ‘ the wedding ring” -[It] is very different from sons and lovers : written in another language almost. I shall be sorry if you don’t like it but am prepared- I shan’t write in the same manner as sons and lovers again, I think in that hard, violent style full of sensation and presentation. You must see what you think of the new style”
Letter to Edward Garnett, dec 1913, Letters, vol II, p 132
State of mind when start writing WIL
“I prefer the permating beauty. It is my transition stage - but I must write to live, and it must produce its flowers, adn if they be frail or shadowy they will be all right if they are true to their hour(…i) I have no longer the joy in creating vivid scenes, that I had in Son and Lovers”
“I am sure of this now, this novel. It is a big and beautiful work. Before I could not get my soul into it. That was because of the struggle and the resistance btw Frieda and me. “
The wedding ring provoked Lawrence’s famous define of his fictional method
“That which is physic – non-human, in humanity, is more interesting to me than the old-fashioned human element – which causes one to conceive a character in a certain moral scheme and make him consistent. The certain moral scheme is what I object to […]. You mustn’t look in my novel for the old stable ego of the character. There is another ego, according to whose action the individual is unrecognizable, and passes through, as it were, allotropic states which it needs a deeper sense than any we’ve been used to exercise, to discover are states of the same single radically unchanged element.
victorian fiction
getting interested in human beings. What interests him is different.
Allotropic state = diff etats de la matière par lesquels passe un élément : l’eau peut être sous forme fluide, gazeuse ⇒ crée des variations. Variations de l’être humain qui intéressent DH Lawrence. Idée de noyau d’humain stable lui est étrangère intérêt seulement ⇒ ses persos sont des variations à l’infini.
When he sent the typescript “the Wedding Ring” to Alfred Kutnner and Mitchel kenelrley who had already published 4 of his works in the USA he got a letter back
telling him that his noel should be “condensed and foreshortened” as well as “expurgated, not for moral reasons but for artistic effect”
⇒ Methuen accepted to publish it and paid Lawrence 150 pounds in late June (a lot). Lawrence’s delight was short-lived : early August outbreak of WW1 and by the 10th of August Methuen had returned his typescript.
January 15th 1915 DHL takes the decision to split “the Wedding Ring” into 2 volumes
“The rainbow”
“the sisters” III (4th version)
BUT The rainbow version is finished on 02/03/1915 and published on the 30/09/1915 only to be suppressed in November 1915 (for his vision of sex etc) ⇒ the same story repeats again and again.
Letter to one of his friends :
“The war, the approaching conscription, the sense of complete platriness and chaotic nastiness in life, really obs one of speech (…) I have begun the second half of the rainbow. But already it is beyond all hope of ever being published, because of the things it says. And more than that, it is beyond all possibility even to offer it to a world, a putrescent mankind like ours. I feel i cannot touch humanity even in thought it is abhorrent to me
letter to Ottoline Morrell / Lady Ottlin
“I have got a long way with my novel. It comes rapidly & is very good” (24/05/1916)
Dropped the initial titre (the sisters) because of
May Sinclair’s the three sisters, 1914 it was too close. Inside cover of notebook 1 shows the title “dies irae” (prose from the Roman missal evoking the last judgement sung at the office of the dead )
⇒ subtitle = Jour de Colère
⇒ latin prose was sung during the burial ceremony.
Publication history
Continuation revisions, unsuccessful attempts to find a publisher, fears of suppression after publication, reading of typescripts by friends and potential publishers.
2 typescripts revised : TS Ia and TS Ib
Fresh typescript = TS II which dates back from january-march 1917
20th december 1916 : Methuen & Co cancel their contract for the rights to Lawrence’s next three novels after the rainbow 1915
Mid January 1917 Duckworth refuses to publish the novel and Martin Secker who would be the 1st English edition in 1921 also turns the book down
Also rejected by Constable & Co
Rejected because
thought it was Lawrence’s expression of antipathy to England and it was to bring the resentment of the reader = anti-civic mood at a time where some citizen were sacrificing their lives.
Lawrence’s “destructive philosophy” and it will be unwelcomed ⇒ damage feeling of fellow citizen at a time when they were already depressed
⇒ As a consequence Lawrence rewrites the novel for the 6h time (March 1917-september 1919
Argument with Lady Ottolin Morrel about the character of Hermione
She recognized herself in it and sued him but Lawrence said Hermione was > Ottolin
Depressing thoughts
“I have done a novel which nobody will print, after the rainbow experience it has been the round of publishers by now, and rejected by all. I don’t care. One might as well make roses bloom in January as bring out living work into present world of man “
BUT he doesn’t put himself in question but he questions society rather than change his own look
Utter disillusionment and disenchantment just before the publication
strained relationships with his literary agent J.B Pinker, disenchanted with England in the midst of war : formal break with Pinker in december 1919
Final intricacies
In september 1919, before he left almost permanently for italy in november, he received news form thomas Seltzer in NY asking to see the novel. DHL answered that he considered it “the best of [his] books”. 28/03/1920 : Secker sent Lawrence the proposal he was to accept for the publication in England of WIL. It was 7 years since the novel had been first started
BUT Secker = disagreed on title. Lawrence suggested that Secker should publish WIL with Rainbow : but counterproductive. Secker and Celza preferred Sisters as a title.
BUT Secker = disagreed on title. Lawrence suggested that Secker should publish WIL with Rainbow : but counterproductive. Secker and Celza preferred Sisters as a title.
Publication WIL
=> WIL was 1st published in America on 09/11/1920 : expensive private edition (1250 copies made). Almost exhausted by August 1920. Although the content of the novel was considered as indecent, the way the novel was praised = an innovating novel, DHL was considered as a poet more than a novelist and more interested in philosophy than in fiction.
Published in England on June 10th 1912
Publication WIL
=> WIL was 1st published in America on 09/11/1920 : expensive private edition (1250 copies made). Almost exhausted by August 1920. Although the content of the novel was considered as indecent, the way the novel was praised = an innovating novel, DHL was considered as a poet more than a novelist and more interested in philosophy than in fiction.
Published in England on June 10th 1912
Reviews on WIL
Few reviews in the US VS in England, the reception is rather negative. Some critics called for the suppression of the novel, other poked fun at it.
A variety of alterations were made to the text even after its publication by DHL.
In america 1922 Seltzer was attacked and Lawrence fought in court the attempt to censorship, he was victorious but charged again in 1923 ⇒ this led Celza to bankrupt
