D. H. Lawrence on Screen: Re-Visioning Prose Style in the Films of The Rocking-Horse Winner, Sons and Lovers, and Women in Love

For the past half century, filmmakers have been fascinated and challenged by the provocative subject matter of D. H. Lawrence’s fiction as well as by the passionate eroticism of his cadenced, sensuous prose. This groundbreaking study focuses on three highly acclaimed film adaptations of Lawrence’s novels and short stories - Anthony Pelissier’s haunting The Rocking-Horse Winner (1949), Jerry Wald’s pictorially stunning Sons and Lovers (1960), and Ken Russell’s daring Women in Love (1970). The author pinpoints in depth and detail how each filmmaker attempted (not always successfully) to replicate visually and aurally those elements of prose that produce the quintessentially Lawrentian style. A book for both specialists and general readers, D. H. Lawrence on Screen demonstrates just how crucial the cinematic translation of a writer’s distinctive style is to the excellence of a film adaptation of his or her work.