The Rainbow

David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) expected The Rainbow to cause a stir. In a characteristically open exploration of sensual and explicit themes, the novel traces more than sixty years of pre-war life and three generations of the Brangwen family. Employing language infused with the rich imagery and repetition of biblical texts to treat all subjects - from the green fields and empty skies of the Brangwen farm through to Ursula’s encounter with a female schoolteacher - Lawrence took an assuredly striking approach. However, he was unprepared for the vitriolic attacks of his reviewers. The novel was branded ‘utter filth’ and ‘a mass of obscenity’; it was banned only a month after its publication in 1915, unsold copies being confiscated and destroyed. A second, abridged edition would not appear for another eleven years. Now a landmark in the early modernist canon, the original and unabridged text of 1915 is reissued here.