'... reading "Sons and Lovers", [W. H. Hudson] judged it "a very good book indeed except in that
portion where he relapses into the old sty -- the neck-sucking and wallowing-in-sweating-flesh".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book
Virginia Woolf to Molly MacCarthy, 20 June 1921:
'I am reading the Bride of Lammermoor -- by that great man Scott: and Women in Love by D.
H. Lawrence, lured on by the portrait of Ottoline [Morrell] which appears from time to time
[...] There is no suspense or mystery: water is all semen: I get a little bored, and make out
the riddles too easily. Only this puzzles me: what does it mean when a woman [Gudrun] does
eurythmics in front of a herd of Highland cattle?'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Virginia Woolf to Ethel Smyth, 20 April 1931:
'I'm reading Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, for the first time'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Monday 20 April 1931: 'Arrived [at La Rochelle] at 7.30 -- so quick one drives: I forgot our 2 punctures. One at Thouart [Thouars]; kept us, as the man did not mend it while we lunched. I read Sons & Lovers [by D. H. Lawrence], every word.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Thursday 28 May 1931: 'Disappointed, reading lightly through, by The man who died, D.H.L.'s last. Reading Sons and Lovers first, then the last I seem to span the measure of his powers & trace his decline. A kind of Guy Fawkes dressing up grew on him it seems, in spite of the lovely silver-bright writing here & there: something sham. Making himself into a God, I suppose.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Sunday 2 October 1932: 'I am [...] reading DHL. with the usual sense of frustration. Not that he & I have too much in common -- the same pressure to be ourselves: so that I dont escape when I read him; am surfeited [...] What I enjoy (in the Letters) is the sudden visualisation [...] but I get no satisfaction from his explanations of what he sees [goes on to comment further on text]'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Thursday 9 May 1935: 'Sitting in the sun outside the German Customs. A car with the swastika on the back window has just passed into Germany. L[eonard]. is in the customs. I am nibbling at Aaron's Rod [by D. H. Lawrence, 1922]. Ought I to go in and see what is happening? A fine dry windy morning. The Dutch Customs took 10 seconds. This has taken 10 minutes already.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
E. M. Forster to Edward Joseph Dent, 6 March 1915:
'I have not read Platen yet [...] German's a labour. I liked Holderlin's Hyperion -- I wish someone would translate it. Have you read The White Peacock by D. H. Lawrence? If not, do not, because you cannot, but read one chapter in it called A poem of friendship, which is most beautiful. The whole book is the queerest product of subconsciousness that I have yet struck -- he has not a glimmering from first to last of what he's up to.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
E. M. Forster to Wilson Plant, 14 February 1917:
'Like you I am a great admirer of D. H. Lawrence [...] The Rainbow I picked up in a book shop during the brief period it was for sale and thought it looked dull. How I wish I had bought it now.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
'By the way! 'Jimmy & the Desperate Woman' is fucking good! 'After he had given his lecture (it was on Men in Books and Men in Life: naturally men in books came first)...' Lawrence so good I daren't really read him.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Book
'As Lawrence (+ sign of cross - not christian cross - no devil down in Hell: [Christian cross] (!!)) said 'The reason the English Middle Classes chew every mouthful 30 times is that a bite any bigger than a pea would cause stoppage in their narrow guts,' or words to that effect). Which I approve [...] I am reading Lawrence daily (like the bible) and with great devotion.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Larkin Print: Unknown
