The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence

Description

An authoritative selection of letters by one of the great English letter-writers is here published for the first time in paperback. 'James T. Boulton, the chief editor of [the] definitive collection [of Lawrence's letters] has now condensed from it an admirable 500-pages worth of The Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence. Section by section introductions, summary biographies of correspondents, and illuminating explanatory footnotes equip the reader to follow the contours of Lawrence's adult life as he progresses from teacher in Croydon to suspected German spy in Cornwall during the Great War, to wanderer in self-imposed exile in Australia, the US and Mexico, and finally consumptive, dying in Provence.' Jonathan Bate, Sunday Telegraph 'Five thousand letters cram the eight-volume Cambridge edition of Lawrence's correspondence. So this selection, representing the full range of Lawrence's influential acquaintance, is welcome. Angry, combative, scurrilous, the letters are also sometimes uniquely lyrical.' Independent on Sunday

'James Boulton has chosen 330 letters from the massive eight-volume Cambridge edition of well over 5,000, making this substantial selection something like a new addition to the Lawrence canon, a book to have on the shelf alongside The Rainbow and Women in Love.' Independent on Sunday 'We now have the start of an edition in whose scrupulousness there is good reason to place every confidence: the fundamental work will never have to be done again ... Cambridge University Press has cooperated nobly: the book is nice to hold, the pages are very well set out and printed and altogether a pleasure to read. In short a job eminently worth doing has been eminently well done.' English 'This invigorating collection ... is ... a monument to scholarship for which we should be grateful.' D. H. Lawrence Review 'The Selected Letters succeeds admirably in representing Lawrence's quirky brilliance, his always surprising common sense, and above all else the sheer beauty of his writing.' English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920