Set in the rural midlands of England, this tale recounts the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family. When Tom Brangwen marries a Polish widow, Lydia Lensky, and adopts her daughter Anna as his own, he is unprepared for the conflict and passion that erupts between them.
The Brangwens Series
This sweeping saga chronicles the fortunes and misfortunes of several generations of a family rooted in the English countryside. The works delve deeply into complex relationships, particularly romantic and marital ones, exploring the inner lives of characters with profound psychological insight. The author emphasizes emotional experience and the evolution of interpersonal dynamics, often employing naturalistic details to expose hidden desires and conflicts.
Recommended Reading Order
"Seen by Lawrence as his most accomplished book, but subject to the initial prudery and incomprehension that met most of his fiction, Women in Love examines the regenerative and destructive aspects of human passion, as illustrated by its depiction of Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen - who first appeared in The Rainbow - and their relationships with Gerald Crich and Rupert Birkin. Set against the backdrop of a world consuming itself in war, the novel creates an instructive vision of humanity's dance with life and death." "This text is the famous "first" Women in Love, the unexpurgated version preferred by Lawrence himself, which was rejected by every publisher because of the banning of The Rainbow in 1915. More positive in tone than the revised version published in his lifetime, with different central relationships and a radically different ending, it is now viewed by many as Lawrence's masterpiece."--BOOK JACKET.