D.H. Lawrence: The Early Philosophical Works: A Commentary (1991)

This second volume of Michael Black's commentary on Lawrence's prose-works concentrates on the extraordinary sequence of non-fictional texts written between 1913 and 1917: the 'Foreword' to Sons and Lovers, Study of Thomas Hardy, Twilight in Italy, 'The Crown', 'The Reality of Peace'. In all of them Lawrence was compulsively rewriting what he called 'my philosophy'. This extended commentary makes sense of them, treating them as a succession of experimental writings which support each other, develop non-discursive modes of writing, and are linked by shared metaphors which reveal shared preoccupations.