Lady Chatterley: The Making of the Novel

First published in 1988, Lady Chatterley explores the events and experiences which surrounded D. H. Lawrence's writing of his infamous last novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover. The account begins with Lawrence's return to Europe in September 1925 and ends with the publication in June 1928 of the final draft of a novel which exists in three related yet dissimilar versions. Derek Britton adds a great deal of new material to the established facts and theories concerning Lawrence's life and work during this period. In the chapters covering Lawrence's return to the Midlands in September 1926 when the collapse of the national miners' strike in that area was imminent, a detailed reconstruction of Lawrence's journeys and experiences reveals the extent to which the themes of the novel, the social and physical aspects of the landscape and Lawrence's initial impulse to write depended crucially on the author's last visit to his native region. This book will appeal both to those with special interests in Lawrence and the modern novel, and to the general reader.