STUDY OF THOMAS HARDY AND OTHER ESSAYS PB – D. H. LAWRENCE-BRUCE STEELE

D. H. Lawrence s Study of Thomas Hardy , written in the early months of World War I, was originally intended to be a short critical work on Hardy s characters, but developed into a major statement of Lawrence s philosophy of art. The introduction to this work shows its relation to Lawrence s final rewriting of The Rainbow and its place among his continual attempts to express his philosophy in a definitive form. Previously published posthumously from a corrupt typescript, the Study is now more firmly based on Koteliansky s typescript – Lawrence having destroyed the manuscript. The other essays in this volume span virtually the whole of Lawrence s writing career, from Art and the Individual (1908) to his last essay John Galsworthy , written in 1927. The introduction sets these essays in the context of Lawrence s life and work. The textual apparatus gives variant readings, and explanatory notes identify references and quotations, and offer background information.