D. H. Lawrence in The Reading Room at Kitchen Sink Dramas

The Reading Room

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

The son of a Nottingham miner, David Herbert Lawrence avoided the life of hard labour expected of his social class and against the odds gained some (often controversial) literary recognition during his relatively short life, much of which he spent in self-imposed exile in Europe with his German wife Frieda. A prolific poet, playwright, essayist and painter as well as a novelist, Lawrence is still probably most famous for the long-banned Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), beloved by adolescents throughout the twentieth century. (For all its literary merit, as far as good old-fashioned thrills go, we personally remember finding the sex scenes a bit of an anti-climax. Unlike Lady Chatterley). Although acknowledged as a key figure of British modernism, his other works don't appear to have much popular purchase for today's reader, which is a great shame. For those interested in experiencing Lawrence's prose in all its rebellious, sensual, expressionist glory, we recommend diving straight in at the deep end with The Rainbow and its sequel Women in Love. 'The Rocking-Horse Winner' was first published in Harper's Bazaar in 1926 and subsequently anthologized.