Lawrence is a writer who excites great passions - which is entirely appropriate, since that is how he wrote. He is the first really great writer to come from the (more or less) working class, and much of his work deals with issues of class, as well as other fundamentals such as the relationships between men, women, and the natural world. At times he becomes mystic and visionary, and his prose style can be poetic, didactic, symbolic, and bombastic all within the space of a few pages. He also deals with issues of sexuality and politics in a manner which is often controversial. .
The Rainbow is Lawrence's version of a social saga, spanning three generations of the Brangwen family. It is the women characters in this novel who remain memorable as they strive to express their feelings. The story concludes with the struggle of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, to liberate themselves from the stifling pressures of Edwardian English society. .
The Rainbow and Women in Love were originally intended to form one novel entitled The Sisters, which was begun in 1913 when Lawrence was living in Italy, but as the novel developed across 1913-14its scope grew so much that in the autumn of 1914 Lawrence decided to create two novels. The Rainbow is clearly an attempt to take the novel into new territory, breaking with the conventions of nineteenth-century realism and furthering the exploration of human desire which had already caused some controversy after the publication of Sons and Lovers. In this respect, and others, The Rainbow was quickly deemed to have gone too far: in November copies were seized by the police, the novel was tried and found obscene, and on November 13th the magistrates suppressed the novel and all unsold copies were burnt. The outcry of the conservative press made much of sexual "filth" but was probably as much animated by outrage at Lawrence's disenchantment with modernity and militarism, some critics arguing that such a book would undermine the moral health of the nation in a time of war.
