Jonathan Emmesedi<p>I want to grapple more with D.H. Lawrence, in particular "The Rainbow" and "Women in Love". </p><p>I've read both but came away puzzled and dissatisfied. What did I miss? I've been nagged by a feeling for years that my inadequacies as a reader have obscured important themes from me. I don't have much time to do unrelated to work rereading, but I do have a hunch that understanding these two works will better my understanding of both my country and myself past and present.</p><p>Lawrence's reputation has never fully recovered from the attack mounted on his work by Kate Millett in the 1970 "Sexual Politics". Feminist scholarship following Millett contributed to the supersession of the Leavisite criticism that had championed Lawrence as the heir to the "Great Tradition" of moral seriousness in English literature, and that critical approach withered not only intellectually, but also institutionally as British literature and humanities departments came more and more under the sway of US academia's priorities and values; what place for Lawrence's rainswept reflections on the burdens of class in Britain on a sunny, tech infused Californian campus? Pointing to Lawrence in New Mexico or Australia just feels desperate...</p><p>My reading, however, is informed but not determined by what's in favor (note the spelling) in departments of literature. Kate Millett might have hated "Lady Chatterley's Lover", but I have found it a rich source not just for thinking about sex and gender but also language, class, technology, and disability in interwar Britain . I hope that a reread of "The Rainbow" and "Women in Love" will prove similarly rewarding.</p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/DHLawrence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DHLawrence</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Books</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/TheRainbow" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TheRainbow</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/WomenInLove" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WomenInLove</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/LadyChatterleysLover" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LadyChatterleysLover</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/BritishLiterature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BritishLiterature</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/EnglishLiterature" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>EnglishLiterature</span></a> </p><p>Image: D H Lawrence in 1921 -- Wikimedia Commons -- Public domain.</p>