The claims for Lawrence as a major novelist of this century have been definitely made by the most powerful critical voices of the day but what had not been given close and detailed scrutiny to the same degree was the precise nature of the literary and social criticism present in this work. Dr. Ilena Cura traces with clarity and perceptiveness the lines that Lawrence followed in his judgments of the world of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century England. It is sometimes held of Lawrence that he was only interested in the "dark gods", daemonic unconscious impulses which tear his characters to pieces, or else in seeking to return to some primitive aboriginal society in which life was lived out in wonder and worship. This view disregards entirely the truth Lawrence was equipped with an acute and sensitive intelligence which he put to use with characteristic vigour and point. These are the qualities in Lawrence which this book insists on; in particular Dr. Cura points out how Lawrence’s literary and social criticism links with and continues in many ways the criticism that earlier figures such as Matthew Arnold were making in their growing disquiet at the consequences of the growth of mechanized industry on the life of nineteenth century England. The value of this book lies in the attention it rightly draws on the aspect of Lawrence’s work which is of first rate importance not only for the student of Lawrence but for anyone concerned with the health of human society, whether in the East or in the West, in the conditions of the world today.
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