The Rainbow is a novel as difficult as it is rewarding. At times, the intergenerational saga of the Brangwen family may seem tedious and over-stuffed with characters, many of whom share the same names. Yet in equal measure, Lawrence presents characters with serious depth and relatable aspirations as he masterfully tackles complex subject matter like love, devotion, and belonging. In moving and vivid descriptions of the natural world surrounding the Brangwen’s Marsh Farms, Lawrence demonstrates precisely why The Rainbow is still so highly regarded over a century after its publication.
Lawrence was born in 1885 to a poor family in the mining village of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. A talented student, Lawrence won a scholarship to attend a nearby high school and later trained as a teacher at Nottingham College. In 1908, Lawrence relocated to London where his first poems were published.
Lawrence was a remarkably prolific writer, publishing three novels between 1911 and 1914. While living in Italy in 1913, Lawrence began work on a piece titled “The Sisters” which would form the basis of his two subsequent novels, The Rainbow (1915) and Women in Love (1920). By 1914, “The Sisters” had been renamed the “The Wedding Ring” and in September of 1915 it was published in its final version as The Rainbow.
The novel’s depictions of desire, pre-marital sex, and lesbianism may not appear entirely scandalous to contemporary readers; however, upon its release, The Rainbow was deemed obscene in the United Kingdom and over a thousand copies were burnt. The novel would not be released in the country for the following decade.
During this time, Lawrence traveled widely to places such as Australia, New Mexico, and across Europe—all while publishing novels, short story collections, and essays. In 1927, Lawrence published what would become his most widely known novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover. Due to its explicit content, Lawrence was not originally able to secure a publisher for the work before dying from tuberculosis in 1930. When the novel was finally published in 1960, it became the subject of a widely-publicized obscenity trial. The victory of Lady Chatterley's Lover against charges of obscenity was seen as a major moment in the fight for artistic freedoms, and has ensured Lawrence’s legacy as a provocative and forward-thinking writer.
While Lawrence might still be best known as a risqué and erotic writer, these descriptions alone do not do justice to The Rainbow. The novel, set close to where Lawrence was born and raised, follows three generations of the Brangwen family. In the process, Lawrence pays keen attention to the rapid changes in English life and society during and after the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the novel begins on the quaint fields of the Marsh Farms and ends in a world criss-crossed by trains and marked by the “brittle corruption of houses and factories” (459).
Throughout the novel, Lawrence writes in a language infused by religion. Characters routinely encounter “lightness” and “darkness” as they navigate the difficulties of faith in a changing world. He dedicates considerable attention to the natural world of seas, skies, and fauna—all of which come to be threatened by the development of capitalist modernity traced in the novel.
Perhaps most importantly, The Rainbow patiently and meticulously follows characters as they strive to make lives for themselves in the world around them. In the case of Ursula, Lawrence’s final and most-fully realized protagonist, this involves standing up against a sexist and patriarchal society so as to “take her place in the world” (381). Because Lawrence never rushes his prose, characters like Ursula become fully-realized and are afforded incredible psychological depth.
Although writer Frances Wilson notes in a recent New Yorker profile that Lawrence’s reputation has experienced a “headlong fall” since his death, The Rainbow is nonetheless a rich and compassionate novel that pays off the very investments it demands.
