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A Lawrence Biography John Worthen. D. H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider. New York: Centerpoint, 2005. xxvi + 518 pp. $29.95
JOHN WORTHEN tells us in the acknowledgments that this is his "valedictory" work on Lawrence. The critic, editor and biographer of Lawrence-Worthen contributed the first volume to the three-volume Cambridge biography of the author-bows out with what will be the standard one-volume biography of Lawrence for decades to come. That said, among the future projects trailed is a biography of Frieda Lawrence. Not another book on Lawrence, but...
Though a narrative of 420 pages, this text is an achievement of concision, distilling the huge amount that is known about Lawrence's life and career; its major success is how natural and right the resulting book feels. There were many potential dangers, but Worthen clearly thought carefully, providing it with a focused argument and making choices about how he used the vast amount of evidence available to him. The effect is not only to make the topic comprehensible to first-time readers but also to make those well versed in Lawrence studies see the life in a different and fresh light.
Worthen's structuring thesis has Lawrence as an "outsider," someone who never belonged. There is much evidence that Worthen can draw on here, and it has the benefits of being a thesis that can be complicated as the book develops. For example, as Worthen points out, Lawrence never fully lost his wish to be an "insider," and in particular to convince the English of their need to change. While Worthen was absolutely right to give the book a clear line of argument, and this is one that fits much of the material and the way the modern genre of biography operates, there are problems with the "outsider" argument. As with ego psychology, being different and other can all too easily look like an issue of personal adjustment, with the surrounding society and culture made to seem natural and unchangeable. Worthen is careful to present us with the force of Lawrence's critique of the modern West, but that is not his central thesis.
The text...