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The Rainbow
by D H Lawrence
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Good
- Seller
-
Petworth, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Methuen, 1915. Hardcover. Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. The Colonial Library Edition - aproximately 500 were published for the Colonial Library, and these books escaped the pulping of copies of The Rainbow after the court obscenity ruling. Bound in rust cloth with gilt lettering and decoration to spine. There is slight staining to the boards and the edges are bumped. Endpapers have the Colonial Library list of titles 'published as far as possible simultaneously with their appearance in England'. Pages are age tanned with occasional foxing. Front hinge is beginning to crack. Overall a good copy of this rare edition. 1915
Synopsis
D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow follows three generations of the Brangwen family, with a particular focus on the sexual dynamics of, and relations between, the characters. Tom Brangwen, who is… let’s say “not the brightest,” succeeds to his father’s farm and falls in love with Lydia Lensky, a Polish widow; Anna, Lydia’s daughter (and Tom’s stepdaughter), marries Will, a distant relative of Tom’s; Anna and Will’s oldest daughter, Ursula, is a modern working woman. For Tom Brangwen’s generation sex happens, but between the lines. For Anna and Will, bodies are alluded to and desires described. By the time Ursula Brangwen is a young woman, sex is frequent and directly addressed. This depiction of sexual desire as a natural force — perhaps spiritual, even! — caused quite a stir upon The Rainbow’s publication. The novel was almost instantly removed from the shelves of bookstores across the UKcountry and was then prosecuted in an obscenity trial in a British Magistrates’ court in November 1915, just two months after its release. As a result, roughly half of the copies of the novel’s original print run of were seized and burnt. The Rainbow was unavailable in the UK for 11 years following. Lawrence initially conceived The Rainbow and what became its sequel, Women in Love, as a single novel titled The Sisters. However, after much revision, that manuscript became two of the author’s greatest novels. The Rainbow is ranked 48th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century; Women in Love is ranked 49th.
Read More: Identifying first editions of The Rainbow
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Details
- Bookseller
- Reader’s Books
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 3576
- Title
- The Rainbow
- Author
- D H Lawrence
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Methuen
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1915
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Reader’s Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Reader’s Books
Biblio member since 2019
Petworth, West Sussex
About Reader’s Books
Market town general antiquarian book shop specialising in literature, travel and history.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Hinge
- The portion of the book closest to the spine that allows the book to be opened and closed.
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Age Tanned
- Age tanning, or browning, occurs over time on the pages of books. This process can show up on just the edges of pages, when...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
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