A sequel in spirit to The Rainbow, this novel follows two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, in the English Midlands during the First World War years. Ursula, a teacher, becomes involved with Rupert Birkin, a school inspector who searches for a new kind of relationship. Gudrun, an artist, is drawn to Gerald Crich, a powerful mine owner. Through these two couples, Lawrence examines love, friendship, power and the tensions of modern industrial society. The book is dense with conversation and ideas, and it is regarded as one of the great English novels of the century.
Quotes
She had her desire of him, she touched, she received the maximum of unspeakable communication in touch, dark, subtle, positively silent, a magnificent gift and give again.
Chapter XXIII · Project Gutenberg #4240 (opens in a new tab)
I want to find you, where you don't know your own existence, the you that your common self denies utterly.
But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions.
Mystic equality lies in abstraction, not in having or in doing, which are processes. In function and process, one man, one part, must of necessity be subordinate to another. It is a condition of being.