Women in Love

Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen are two sisters living in the Midlands of England in the 1920s. Ursula is a teacher, Gudrun an artist. They meet two men who live nearby, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Cricht. The four become friends. Ursula begins to date Birkin and Gudrun eventually begins a love affair with Gerald. The four are all deeply concerned with contemporary questions of society, politics, and the relationship between men and women. They go for a party at Gerald's manor house, but during the course of the evening, Gerald's sister, Diana, drowns. Gudrun becomes the teacher and mentor of his youngest sister. Soon Gerald's father passes away as well after a drawn-out illness. Birkin asks Ursula to marry him, and she agrees. Gerald and Gudrun's relationship, however, is becoming more stormy. The four go on vacation together to the Alps. Gudrun begins an intense friendship with an artist she meets there called Loerk. Gerald cannot deal with this and their relationship begins to spiral out of control.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
D.H. LAWRENCE was born September 11, 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. His father was a miner and his mother was a school teacher. In 1906 he took up a scholarship at Nottingham University to study to be a teacher. His first novel, 'The White Peacock', was published in 1911. Lawrence gave up teaching in 1911 due to illness. In 1912 he met and fell in love with a married woman, Frieda Weekley, and they eloped to Germany together. They were married in 1914 and spent the rest of their lives together travelling around the world.
In 1915, Lawrence published 'The Rainbow' which was banned in Great Britain for obscenity. 'Women in Love' continues the story of the Brangwen family begun in 'The Rainbow' and was finished by Lawrence in 1916 but not published until 1920. Another of Lawrence's most famous works, 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', was privately printed in Florence in 1928 but was not published in Britain until 1960, when it was the subject of an unsuccessful court case brought against it for obscenity. As well as novels, Lawrence also wrote in a variety of other genres and his poetry, criticism and travel books remain highly regarded. He was also a keen painter. He died in France on March 2, 1930.