The First 'Women in Love'

The novel here called The First 'Women in Love' is the first version of the novel widely regarded as Lawrence's greatest: Women in Love. Lawrence wrote it in 1916 and did his very best to have it published; but his previous novel had been banned and The First 'Women in Love' was rejected by every publisher who saw it. As a result its very existence as an independent text has been ignored and it is now published for the first time. It shares much of its material with the final version of the novel, but its central relationships are dissimilar and the ending radically different. Above all, its tone is more positive, the final version being influenced by Lawrence's increasing sense of isolation. The First 'Women in Love' is, arguably, one of Lawrence's very greatest works; it is a piece of fiction generated in - and in many ways searingly and poignantly addressed to - the England, and the Europe, of the First World War.