The White Peacock by D. H. Lawrence (Vintage 1961 Edition)

Description

The White Peacock is the first novel by D. H. Lawrence, published in 1911. It is set in the Eastwood area of Lawrence’s youth and is narrated in the first person by a character named Cyril Beardsall. The novel explores themes of love, loss, and the tension between the natural world and the industrial world.

The novel follows the lives of a group of young people from different social classes in the English Midlands. Cyril Beardsall is a sensitive and artistic young man who is torn between his love for two women: Lettie Beardsall, his cousin, and Annable, a gamekeeper. Lettie is beautiful and independent, but she is also cold and unfeeling. Annable is passionate and earthy, but he is also coarse and uneducated. Cyril is unable to choose between the two women, and his indecisiveness leads to tragedy.

The White Peacock is a coming-of-age story that explores the themes of love, loss, and the tension between the natural world and the industrial world. It is a lyrical and evocative novel that offers a glimpse into Lawrence’s early life and his developing ideas about art and society.

Here are some of the key themes of The White Peacock:

• The tension between the natural world and the industrial world: The novel is set in the English Midlands, a region that was undergoing rapid industrialization at the time. Lawrence explores the tension between the natural world, which represents beauty, freedom, and authenticity, and the industrial world, which represents ugliness, constraint, and artificiality.
• Love and loss: The novel explores the themes of love and loss in a number of ways. Cyril’s love for Lettie and Annable is both passionate and destructive. He is unable to choose between the two women, and his indecisiveness leads to tragedy. The novel also explores the loss of innocence and the coming of age. Cyril is a young man who is trying to find his place in the world, and he experiences a number of losses along the way, including the loss of his loved ones and the loss of his innocence.
• The nature of art: Lawrence was a passionate believer in the importance of art, and The White Peacock explores the nature of art in a number of ways. Cyril is an artist, and he struggles to find his own voice. He is influenced by the work of other artists, but he also wants to create something that is uniquely his own. The novel suggests that art is a way of expressing the human experience, and that it can be used to challenge the status quo.

The White Peacock is a complex and challenging novel, but it is also a beautiful and lyrical work of art. It is a must-read for anyone interested in D. H. Lawrence or in the development of modern British literature.