The Apocalyptic World of D.H. Lawrence.

Pp. xi + 198. London and Oxford: Oxford University Press, for Norwegian University Press, 1991. 25.00[pounds].

CONCEIVED as a sequel to D. H. Lawrence: The Early Fiction (London, 1986), this companion volume examines the philosophical works which Lawrence wrote during the First World War. It is the second volume in what Michael Black hopes will eventually be ~a commentary on the whole of Lawrence's prose writings' (1), an ambitious project indeed but one which Black is singularly well qualified to undertake. Readers will be familiar with his excellent 7he Literature of Fidelity (London, 1975) and his role as former University Publisher and Member of the Editorial Board of the Cambridge Edition of D. H. Lawrence's Works and Letters.

The present volume, focusing principally on Study of Thomas Hardy, Twilight in Italy, ~The Crown', and ~The Reality of Peace', seeks to trace the development of Lawrence's thought not simply as a chronological progression but rather as a process of continuous self-discovery articulated through a highly idiosyncratic, metaphorical style. Lawrence himself defended and defined this characteristic habit of thought and …