Two on Lawrence

ELT 45 : 2 2002 "onomastic sport" to a narrative context in which it might have a higher stake: a context in which St. Onuphrius is less an index than an agent, whose meaning requires a more capacious (that is to say, narrative) point of view. I appear to have succeeded only in hinting at the kind of book I wanted to find when I opened Joyce and Hagiography, but I hope this has not obscured its merits. It is a commendable resource for those interested in tracing Joyce's representations of saints. Moreover, it furthers the aims of genetic criticism by suggesting a new avenue of theoretical exploration. Most important of all, perhaps, it possesses a virtue that lies in wait, for this book may serve as a goad to some young scholar, whose casual perusal of these pages will instigate an argument about Joyce's use and abuse of saints. Until then, we can only say, with Schork, Saints above! Gregory Castle Arizona State University Two on Lawrence Nicholas Marsh. D. H. Lawrence: The Novels. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. xi + 258 pp. Cloth $59.95 Paper $19.95 Warren Roberts and Paul Poplawski. A Bibliography of D. H. Lawrence. Third Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. xxiv + 847 pp. $130 IT IS AN UNQUALIFIED pleasure to review these two books, each directed at a different audience and each eminently successful in its primary objective. Let me begin with Nicholas Marsh's excellentD. H. Lawrence : The Novels, a volume in the Analyzing Texts series published by St. Martin's Press. The series is aimed at students encountering the fictional world of Lawrence for the first time, but teachers of his work may also profit from the clarifying and consistent skills of Marsh's close reading of the three works that comprise his focus: Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, and Women in Love. In the General Editor's preface (also by Marsh), he emphasizes that each book in the series tends to focus on specific scenes and gradually builds the range of insights into a larger awareness of structure, style, and theme in the respective work. Such a methodology of rigorous rhetorical analysis amounts to a refreshing return to the traditional, New Critical perspective that unfortunately is out of fashion amid the narcissistic excesses of literary theory and the endemic phobia over logocentric readings of literature. Yet on virtually any page of Marsh's illuminating and empathetic interpretations there 246 BOOK REVIEWS exists more persuasive insight into Lawrence's art than we find in much of the invested, ideological commentary that predominates in the academy today. In the opening chapter Marsh concentrates on narrative texture as he subjects a lengthy passage from each of the three novels to sustained analysis, including sharply defined sub-sections on Lawrence's characteristic style, frequent themes, and representative subject matter. On Sons and Lovers he demonstrates, in relation to "the state of Paul's soul and his outward behavior and appeal," how in Lawrence "the inner and outer lives are organically linked"—an essential premise of the fiction that Marsh reiterates and refines throughout his study. Similarly, he uses an often overlooked scene early in The Rainbow to reveal how "Lawrence is interested in constraints and freedom within the human character," and that such primary awareness informs Tom's encounter with a confident foreigner and an available young woman at a hotel. Such basic insights surely would be regarded as a "given" about Lawrence 's talent by most scholars, but I wonder how many of them could so forcefully derive these assumptions from the text with the grace and depth of Marsh as he interprets the scene. Also, in reference to a subtle vignette involving Ursula and Gudrun in Women in Love that highlights Lawrence's skill at elliptical dialogue, Marsh remains impressive as he shows how and why Lawrence "insists that conversation fails to achieve genuine communication between the characters, as it runs counter to the current of emotion." The chapter above ends, as do each of the volume's major sections, with convenient sub-listings consecutively titled "Conclusions," "Methods of Analysis," and "Suggested Work"—the latter an intriguing invitation...