On D. H. Lawrence

214 (Pater's) upon a number of the lesser critics (Oliphant, Mallock, E. F. S. Pattison, Symonds, Saintsbury, Gosse, Morley). In the final analysis, it falls short of being an interdisciplinary foray into the cultural-philosophical pronouncements and principles of the period ; this is what its charmingly discursive summations might have become given the analytic rigor of book form. But let me conclude on a positive note. The temptation in any treatment of this topic would be to pad out the discussion with great blocks of quoted material from the reviewers. Court limits his direct quotations wisely and skillfully and, not afraid to draw conclusions, allows himself to expand instead toward comprehensive assessments of each critic under discussion. These evaluations will be of use, certainly, in my lectures . Gerald Monsman Puke University 2. On P. H. Lawrence Ponald Gutierrez. Lapsing Out. Embodiments of Death and Rebirth in the Last Writings OfD1H1 Lawrence (Rutherford. Madison, Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson UP; Lond and Toronto: Associated UP, I98O). $14.50. L. P. Clark. The Minoan Pistance. The Symbolism of Travel in D. H. Lawrence (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona P, 198Õ Õ 7. Hb: $25.00; pb: $12.95P . H. Lawrence, like some of the other writers of his time whom we consider major - Yeats, Pound and Shaw - concerned himself with making some universal sense of experience without the support of a traditional religion. His art is to a great extent a struggle to transcend death. Though Lapsing Out and The Minoan Distance are not primarily concerned with doing so, they demonstrate that Lawrence's prophetic vision is coherent and systematic. Lawrence belongs with those other writers; his quasi-religion deserves the same careful thought and admiration, though it also may provoke the same impatience and laughter as Yeats's gyres, Pound's ideal society, and Shaw's metabiology . Lapsing Out is limited to the work of Lawrence's last few years, when the overwhelming question for him was mortality, or perhaps immortality . The most interesting parts of the book are the chapters that examine Etruscan Places and Apocalypse, but Gutierrez also offers readings of The Virgin and the Gypsy. Laay Chatter!ev's Lojisr and Last Poems. He compares Lawrence's meditations on and conclusions about the Etruscans with what we know of this still largely mysterious people based on the investigations, reconstructions and speculations of historians. Lawrence's wisdom is not far from the "facts" as they are eked out by historians, but whether this suggests that Lawrence was right or that most historians are not very imaginative probably does not matter. Gutierrez uses Etruscan Places as a kind of aesthetic touchstone for Lawrence's ideas of the relationship between life and death. The Etruscans then can be seen as an example of Lawrence's ideal, against which politics, religion and personal relationships are measured. 215 Another such touchstone is Apocalypse. Gutierrez's close reading of Lawrence's interpretation of Revelation is expressed in the context of the Bible and the Lawrence scholarship. He does not set out to prove Lawrence right; his goal is to make clear the "vision of human sensibility and polity [that] issues from [Lawrence's] transvaluative interpretation." Gutierrez quotes R. E. Pritchard on Lawrence 's "transvaluation of life and death" as that in which "tomb and womb fuse together." He partly rescues Lawrence from the simple inhuman political and social elitism that so many of his readers find distasteful. Gutierrez shows that Lawrence can be regarded as antiapocalyptic in his celebration of the eternal rhythm of death and rebirth as well as the mystic relationship with the here and now. The transcendence of the ego, which yearns for apocalyptic revenge and a Utopian afterlife, is part of what Lawrence meant by "lapsing out." The Minoan Pistance is a bigger book than Lapsing Out in both length and scope. The sub-title, The Symbolism of Travel in P. H. Lawrence, explains Clark's organization and point of view. He traces Lawrence's wayfaring from 1912 until his death in 1930. The book is a combination of biography, appreciation, philosophical investigation, and literary criticism. It is a long book - perhaps too long, though even the plot summaries appear appropriate. It...