Feminism in Lawrence

Susan Tweedsmuir's many essays in books like The Lilac and the Rose, The Edwardian Lady, and A Winter Bouquet. William Buchan, the second son of John Buchan, addresses the charges leveled by critics against his father with candor and grace in what he calls "a handful of domestic recollections, reinforced by some history and designed to complement the public idea of my father which developed in his lifetime, and which the very legend of his successes has somewhat distorted." Drawing on Janet Adam Smith's definitive biography for those areas of his father's life of which he had no firsthand knowledge , William Buchan still allows his own memory the chance to roam and to select Incidents out of chronological sequence if they suit the present descriptive incident . He manages to bring his father to life in a way that his predecessors did not, since some of his reminiscences are told in part from the small boy's perspective , such as watching his father putting in his false teeth in the morning, or his loving description of the house and grounds (and the library!) at Elsfield. The son sometimes suggests that his father was disappointed that his family did not share in all of his interests and abilities. His delight in mountaineering was one of those pleasures he could not share with any in his family except his brothers and sister. His wife and children suffered equally from vertigo. He would probably have enjoyed the knowledge that his wife and children wrote books although the combined titles could not begin to equal his in quantity. William Buchan's intention in writing this memoir of his father was to come nearer to an understanding of a complex and (to him) mysterious man. He considers that goal not to have been achieved, but he agrees with John Buchan's other biographers and assessors, that in Edward Leithen can be found the most complete picture of the writer. His portrait of his father "setting off alone on one of his great walks" is a fitting way to close the memoir. The book is well illustrated with photographs, 36 of them to be exact, and the great majority are not to be found in any previous work on the subject. A sober subject before the camera, only once is John Buchan caught in a smile. A chronology of Buchan's life and works and a good, workable index round off the book. J. Randolph Cox St. Olaf College 8. FEMINISM IN LAWRENCE Hilary Simpson. D. H. Lawrence and Feminism. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 1982. $20.00 Yet another critic has joined the on-going Lawrence-feminist debate, but this one Is not quite sure of her stand. For the most part, the author reiterates the arguments of Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Millet in a cautious manner that avoids the risk-taking of the former. Unlike de Beauvoir and Millet, Simpson contends that, for a brief period before and during World War I, "Lawrence espoused feminism of a kind" (p. 16). Because it is a reiteration of previous arguments and is ultimately lacking in originality, the book is disappointing. 331 Despite this weakness, Simpson does offer some interesting background information relating Lawrence's work to the development of the feminist movement in the twentieth century; to the psychological theories of Freud, Havelock Ellis, Edward Carpenter, and Otto Weininger; to the repercussions of World War I; and to the popular fiction of the time such as The Shiek. In tracing the development of Lawrence's attitudes toward women and feminism, the author discovers three periods: (1) the period between 1913 and 1915 when Lawrence wrote Study of Thomas Hardy, Sons and Lovers, and The Rainbow; (2) the period of intense anti-feminism and an obsession with power following World War I; and (3) his return to the theme of love in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Even during the first period, however, Lawrence was opposed to reformist politics. For example, Simpson finds a suggestion in Sons and Lovers that Clara "should be concerned with her own unacknowledged sexuality rather than with a spurious feminism" (p. 30). And, in Lady Chatterley's Lover, the...