Apocalypse : Cambridge Lawrence Edition

by Lawrence, D. H.; Kalnins, Mara

• ISBN13: 9780140187816
• ISBN10: 0140187812
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-03-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Written during the winter of 1929-30 and his last major work, Apocalypse is Lawrence's radical criticism of the political, religious and social structures that have shaped Western civilization. In his view the perpetual conflict within man, in which emotion, instinct and the senses vie with the intellect and reason, has resulted in society's increasing alienation from the natural world. Yet Lawrence's belief in humanity's power to regain the imaginative and spiritual values which alone can revitalize our world also makes Apocalypse a powerful statement of hope. Presenting his thoughts on psychology, science, politics, art, God and man, and including a fierce protest against Christianity, Apocalypse is Lawrence's last testament, his final attempt to convey his vision of man and of the cosmos.

Author Biography

The son of a miner, the prolific novelist, poet, and travel writer David Herbert Lawrence was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, in 1885. He attended Nottingham University and found employment as a schoolteacher. His first novel, The White Peacock, was published in 1911, the same year his beloved mother died and he quit teaching after contracting pneumonia. The next year Lawrence published Sons and Lovers and ran off to Germany with Frieda Weekley, his former tutor’s wife. His masterpieces The Rainbow and Women in Love were completed in quick succession, but the first was suppressed as indecent and the second was not published until 1920. Lawrence’s lyrical writings challenged convention, promoting a return to an ideal of nature where sex is seen as a sacrament. In 1928 Lawrence’s final novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, was banned in England and the United States for indecency. He died of tuberculosis in 1930 in Venice.

Table of Contents

Note on the Penguin Lawrence Edition	3	(5)
Chronology	5	(6)
Introduction	11	(22)
Note on the Texts	33	(2)
Advisory Editor's Note	35	(4)
A Review of the Book of Revelation	39	(4)
Dr. John Oman
Introduction to The Dragon of the Apocalypse	43	(14)
Frederick Carter
Apocalypse	57	(144)
Appendixes
I Apocalypse, Fragment 1	153	(24)
II Apocalypse, Fragment 2	177	(18)
III Apocalypsis II	195	(6)
Explanatory Notes	201	(24)
Further Reading	225