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THE TALENTED WRITER, GEOFF DYER has edited and introduced a well designed anthology of selected essays by D.H. Lawrence. He remains an excellent choice to assemble the volume, for among his previous books is Outof Sheer Rage, a hilarious and incisive travel-saga that follows his obsessional | THE TALENTED WRITER, GEOFF DYER has edited and introduced a well designed anthology of selected essays by D.H. Lawrence. He remains an excellent choice to assemble the volume, for among his previous books is Outof Sheer Rage, a hilarious and incisive travel-saga that follows his obsessional | ||
trek through several countries to ponder the life and art of D.H. Lawrence. | trek through several countries to ponder the life and art of D.H. Lawrence. | ||
It reads as both a scenic excursion and a neurotic record of sustained searching and sleuthing about his complex subject. Dyer’s selection of thirty-six essays of varying length and subject matter spans Lawrence’s career from to | It reads as both a scenic excursion and a neurotic record of sustained searching and sleuthing about his complex subject. Dyer’s selection of thirty-six essays of varying length and subject matter spans Lawrence’s career from 1912 to 1930,ranging from “Christs in the Tirol” to the “Introduction to the Grand | ||
Inquisitor,” published in the year of his death. | Inquisitor,” published in the year of his death. | ||
The catchy title for the book duplicates the title of a short essay from that is included in the volume, in which Lawrence composes a variously poignant and dyspeptic introduction to a meticulous bibliography of his own works compiled by Edward D. McDonald. The piece reveals evidence of Lawrence’s impatience about the bureaucracies of publication and the inane emphasis by some collectors on first edition markings. More importantly, it provides anecdotal reiterations of his own fraught relation to his parents. Thus The Bad Side of Books functions as a resonant signature for the entire collection and for the essay, for both provide an accessible window into Lawrence the writer and the often misunderstood and besieged son. | The catchy title for the book duplicates the title of a short essay from 1942 that is included in the volume, in which Lawrence composes a variously poignant and dyspeptic introduction to a meticulous bibliography of his own works compiled by Edward D. McDonald. The piece reveals evidence of Lawrence’s impatience about the bureaucracies of publication and the inane emphasis by some collectors on first edition markings. More importantly, it provides anecdotal reiterations of his own fraught relation to his parents. Thus The Bad Side of Books functions as a resonant signature for the entire collection and for the essay, for both provide an accessible window into Lawrence the writer and the often misunderstood and besieged son. | ||
The essay is especially memorable for its understated depiction of the depressing reactions of Lawrence’s parents to the publication in of his first | The essay is especially memorable for its understated depiction of the depressing reactions of Lawrence’s parents to the publication in 1911 of his first | ||
book, The White Peacock: “I put it into my mother’s hands when she was | book, The White Peacock: “I put it into my mother’s hands when she was | ||
dying. She looked at the outside, and then at the title page, and then at me | dying. She looked at the outside, and then at the title page, and then at me | ||
with darkening eyes. And though she loved me so much, I thought she | with darkening eyes. And though she loved me so much, I thought she | ||
doubted it could be much of a book, since no one more important than I had | doubted it could be much of a book, since no one more important than I had | ||
written it”(207). The response of the father to Lawrence’s achievement serves | written it”(207). {{sfn|Lawrence|1911|p=207}} The response of the father to Lawrence’s achievement serves | ||
as a stark indication of their understandably different perspectives on life, as | as a stark indication of their understandably different perspectives on life, as | ||
the coal-miner reacts to the revelation of how much money his son received | the coal-miner reacts to the revelation of how much money his son received | ||