The Rainbow
by D.H. LAWRENCE
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Potomac, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
First American edition of the author's contentious fourth novel, which was expurgated following its seizure in England. Near fine in tan buckram stamped black, lacking dust jacket. Square and tight with no cocking. Title-page verso bears a copyright date of 1915, while the title-page is dated 1916. Roberts gives date of publication as 15 November 1915, complicating issues by noting that Huebsch "published a more expensive edition of The Rainbow in 1916 [A7 note, p28]." The second and third printings from Huebsch however are explicitly dated 1921 & 1922 respectively. Copies with a 1915 title-page, if they ever did exist, appear not to have survived. A brilliant copy of the first American edition, cloth fresh, stamping vivid; 'marred' solely by an ink name neat at crown. 8vo. 480pp]: [x], 470 (last leaf blank). Rare in such exemplary condition.
Synopsis
D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow follows three generations of the Brangwen family, with a particular focus on the sexual dynamics of, and relations between, the characters. Tom Brangwen, who is… let’s say “not the brightest,” succeeds to his father’s farm and falls in love with Lydia Lensky, a Polish widow; Anna, Lydia’s daughter (and Tom’s stepdaughter), marries Will, a distant relative of Tom’s; Anna and Will’s oldest daughter, Ursula, is a modern working woman. For Tom Brangwen’s generation sex happens, but between the lines. For Anna and Will, bodies are alluded to and desires described. By the time Ursula Brangwen is a young woman, sex is frequent and directly addressed. This depiction of sexual desire as a natural force — perhaps spiritual, even! — caused quite a stir upon The Rainbow’s publication. The novel was almost instantly removed from the shelves of bookstores across the UKcountry and was then prosecuted in an obscenity trial in a British Magistrates’ court in November 1915, just two months after its release. As a result, roughly half of the copies of the novel’s original print run of were seized and burnt. The Rainbow was unavailable in the UK for 11 years following. Lawrence initially conceived The Rainbow and what became its sequel, Women in Love, as a single novel titled The Sisters. However, after much revision, that manuscript became two of the author’s greatest novels. The Rainbow is ranked 48th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century; Women in Love is ranked 49th.
Read More: Identifying first editions of The Rainbow
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Details
- Bookseller
- Grinning Cat Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 31483
- Title
- The Rainbow
- Author
- D.H. LAWRENCE
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- B.W HUEBSCH
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1916
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Bookseller catalogs
- LITERATURE;
Terms of Sale
Grinning Cat Books
Fourteen (14) day return guarantee, for any reason, and we pay return shipping costs if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Grinning Cat Books
Biblio member since 2020
Potomac, Maryland
About Grinning Cat Books
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Buckram
- A plain weave fabric normally made from cotton or linen which is stiffened with starch or other chemicals to cover the book...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
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