Audiobook · read by volunteers
Rainbow
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930)
Read by Debra Lynn · 35 chapters · 19 h 51
About the book
The Rainbow follows three generations of the Brangwen family, farming people in the English Midlands, from a marriage between a local farmer and a Polish widow to the young woman who must find her own way in a changing century. D. H. Lawrence writes about the rhythms of the land, about work and worship, and above all about the tensions between men and women, parents and children, the old life and the new. His prose is intense, repetitive and strongly physical, closer to a chant than to ordinary storytelling. Thirty-five parts and nearly twenty hours, read by LibriVox volunteers, make this a major commitment, and one that rewards patient listening with some of the most original fiction of the early twentieth century. Expect a long, immersive and demanding listen. A landmark of modern fiction.
Introduction
David Herbert Lawrence (1885 to 1930) was an English novelist, poet and essayist, the son of a coal miner from Nottinghamshire, and one of the most controversial writers of his age. The Rainbow, published in 1915, was prosecuted for obscenity shortly after it appeared, and copies were seized, which kept it from general readers for years. Today it is widely regarded as one of his finest achievements.
The novel traces the Brangwen family over several generations. It begins on a farm, among people whose lives follow the seasons, and moves toward the town, education and modern work. Lawrence is less interested in plot than in states of feeling, and he tries to render the pressure of desire, the clash of wills and the longing for something beyond ordinary life. The sentences return again and again to the same images, and the effect is hypnotic.
The recording is long, divided into thirty-five parts with a running time of about twenty hours, and it is read by volunteers of LibriVox. Some listeners will find the style demanding, but those who give it time will discover a book of great seriousness and beauty. It is especially interesting for readers who wish to understand how the English novel changed in the years around the First World War, and for anyone who enjoys fiction that explores how people actually feel. Readers who know Sons and Lovers or Women in Love will recognize his central concerns here, and those who are new to him will find that the book makes its own case. It stands as one of the major English novels of the twentieth century, a work that rewards both close attention and a generous amount of time.
Public domain
D. H. Lawrence died in 1930: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text