D.H. Lawrence: The Savage Pilgrimage

I first heard of D.H. Lawrence in highschool when we were tasked to be familiar with important Western literary works for our English classes. Lawrence was one of the unforgettable names included because based on our textbooks, he wrote controversial novels which ran counter to the conservative air of his time. Some of the titles that never left my mind are Lady Chatterly's Lover, Sons and Lovers, and Women in Love. In fact, Carswell even notes the criticisms heaped on the last novel mentioned, that it was deemed "a book the police should ban", a "loathsome study of sex depravity--- misleading youth to unspeakable disaster", an "obscene study", a "neurotic production", a "shameless study of sex depravity which in direct proportion to the skill of its literary execution becomes unmentionably vile". I have never read any of his works but there must be something that made me buy Catherine Carswell's biography of this English writer. 2011 was the year I was about to finish my post-graduate studies and I must have been looking forward to a return to fiction then, but for some reason or the other, my life has always been filled with adventures of many kinds thus I keep putting reading off. 

These days, as I have mentioned in my previous posts, I have been trying to free as much space as I can by finally reading my books. I start with fiction because they are easier to give away than non-fiction. And because I have more time now compared to the time before lockdown, I am finally able to write about these books I will be giving away. 

Or maybe I was only attracted to this PHP 10 treat...

The Savage Pilgrimage is about D.H. Lawrence as Carswell knew him. Carswell is a literary critic who highly esteem Lawrence and the two are very close to the point that Carswell defends her writer friend from John Middleton Murry's attacks. While reading this book, I cannot help but think that maybe Carswell fancies Lawrence for herself. But as she mentions in many passages, Lawrence is a believer of marriage and Carswell, also married, must have kept her feelings to herself. From Carswell we learn that Lawrence likes to get busy, that his civility and politeness is such a virtue that even that most displeasing person would never feel that Lawrence is displeased with him or her. He also likes farming and gardening, travels a lot, and finds America hollow. In between writing about Lawrence's writings, Carswell introduces many literary men and women like Katherine Mansfield who is married to Murry, and Aldous Huxley. Unfortunately Huxley is not mentioned much.

Anyway, I think I am the worst person to write a review of this book. I cannot even relate to much of Carswell's writings because I have never read Lawrence. But I am quite glad he also wrote poems and short stories which I might be able to access online. Still, something in me is very curious as to his controversial novels. Well, when censors tell you not to read something, the more it becomes tempting and seductive. Maybe I will just end up reading summaries like what Q does, which I think is also a fine way of educating one's self but the downside is that you don't get to appreciate how well a writer strings words to tell his/her story.