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Burning Man: The Trials of D. H. Lawrence
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About This Book
An electrifying, revelatory new biography of D. H. Lawrence, with a focus on his difficult middle years "Never trust the teller," wrote D. H. Lawrence, "trust the tale." Everyone who knew him told stories about Lawrence, and Lawrence told stories about everyone he knew. He also told stories about himself, again and again: a pioneer of autofiction, no writer before Lawrence had made so permeable the border between life and literature. In Burning Man: The Trials of D. H. Lawrence, acclaimed biographer Frances Wilson tells a new story about the author, focusing on his decade of superhuman writing and travel between 1915, when The Rainbow was suppressed following an obscenity trial, and 1925, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Taking after Lawrence's own literary model, Dante, and adopting the structure of The Divine Comedy, Burning Man is a distinctly Lawrentian book, one that pursues Lawrence around the globe and reflects his life of wild allegory. Eschewing the confines of traditional biography, it offers a triptych of lesser-known episodes drawn from lesser-known sources, including tales of Lawrence as told by his friends in letters, memoirs, and diaries. Focusing on three turning points in Lawrence's pilgrimage (his crises in Cornwall, Italy, and New Mexico) and three central adversaries--his wife, Frieda; the writer Maurice Magnus; and his patron, Mabel Dodge Luhan--Wilson uncovers a lesser-known Lawrence, both as a writer and as a man. Strikingly original, superbly researched, and always revelatory, Burning Man is a marvel of iconoclastic biography. With flair and focus, Wilson unleashes a distinct perspective on one of history's most beloved and infamous writers.
Reviews
"The book is...a pliable construct that bends to the author's whim, consenting to be led every which way without regard for the conventions of chronology or context."
"Wilson illustrates in affectionate detail how Lawrence the man could be extremely provocative, and his greatest prose is really the continuation of that character trait, as much in his brilliantly errant style as in the perilous 'metaphysic' underwriting it."
"One of the most compelling parts of Burning Man is Wilson's appreciation for Lawrence's out-of-print memoir of his friend Maurice Magnus."
"She is the slightly tipsy, indiscreet, female presence at the overwhelmingly male Lawrence wake, who says what she really thinks, doesn't care who's listening, satiates our curiosity with reliable gossip, and in so doing tells us more about the writer than we ever thought possible."
"Wilson often tries to distinguish between a Self One and a Self Two in Lawrence's character."
"She seems to have read everything even tangentially related to Lawrence, including, heroically, all four volumes of Mabel Dodge's memoirs ..."
"It's a fitting response to Lawrence's embattledness, which arguably necessitates extreme investment and speculative volatility."
"With more than a hint of misogyny found in some of his fiction, Lawrence is not a particularly relevant author for our times, and Wilson's effort may not elicit renewed interest despite the author's colorful depictions of his travels and provocative analysis of his work and personal shortcomings."
"there is something rather satisfying about the final conundrum that Frances Wilson sets out to solve."
"The flare of a match, a man on fire, raging, crackling, spitting, consuming everything and everyone around him."
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