‘She was beginning to realize herself.’

A sweeping generational love story, and a prequel to Lawrence’s astounding Women in Love, The Rainbow is regarded as one of the best English novels of the twentieth century.

First published in 1925, The Rainbow traces the lives of three generations of the Brangwen family in rural Nottinghamshire, revealing each member’s struggle with identity, passion and fulfilment within the ridged structures of English society. Spanning from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth, we become privy to the internal lives of Tom and his experiences falling in love for the first time; of Anna and her doomed, destructive marriage; and of Ursula, as she fiercely seeks independence and meaning in an ever-changing world. With beautiful, lyrically-driven prose and profound psychological insight, Lawrence unabashedly explores themes such as love, sexuality, and the tension between desire and social convention.

David Herbert Lawrence (1885 – 1930) was a British novelist, poet and literary critic. He is renowned for his bold explorations of love and sex in his writing, often challenging the conventions of early twentieth century society and culminating in a controversial reputation. Today, he is considered a key figurehead in modernist literature.