THE RAINBOW (illustrated, complete, and unexpurgated)

Hard going at times by the great DH Lawrence. Sometimes beautifully descriptive of a landed gentry family near Nottingham around 1900, but the three generations depicted are torn between love and not love. No grey, seems all or nothing, sometimes several times on one page. Tedious in the end, but lovely to read his prose and getting a bit of a feel what it would be like to live in rural England with landed gentry back then.

You need lots of time to read and an insatiable appetite for prose to slog through this weighty tome. There is no question that its stately pace is beautiful. The author paints word pictures of shimmering light and black despair, of longing, rage and ecstasy. But to a palette spoiled by instant gratification provided by modern, albeit lesser, writers the journey is too slow.

The author demonstrates an extraordinary understanding of female characters, their sensitivities, frustrations, passions, and confusions. His writing is precise, more elaborate in certain ways, than more modern authors, but gripping nevertheless. The story follows a family through a few generations depicting the variety of characters one might find at the time, early 20th century in rural England.

Beyond the physical level.....beautifully descriptive of characters, places and events.....love the setting in England with the quaint villages of cottages and forests......a time without the invasion of a high tech world.....I felt that I intimately knew the characters because of the way he presented them with words and feelings....I became completely awed with the artist word picture of this wonderful earthy time in such a picturesque country.....I have finished the authors book "Lady Chatterly's Lover"......I had some of the same feelings as above....this was such a special book....so real and romantic.....something that is so finely written....really loved it in this different world we live in today.....going to read more of DH Lawrence.

Maybe I don't have deep understanding, but I just hardly felt the essence or found the point.

There are no illustrations at all

Amazing insight into the psyche of a woman, and mankind in general. The setting too, so aptly applied to that period.

not my favorite book - too many irrelevant musings but the main narrative is good -not the best book by lawrence raul

This was an interesting read about rural life all those years ago. I read what I could, but it got very slow for me.

D H Lawrence has apparently dropped out of popularity. This is no mystery: at times he is obscure and often a perpetrator of overblown prose. Yet he is a great writer: his descriptions are often epiphanies; he on occasion writes with severe realism; he deals with all aspects of human love. His imagery is consistently biblical, although his exegesis is not that of the average vicar. Lawrence is ready for rediscovery!

Admire the writing style from years ago and feel the old earthiness as the Brangwens live on.

Heavy going - gave up !!

Very good