D. H. Lawrence

D. H. Lawrence
Sinh	David Herbert Lawrence (1885-09-11)11 tháng 9 năm 1885 Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, Anh
Mất	2 tháng 3 năm 1930(1930-03-02) (44 tuổi) Vence, Pháp
Nghề nghiệp	Tiểu thuyết gia, Nhà thơ
Quốc tịch	Anh
Trường lớp	Đại học Nottingham
Giai đoạn sáng tác	1907–1930
Thể loại	Chủ nghĩa hiện đại
Tác phẩm nổi bật	Tiểu thuyết: Những đứa con trai và những người tình Cầu vồng Những người đàn bà đang yêu Người tình của phu nhân Chatterley Truyện ngắn: Hương cúc Cô gái đồng trinh và chàng du tử Con ngựa về nhất
Ảnh hưởng bởi Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, J. P. Jacobsen, Herman Melville, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Lev Shestov, Walt Whitman
Ảnh hưởng tới Charles Bukowski, Anthony Burgess, Ronald Verlin Cassill, Aldous Huxley, Doris Lessing, Anaïs Nin, Joyce Carol Oates, Octavio Paz, Dylan Thomas, Tennessee Williams

David Herbert Lawrence (11 tháng 9 1885 – 2 tháng 3 1930) là một tiểu thuyết gia, nhà thơ, nhà viết kịch, viết luận, nhà phê bình văn chương và họa sĩ người Anh, dưới bút danh D. H. Lawrence. Những tác phẩm nối tiếp nhau của ông, cũng như nhiều tác phẩm khác, đã phản ánh mặt trái vô nhân tính của thời kỳ hiện đại và công nghiệp hóa. Những nội dung mà Lawrence đi sâu khám phá bao gồm sự lành mạnh về cảm xúc, sức sống, tính tự phát và bản năng.

Những tư tưởng của Lawrence khiến ông có nhiều kẻ thủ, ông phải chịu đựng những ngược đãi, kiểm duyệt, xuyên tạc của chính quyền đối với những tác phẩm đầy sáng tạo trong suốt nửa cuối cuộc đời, trong đó có nhiều năm ông tự đày ải mình mà ông gọi là "cuộc hành huơng về nơi hoang dã". Lúc qua đời, công chúng biết đến ông như một người viết truyện khiêu dâm, một kẻ đã lãng phí tài năng lớn của mình. E. M. Forster, trong một bản cáo phó, đã lên tiếng thách thức dư luận và gọi ông là "Tiểu thuyết gia sáng tạo bật nhất trong thế hệ của chúng ta." Sau đó, một nhà phê bình có sức ảnh hưởng lớn ở Đại học Cambridge là F. R. Leavis đã bênh vực cho cả tính chính trực về phương diện nghệ thuật và tính nghiêm túc về phương diện đạo đức của ông, qua đó đặt những tiểu thuyết của Lawrence's nằm trong số những tác phẩm truyền thống kinh điển của tiểu thuyết Anh.

Cuộc đời và sự nghiệp

Thời niên thiếu

D. H. Lawrence năm 21 tuổi (1906)

Là con thứ tư của Arthur John Lawrence, một thợ mỏ ít học vấn, và Lydia (tên thời con gái là Beardsall), từng là giáo viên, nhưng vì những khó khăn tài chính của gia đình, phải làm thợ thủ công trong một xuởng đăng-ten, Lawrence sống những năm đầu trong một thị trấn khai thác than mỏ ở Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. Ngôi nhà nơi ông sinh ra ở Eastwood, số 8a đường Victoria, ngày nay là bảo tàng nơi khai sinh D.H. Lawrence (D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum). Gia cảnh thuộc tầng lớp công nhân, cùng với những căng thẳng trong mối quan hệ giữa cha mẹ trở thành nguồn nguyên liệu thô cho một số tác phẩm đầu tay của ông. Sau đó Lawrence thuờng về quên và viết những tác phẩm về thị trấn Underwood kế bên, gọi nó là "quê huơng của trái tim tôi", lấy nó làm bối cảnh cho nhiều tiểu thuyết của ông.

Cậu bé Lawrence theo học tại trường Beauvale Board (nay được đổi tên thành Truờng Tiểu học Greasley Beauvale D. H. Lawrence để tỏ lòng tôn kính ông) từ năm 1891 đến năm 1898, trở thành học sinh đầu tiên giành được học bổng của Hội đồng Địa hạt để chuyển lên học tại Trường Trung học Nottingham ở Nottingham gần kề. Cậu ra trường năm 1901, làm thư ký cho một xưởng sản xuất dụng cụ phẫu thuật trong vòng ba tháng, nhưng một cơn viêm phổi nặng đã khiến cậu không thể tiếp tục công việc. Trong thời kỳ dưỡng bệnh, cậu thường đến thăm nông trại Hagg's, nơi trú ngụ của gia đình Chambers, và bắt đầu làm bạn với Jessie Chambers. Một khía cạnh quan trọng trong mối quan hệ với Chambers cũng như với những thanh thiếu niên khác là lòng yêu sách, một sở thích đã theo Lawrence suốt cuộc đời. Trong những năm 1902 - 1906, Lawrence làm giáo viên ở trường British, Eastwood. Rồi chàng trai trẻ trở thành sinh viên toàn thời gian và nhận Chứng chỉ giảng dạy tại Đại học Nottingham năm 1908. Trong những năm đầu đời này, Lawrence đã viết những vần thơ đầu tiên, vài truyện ngắn, và bản thảo một cuốn tiểu thuyết có tựa Laetitia, mà sau này trở thành quyển Chim công trắng. Cuối năm 1907 ông thắng một cuộc thi viết truyện ngắn ở Nottingham Guardian, đây là lần đầu tiên ông được biết đến rộng rãi hơn về tài năng văn chương.

Khởi nghiệp

Mùa thu năm 1908, chàng trai trẻ vừa tốt nghiệp Lawrence bỏ lại ngôi nhà thời thơ ấu, chuyển đến Luân Đôn. Ông vẫn tiếp tục viết lách trong thời gian giảng dạy ở trường Davidson Road. Một vài bài thơ đầu tiên, được Jessie Chambers trình bày, đã giành được sự chú ý của Ford Madox Ford, người sau này được biết đến dưới cái tên Ford Hermann Hueffer, biên tập của tạp chí The English Review, một tờ báo có tầm ảnh hưởng lớn. Sau Hueffer cho đăng truyện Hương cúc. Sau khi truyện được đăng trên tạp chí này, Heinemann, một nhà xuất bản ở Luân Đôn, đã đến mời Lawrence về làm việc. Sự nghiệp viết lách nghiêm túc của ông bắt đầu, dù ông vẫn dạy ở trường thêm một năm nữa. Không lâu sau khi bản in thử tiểu thuyết đầu tay của ông, Chim công trắng, xuất hiện năm 1910, mẹ Lawrence qua đời vì ung thư. Chàng trai trẻ đau đớn tột cùng. Ông đã miêu tả những tháng sau ấy là một "năm đau ốm". Rõ ràng Lawrence có mối quan hệ vô cùng thân thiết với mẹ, và nỗi đau ấy đã trở thành bước ngoặt lớn trong đời ông, như việc bà Morel qua đời đã đánh dấu một cột mốc mới trong cuốn tiểu thuyết tự truyện Những đứa con trai và những người tình của ông, một tác phẩm thuật lại nhiều về quãng thời gian ông còn học ở tỉnh lẻ.

In 1911 Lawrence was introduced to Edward Garnett, a publisher's reader, who acted as a mentor, provided further encouragement, and became a valued friend, as did his son David. Throughout these months the young author revised Paul Morel, the first draft of what became Sons and Lovers. In addition, a teaching colleague, Helen Corke, gave him access to her intimate diaries about an unhappy love affair, which formed the basis of The Trespasser, his second novel. In November 1911, he came down with a pneumonia again; once he recovered, Lawrence decided to abandon teaching in order to become a full-time author. He also broke off an engagement to Louie Burrows, an old friend from his days in Nottingham and Eastwood.

In March 1912 Lawrence met Frieda Weekley (née von Richthofen), with whom he was to share the rest of his life. Six years older than her new lover, she was married to Ernest Weekley, his former modern languages professor at University College, Nottingham, and had three young children. She eloped with Lawrence to her parents' home in Metz, a garrison town then in Germany near the disputed border with France. Their stay there included Lawrence's first encounter with tensions between Germany and France, when he was arrested and accused of being a British spy, before being released following an intervention from Frieda's father. After this incident, Lawrence left for a small hamlet to the south of Munich, where he was joined by Frieda for their "honeymoon", later memorialised in the series of love poems titled Look! We Have Come Through (1917). 1912 also saw the first of Lawrence's so-called "mining plays", The Daughter-in-Law, written in Nottingham dialect. The play was never to be performed, or even published, in Lawrence's lifetime.

From Germany they walked southwards across the Alps to Italy, a journey that was recorded in the first of his travel books, a collection of linked essays titled Twilight in Italy and the unfinished novel, Mr Noon. During his stay in Italy, Lawrence completed the final version of Sons and Lovers that, when published in 1913, was acknowledged to be a vivid portrait of the realities of working class provincial life. Lawrence, though, had become so tired of the work that he allowed Edward Garnett to cut about a hundred pages from the text.

Lawrence and Frieda returned to Britain in 1913 for a short visit, during which they encountered and befriended critic John Middleton Murry and New Zealand-born short story writer Katherine Mansfield. Lawrence was able to meet Welsh tramp poet W. H. Davies, whose work, much of which was inspired by nature, he greatly admired. Davies collected autographs, and was particularly keen to obtain Lawrence's. Georgian poetry publisher Edward Marsh was able to secure an autograph (probably as part of a signed poem), and invited Lawrence and Frieda to meet Davies in London on 28 July, under his supervision. Lawrence was immediately captivated by the poet and later invited Davies to join Frieda and himself in Germany. Despite his early enthusiasm for Davies' work, however, Lawrence's opinion changed after reading Foliage and he commented after reading Nature Poems in Italy that they seemed ".. so thin, one can hardly feel them".

Lawrence and Weekley soon went back to Italy, staying in a cottage in Fiascherino on the Gulf of Spezia. Here he started writing the first draft of a work of fiction that was to be transformed into two of his better-known novels, The Rainbow and Women in Love. While writing Women in Love in Cornwall during 1916–17, Lawrence developed a strong and possibly romantic relationship with a Cornish farmer named William Henry Hocking. Although it is not absolutely clear if their relationship was sexual, Frieda said she believed it was. Lawrence's fascination with the theme of homosexuality, which is overtly manifested in Women in Love, could be related to his own sexual orientation. In a letter written during 1913, he writes, "I should like to know why nearly every man that approaches greatness tends to homosexuality, whether he admits it or not ..." He is also quoted as saying, "I believe the nearest I've come to perfect love was with a young coal-miner when I was about 16."

Eventually, Frieda obtained her divorce. The couple returned to Britain shortly before the outbreak of World War I and were married on 13 July 1914. At this time, Lawrence worked with London intellectuals and writers such as Dora Marsden and the people involved with The Egoist (T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and others). The Egoist, an important Modernist literary magazine, published some of his work. He was also reading and adapting Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto. He also met at this time the young Jewish artist Mark Gertler, and they became for a time good friends; Lawrence would describe Gertler's 1916 anti-war painting, Merry-Go-Round as 'the best modern picture I have seen: I think it is great and true.' Gertler would inspire the character Loerke (a sculptor) in Women in Love. Weekley's German parentage and Lawrence's open contempt for militarism caused them to be viewed with suspicion in wartime Britain and to live in near destitution. The Rainbow (1915) was suppressed after an investigation into its alleged obscenity in 1915. Later, they were accused of spying and signalling to German submarines off the coast of Cornwall where they lived at Zennor. During this period he finished writing Women in Love in which he explored the destructive features of contemporary civilization through the evolving relationships of four major characters as they reflect upon the value of the arts, politics, economics, sexual experience, friendship and marriage. The novel is a bleak, bitter vision of humanity and proved impossible to publish in wartime conditions. Not published until 1920, it is now widely recognised as an English novel of great dramatic force and intellectual subtlety.

In late 1917, after constant harassment by the armed forces authorities, Lawrence was forced to leave Cornwall at three days' notice under the terms of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). This persecution was later described in an autobiographical chapter of his Australian novel Kangaroo, published in 1923. He spent some months in early 1918 in the small, rural village of Hermitage near Newbury, Berkshire. He then lived for just under a year (mid-1918 to early 1919) at Mountain Cottage, Middleton-by-Wirksworth, Derbyshire, where he wrote one of his most poetic short stories, The White Peacock. Until 1919 he was compelled by poverty to shift from address to address and barely survived a severe attack of influenza.

Đày ải

After the traumatic experience of the war years, Lawrence began what he termed his 'savage pilgrimage', a time of voluntary exile. He escaped from Britain at the earliest practical opportunity, to return only twice for brief visits, and with his wife spent the remainder of his life travelling. This wanderlust took him to Australia, Italy, Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka), the United States, Mexico and the South of France.

Lawrence abandoned Britain in November 1919 and headed south, first to the Abruzzi region in central Italy and then onwards to Capri and the Fontana Vecchia in Taormina, Sicily. From Sicily he made brief excursions to Sardinia, Monte Cassino, Malta, Northern Italy, Austria and Southern Germany. Many of these places appeared in his writings. New novels included The Lost Girl (for which he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction), Aaron's Rod and the fragment titled Mr Noon (the first part of which was published in the Phoenix anthology of his works, and the entirety in 1984). He experimented with shorter novels or novellas, such as The Captain's Doll, The Fox and The Ladybird. In addition, some of his short stories were issued in the collection England, My England and Other Stories. During these years he produced a number of poems about the natural world in Birds, Beasts and Flowers. Lawrence is widely recognised as one of the finest travel writers in the English language. Sea and Sardinia, a book that describes a brief journey undertaken in January 1921, is a recreation of the life of the inhabitants of Sardinia. Less well known is the memoir of Maurice Magnus, Memoirs of the Foreign Legion, in which Lawrence recalls his visit to the monastery of Monte Cassino. Other non-fiction books include two responses to Freudian psychoanalysis and Movements in European History, a school textbook that was published under a pseudonym, a reflection of his blighted reputation in Britain.

Cuộc sống và sự nghiệp cuối đời

In late February 1922 the Lawrences left Europe behind with the intention of migrating to the United States. They sailed in an easterly direction, first to Ceylon and then on to Australia. A short residence in Darlington, Western Australia, which included an encounter with local writer Mollie Skinner, was followed by a brief stop in the small coastal town of Thirroul, New South Wales, during which Lawrence completed Kangaroo, a novel about local fringe politics that also revealed a lot about his wartime experiences in Cornwall.

The Lawrences finally arrived in the US in September 1922. Here they encountered Mabel Dodge Luhan, a prominent socialite, and considered establishing a utopian community on what was then known as the 160 mẫu Anh (0,65 km²) Kiowa Ranch near Taos, New Mexico. After arriving in Lamy, New Mexico, via train, they acquired the property, now called the D. H. Lawrence Ranch, in 1924 in exchange for the manuscript of Sons and Lovers. He stayed in New Mexico for two years, with extended visits to Lake Chapala and Oaxaca in Mexico. While Lawrence was in New Mexico, he was visited by Aldous Huxley.

While in the U.S., Lawrence rewrote and published Studies in Classic American Literature, a set of critical essays begun in 1917, and later described by Edmund Wilson as "one of the few first-rate books that have ever been written on the subject." These interpretations, with their insights into symbolism, New England Transcendentalism and the puritan sensibility, were a significant factor in the revival of the reputation of Herman Melville during the early 1920s. In addition, Lawrence completed a number of new fictional works, including The Boy in the Bush, The Plumed Serpent, St Mawr, The Woman who Rode Away, The Princess and assorted short stories. He also found time to produce some more travel writing, such as the collection of linked excursions that became Mornings in Mexico.

A brief voyage to England at the end of 1923 was a failure and he soon returned to Taos, convinced that his life as an author now lay in America. However, in March 1925 he suffered a near fatal attack of malaria and tuberculosis while on a third visit to Mexico. Although he eventually recovered, the diagnosis of his condition obliged him to return once again to Europe. He was dangerously ill and the poor health limited his ability to travel for the remainder of his life. The Lawrences made their home in a villa in Northern Italy, living near Florence while he wrote The Virgin and the Gipsy and the various versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). The latter book, his last major novel, was initially published in private editions in Florence and Paris and reinforced his notoriety. Lawrence responded robustly to those who claimed to be offended, penning a large number of satirical poems, published under the title of "Pansies" and "Nettles", as well as a tract on Pornography and Obscenity.

Chapel east of Taos, New Mexico, where Lawrence's ashes are interred

D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.

The return to Italy allowed Lawrence to renew old friendships; during these years he was particularly close to Aldous Huxley, who was to edit the first collection of Lawrence's letters after his death, along with a memoir. With artist Earl Brewster, Lawrence visited a number of local archaeological sites in April 1927. The resulting essays describing these visits to old tombs were written up and collected together as Sketches of Etruscan Places, a book that contrasts the lively past with Benito Mussolini's fascism. Lawrence continued to produce fiction, including short stories and The Escaped Cock (also published as The Man Who Died), an unorthodox reworking of the story of Jesus Christ's Resurrection. During these final years Lawrence renewed a serious interest in oil painting. Official harassment persisted and an exhibition of some of these pictures at the Warren Gallery in London was raided by the police in mid 1929 and a number of works were confiscated.

Cái chết

Lawrence continued to write despite his failing health. In his last months he wrote numerous poems, reviews and essays, as well as a robust defence of his last novel against those who sought to suppress it. His last significant work was a reflection on the Book of Revelation, Apocalypse. After being discharged from a sanatorium, he died 2 March 1930 at the Villa Robermond in Vence, France, from complications of tuberculosis. Frieda Weekley commissioned an elaborate headstone for his grave bearing a mosaic of his adopted emblem of the phoenix. After Lawrence's death, Frieda lived with Angelo Ravagli on the ranch in Taos and eventually married him in 1950. In 1935 Ravaglio arranged, on Frieda's behalf, to have Lawrence's body exhumed and cremated and his ashes brought back to the ranch to be interred there in a small chapel amid the mountains of New Mexico.

Triết học, tôn giáo và chính trị

Critic Terry Eagleton situates Lawrence on the radical right wing, as hostile to democracy, liberalism, socialism, and egalitarianism, though never formally embracing fascism, as he died before it reached its zenith. Lawrence's opinion of the masses is discussed in detail by Professor John Carey in The Intellectuals and the Masses (1992), and he quotes a 1908 letter from Lawrence to Blanche Jennings:

If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly; then I'd go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt, and the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks; and the band would softly bubble out the "Hallelujah Chorus".

More of Lawrence's political ideas can be seen in his letters to Bertrand Russell around the year 1915, where he voices his opposition to enfranchising the working class, his hostility to the burgeoning labour movements, and disparages the French Revolution, referring to "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" as the "three-fanged serpent." Rather than a republic, Lawrence called for an absolute Dictator and equivalent Dictatrix to lord over the lower peoples.

Earlier, Harrison had drawn attention to the vein of sadism that runs through Lawrence's writing.

Các tác phẩm văn học

Tiểu thuyết

Lawrence is perhaps best known for his novels Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover. Within these Lawrence explores the possibilities for life within an industrial setting. In particular Lawrence is concerned with the nature of relationships that can be had within such a setting. Though often classed as a realist, Lawrence in fact uses his characters to give form to his personal philosophy. His depiction of sexual activity, though seen as shocking when he first published in the early 20th century, has its roots in this highly personal way of thinking and being. It is worth noting that Lawrence was very interested in the sense of touch and that his focus on physical intimacy has its roots in a desire to restore an emphasis on the body, and re-balance it with what he perceived to be Western civilisation's over-emphasis on the mind.

In his later years Lawrence developed the potentialities of the short novel form in St Mawr, The Virgin and the Gypsy and The Escaped Cock.

Truyện ngắn

Lawrence's best-known short stories include "The Captain's Doll", "The Fox", "The Ladybird", "Odour of Chrysanthemums", "The Princess", "The Rocking-Horse Winner", "St Mawr", "The Virgin and the Gypsy" and "The Woman who Rode Away". (The Virgin and the Gypsy was published as a novella after he died.) Among his most praised collections is The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, published in 1914. His collection The Woman Who Rode Away and Other Stories, published in 1928, develops the theme of leadership that Lawrence also explored in novels such as Kangaroo, The Plumed Serpent and Fanny and Annie.

Liên kết ngoài

• Các công trình liên quan hoặc của D. H. Lawrence trên các thư viện của thư mục (WorldCat)
• Các tác phẩm của D. H. Lawrence tại Dự án Gutenberg
• Tác phẩm của D. H. Lawrence trên LibriVox (sách audio thuộc phạm vi công cộng)
• E-texts from Project Gutenberg Australia (includes content not in the public domain in some jurisdictions)
• With the Guns article by Lawrence. Guardian 18 August 1914. Accessed 2010-09-15
• D. H. Lawrence free downloadable books including kindle editions at feedbooks
• Nickolas Muray's portrait sittings of D. H. Lawrence; photo #1, photo#2, photo #3
• The D. H. Lawrence Review, scholarly journal

Lawrence archives

• Guide to the D. H. Lawrence Archive at The Bancroft Library, California. Accessed 2010-09-15
• Frieda Lawrence Collection. Accessed 2010-09-15
• D. H. Lawrence resource at the University of Nottingham. Accessed 2010-09-15
• D. H. Lawrence archive held at the University of Nottingham. Accessed 2010-09-15
• Lawrence archive at Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin. Accessed 2010-09-15
• D. H. Lawrence Letters, 1916–1929 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center