Burning Man

April 5, 2021
Biographer Wilson (Guilty Thing) focuses on D.H. Lawrence’s “decade of superhuman energy and productivity” in this ambitious but flawed study. Between 1915 and 1925, when Lawrence produced some of his most defining works (including Women in Love and The Plumed Serpent), Wilson argues that Lawrence structured his life on Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” a neat conceit that drives the structure of the narrative. His life looked like roving chaos to most biographers, Wilson writes, but a more accurate approach would be to “unfold his journey in terms of descent and ascent.” Wilson creates a fascinating portrait of Lawrence from his childhood in the coal fields of Nottingham to his prolific drive to write, and as intriguing a figure as Lawrence is, he shares the spotlight with the eccentric characters who surrounded him and influenced his work. Such artists include poet Hilda Doolittle, doomed criminal and memoirist Maurice Magnus, and theosophist patron of the arts Mabel Dodge Luhan. Crucially, though, Wilson fails to demonstrate that Lawrence’s work—or life—was directly modeled off a Dante-esque worldview. While Wilson’s creativity and erudition shine, the conceit falls flat, and the account of Lawrence fails to reveal fresh insight into the writer’s life and work.