The Rainbow

The Rainbow (1915) by D. H. Lawrence follows three generations of the Brangwen family in Nottinghamshire, England, during the Second Industrial Revolution. The novel covers approximately 65 years in the Brangwens’ agricultural dynasty and explores how each generation changes in the face of modernity and industrial progress. The novel’s depiction of sexual desire and its role in the protagonists’ relationships and spiritual lives led to The Rainbow being the center of an obscenity trial a few months after its publication. Over 1,000 copies of the novel were seized and burned, and it was unavailable in England for a decade.

D. H. Lawrence originally conceived of The Rainbow and its 1920 sequel Women in Love as one longer novel. Ursula Brangwen’s quest for personal and spiritual fulfillment continues in Women in Love, in which she is also a protagonist. This study guide uses the 2007 Penguin Classics edition of the novel, edited by Mark Kinkead-Weekes, with an introduction by James Wood.

Plot Summary

The Rainbow explores coming of age, the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy, religion, and family relationships—particularly marriage—through the changing attitudes of three generations.

The first section of the novel follows Tom Brangwen’s young adulthood and his marriage to Lydia Lensky.