Lawrence's first major novel was also the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside. No writer before or since has written so well about the intimacies enforced by a tightly-knit mining community and by a family where feelings are never hidden for long. When the marriage between Walter Morel and his sensitive, high-minded wife begins to break down, the bitterness of their frustration seeps into their children's lives. Their second son, Paul, craves the warmth of family and community, but knows that he must sacrifice everything in the struggle for independence if he is not to repeat his parents' failure. Lawrence's powerful description of Paul's single-minded efforts to define himself sexually and emotionally through relationships with two women - the innocent, old-fashioned Miriam Leivers and the experienced, provocatively modern Clara Dawes - makes this a novel as much for the beginning of the twenty-first century as it was for the beginning of the twentieth. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

戴·赫·勞倫斯，（David Herbert Lawrence，1885～1930）英國詩人、小說傢、散文傢。齣生於礦工傢庭，當過屠戶會計、廠商雇員和小學教師，曾在國內外漂泊十多年，對現實抱批判否定態度。他寫過詩，但主要寫長篇小說，共有10部，最著名的為《虹》（1915）、《愛戀中的女人》（1921）和《查太萊夫人的情人》（1928）。

勞倫斯生於1885年。父親是礦工，缺少教育；母親齣身上流社會，有良好的修養。這種文化上的差異，使他們經常吵吵鬧鬧。但這種差異使勞倫斯從父親那裏得到瞭豐富的社會經驗，從母親那裏至高無上的關懷。也許是母親過分溺愛，勞倫斯有嚴重的戀母情結。他在給朋友的信中說：“我們相互愛著，幾乎像丈夫跟妻子那樣的愛，同時又是母親與兒子的愛。我們倆就像一個人，彼此那樣敏感，我們之間不要語言。這挺可怕，弄得我有些方麵不正常。”

勞倫斯是最富想象力的作傢，他如不過早地逝世，肯定會有更驚世的作品問世，也許更會被列為禁書。