Modernist fiction Novel Individual and Society Sexuality and Desire The Natural World Freedom and Confinement Family Dynamics
The Rainbow is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first released in 1915.
Set in the English Midlands across three generations, it traces a family’s shifting fortunes as tradition collides with modernity and rural life yields to the pressures of industrial change.
Lawrence follows intertwined love stories and marriages to explore sexual awakening and spiritual yearning. Characters struggle against social conventions, religion, and class expectations as they search for authentic connection and personal freedom in a rapidly transforming world.
Rendered in luminous prose and mythic imagery, the book examines the tension between individual desire and communal duty. Its frank treatment of intimacy sparked controversy on publication, underlining Lawrence’s commitment to honest portrayals of human passion and the cost of repression.
"The Brangwens had lived for generations on the Marsh Farm, in the meadows where the Erewash twisted sluggishly through alder trees, separating Derbyshire from Nottinghamshire. Two miles away, a church-tower stood on a hill, the houses of the little country town climbing assiduously up to it."
#168 in Literary fiction (this month)
The The Rainbow book is available for download in PDF, ePUB and Mobi:
Copyright info
The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading The Rainbow in PDF or ePub.
Three generations test the limits of class, industry, and desire. “The Rainbow” tracks how intimacy and ambition collide as England modernizes—bold about the body, precise about power. Read it for difficult honesty and quiet revolutions.
Lawrence studies how social scripts shape private feeling—and how breaking them costs and frees. The Brangwens’ marriages, work, and faith become a laboratory for autonomy. Today it speaks to readers rethinking roles, gender, and what a “good life” means beyond performance.
Desire is not spectacle but negotiation—tender, risky, human.
Institutions steady and suffocate; characters push back.
Landscape mirrors change: fields give way to factories and choice.
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Sensual intelligence and psychological candor amid modern industry and constraint.
We have 12 books by D. H. Lawrence in the AliceAndBooks library