Sig,--•--Thank you for printing Dr. Lcavis's article, 'The New Orthodoxy,'
with much of which all those who value Lawrence's Work must agree. It is indeed grotesque and depressing that what Dr. Leavis calls 'the new orthodoxy of enlightenment' should, whether intentionally or not, have reduced Lawrence in the public eye to 'the author of Lady Chatterley,' That novel is the least Laurentian of all his books because he fell into one of the very aberrations for which he criticised the intelligentsia : 'sex in the head' and the killing of spontaneity by talk; and it seems certain that what Dr. Leavis profoundly diagnoses as the assertive presence in the book of 'will' and 'idea' was due to the illness and exaspera- tion which overcame his 'deep-seated pudeur.' But even if the novel is a bad one when judged by the standards applicable to genius, it is surely still good enough to make at least a few of the million or so Who have bought it want to read something more by the same anthor. So perhaps there is one cheerful aspect to an otherwise ironic and unhappy affair.—
Previous page
