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Burning Man

The Ascent of DH Lawrence

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Burning Man

By: Frances Wilson
Narrated by: Huw Parmenter
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Bloomsbury presents Burning Man by Frances Wilson, read by Huw Parmenter.

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE**

PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, SPECTATOR, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, MAIL ON SUNDAY AND TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘Frances Wilson writes books that blow your hair back. She makes Lawrence live and breathe, annoy and captivate you … she conjures the past with such clarity and wit and flair that it feels utterly present’ Katherine Rundell

'A brilliantly unconventional biography, passionately researched and written with a wild, playful energy' Richard Holmes
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D H Lawrence is no longer censored, but he is still on trial – and we are still unsure what the verdict should be, or even how to describe him.

History has remembered him, and not always flatteringly, as a nostalgic modernist, a sexual liberator, a misogynist, a critic of genius, and a sceptic who told us not to look in his novels for 'the old stable ego’, yet pioneered the genre we now celebrate as auto-fiction. But where is the real Lawrence in all of this, and how – one hundred years after the publication of Women in Love – can we hear his voice above the noise?

Delving into the memoirs of those who both loved and hated him most, Burning Man follows Lawrence from the peninsular underworld of Cornwall in 1915 to post-war Italy to the mountains of New Mexico, and traces the author’s footsteps through the pages of his lesser known work. Wilson’s triptych of biographical tales present a complex, courageous and often comic fugitive, careering around a world in the grip of apocalypse, in search of utopia; and, in bringing the true Lawrence into sharp focus, shows how he speaks to us now more than ever.

'No biography of Lawrence that I have read comes close to Burning Man' Ferdinand Mount, author of Kiss Myself Goodbye


'The most original voice in life-writing today' Lucasta Miller, author of Keats©2021 Frances Wilson (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Art & Literature Authors Literary History & Criticism War Italy
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Critic reviews

Wilson’s Dantesque excursion detracts only marginally from the brilliance of her book. Her great strength is the aliveness of her writing, which constantly interweaves glowing phrases from Lawrence into its fabric (JOHN CAREY)
Terrific, smart and scholarly ... Paints a vivid picture of a brilliant writer who was “censored and worshipped” in his lifetime, and remained furious at the world and at those not sufficiently cognisant of his genius.
[Wilson] gives it to you straight … and leaves you to decide for yourself … This is a red-hot, propulsive book. The impression it leaves is of Lawrence not so much as a phoenix (his chosen personal emblem) rising from the flames, but of a moth coming too close to a candle and, singed and frantic, flying into and into and into the wick
Not only does Frances Wilson revive her subject, she lifts the whole genre. Biography of this calibre is rare ... Our most original biographer
The challenge for any biographer of one Lawrence is to come to terms with his many contradictions - his rage, impotence, silliness and genius. This elegantly written, intelligent and witty account lays them all bare with admirable skill
I cannot remember the last time one left me feeling so exhilarated, so challenged and absorbed ... Burning Man is a work of art in its own right, as wanton and as magnificently flawed as anything Lawrence ever wrote … The chorus of voices builds and builds. Sometimes ecstatic and sometimes shrill, it brings Lawrence alive in all his derangement: his ridiculousness as well as his glory; his perspicacity and his blindness … Wilson writes so brilliantly, and with such conviction. If you believe, as I do, that to live life well is to fail in ways that may be unimaginably huge, this strange and confounding book is for you (RACHEL COOKE)
Vivid and unusual
Wilson tells the story well. It was a period of uncertainty, of bonds being shed and reforged; of the immense growth of Lawrence’s reputation (PHILIP HENSHER)
Wilson’s Guilty Thing, her life of Thomas De Quincey, is one of the finest recent literary biographies ... Burning Man is in the same league. … This is a book that performs a rare and laudable task: of saving a writer, posthumously, from himself. We are all beneficiaries of Wilson’s articulate and persuasive advocacy (David Wheatley)
Heady, entrancing, comedic… Outstanding … Without condoning Lawrence’s temper at all – quite the opposite, indeed – Wilson reveals an achingly flawed, ultimately sympathetic human being, who wrote mostly imperfect novels, but whose immense contribution to the twentieth-century literary scene is worth both acknowledging and commemorating. And whatever you have thought of Lawrence, or will think after reading this book, Frances Wilson’s Burning Man is a virtuoso performance in the art of biography-writing (Gerri Kimber)
All stars
Most relevant
It must be a difficult task to look at D.H. Lawrence with a fresh eye after everything that has been already written about him. But Frances Wilson genuinely brings something new to the portrayal of this contradictory figure. Her consideration and depiction of Lawrence focuses on his itinerant life, the importance of place in his work, and his incessant need for conflict in order to fuel his creativity. It’s a refreshing move away from the well-worn grooves of previous scholarly attention. I enjoyed the new emphasis here.
However, I did not like the narration at all - it is disjointed and lacks coherence, with several misleading pronunciations and areas of emphasis, making this very difficult to listen to at times.

Poorly narrated, but fascinating perspective

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A book like this deserves to be read and reread. Why then the complete failure to name chapters, and why not split it up logically: 3 hour, unnamed, chapters are unacceptable.

I prefer the narrator to have the same gender as the writer. A male voice reading a text written by a woman is jarring, especially for Lawrence.

Good book spoilt by lazy production

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An interesting book that focusses on Lawrence's later years and his nomadic life once he left England with Frieda. His relationship with her is less in the frame than is usual however and Frances Wilson instead narrates the encounters Lawrence had with others, such as Middleton Murry, Hilda Doolittle, Maurice Magnus and Mabel Dodge Luhan, and how these relationships and experiences were the stimulus for some of Lawrence's later and less known works, including Aaron's Rod, The Plumed Serpent and Studies in Classic American Literature. In doing this Wilson also explores Lawrence's unresolved sexuality and the denial of his tuberculosis which was the norm in that pre-antibiotic era where the illness was both rampant and feared. The book at times gave too much detail about people who did not seem to merit this, such as Maurice Magnus, and was undermined by the rather wooden reading by Huw Parmenter with his strange emphasis on individual words and disruption of the natural flow of the sentence, but for those who know Lawrence already it provides a new and original perspective.

A different perspective

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A thorough and thoroughly fascinating work, it views DH through the through the cultural, historical and faded of his day, creating context, and then views them with histories more judgement eye. D.H Lawrence was a great writer but he wasn't always that good, and he was a difficult human being and he wasn't often THAT good, in fact it seems histories judgement on DH is pretty valid, however the author avoids leading us by the nose and instead lays out the complex contributing factors and despite, clearly illustrating he was right royal ass, shows us that a singular man had walked amongst us.

Lawrence - by his deeds

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Got to chapter 1 and would not download ,
Poor, I was disappointed
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