Bibliographical analyses by Bruce Steele and Helen Baron of the
manuscripts of D. H. Lawrence's second and third novels (The
Trespasser and Sons and Lovers respectively) have
shown
that the final works can include
passages written up to two years earlier.
[1] The history of Lawrence's first
novel,
The White Peacock, is just as complicated. The aim of the
analysis offered here is to unravel the development of
The White
Peacock by establishing when each page of the final manuscript was
written and when subsequent layers of revision were made. My hope is that
this information will aid future scholars in their understanding of how the
novel was put together and their interpretations of its constituent
elements.
My account may be compared with Andrew Robertson's
"Introduction" to the Cambridge Edition of The White
Peacock.[2] Robertson sets out
the historical background to the writing and revision of the novel, but he
does not describe the detailed structure of the final manuscript. My analysis
reveals that the revision and rewriting of The White Peacock
was a more complex process than has hitherto been recognized, especially
when one considers its relationship with the events of Lawrence's life and
the writing of poems and other works through 1909-10. The first few pages
of this paper outline the history of successive versions of The White
Peacock; the major stages included the first two drafts called
"Laetitia", two further drafts called "Nethermere", and the final novel
The White Peacock which resulted after a revision to the
proofs. The analysis in the rest of the paper identifies the components of the
final manuscript,
ignoring the proof revisions (which are listed in the Cambridge Edition) and
those pages of the early drafts which were not incorporated into the final
manuscript (most of them have been lost or were destroyed).
