University of Virginia Library

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).