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Jane Jaffe Young. D. H. Lawrence on Screen: Re-Visioning Prose Style in the Films of "The Rocking-Horse Winner," Sons and Lovers, and Women in Love. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. Pp. ix + 351. $65 (cloth).
Jane Jaffe Young's D. H. Lawrence on Screen was the first book of its kind and, as such, the announcement of a renewed preoccupation with films adapted from Lawrence's work. A second book on the subject, my own D. H. Lawrence: Fifty Years on Film, appeared in 2001, followed by an on-going wave of activities, both critical and creative, related to Lawrentian cinema. Two new Lawrence films appeared early in the twenty-first century, the only ones thus far directed by women: Sara Pratter's Pharaoh's Heart (2002) (an adaptation of "The Rocking-Horse Winner"), and Pascale Ferran's Lady Chatterley (2006) (an adaptation of John Thomas and Lady Jane). A strong film presence was evident at the Eleventh International D. H. Lawrence Conference in Eastwood, and concurrent Lawrence Festival (2007), with Ken Russell's public appearance and interview at Nottingham's Broadway Theatre prior to the screenings, on consecutive evenings, of Women in Love and The Rainbow. Most recently, two panels sponsored by the D. H. Lawrence Society of North America at the Modern Language Association Conference take up Lawrence on film, the first in December 2007 and the second for January 2011.
Young's book, therefore, started something, and did so in a unique and challenging way. The stated goal of D. H. Lawrence on Screen is to focus on just three Lawrence texts along with their...