David Herbert Richard Lawrence is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's masters of the written word. The son of a coal miner, Lawrence's innovative application of what he termed "the exciting new school of realism" - together with the psychological themes, mythological structures and symbolism that permeate his work - give a depth to his writing that few modern writers can match. His passion was the minute dissection of human emotions and the deepest wellsprings of our being, topics which were controversial in his own time, and which remain contentious even today.