Written during and immediately after the 1914-18 War, Lawrence's major fictions - notably The Rainbow and Women in Love - trace the growth and contemplate the state of industrial England in the twentieth century. Michael Black's introductory chapters show the theoretical interest of Lawrence's writing-method, and how in discarded draft material he was seeking the narrative modes of the great novels which followed. The analysis of these finds Lawrence seeking a modern form of spirituality as well as rediscovered sexual relationships.