The Plumed Serpent is a 1926 novel by D. H. Lawrence. Set in Mexico, it was begun when the author was living at what is now the D. H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos in the U.S. state of New Mexico in 1924, accompanied by his wife Frieda and artist Dorothy Brett. 1] Lawrence wanted to call the book "Quetzalcoatl", after the Aztec god of that name, but his publisher Knopf found the name strange and insisted on "The Plumed Serpent", a title Lawrence disliked.