“From the old wood came an ancient melancholy, somehow soothing to her, better than the harsh insentience of the outer world. She liked the inwardness of the remnant of forest, the unspeaking reticence of the old trees. They seemed a very power of silence, and yet a vital presence. They, too, were waiting: obstinately, stoically waiting, and giving off a potency of silence.”

English novelist, poet, and painter

David Herbert Lawrence was an English writer, critic, and painter, active in the early 20th century. He wrote novels, stories, poems, plays, essays, and travel writing, and is best known for his modernist fiction. His work looks closely at modern life, industrial society, and the strain of social alienation, while also giving strong place to sexuality, vitality, and instinct. Four of his best-known novels, Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover, became the subject of censorship trials because of their frank treatment of romance, sexuality, and language.