Aaron's Rod (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence)

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Summary: An odyssey of passion, individuality and art
Review: Aaron Sisson, a coal miner and amateur flutist in the Midlands, abandons his wife and two children and escapes to Italy in the hope of throwing off the trammels of his environment and realising his individual potentials. His dream is to become recognised as a master flutist. In Florence, he mixes in intellectual and artistic circles and has an affair with an aristocratic lady who redeems him in his own eyes. Like the majority of Lawrence's novels, the central theme is the relations between men and women, though this time, it is given a twist owing to Lawrence nourishing his mind on a reading of Nietzsche, who was then gradually becoming recognised in England. In his analysis of the concept of "love" between the sexes, Lawrence perceives it as a function of the will to power, a cycle of reciprocal domination and surrender, in which the man must conquer and the woman must submit. Elements of the rejection of the "herd morality" on Aaron's part and his endeavour at self-development are both ideas of peculiarly Nietzschean provenance. The fact that Aaron realises himself through music is another echo of Nietzsche, who regarded music as the purest and most supreme of the arts, in which the passions achieve immense gratification. The title refers to the rod of Aaron in the Old Testament, one of Moses's renegade priests who built the golden calf in the desert for the worship of the Israelites. The rod, his symbol of authority and independence, finds its echo in Aaron's flute, which is broken later in the novel during an anarchist riot. There is a price to pay, Lawrence seems to imply, for daring to oppose orthodoxy and to try to create a new life for oneself. Unlike Lawrence's more famous works, such as "Lady Chatterly's Lover" and "Women in Love", which are both admirable for their rich, poetic prose, "Aaron's Rod" is drably written and occasionally tedious, with a narrative that is sometimes poorly connected, as it dwells on irrelevancies. However, the message, that of an individual fulfilling his duty to himself, is an encouraging and refreshing one.

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Summary: For aficionados only
Review: If you've not read any Lawrence this is not the book to start with. It fails as a novel because there is no story to speak of, just a string of scenes to initiate discussion of the issues Lawrence wished to explore. Apologists describe it as picaresque, but there is far more unity to most novels that deserve that descriptor. Nonetheless, there are wonderful scenes that fitfully jar this book to life, Lawrence's admirable command of language, and a brooding homoeroticism aching to burst out. Try this book after you've hit the major works (i.e. Women in Love, etc.).

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Summary: Blue Ball'd
Review: Strangely, this was my first full-length D.H. Lawrence novel. Thankfully, I'd read enough of his short stories and essays to know that Aaron's Rod isn't indicative of his artistic capabilities. I was more impressed by the concept behind the novel than its execution. Essentially, Aaron Sisson's abandonment of his family and job in order to join a travelling orchestra is meant to symbolize the power and passion of "individual freedom," "personal friendship", "masculinity" and "art". I think he only half-succeeds. Just as Aaron comes across as an "incomplete" man searching for meaning in post World War I Europe, I think the novel is too loosely constructed, and Lawrence's characters, too thinly drawn. But on a symbolic level, they are full of Lawrentian psychology. The characters of Rawden Lilly, Struthers, the Bricknells, and others all overtly represent various aspects of male and female polarities; however, they are un-memorable and sometimes difficult to relate to.

I was hoping this would be more of an "artist's novel" containing interesting descriptions of Aaron's life in Florence with his bohemian friends, and to a certain extent it is, but Lawrence seemed more interested in symbolism than in telling a good story. Though scattered as a story, the concepts of individuality and society are clearly portrayed throughout "Aaron's Rod", and towards the end, when the anarchist's bomb goes off, we sense a "breaking" (the blue ball/ornament at the beginning, and the flute/rod at the end) of an outdated mode of thinking (i.e. patriarchy, male dominance, etc.) in favor not necessarily of feminity, but an integration of the two. This particular Penguin edition has an excellent introduction and helpful end-notes by Steven Vine which help explain Lawrence and his symbolism to those unfamiliar with his works. I might re-read this novel once I've read more of Lawrence, and come back to it one day from a different viewpoint, but for now, I'd have to say that unless you're a real Lawrence afficionado, I'd hold off on this one until you figure out whether or not you like Lawrence enough to proceed to something as scattered, cold, and dry as this novel comes across.