LIVING AT THE EDGE: A Biography of D.H. Lawrence & Frieda von Richthofen

Biographers have long trafficked in secrets and revelations from literary marriages, those wellsprings of talent and drama: consider the Brownings, or Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon, to name just two. In their joint biography of D.H. and Frieda Lawrence, scholars and husband-and-wife team Squires and Talbot (who are also editing Frieda's letters) proceed with a bit more decorum than is common in the trade. Their volume may offer the last word on the Lawrences' volatile partnership, which was famously beset by sexual identity crises (his) and infidelities (hers). But compared to the carryings-on of the Bloomsbury group, with whom the Lawrences occasionally associated, their marriage was a model of stability. And while one might imagine that D.H. Lawrence, who became the novelist of sex for his generation (and many to follow), would have had a fascinating marital and romantic life, the authors present the Lawrences' quarrels as human-scaled—the inevitable clash of two strong temperaments. Squires and Talbot's literary analyses are occasionally impenetrable ("Despite the strange artificiality of the narrative design, the motif of insecurity broods plangently over the novel"), but they do draw compelling parallels between the couple's romantic life and Lawrence's imaginative work, giving particular attention to Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover. Lawrence aficionados will find something to enjoy in this carefully realized work, even if Squires and Talbot don't overturn the prevailing view that D.H. never strayed from his spouse, and even if the Lawrences' saga is not nearly as precipitous and climactic as the title suggests. 40 b&w photos. (June)