Perhaps no other of the world s great writers lived and wrote with the passionate intensity of D. H. Lawrence. And perhaps no other of his books so explores the mysteries between men and women-both sensual and intellectual-as Women in Love. Written in the years before and during World War I in a heat of great energy and criticized for its exploration of human sexuality the book is filled with symbolism and poetry-and is compulsively readable. It opens with sisters Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen characters who also appeared in The Rainbow discussing marriage then walking through a haunting landscape ruined by coal mines smoking factories and sooty dwellings. Soon Gudrun will choose Gerald the icily handsome mining industrialist as her lover; Ursula will become involved with Birkin a school inspector-and an erotic interweaving of souls and bodies begins. One couple will find love the other death in Lawrence s lush powerfully crafted fifth novel one of his masterpieces and the work that may best convey his beliefs about sex love and humankind s ongoing struggle between the forces of destruction and life.