Book excerpt: When E. M. Forster described Lawrence as the greatest imaginative novelist of his generation, his comment was a challenge to a world where Lawrence had notoriety but there was no agreement as to his literary standing. Now, sixty years after Lawrence's death, the nature of his achievement is still being debated. Although D. H. Lawrence thought of himself as an English writer, his broad vision has aroused passionate interest in many countries beyond his own. It is in two aspects--as a writer of the twentieth century, and as one with international standing--that this collection of essays presents Lawrence "in the modern world". Lawrence is seen from the perspective of the textual editor, the psychologist and the social historian. He is placed in the wide contexts of the puritan imagination, British society drama and the regional novel. The authors cover such stylistic issues as his characteristic narrative voices, and touch on philosophical matters in an exploration of his concept of dualism. The essays, although the work of Lawrence enthusiasts, are not uniformally reverential in tone. All the authors are aware of the fundamentally exploratory nature of Lawrence's imagination, and his consequent failures as well as triumphs in both conception and achievement. Regardless of whether the works delight or anger, they seem now as alive and pertinent, as open to engagement, acceptance or disagreement as at any time in the seventy-five years since they first began to appear.