14 h 12 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the quietest summer days hold the choices that shape an entire life?
Near Nethermere, a lake in the Nottinghamshire countryside, Cyril Beardsall watches his friends' lives take shape. His sister Lettie is clever, proud and drawn between affection and security. On the neighbouring farm, warm, instinctive George Saxton feels deeply for her, but feelings alone may not decide their future.
Then Leslie Tempest, the wealthy son of a coal-owning family, brings another set of possibilities. In The White Peacock, D. H. Lawrence places love beside income, comfort and family name. Friends walk, swim, make hay and play music, while beneath these ordinary pleasures their choices begin to carry lasting weight.
What you’ll discover
- A countryside alive with feeling Water, woods and changing light reveal moods the people cannot put into words.
- Love weighed against security Follow Lettie as affection meets the pull of money, comfort and a place in society.
- A watchful companion See through Cyril's gentle eyes as he observes lives he seldom tries to steer.
- Lives beyond polite society Meet Annable, the blunt gamekeeper whose scorn cuts through the manners of polite society.
- Lawrence at the beginning Discover his first novel's flowing prose, patient observation and deep love of the countryside.
Who will love it
For readers who love richly described country life, stories of love shaped by money and class, and nature that mirrors feeling. A chance to discover where Lawrence began before Sons and Lovers and Women in Love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Nethermere and the farm by the water
- Lettie stands between two kinds of life
- A rich newcomer brings another world
- Annable the gamekeeper speaks his mind
- George, Emily and the pull of ordinary lives
- Cyril watches while others live
- Love is shaped by class and money
- Nature, the body and the fear of modern life
- A first novel in a lyrical, uneven voice
Who’s who
- Cyril BeardsallThe gentle, observant narrator, who loves music and nature and watches his friends' lives take shape without quite steering them.
- Lettie BeardsallCyril's clever, proud sister, who is torn between affection and the security her family expects her to seek.
- George SaxtonA strong, warm farmer who lives by instinct and feeling, and who is drawn to Lettie.
- Emily SaxtonGeorge's quiet, thoughtful sister, who loves books and forms a close, gentle bond with Cyril.
- Leslie TempestThe polite, wealthy son of a coal-owning family, who offers Lettie comfort and a place in society.
- AnnableA blunt gamekeeper with a hidden past, who lives in the woods and scorns polite manners.
- MegA young woman in the Saxtons' circle, the daughter of a publican, whose place in the world is different from Lettie's.
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- Audiobook
- 14 h 12 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear El pavo real blanco in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
El pavo real blanco
by D. H. Lawrence · 1911
Near Nethermere, Lettie is torn between affection and security as love, money and class shape her circle's future.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The White Peacock is the first novel of D. H.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Nethermere and the farm by the water
The novel opens in the country around Nethermere, a lake in a green valley of Nottinghamshire. Cyril Beardsall tells the story looking back, and his eye lingers on water, trees and the changing light. The Beardsall family live here, and money is not plentiful. Cyril's mother keeps up appearances, and she wants her children to rise in the world.
Nearby stands a farm where the Saxton family live and work. Cyril soon becomes a daily visitor. He meets Emily, a thoughtful girl who loves books and the quiet pleasures of the house, and her brother George, who is warm, physical and easy in his body. Their father is a rough man who likes his drink, and the household is not rich either.
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What is The White Peacock about?
It follows a young narrator, Cyril Beardsall, and his friends near a lake in the English Midlands. Love, class and money shape their choices, while the countryside and its farming life slowly change around them.
Is The White Peacock based on a true story?
It is fiction, but Lawrence drew the setting and many of the people from his youth in Nottinghamshire, including farms he visited and the friends who encouraged his writing. It was published in 1911.
What does the white peacock symbolize?
The bird is linked with ornament and vanity, a beauty that is showy rather than useful. Readers connect it with fine appearances and with the cost of putting show above honest feeling.
The author
D. H. Lawrence
1885–1930 · English novelist and poet
D. H. Lawrence was an English novelist and poet, among the most controversial and influential writers of the early twentieth century. Lady Chatterley's Lover, long banned for its frankness, became a landmark in the fight against literary censorship.
More by D. H. Lawrence
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