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Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
Readers who enjoy rich descriptions of woods, flowers, and weather will love this novel of friendship, first love, and quiet tragedy in English country life. It suits those drawn to characters whose lives change with the seasons.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Cyril is drawn to George
- Lettie wants two different worlds
- A picture awakens George’s desire
- The farm suffers under the powerful
- Lettie accepts the safer future
- Annable’s creed carries a wound
- Lettie refuses George’s imagined life
- George seeks something new to build
- The valley expresses unspoken feelings
Who’s who
- Cyril BeardsallThe gentle narrator who paints and writes poems, loves his friend George, and cannot bear to leave the valley of his youth.
- Lettie BeardsallCyril's tall, clever, teasing sister, who wants admiration and freedom yet fears giving up comfort and position.
- George SaxtonA strong, slow, dark-eyed young farmer at Strelley Mill, who loves comfort and longs for something he cannot name.
- Emily SaxtonGeorge's serious, nervous sister, a schoolteacher who loves books and Cyril and is hurt by her brother's coarseness.
- Leslie TempestThe wealthy heir to the mine at Highclose, proud, boyish, and deeply in love with Lettie.
- AnnableThe squire's gamekeeper, a powerful, dark man who preaches that people should live like good animals.
- MegGeorge's warm, dark-haired cousin at the Ram Inn, who wants a husband, a home, and children.
- Alice GallLettie's quick-witted friend, bold and mocking on the surface, who teases George and hides a restless heart.
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The White Peacock
by D. H. Lawrence · 1911
A farmer's son who loves Lettie sees her choose a mine owner's heir, and the valley begins to change.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“You have to suffer before you blossom in this life.”
In short
Picture a young man lying beside a millpond, poking out a nest of bees, breaking the wing of one and crushing another, just to see what happens. That is George Saxton in the opening pages of The White Peacock, and he stays at the heart of the book.
The White Peacock at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 20 min6 h 35 min fast, 9 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 118,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1911by D. H. Lawrence
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Cyril and George begin as an unlikely pair
The book opens with a small cruelty. George, a young farmer, lies beside a millpond and pokes out a nest of bees. He frees one, breaks the wing of the next, and crushes it between his fingers. Cyril begs him to stop, but George carries on, curious and unhurried.
Cyril is a sensitive young man who paints, writes poems, and feels every hurt around him. George is strong, brown, and content with a good dinner. Neither can quite explain why the other draws him. At the farm, George's mother hovers by the fire and apologizes for the beef, and his sister Emily burns with anger at the way their mother humbles herself to him.
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Details
- First published
- 1911
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Lawrence, D. H. The White Peacock. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-peacock.
Lawrence, D. H. (2026). The white peacock. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-peacock (Original work published 1911)
Lawrence, D. H. The White Peacock. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-peacock.
@book{lawrence2026white,
author = {Lawrence, D. H.},
title = {The White Peacock},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-peacock},
note = {First published 1911}
}
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What is The White Peacock about?
It follows Cyril, his sister Lettie, and a farmer named George Saxton in the Nethermere valley. Love, class, and money pull the three apart over several years, while the landscape and seasons reflect each change of feeling.
Who tells the story of The White Peacock?
Cyril Beardsall tells it. He is a thoughtful young man who lives at Woodside with his mother and sister, loves painting and poetry, and feels deeply attached to his friend George Saxton.
What does the white peacock mean in the novel?
A peacock cries from a ruined churchyard, and the gamekeeper Annable calls it the soul of a lady, vain and screeching. It stands for beauty, pride, and the cost of vanity.
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.
“You have to suffer before you blossom in this life.”
More by D. H. Lawrence
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