This early version of Sons and Lovers, Lawrence's highly popular autobiographical novel, has never been published before. It is less polished than the finished novel but has different dramatic power. The volume also contains remarkable documents written by Jessie Chambers (Lawrence's girlfriend) in which she presents Lawrence with very hostile criticism and writes her own versions of some of his episodes. In addition, it features a fragment of a novel about his mother's childhood, facsimiles of manuscript pages, maps, and full scholarly notes.