Women and the Bicycle in D. H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow and The Lost Girl

Abstract

Informed by mobility studies, this essay offers a fresh perspective on the transition of D. H. Lawrence’s position from pre-war pro-feminism to post-war anti-feminism by exploring how The Rainbow and its companion piece The Lost Girl represent one of the most gendered transport technologies of Lawrence’s time—the bicycle. In depicting cycling as a form of female agency, the pre-war novel The Rainbow enunciates a progressive, modern view of women as independent and self-determined subjects. By contrast, in presenting cycling as antithetical to femininity, the post-war novel The Lost Girl perpetuates traditional gender norms.

Keywords:

• D. H. Lawrence
• The Rainbow
• The Lost Girl
• bicycle
• mobility
• feminism

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 See Lisa Larrabee, “Women and Cycling: The Early Years”, in Frances E. Willard. How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman (Sunnyvale, CA: Fair Oaks Publishing, 1991), pp. 81–97 (p. 90); Robert A. Smith, A Social History of the Bicycle: Its Early Life and Times in America (New York: American Heritage Press, 1972), p. 76.

2 See James McGurn, On Your Bicycle: An Illustrated History of Cycling (London: John Murray, 1987), p. 100; Kat Jungnickel, Bikes and Bloomers Victorian Women Inventors and Their Extraordinary Cycle Wear (London: Goldsmiths Press, 2018), p. 3.