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.