Quetzalcoatl

Now available for the first time as a trade paperback, Quetzalcoatl is the early version of D. H. Lawrence's great Mexican novel, The Plumed Serpent. Louis Martz says in his introduction that it presents, in terms as different as crayon is from oil, a closely related, but different work when compared with The Plumed Serpent. Most important in this earlier version is the treatment of its heroine, Kate Burns. Unlike the heroine of The Plumed Serpent, she is strong-minded and independent, the widow of a failed Irish patriot. In the end, she refuses to simply join the Mexican revolutionary movement -- based on a revival of the Aztec gods -- and passively submit to the manhood of its leader, Don Ramon. As Martz explains, Quetzalcoatl provides a much more powerful questioning of this mass-movement by filtering the account of its rise through the central consciousness of the heroine, Kate Burns, a woman of strong individuality who has lost faith in political revolutions. With Quetzalcoatl, we have an arguably stronger novel, more traditional, but like The Plumed Serpent, one that is wondrous for its vivid evocation of the Mexican culture and mythology, its full intensity of feeling, and psychological insight. This edition of Quetzalcoatl includes an illuminating introduction and textual commentary by Sterling Professor of English at Yale, Louis Martz.