The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence

Set against the backdrop of a rapidly industrializing England, the bewildering shift in social structure, the fading away of traditions and the advent of new ways of life, The Rainbow by DH Lawrence depicts how one family's story becomes the story of a society. Originally planned as a novel titled The Sisters, Lawrence finally split the theme into two separate novels after many revisions and rewrites. The Rainbow is the first novel in the Brangwen family saga. Tom Brangwen is a small time farmer in rural Nottinghamshire. He meets Lydia Lensky, an aristocratic Polish refugee and widow who has a daughter, Anna, from her previous marriage. Tom is fascinated by Lydia's “foreignness” and soon proposes marriage. The couple lives a happy and contented life. They have two sons of their own. They live quietly, and the smooth tenor of their lives is interrupted occasionally by Anna's restlessness and haughty ways. When Will, who is Tom's distant relative, comes to visit, Anna falls in love...