Why the Novel Matters (D.H Lawrence) — NCERT Solutions

The two statements contrast life with books about life. When Lawrence says “The novel is the one bright book of life”, he means that the novel is the kind of book that most fully represents and engages living human experience. But “Books are not life” reminds us that a book is only a representation or tremulation of life, not life itself.

So the distinction is:

• Books are created works, made of words on a page.
• Life is actual living experience: change, feeling, action, conflict, and growth.
• A good book is valuable when it connects deeply with life, as Ruskin also suggests in defining a good book as one that is worth reading because it speaks meaningfully to human experience.

Thus the novel is important because it brings us closest to the fullness of life, while still remaining a book.

Some recurrent catch phrases are:

• man alive
• the whole is greater than the part
• the novel is the book of life
• tremulations on the ether
• life with a capital L
• dead man in life
• wholeness
• alive / living

These phrases work like pegs because Lawrence keeps returning to them to reinforce his central argument: that the novel matters because it presents the whole living human being, not fragments. Repetition gives the essay unity, emphasis, and force, and helps the reader remember the key idea.

Lawrence uses several rhetorical devices to make the argument powerful:

• Repetition: phrases like “man alive,” “the whole is greater than the part,” “tremulations on the ether” recur again and again.
• Parallelism and balance: he lists alternatives in a patterned way, such as saint, philosopher, scientist.
• Direct address: he speaks to the reader with “you” and “dear reader”.
• Rhetorical questions: for example, “Why should I look at my hand...?”
• Irony and sarcasm: he mocks abstract thinking and fixed ideals.
• Metaphor and analogy: body as bottle, jug, tin can; ideas as tremulations.
• Contrast and antithesis: alive/dead, whole/part, books/life, right/wrong.
• Exclamation and emphatic statements: “It is nonsense.” “Nothing is important but life.”

These devices make the essay vigorous, persuasive, and memorable.

The non-English expressions in the essay are:

• Mens sana in corpore sano — Latin; means “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”
• C’est la vie! — French; means “That is life!”
• cul-de-sac — French; means a dead end or a blind alley.
• Hobgoblin is English, not non-English.
• Nirvana is from Sanskrit/Indian tradition; here it means a state of perfect peace or release.

From context, these phrases are used to support or question ideas about life, body, and abstraction.

From the Latin roots, we can derive words such as:

• mens (mind) → mental, mentality, mention
• corpus (body) → corporeal, corporation, corpus
• sanare (to heal) → sanitary, sane, sanity

These are common English words formed from the given Latin roots.

For each sentence:

• I am a thief and a murderer.
• Copula: am
• Complement: noun phrase (a thief and a murderer)

• Right and wrong is an instinct.
• Copula: is
• Complement: noun phrase (an instinct)

• The flower fades.
• Intransitive verb: fades

• I am a very curious assembly of incongruous parts.
• Copula: am
• Complement: noun phrase

• The bud opens.
• Intransitive verb: opens

• The Word shall stand forever.
• Intransitive verb: stand with adverbial complement forever

• It is a funny sort of superstition.
• Copula: is
• Complement: noun phrase

• You’re a philosopher.
• Copula: are
• Complement: noun phrase

• Nothing is important.
• Copula: is
• Complement: adjective phrase (important)

• The whole is greater than the part.
• Copula: is
• Complement: adjective phrase (greater than the part)

• I am a man, and alive.
• Copula: am
• Complement: noun phrase + adjective (a man, and alive)

• I am greater than anything that is merely a part of me.
• Copula: am
• Complement: adjective phrase (greater than anything...)

• The novel is the book of life.
• Copula: is
• Complement: noun phrase (the book of life)

So the intransitive verbs are fades, opens, stand; the rest here use copulas.

Other sentences from the text with intransitive verbs and copulas include:

• My hand is alive. — copula is + adjective complement
• The novel is supremely important. — copula is + adjective phrase
• Life with a capital L is only man alive. — copula is + noun phrase
• The grass withers. — intransitive verb withers
• The chameleon creeps from a brown rock on to a green leaf. — intransitive verb creeps
• The Word becomes staler and staler. — copula becomes + adjective phrase
• All things flow and change. — intransitive verbs flow, change
• The flower fadeth. — intransitive verb fadeth
• The bud opens. — intransitive verb opens
• The whole tree trembling with a new access of life... — the participle phrase depends on a verb context in the sentence

These show how Lawrence uses both action verbs and linking verbs to discuss life, change, and being.

Some other words with ch and gh and their likely pronunciations are:

• ch pronounced /k/: character, chorus, chemistry, chaos
• ch pronounced /ʃ/: chef, chauffeur, champagne, machine
• ch pronounced /tʃ/: church, chair, chalk

• gh pronounced /g/: ghost, ghetto
• gh pronounced /f/: rough, cough, laugh, enough
• gh silent: though, through, sight, night

The spelling does not always match one sound, so the pronunciation has to be learned from examples and usage.