Free eBook Download. This D.H. Lawrence classic was turned down by Obelisk (the publisher founded by Maurice Girodias' father) in 1929, but eventually published by them in 1936, and later by Olympia Press. The story itself derives from Lawrence's experiences in eastern Sicily, where a woman of his acquaintance and station took up with a local farmer. The publication of the book caused a scandal due to its explicit sex scenes, including previously banned four-letter words, and perhaps particularly because the lovers were a working-class male and an aristocratic female. The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Ilkeston in Derbyshire where he lived for a while.