In 1912, following their scandalous elopement, D. H. Lawrence and Frieda von Richthofen Weekley fled first to Bavaria and later that summer undertook their famous journey over the Alps, making their way through the Tyrol and on into Italy. Seventy-five years later, Sheila Taylor retraced their historic steps, recording her observations of her own experiences and theirs in "On the Trail of the Phoenix: An Adventure and a Mediation." What emerges, however, is much more than just the average travel diary. Part European travelogue and part literary criticism, the author enticingly allows the reader to experience the splendor of the Alps, both through Lawrence's eyes and through those with more modern sensibilities. After first providing the uninitiated reader with background information on Lawrence and Frieda, the author then reconstructs their trail, avoiding mechanical transportation whenever possible, and always accompanies by her faithful-if occasionally muddy-Corgi. While not burdened with several suitcases, portmanteaux and hatboxes of yesteryear's traveler, and although the post does not as reliably reach one in the isolated mountains as it once did, the author does find that some things have not changed in seventy-five years: the icy beauty and thin air of the glacier heights, the geographical poetry of Europe, and the jewel that is Merano in the Italian Tyrol. In the final part of the book, the author explores D. H. Lawrence, the artist and thinker, addressing accusations of fascism in his politics, mysticism in his science, and exploring his views on work and education. Pondering what Lawrence might make of today's values, computer technology and emphasis on financial success, the author makes manifest to us the reality of our modern world as seen through the eyes of Lawrence, a man who in many ways predicted the state of the world as it moves toward the end of the millennium. Told with prose that is as informed with the language of its literary subject as it is accessible, Sheila Taylor's alpine achievement is destined to make a fine addition to travel and literature libraries everywhere.
