D.H. Lawrence

Romantic critic cast in Benjamin Franklin — An American Life as one of Franklin’s named antagonists. As the book recounts, Lawrence rewrote Franklin’s thirteen virtues “to make them more to his romantic liking” — swapping Franklin’s definition of industry (“Be always employed in something useful”) for “Serve the Holy Ghost; never serve mankind,” and Franklin’s justice (“Wrong none by doing injuries”) for “The only justice is to follow the sincere intuition of the soul, angry or gentle.” The book uses him to make a sharper point: the romantic (Lawrence) and academic (Weber) attacks on Franklin land on the Poor Richard persona, not the man — a distinction it insists the critics miss. This sits inside the book’s defense of Frugality and Thrift as contrarian virtues, belittled only in times of luxury.

Context: D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English novelist, poet, and critic (Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover). His critique of Franklin appears in Studies in Classic American Literature (1923), a touchstone of romantic-modernist objection to Franklin’s utilitarian self-improvement ethic.

Where this appears

• Benjamin Franklin — An American Life — appears in the reception section as the romantic critic who rewrote Franklin’s thirteen virtues, attacking the Poor Richard persona rather than the man.