Lawrence as 'architect'

So much for the architecture of the Universe; there was also apparently a more prosaic architectural basis to the idea behind the title, at least in the early stages of planning. A notebook in the Houghton Library of Harvard University contains a list of proposed headings for eight books, not ten plus an Introduction as in the final work, or a more satisfyingly logical seven to accord with the title:

Book I - Materials
Book II - Survey
Book III - Foundations
Book IV - Scaffolding
Book V - Pillars
Book VI - Failures
Book VII - Reconstruction
Book VIII - The House is Perfected

Of these tentative headings, only two survive in the final scheme - the Introduction is further headed Foundations of Revolt, and Book X, The House is Perfected.

Other architectural echoes, however, remain. Lawrence called the book his 'literary builder's yard' (1), and in the opening chapter which was eventually omitted from the subscribers' edition, he wrote of beginning the work again after the loss of his original manuscript - 'it was built again with heavy repugnance'. That same chapter included an indication of the ideal behind his ambitions - 'I meant to make a new nation, to restore a lost influence, to give twenty millions of Semites the foundation on which to build an inspired dream-palace of their national thoughts.' But Lawrence's view of his role as architect was expressed even more clearly in Ch XXXIV, p 171, [tr ed Ch XXXIII, pp 191/2], when he spoke of himself as 'considering now the whole house of war in its structural aspect, which was strategy, in its arrangements, which were tactics, and in the sentiment of its inhabitants, which was psychology; for my personal duty was command, and the commander, like the master architect, was responsible for all.'

1	L 241, Harley Granville-Barker, 7.2.24

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