In The Rainbow, Ursula Brangwen receives a gift of two poetry books, one by Meredith and the other by Swinburne. The gift is significant, as it is highly symbolic of how Lawrence treats books throughout his body of work. Lawrence is suspicious of the materiality of books. To him, they are simply artifacts or things. To him, it does not matter whether the book is a first edition or has a particularly attractive cover design; only what is written inside matters. The text is the thing. The book is dead, but the text lives and breathes.

The occasion of Ursula's receiving the books is her leaving the school where she has been working as a teacher. In writing this scene, Lawrence is suggesting that the giving of books has become something of a respectable middle-class ritual. Giving books, those material objects made from dead trees, is not about encouraging a love of learning, the spread of knowledge, or even the sheer enjoyment of reading; it is simply a sign of social status. One reads because one wants to appear genteel and learned. It is the appearance that matters. The analogy Lawrence seeks to draw between books as objects and the bourgeoisie is unmistakably clear: everything is just for show and outward respectability.