This edition of the original Quetzalcoatl, an early version of The Plumed Serpent, includes a record of all revisions and an introduction outlining its compositional history. Its publication here means that all Lawrence's novels, in their first, intermediate and final versions, are now available in the Cambridge edition.

Quetzalcoatl was written during Lawrence's first stay in Mexico, in May and June 1923, and registers his initial responses to those aspects of Mexican landscape, religion, politics and culture which would fascinate him over the following two years. On leaving Mexico in July 1923, he described Quetzalcoatl as 'nearly finished', intending to revise it later, but in the event actually rewrote it almost completely, and it was published as The Plumed Serpent in 1926. This is the first scholarly edition of the original manuscripts and typescripts of Quetzalcoatl, and includes a record of all revisions Lawrence made in the course of writing it, detailed explanatory notes and an introduction outlining its compositional history. With the publication of this volume, all Lawrence's novels, in their first, intermediate and final versions, are now available in the Cambridge edition.