The Plumed Serpent is a 1926 novel by D. H. Lawrence. Set in Mexico, it was begun when the author was living at what is now the D. H. Lawrence Ranch near Taos in the U.S. state of New Mexico in 1924, accompanied by his wife Frieda and artist Dorothy Brett. Lawrence wanted to call the book "Quetzalcoatl", after the Aztec god of that name, but his publisher Knopf found the name strange and insisted on "The Plumed Serpent", a title Lawrence disliked. An early draft of the book, different enough to be considered a distinct work, was published under the title "Quetzalcoatl" in 1995. Critics have seen The Plumed Serpent as having political or fascist overtones, and as expressing Lawrence's fears about the decline of the white race and belief in women's submission to men.