Sons and Lovers

By D. H. Lawrence

Sons and Lovers is the tale of a true Oedipus Complex at work: Paul suffers between extreme love for his mother guilt over having affection for other women. Paul's faith, whom he hates, is a drunken coal miner living in the rough times of early 20th century England. His mother has never had true love, so she loves her boys excessively. When Paul goes after Miriam he is wrought with emotional issues which nearly tear it all apart - not to mention his sabotaging mother. When he finds a more "motherly" Clara Dawes to court, does Paul get over his complex? 

At its core Sons and Lovers is about emotional manipulation and possession. It isn't a feel good story for sure. The tension built by Paul's maternal bondage is mother is often frustrating. Yet the beauty of the work, especially if you're a Lawrence fan, is built up knowing the catharsis which the author must have felt in battling his own demons.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: May 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781304662743

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert (D. H.) Lawrence was a prolific English novelist, essayist, poet, playwright, literary critic and painter. His most notable works include Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Rainbow, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love.

Reviews for Sons and Lovers

[danielstj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Eerste grote werk van Lawrence. Speelt zich af in mijnwerkersmilieu. Sociale achtergrond manifest aanwezig, en is sterk documentair element. Maar psychologie voorop-adolescent die worstelt met oedipoes-complex-enorm inzicht in mannelijke en vrouwelijke psychologieStilistisch redelijk knap, maar soms te lang uitgesponnen. Alleen de verhouding Paul-Dawes is ongeloofwaardig.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved it. Mrs. Morel is such a lovely, wonderful character. She's realistic in her perception of her children, yet she adores them unfailingly. The sons themselves are all interesting (and infuriating) in their own ways. The book seems to focus predominantly on the relationship between Mrs. Morel and her second son, Paul. Sadly, the only daughter, Anne seems to be very neglected in the novel.

[neurodrew · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Published in 1913, this was surely schocking to society, describing an affair between a married woman and a younger man, as part of a larger saga of a working family in the outskirts of Nottingham, England, before the first world war. The novel coalesces around the loves of Paul Morel, an aspiring artist, who loves his mother most of all, and finds his adoring girlfriend from his youth too stifling, but her friend, an older married woman living apart from her husband, enticing. His story is told at length, beginning with his mother’s story, his father’s rough ways as a coal miner, and his childhood. At the end, his married lover returns to her husband, who hd been befriended by Paul after an accident, and Paul rejects the desparate plea of Miriam, his girlfriend, to end on a very existentialist note, with Paul feeling as though he is nothing, longing for his mother, but vowing to go on after her death. The landscape and society evoked in the descriptions is beautiful, and now foreign and lost, with the local towns connected by trains, and dispersed among walking paths and fields. I was slow in reading this, not interested in parts, but I had to see how the relationships would end.

[jawalter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

eBook

Quite simply, this is a gorgeous book, and I'm more than a little ashamed that it's taken me this long to get around to reading it. Although, honestly, I never really bought into all the oedipal stuff, which seems to be the aspect of the book for which it is most revered.

It's a simple story, really, of a woman, her son, and the two women he pursues and rejects (often simultaneously), but it's the characters, rather than the plot (of which there isn't much), that are truly compelling. I found myself bookmarking so many pages, less because of what they were saying than the fact that so much of what they said sounded like an echo of things I've said or thought.

I'm always confused by books wherein I have such a strong sense of personal identification with the characters. Am I responding to the book or to some sick mixture of egotism and self-loathing. I suppose it doesn't much matter, nor do the two have to be mutually exclusive.

Anyway, Paul is such a great character. His struggles to navigate the murky and treacherous waters of his own conflicted desires are profoundly epic, despite their small scale, and in his treatment of Miriam, especially, Lawrence has painted the definitive portrait of the atrocities a profoundly self-involved douchebag can commit, even when he's fighting futilely to do what he sees as "the right thing."

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

On September 11, 1885 D. H. Lawrence was born in Eastwood, outside Nottingham, the fourth of five children. Lawrence's autobiographical novel, Sons and Lovers, initially incited a lukewarm critical reception, along with allegations of obscenity, it is today regarded as a masterpiece of modernism. It certainly established some of the themes that Lawrence would explore in his subsequent novels.Lawrence began working on the novel in the period of his mother's illness, and the autobiographical aspects of the novel can be found in his letters written around the time of its development. Torn between his passion for two women and his abiding attachment to his mother, young Paul Morel struggles with his desire to please everyone--particularly himself. Lawrence's highly autobiographical novel unfolds against the backdrop of his native Nottinghamshire coal fields. The sensitivity of Paul is highlighted by the rough edged of the town and the other men in the family, when economic forces go against the family and their mining community his mother experiences even greater need to see young Paul break free. Lawrence's own personal family conflict provided him with the impetus for the first half of his novel — in which both William, the older brother, and Paul Morel become increasingly contemptuous of their father — and the subsequent exploration of Paul Morel's antagonizing relationships with both his lovers, which are both incessantly affected by his allegiance to his mother. Other women intrude on his life and in Lawrentian fashion the passions rise. This is his first successful novel and key in the development of modern fiction.When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life. Generally, it is not only considered as an evocative portrayal of working-class life in a mining community, but also an intense study of family, class and early sexual relationships.

[miguelnunonave · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully-written account of love, the lack of it, motherly love and a son breaking away from home and trying to overcome his upbringing. Extremely human, ever so contemporary.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fairly interesting, although I admit a tad dry at times.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence was published a hundred years ago, in 1913. As many see Lawrence as one of the exponents of modernism, the lapse of time of a century allows for a more balanced appreciation, which may show that Lawrence early work still had many characteristics of the traditional novel, so much so that Stella Gibbons also particularly targeted Lawrence in her parody Cold Comfort Farm.In Sons and Lovers Lawrence explores various sides of human love relationships, particularly in the social setting of the backward rural-industrial proletariat. While apparently Mrs Morel hold her husband, who works as a collier in the mines, in contempt, their bonds of love are at least as strong as their bond of marriage, and the view that Mrs Morel might not love her husband, are the result of the way Paul Morel views that relation.Paul Morel, the main character in the novel, grows up in poverty. The story of the novel is seen through his eyes. This perspective creates the raw, apparently loveless view of the relationship between his parents, and Paul's relation to his mother gradually takes the form of Paul being his mother's eye-apple while Paul grows up as a protective "mother-lover".As Paul grows up and benefits from getting an education, under his mother's care he is able to develop his artistic talent as a painter. The education and his talent enable him to literally "open his eyes" and see new possibilities, and other ways of life. This is reflected in the novel's writing which becomes increasingly lyrical and beautiful, as the reader sees the world through Paul's eyes.Paul's first love is a farm girl whom he has known for a long time. Their relationship evolves out of Miriam's shared love for books, and Paul's admiration for her attempts to learn French. However, when Paul meets the much more emancipated Clara Dawes he passionately falls in love with her. Clara is older than Paul, and has a husband. Baxter Dawes is a lowly character, but very jealous, and he comes after Paul attempting to kill him as they fight. Their struggle is a powerful description of the opposing powers of Baxter's brute and primitive love versus Paul's agility and spiritual love. However, Clara's love for Paul is adulterous, and like the deep and mysterious love that kept Mrs Morel married to her husband, the paradox of love-hate keeps Clara and Baxter together, which means she cannot leave Baxter for Paul. In the meantime, Paul has dropped Miriam. Their separation is described with all the cruelty on Paul's part to create a rough separation, hurting Miriam's feelings deeply to sever their love-relation, while later on Paul attempts to mold their relationship into one of Platonic love. Paul wants Miriam to remain a friend, but not a lover.At the end of the novel, Paul Morel is alone. His mother has died, and neither of his two lovers, Miriam and Clara, are what he wants. The end of the novel, while dark, shows that Paul is, barely, able to turn away from his background, the love of his mother, and the land, and turn towards the light, moving to the city where a new lifestyle beckons, and, probably, new chances.Written more than a hundred years ago, Sons and Lovers, a bulky novel, has many characteristics of modern novels, especially a lot of Freudian symbolism. Restored editions give the reader the full sense of the modern character of the novel, and the open, realistic way relationships are described.

[janemarieprice · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an amazing book this is! The character is one which we can all relate to in the beautiful coming of age story. The plot is indicative of the time it was written but the themes go far beyond that.

[samantha464 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love it. I have to say, I've never been a big D.H. Lawrence fan, but this had me so caught up I was almost embarrassed to read it in public (but I did anyway)!

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The dominant presence of Mrs Morel in the lives of her sons felt incredible real and when ignoring the setting could have been written today. Truly great capture of human relationships.

[sadiebabie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful book! Really, really great - written beautifully, with a simple but at the same time complex storyline. The story itself, though spread over so many years, didn't have a lot of action, but in terms of themes & revelations I thought it was incredibly compelling. The ending was very sad, & I liked that it didn't come to the conclusion I thought it would. For the time it was written its surprising how racy it is, & how relevant a lot of it still is. I did feel it was a shame that for all their prominence in the story & in Paul's life, the women involved all seem quite weak both in terms of character development & in terms of themselves when it comes to Paul. Even though one is a suffragette, another quite independent & all fairly strong, they are still rendered second to the main, and at times quite dislikeable, character.

[npbone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book where not much happens, it's more of a study on interpersonal relationships and how we stumble our way through misguided ideals of love and romance. I actually liked this book more than I thought I was going to.

[wiremonkey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought I had read this book but I hope to heaven that I didn't because I didn't remember a single thing from it. In pure Lawrence style, sometimes achingly lyrical, sometimes achingly annoying and embarrassing, it is still a good read as well as an intense portrait of the oedipal relationship between mother and son.

[chloepmills · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was most happy with the second 200 pages of this book; the first did not hold me so completely. I preferred Lawrence's _Women in Love_, because it seemed more 'universal.' Perhaps that is a result of S&L being more autobiographical, or at least that's what "they" say. Initially, I was a little turned off by Paul Morel's character. The prose for this book was awfully lush, and at times it seemed a bit over the top - whereas, I think that Women in Love kept on the right side of that particular boundary.

[ibreak4books · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn't like Lawrence when I was a youngin, but now that I am a little older, I totally get it--the sexes cannot live in harmony, but we are drawn to the the "otherness" of, well, the other. Superb prose. Superb conjuring of nature, and that most illusive of all things--the mother/son relationship.

[pmf_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

No one looks deeper into nature and human nature than D.H. Lawrence.

[mooknits · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book when I didn't expect to at all. I expected it to be highly political when all it was was social history which was very interesting indeed. None the characters were very likeable and the main character Paul Morel was not very moral at all. Very interesting and a very nice read indeed. One that I couldn't put down in the end !

[bennyb_29 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A very long piece of literature. I found this quite hard work to finish. Worth a read if you are interested in Freudian ideals. I prefered Lady Chatterley's lover.

[greeniezona · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It took me approximately 500 years to read this book. Partly because it was long, partly because it was slow in places, but mostly because my copy of the book (where did I get it? and why did I bother?) was full of underlines and notes in the margin. Clearly, it was an assigned text, I'm going to guess high school (really? what were they thinking?), and whoever was forced to read this book found it as tedious as I found their notations. I kept telling myself not to read them, but couldn't help it, and they were SO INSIPID that I would have to put the book down in disgust. (Real life example: "hyper-sensitiveness" is underlined -- in the margin it says "sensitivity to an extreme degree.")

Really, I should have ditched this copy and found another, because it's hard for me to differentiate my impatience with the text from my impatience with the notes. But I kept plodding slowly on. And I did find things to admire. Lawrence's sentences and descriptions are skilled and often beautiful. But for all the descriptiveness and detail in just how the relationships between people get so tortured and complicated, I never really felt like I understood or could empathize with any individual character directly. Maybe Mr. Morel I understood the best, which is odd, because he clearly seemed designed to be the least sympathetic.

I don't know. Towards the end I found myself moved by the book, but now, a few weeks later, I feel very meh about it all.

[branfulness · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First part of this book is about the family history of the Morel family, or Mrs Morel's sons. Second part is about Paul Morel's lovers. It is a bi-focal novel, so to speak. I am rather interested Miriam's apathy to body love, which reminds me of Aritha in Gide's "Narrow Gate." Paul cannot be satisfied with Miriam nor Clara. He must recognize his unique way of existence. When I first read this at 19, it felt quite long and tedious. Now I can allow for the detailed descriptions in the first part of the book and I can wait for the drama to build up. But if you are young and reading Lawrence for the first time, I advise you to avoid this.

[garrison0550 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I tried to read another Lawrence book. What was I thinking? Go away Lawrence, leave me alone!

[missizicks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A story about love, relationships, and disappointments, told in rich language, evoking a time and a place in British history that is at once foreign and familiar. That specific way of life, the grinding life of a miner and the ways in which mining communities rubbed along, has disappeared. The experience of people struggling to exist through low paid jobs, the tensions within families under that sort of economic stress, are still present. Although set in a different era, there is much that is relevant to modern life. Lawrence writes about people, and the way in which they deal with life. He has great insight into human nature and motivations behind behaviour. He writes fairly about both men and women, recognising that both genders are just people, and there is good and bad in both. I was at times transported by his writing, there with the Morel family in every moment Lawrence describes. He understands the dynamics of family life. He also understands the hopes and disappointments of love. At other times, when he indulged himself too much in ruminating on his own personality through the guise of Paul Morel, he bored me.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Per Wikipedia: "Richard Aldington explains the semi-autobiographical nature of his masterpiece: 'When you have experienced _Sons and Lovers_ you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life'. Generally, it is not only considered as an evocative portrayal of working-class life in a mining community, but also an intense study of family, class and early sexual relationships." Every son is "indentured" to his mother and this is Lawrence's best book because it blends the micro/macro aspects of family and love/hate like no other novel before it (and few since).

[andreablythe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Essentially this stretches a working family's life into epic proportions, giving minutia and emotions scope. The main focus is on the son Paul Morrel, who is caught between his mother and his lover, Miriam, and the emotional tug and pull that that causes. Meh. The writing is great and I really enjoyed learning about the family and their internal conflicts in the beginning, but as the story stretched on and on and on, I grew tired of it. It was too long, too meandering, and I only finished it because it was on audio book and I needed something to listen to on the way to work.

[martensgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book as I had enjoyed Lady Chatterley's Lover. I found this book a little disappointing. At its centre is the stiflng relationship between Paul Morel and his mother. The first half of the book concerns the marriage of Paul's mother to his father, and how she is disappointed with domestic life married to a miner who drinks heavily. The second half explores Paul's attempts to form romantic liaisons whilst still being a mummy's boy. It is beautifully written, desperately sad, and about 200 pages too long. It moves too slowly for modern tastes.

[luli81_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another of Lawrence's gems.Not as good as Women in Love, but still worth reading.In this work you can easily notice one of Lawrence's obsessions. The love for his mother.

[litreact · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

One notable aspect of Lawrence's work is the simplicity of how it is written. Lawrence does not go overboard with his descriptions and drama. Everything is kept just right. Never focusing too long on details that would not matter, such as how the view looked from head to toe, what tree did they pass, how many items were there in the house - he gave just the right amount of attention to every detail in the novel to ensure that the readers would not grow bored from reading things which they have absolutely or little interest in and leaves these details to tackle the issues or concerns that are much more pressing. It is in stories like these that prove to readers and writers alike that simplicity is a powerful tool for presenting what one wants to say and having the audience understand what he or she is trying to say without much explanation. While there are words that have changed from 1913 to the present, it is still written so that despite the changes in the times, the words could still be linked to their present word and meaning. A few examples are morphia for morphine and programme for the program of the drama or play.While the language and simplicity are notable enough, another aspect of Lawrence's writing that makes the work move like a panther in a cage, moving back and forth restlessly in the small space it has been given, growling and tense, waiting to jump out and run into the wild, is the power of his characters' emotions and feelings that flow off the pages and seep into the readers' skin, drawing them nearer to the characters and their own motives. The greatest example is Mrs. Morel. While readers might not personally like the idea of her having a possessive, obsessive love for her son/s, she makes it so that the readers side with her, first of all by making her the spunky housewife that does not allow her husband to take the power away from her and by continually doing everything she can to ensure that her son/s would always return to her despite their current infatuation with a certain girl. She is so strong that she manipulates the people, especially her sons, to remember or heed her words and even have them think the way she does. Despite her overbearing and unnatural love, she is the kind of character that readers later on sympathize with and hope that she would leave Paul in the state he is in. Another great example is Miriam. Though the reaction did not tackle her deeply, she is one of the most memorable characters in the sense that she is so strange in her way of behaving that when she comes to love Paul and loves him with her soul, willing to sacrifice himself to whatever he wanted, the readers feel that she is either a saint with a tight hold on Paul or a saint that wanted to be rewarded for her being good by getting what she wanted.

[jayne_charles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quite an oddity among 'classics' of this age - it started off fairly prim and proper, and then once it got beyond half way if I'm not much mistaken there was sex on every other page. More or less.If DH Lawrence wrote this from personal experience I can only conclude his mother was one scary lady.