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    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Ebook419 pages7 hours

    Lady Chatterley's Lover

    By D. H. Lawrence

    3.5/5

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    Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence written in 1928.
    Printed privately in Florence in 1928, it was not printed in the United Kingdom until 1960 (other than in an underground edition issued by Inky Stephensen's Mandrake Press in 1929). Lawrence considered calling this book Tenderness at one time and made significant alterations to the original manuscript in order to make it palatable to readers. It has been published in three different versions.
    The publication of the book caused a scandal due to its explicit sex scenes, including previously banned four-letter words, and perhaps because the lovers were a working-class male and an aristocratic female.
    The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Ilkeston in Derbyshire where he lived for a while. According to some critics the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBooklassic
    Release dateJun 29, 2015
    ISBN9789635272556
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Lady Chatterley's Lover

    3.5/5

    2,034 ratings80 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Misogyny abound. Regardless, it's quite hilarious. The first time I read this all I remembered was sex and chickens. This time around I picked up on much more. The narration by John Lee was perfect.
    • 4/5
      Considered pornographic at publication, mild by today's standards. Best Lawrence novel I have read.
    • 2/5
      In vergelijking met de andere werken van Lawrence echt een afknapper, ondanks de taboedoorbreking. Het ligt er te dik op om te shockeren. Wel interessante sociale duiding: een verhouding binnen de eigen klasse is aanvaardbaar, erbuiten niet. Opvallende romantisch accent: afkeer van industrie en teloorgang van de oude wereld.
    • 3/5
      Finally done!
    • 2/5
      My daughter wanted to read it -- and so I thought I should finally get around to reading it myself first, if only to be able to give her a reasonable heads' up as to the level of sex scene she was getting into.
      After the hype, and the banning, etc., I figured I might be reading a Fanny Hill sort of book. As it turns out, I was not. It was an interesting discussion on class, and women's roles etc. spiced up with a few not very titillating sex scenes.
    • 4/5
      I am shocked that I enjoyed this. My father - a non-reader - always held DH Lawrence as his standard for unreadable books. While I certainly love reading more than him, I tend to agree with his assessments to a less passionate degree (writes he says aren't half bad, I love, writers he's dislikes, I enjoy, writers he hates, I dislike, etc.). I really liked this though. It felt so oddly anachronistic - like a modern author *trying* to write a regency-era romance - it created a pleasantly jarring experience. I was so confused the first few scenes - I couldn't fathom when this book took place or was written. I was shocked to find it was in the early days of the Depression.
    • 4/5
      While I liked Lady Chatterley's Lover, it was difficult to keep it in context. The context of Lawrence's novel is 1920's England. The story by today's measure is still good-- it's a little steamy, a little saucy and a little tawdry. Though by 1920's British standards, it is nothing short of scandalous. Therein lies a bump-in-the-road to a full appreciation of the LCL's contribution to literature. Nevertheless, the story is still relevant on certain levels. Sexual expression by women is still something that is viewed with disdain. Differing levels of social acceptance towards female sexuality was one issue Lawrence was railing against-- men with mistresses in proper British society was acceptable, almost expected. But a woman who sought sexual satisfaction from anyone other than her husband was a completely different matter.
      The novel is well written and makes the author's point eloquently. But still, I wonder what would have become of the exact same novel had a woman written it in the same time period.
    • 2/5
      Still making my mind up about this, might change it to 3 stars later.
    • 5/5
      **WARNING: This review contains a discussion of the c-word, and I plan to use it. Please don't read this if you do not want to see the word spelled out. Thanks.**This is less a review than an homage to my crazy mother (now I have you really intrigued, don't I?)It was 1983, and I was in my first Catholic school. I'd spent my first six years of school in a public school, but my "behavioral issues" coupled with my lack of growth made me a target for bullies, so my parents were advised to move me to another school where no one knew me.So off I went to the home room of a fallen nun, who'd given up her habit for a family. She wasn't much of a teacher. She was an old school Catholic educator who practiced punitive teaching, which included kicks to the shins, yanking of ears, pulling of hair, and screaming from close range.I kept my head down and tried to blend in with my new surroundings, but my Mother made that difficult from the get go. I was a voracious reader, and she passed on the disease to me. From grade two on she had been recommending great books to me. I was reading everything before most everyone else, but my Mom's recommendation of Lady Chatterly's Lover in my first month of Catholic school was probably her most outrageous and unforgettable recommendation. She bought me a copy at the book store in the mall, and that's where I met one of my favourite words of all time -- cunt. Back in 1983, cunt was not a word in your average child's vocabulary. Sure we'd heard it, and maybe even seen it, but it was not something that was regularly used by kids, and its usage was pretty vague to every 13 year old I knew.But there it was in Lady Chatterly's Lover. It was all over the place. So as I read the story and absorbed the way Lawrence used cunt, his usage became my usage. Lawrence used cunt beautifully; it was not a term of denigration; it was not used to belittle; it was not an insult nor something to be ashamed of; cunt was lyrical, romantic, caring, intimate. And I came to believe that cunt was meant to be used in all these ways. That the poetic use of cunt was the accepted use of cunt, the correct use of cunt, and suddenly cunt was part of my vocabulary. I was thirteen.Now I didn't just start running around using cunt at every opportunity. I did what I always did with new words that I came to know and love. I added them to my vocabulary and used them when I thought it was appropriate.And when I whispered it to Tammy, the girl I had a crush on, a few weeks later, thinking that it was the sort of romantic, poetic language that made women fall in love with their men (I can't remember what I said with it, but I know it was something very much like what Mellors would have said to Constance), she turned around with a deep blush, a raised eyebrow and a "That's disgusting" that rang through the class (I can still see the red of autumn leaves that colored her perfectly alabaster skin under a shock of curly black hair, aaaah...Tammy. Apparently she had a better sense of cunt's societal taboos than I did). Mrs. C--- was on her feet and standing parallel to the two of us in a second, demanding to know what was going on.To her credit, Tammy tried to save me -- sort of. She said "Nothing." Then Mrs. C--- turned on me; I was completely mortified (I'd obviously blown it with the first girl I loved in junior high school), and while I was in this shrinking state, Mrs. C--- demanded to know what was happening and what I had said. I tried to avoid repeating what I had said. I admitted I shouldn't have been talking. I admitted that I should have been working. I tried to divert her attention. But she was a scary lady, and I couldn't help myself. I repeated what I had said -- as quietly as I could -- but as soon as Mrs. C--- heard "cunt" I was finished. That was the moment I knew "cunt" was the catalyst for the whole debacle. Now...I'd known before that the word was taboo, but I didn't think it would generate the response it did. I really thought that Tammy would be flattered. And I certainly didn't expect that I would be dragged to the office by an angry ex-nun. Silly me. I got the strap. It was the first time (although there would be another). Three lashes to the palm of the hand.I didn't use "cunt" in public or private for a long time after that, but my punishment couldn't diminish my love for the word. Lawrence made such and impression on my young mind that neither humiliation nor physical pain could overcome my appreciation of cunt's poetic qualities. To me the word is and always will be a beautiful and, yes, gentle thing.Every time that event was recounted at the dinner table over the years, whether it was amongst family, or with my girlfriends or my future wife, my Mom always got this sly little grin on her face and indulged in a mischievous giggle before refusing to take the blame for me getting the strap. After all, "Who was the one who was stupid enough to use the word, Brad? Not me."I love her response as much as I love the word. And in case you were wondering, my Mom never stopped recommending books to me. She was an absolute kook. I miss her. I can't wait to pass on Lady Chatterly's Lover to my kids...but I think it's going to have to be in grade three if it's going to have the same effect it had on me...hmmm...I wonder how that will go over.
    • 3/5
      I found this an interesting piece of social history, more than anything else: the conditions of the miners of the East Midlands and their uneasy relationship with the owners of the mines as the countryside got increasingly taken over by industry. It really was a time when the landed gentry were losing their grip over the government of the country; a time of great social and economic change.The book is famous for being the subject of a trial relating to obscenity in 1960 and I was actually expecting it to be more explicit than it is, as a consequence of that. It uses explicit words, to be sure, but not in a particularly titillating way. The focus is on the complexity of the Chatterly's relationship, Connie's confused feelings for Mellors and Mellors' own uncertainty about his place in the world. The style is very literary and as I read, I imagined the reactions of lots of disappointed people who would have bought the book on the strength of the trial and would probably been rather disappointed in its contents.I found the discussions of Clifford and his male friends rather tedious, in the first half of the book, but enjoyed the second half more. Lawrence did a good job of portraying the depth of the various relationships. I did rather wonder about Mellors' relationship with his daughter: he seemed to move on with little thought of her. But I don't think Lawrence had children of his own, so perhaps this wasn't a big deal for him.Mellors' despair over the miners' striving after cash touched a chord with me. My favourite quotations was: "If you could only tell them that living and spending isn't the same thing! But it's no good. If only they were educated to live instead of earn and spend, they could manage very happily...".
    • 3/5
      I did not approve of the morals of the characters in the book.
    • 2/5
      Oh boy. More sex and mildly interesting musings on society. I've read fanfiction with better sex in it. I kept chuckling at the penis nicknaming.
    • 4/5
       This wasn't quite what I expected. It is certainly difficult to see what made it quite so controversial when first published; the sex is by no means explicit and is dealt with briefly. Maybe the fact the lady of the house had an affair with the gamekeeper worried the solid men who argued against it...



      I thought it was a good read, as the characters evolve throughout the book. Connie grows as Clifford withdraws from her and life. The whole thing balances on several axes.
    • 3/5
      I picked it up because I was curious to see what one of the so-called sexiest books ever could have going on with it. I was more impressed with the actual story than I was with the sex. It had an excellent running commentary about the destruction of tradition and humanity through industrialization.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't what I was expecting at all. Obviously the book has a reputation, which is why I wanted to read it, to see what all the fuss was about. But it's not as scandalous as it's made out to be, not by today's standards anyway.The story is a bit of a cliche now, lady of the house is bored with married life so has an affair with a servant. But I could put up with that because this book is beautifully written.I enjoyed reading the political opinions of the characters, even though I didn't understand a few things they mentioned. I also really enjoyed seeing the relationship of Connie and Mellors develop. It was really easy to get sucked into the characters' minds and understand how they were feeling.
    • 5/5
      I remember attempting to read this book when I was about 20, I thought it was the most depressing thing and I abandoned it completely. However I re-read this book recently, and now consider it a masterpiece. What I find so fascinating about this book now is the view that romantic love and sexuality are intrinsically linked; that love is felt within physical embodiment, that feelings are generated from and by the body. The character of Clifford Chatterley appears to be symbolic of a man divorced from his own body on many levels. He represents a de-sexualisation of the male body by the war and disability. But he also represents a mind/body split via intellectual disembodiment. The emotional and sexual nothingness of Clifford Chatterley seems to infect Constance with depression. She then finds self-discovery and expression through her affair with Mellors, and through a connection with nature. I think that the contrast between Constance and Chatterley teases out larger dichotomies and tensions between the personal and social/political spheres. I suppose in the character of Mellors, Lawrence was trying to define a sort of archetypal male. However I’m not sure that Lawrence quite gets that right. I don’t believe in a post-feminist era, that Mellors appears in a good light, nor do I agree with Constance’s acceptance of the very little he offers her in terms of emotional support or responsibility.There’s a lot more that can be said about this book, it’s incredibly rich. It is of course remembered for the controversy it inspired, and by today’s standards, the content of the novel is pretty tame. What I find still so fresh and remarkable is how brave this is in its attempt to understand the sexualisation of romantic love. I think it’s a remarkable attempt by Lawrence to understand a subject so mysterious and yet so embedded and fundamental to the human condition.
    • 4/5
      Clifford Chatterley returns from WW1 wheelchair bound, and with his young wife Connie goes to manage Wragby, the family estate, in an industrial area in the english midlands. While initially happily married, Connie's desire for a child gains tacit approval from the sexless Clifford. An unexpected meeting with the estate's game keeper and the ensuing affair awakens Connie to a sexuality she did not know existed.I did not immediately take to the book, but enjoyed it more once the rythm of the story was established It is certainly easy to understand why it created such a stir when originally published
    • 5/5
      I heard, it's a book of fame for its sensuality. But in my opinion, rather, it's a book of escaping the despair of the rotten world. Through the world of sensuality, they saw hope.The book starts with rather dismay or low situation, makes you think, the ending has to be lifted up, 'cause the chances are just higher at the other half. Clifford and Connie both were struggling in their settings, or in the chasm between their idealisms and their realities. Both painfully realized how repulsive or disgusting the reality was, both pursuing their ideal "kingdom". Though Clifford started out actively, Connie passively. She was doubting from beginning (not very beginning though, otherwise she wouldn't marry him) that his effort could get him anywhere. At the end, Clifford sank hopelessly in his own helplessness, which was reflected by his strange relationship with Mrs. Bolton. Connie, though, wakened by the ecstasy of sensual world, actively sought after the new relationship between her and Mellors.In one way, Lawrence definitely expressed his view of pure intellectual - cold, dry, lifeless and hopeless - in the character of Clifford, who was intelligent in many ways but totally disconnected from the sensual world, because of his disability. I don't think he meant that a person with disability would lead a lifeless life. He just used Clifford as an experiment to test out his theory, that pure intellectual can't save a wrecked life. Especially, at later part of the book, it described more of Clifford's vacancy of his soul. Like Connie's father said "there is nothing in it". Later he invested his intellectual power into coal mining, despite the success, but it can't even be used to maintain his class "dignity" (What a blow to learn that Connie preferred Mellors to him!)Connie with her instincts, eventually penetrated his intellectual nothingness. Her attitude toward him changed from a little fear and admiration at the beginning to despise and hate at the end. She had much richer world of consciousness than Clifford's, which situated her at superior position at the end (she understood the world of Clifford but not vice versa). The world of consciousness is the spiritual world in my opinion. Though religion wasn't even touched in the whole book. I wonder what was Lawrence's view regarding spiritual and religion.The consciousness of characters in the book was expressed mostly in form of narratives. The narrator penetrated the characters' consciousness in way of omnipotence. The characters themselves sometimes are not even aware of his/her own limitations. This is probably the details I enjoyed the most. The subtleties of every turn of human thoughts, naturally flow with the characters, each in its own cunning way, and inevitable by their circumstances.Example 1:Clifford - "You and I are married, no matter what happens to us, We have the habit of each other. And habit, to my thinking, is more vital than any occasional excitement. The long, slow, enduring thing ...""Connie sat and listened in a sort of wonder, and a sort of fear...The long slow habit of intimacy, formed through years of suffering and patience..."At intellectual level, Clifford probably believed such thing. But at deeper level, he himself was not sure. This was the product of his brain during the moment of its peak performance, which can't be maintained. Connie's reaction was unpredictable, at least to me, until it was spelled out so naturally by the narrator.Example 2:"He thought how handsome she looked, but also he shrank from her...He sat square and well-groomed in his chair, his hair sleek and blond, and his face fresh, his blue eyes pale, and a little prominent, his expression inscrutable, but well-bred. Hilda thought it sulky and stupid, and he waited. He had an air of aplomb, but Hilda didn't care what he had an air of;..."How beautifully the narrator drew the image of Clifford: confident appearance, though low self-esteem inside; longing to impress Hilda, though really afraid to get closer...There were hundreds of these subtle details, sometimes I do feel I had the exactly the same inner workings. Lawrence definitely studied the psychology of his character carefully, since they were so real, and falling to their places so naturally. It was one of the true treasures of the book.Mellors had a pessimistic view of the world through his own sufferings. Connie had an apparent optimistic view of the new relationship. Conflicts would be inevitable, but they were no longer Lawrence's concern. His job was done: raising their hopes. If that hope is another illusion, or isn't strong enough to uphold life's many tragedies, then that's up to other authors to prove or disprove it.But how did the sensual experience change Connie's perspective of life? I still don't have a convincing answer. The best I can get is: people's warmheartedness is just appearance, when relationship is getting closer, more and more ugliness would sink any naively conceived relation-ship, then how do you know the true noble heart? the warmhearted to the core? I guess, through the most intimate act - sex.
    • 3/5
      don't quite know what lawrence was trying to do. ok story but not presented in a very interesting way.
    • 4/5
      Sir Clifford Chatterley (partially a self-portrait of author D.H. Lawrence) is a frustrated writer who thinks he knows Everything about Everything, but he is actually an embittered and impotent World War I veteran suffering from PTSD. His wife Connie finds solace in his gamekeeper's hut and in the gamekeeper's bed, discovering The Joy of Sex decades before Alex Comfort coined the term.Here, the prose of Lawrence is occasionally purple, it is occasionally profane, it is occasionally full of nearly incomprehensible dialect. But it's never dull. However, if you laugh whenever you see the words "loins" or "bowels" in connection with human intercourse, you might want to avoid this book!!!
    • 3/5
      D.H. Lawrence is such an interesting writer that even his failures are worth reading, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a bit of a failure. Today, with virulent pornography always a click away, I expected the famous sexy bits of this book to lose their shock, but I did not expect them to be comic. Yet they were, unless you do not find tropes such as “mound of Venus” rather funny. Still, these howlers came as a relief, because Lady Chatterley’s Lover is starkly humorless. Whether describing the miasma of industrialization or the rapacious drive of the clitoris, D.H. Lawrence is in deadly earnest. He shouts from the pulpit, and righteousness can never afford much laughter. So why read it? First and least, the text is an historical landmark in development of the English novel, both for it’s famous sexual content and the even more famous censorship battles it inspired. But historical landmarks are often bores to read, and Lady Chatterley Lover, for all it’s flaws, still engages. Much of it’s allure stems from the profound and maverick strangeness of the author’s mind. By the time Lady was written, decrying the evils of industrialization was common practice. But Lawrence surpassed all his peers in pure rage. Unlike the well-to-do members of the Bloomsbury group, Lawrence was a coalminer’s son who personally witnessed the mines physically and mentally cripple the community of his childhood. Add to this fact his atavistic love of nature, rarely shared by his modernist colleagues, and imagine him watching factories level the forests and pollute the air. It was a shock to me to discover that a seemingly erotic novel turned out so unconditionally angry. And this anger explains in part why Lady still has an edge; the sex may seem silly and tame, but the molten rage beneath it continues to unnerve. Much to his credit, Lawrence did not merely condemn industrial society, he proposed an alternative. Now, his solution, taken in the extreme manner in which he believed in it, is where the book shows its age. “Organic Fucking” is the best summary I can give his vision of redemption. It is the fierce ancestor of the milk toast “Make Love Not War” ethos of the 1960s. “Mound of Venus” references aside, I believe Lawrence would ultimately reject the willed naiveté of the hippy movement; he was too discerning, too acquainted with struggle and sacrifice, to merely hold up the flower and bliss out. But both Lawrence and the flower children drew on adolescent fantasies in order to overthrow grim realities. Like all utopian visions, it ultimately failed. Lawrence shares this fate with another articulate and outraged enemy of industrialization, John Ruskin. Yet while their respective solutions failed, Lawrence and Ruskin’s fiery salvos against modernity cannot be easily dismissed, nor can their willingness, at great personal sacrifice, to try and build a better world than the one they saw around them. But Lawrence’s fighting spirit does not mark the beginning and end of his appeal. While even in his more successful works his writing is uneven, with clods of purple pose choking the flow of the page, at is best it is nigh perfect: sensuous yet limpid, reaching depths of emotion that seldom surface on the cool waters of English prose. At times he manages to combine dazzling complexity of language with a irresistible primitivism of feeling, like a frightening ancient and barbaric statue wrapped in exquisite lace. Once more, his insight into the relationships of men and women are unsurpassed in all of English literature. No one has written on that ancient subject with such honesty, observation, and intelligence. And this is the real reason that I still enjoy Lawrence, for all of his flaws. As I write this I have been married to a woman for five years, and I hope for many years to come. Lawrence helps me make sense, and ultimately helps me better appreciate, this wonderful, frightening, protean, beloved, despairing, baffling, joyous, mercurial bond that is a cornerstone of my life.
    • 4/5


      So this book I loved at first, then it got rather dry and depressing in the middle, but the end makes up for it.
      At first I loved Connie for being a sort of modern, uninhibited, sexually-aware woman. And then she got besotted with Mellors and I was angry at her because she wasn't modern and free at all, and Mellors didn't seem to be anything special as a man. but in the end you do see them as a nation unto themselves, seeing their sad industrial world for what it is and living for love anyway.
      Mellors final letter, which ends the book, is enough to merit 4 stars on its own.

      I did a lot of underlining in here, because despite my annoyance with the characters, Lawrence says very beautiful and true things through them. I recommend this.
    • 4/5
      Constance Chatterley has entered in a traditional marriage with Clifford Chatterley, a minor nobleman. But her life is turned around when her husband returns from the war paralyzed from the waist down and impotent. Her role in her young marriage shifts to being a caregiver for her demanding husband. She finds comfort from a dreary existence in an affair with the estate’s game keeper. My preconceived ideas about this book is that it is famous and interesting because of the explicit sexual content but there isn’t much more beyond that. Boy, was I wrong. The book is very explicit which caused it to be banned for many years (and continues to be listed on man banned book lists). But although the mechanics of sex is described, it didn’t come across as pornographic. The writing isn’t steamy and doesn’t seem to be written with an erotic intent. I was also surprised by how good the story was. The big taboo for Constance Chatterley isn’t that she is having an affair and cheating on her invalid husband, but that she has chosen someone who belongs to a much lower class.Very interesting story – worth the read!
    • 4/5
      I am thrilled that I finally got a chance to read this book. I have heard many mixed reviews over the years, some appalled at the language the author uses, some at the um, expressiveness & offensiveness of his terminology, & some about how dry some of the book is compared to the more intimate scenes.I found it to be charming, even if some of the vernacular writing of how the Derbyshire accent is written, & I too found myself skimming the dryer parts. I was quite surprised at the terminology used, & the expressiveness of the intimate scenarios between Connie & Mellors. For the time in which it was written, it's quite "racy", although quite tame by today's steamy standards!There's a reason this classic has stood the test of time :)
    • 4/5
      This is a well written book. The characters are believable and the story line is logical. I would be surprised if the events were not based on a real story. The discussions include opinions on society, happiness, pain, the future, and the relations of men and women including sex. I think the frankness is refreshing and is to be commended. I recommend the book but the timid or prudish need not bother.
    • 3/5
      Wanted to see what all the excitement was about, I found out. I had a back and forth experience with this book, wanting to just finish it to wanting to see what would happen next. It was ho hum from on the sexual narrative at first but it turned into one of the racier novels I have read. But then again I don't read a lot of novels. But for its time, 1928, even in the jazz age it had to be simply sensational, and certainly labeled as pornography.Aside from the sexual side the story itself had a few messages to deliver also. Lawrence seemed to want to say a lot about the classes and aspects of socialism. The ending came rather abrupt and made me wanting to know more about how things turned out. But alas, no sequel to ruin those things.
    • 2/5
      I read this for the 1001 books to read before you die group challenge. The book was known for it's discussions on class systems and social conflict, and not to forget the challenge on censorship. But despite all that I just couldn't find myself liking this one that much.
    • 4/5
      I really loved this book, although it's been years since I read it. I loved the romance and the setting. Risky for it's time, the subject of sexual incompatibility was addressed and the need for a healthy marital realtionship, something polite society did not "talk about" when if first published. I'm glad it survived being banned in so many places and can be read with better thought and tolerance today. This aside, it's a lovely story and a beautiful read....very romantic.
    • 5/5
      I'm a babe in the world of D.H. Lawrence. I was assigned Lady Chatterley's Lover as a college assignment in Brit Lit 203. I read the Cliff Notes. I got a B-minus in the course. And that was forty years ago.Yes, I was the guy who never showed for morning classes, and closed the student pub. And at times, I was even the night watchman. So it should come as no surprise that when I finally got around to reading the book, last week, it was already the next century . A bit late. But better than never. Maybe even a form of a haute snobisme, my preferring to read dead authors AND be taught by dead professors?But now at least I have an authentic and passionate opinion on the novel. D.H.Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is punk rock, in the finest sense. Sex pistols indeed. Anarchy in the UK - turn it up!. The book had me, using just three power chords: the conflict between classes, the barriers to sexual honesty, and the profound exploitation of the environment by capitalism.These were issues, for Lawrence, in England after the Great War of 1914. They remain issues world-wide to this day. Lawrence, speaking sometimes through the character of Mellors, and sometimes through Lady Chatterley, is prophetic in his pessimism. The gap between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, has not been addressed by a rise in the overall standard of living in the West. Global consumerism is laying waste to the Arctic, Africa and the Amazon. And, ironically, enormous technical advances in communications media, have only added barriers to honest conversation. Like OMG how much of yourself should you reveal if it might be texted, myspaced, youtubed and there for all, on Google, in perpetuity?It's hard not to love this novel for its underlying courage and outrage. And, its wit. I'm glad I never read it until 2008. In 1968, all my peers were rebelling, each to his or her own banner. Lawrence would have elicited a "So?" from me then. Now, many of my peers drive SUVs, live in McMansions, vote Republican, and kow-tow to evangelicals. Now I understand better, what a rare and brave cri de coeur this novel is.
    • 5/5
      The quintessential banned book and more brilliant, warm, tragic and beautiful for being so. A landmark in English literature.

    Book preview

    Lady Chatterley's Lover - D. H. Lawrence

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