Sons and Lovers

By D. H. Lawrence

According to Wikipedia: "David Herbert Richards Lawrence (1885 – 1930) was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, human sexuality and instinct. Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile he called his "savage pilgrimage." ...E. M. Forster ... describing him as "the greatest imaginative novelist of our generation."... critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness..."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455312436

D. H. Lawrence

David Herbert Lawrence, (185-1930) more commonly known as D.H Lawrence was a British writer and poet often surrounded by controversy. His works explored issues of sexuality, emotional health, masculinity, and reflected on the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. Lawrence’s opinions acquired him many enemies, censorship, and prosecution. Because of this, he lived the majority of his second half of life in a self-imposed exile. Despite the controversy and criticism, he posthumously was championed for his artistic integrity and moral severity.

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Reviews for Sons and Lovers

[danielstj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing.

[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.

[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.

[jimmychanga · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

indulgent and personal and true. but in a good way. I really loved this one.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[xine2009 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting recreation of Lawrence's youth, excellent portayal of his mother. Women characters lamentably stereotyped, except mother. Protagonist disagreeable, a user. Lawrence probably reveals himself unintentionally in this. But well-written and engrossing.

[moniquereads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is always difficult to write a review on a book that was just okay. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence was just okay. The books is not a page turner. It doesn't make you want to just read and read until you get to the end. But it is easy to lose yourself in the pages and not notice the time go by. It's like Steinbeck's East of Eden in that perceptive (or East of Eden is like Sons and Lovers). Sons and Lovers is a nice example of a character based storyline. There really is not plot. The story is a look in the life of Paul Morel. The story begins when his parents meet. Lawrence describes the circumstance of Paul's up bring and how he becomes the man he is. The story mostly surrounds the complex relationship Paul has with his mother. They have a strong interdependent bond. The back of the copy of the book that I read called it Oedipus complex. But (for me) it seemed more like Paul was a mamas boy. They both provided each other with something that was initial missing in there lives. Paul provided comfort, understanding, and a listening ear to his mother. She provided him with a sense of direction. There was never the since that Paul wanted to get rid of his but rather that his father couldn't (or wouldn't) provide his mother with what she needed, so instead he did it.There is also the relationships that Paul develops with two women, Clara and Miriam. Like the relationship with his mother, the relationships he has with these women are also based on co-dependency. With Miriam it is emotion and with Clara it is sexual. Paul seems to know this and the women seem to know this, yet they continue on with these relationships. It is a little frustrating. There is never the since that Paul is developing as a person, that any of the central characters are developing as people (except Clara, a little). They all seem to just go on and on with the same patterns of behavior. It gets a little tidiest after awhile. The writing is great. Like a lot of classics Lawrence is good at giving details, sometimes to much detail. As stated earlier this book is not a page turner. It is really easy to put down and forget. Yet, it is also just as easy to pick up and finish were you started off from. The pages seem to pass by quickly and it never feels labor intensive.Pros: Character based, Writing, Relationships Cons: A lot of descriptions, Character based, RelationshipOverall Recommendation:Sons and Lovers is a great example of a character based novel. It would not be the first classic that I would recommend if asked but it would be someone in the middle of the list.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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

[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.

[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.

[cauterize · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Paul Morel grows up in a mining village in England, the son of a collier -- whom he hates. His mother is slightly more of a genteel lady, and Paul and her are devoted to one another. The book is a portrait of the Oedipal complex and how it affects Paul's relationships with women his own age, and the life of the labouring class as they try to move up to middle class around the start of the 20th Century.This book had been on my TBR shelves for a long time, and I finally sucked it up and started reading it. It ended up being one of the most boring weeks of my life. I only kept reading this book because it was a "classic" and I had never tried the author before. Generally, I try not to chuck anything that falls under these two traits as I always hope the book will improve or I will start to "get" it. But no, I hated it. I have pages of notes in my book journal about how I felt Lawrence's writing was the most boring thing I've ever read. A lot of the book is dedicated to everyone taking walks in the woods, strolls through the farm land while they look at nature. Miriam would see a bush and then feel "rhapsodies" and "ecstasies" every time she looked at it. Then she would make plans to show Paul the next time he visited her farm. Then the story would have Paul take that walk and swoon over the stupid plant as well. Three of the characters even judge each other about how they like to pick flowers. Also, Lawrence likes to talk about everyone trying to hold/take everyone else's soul. Stuff like, (paraphrasing) "Miriam's soul quickened at the sight of Paul looking at her flower. Perhaps now she would be able to hold him, she could feel his soul straining towards herself", "Mrs. Morel felt that Miriam would never be able to hold Paul. Miriam would try to hold Paul's soul while giving nothing of her own". I ended up writing things like: 'Miriam = soul-sucker; Miriam = vampire... haha'. Characters constantly contradict their previous assertions, with no explanation why... or even an indication if we were supposed to notice. It's frustrating when you have to read pages and pages of how Miriam loves Paul and wants to love and submit to him with all her soul, and then *poof!*, she says she always hated her love for him and that she knew they would break-up. ARGH. All these problems would cause little things start to bug me; at one point, the book went on and on about how Paul's handwriting was terrible no matter how hard he tried to improve it. But I just didn't this whole kerfuffle was realistic since Paul is an accomplished painter. I just have this notion that if people who have enough skill to professionally paint, they probably could write legibly if they tried.I did like the inside look of the lower classes and the struggle to move up in station. I've never read any books from this time period, and the book was very detailed about the daily life of a collier and his family. As a side note: I have the Wordsworth Classics 1993 edition and it is full of printing errors. If you want this book, spend your hard-earned cash on a different edition.

[betacummins_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was my first D. H. Lawrence. I was, simply put, charmed. His detailed descriptions of places, characters, personalities, situations, feelings, are very grasping in their own smooth ways. It seems all classics hold that very descriptive factor that will eventually bore you or put you to sleep. Not this one.

[andersonden · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The use of language was novel at the time of writing. It's since become a part of the English language canon. A highly autobiographical novel but in the third person so the inner lives of the characters are a little more accessible. I liked it more than I thought I might as I am not a big D.H. Lawrence fan.

[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."

[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.

[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.

[garrison0550 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

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

[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.

[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).

[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.

[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.

[pmf_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.