Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
This is my first D.H. Lawrence book, if you don’t count Lady Chatterley’s Lover which I read in my early teens. I plunged in without doing any research, and was therefore unaware that the story was autobiographical, though I doubt this would have ultimately altered my impression of it. Among the things I found appealing in this book are the descriptions of working class conditions and of Mrs. Morel’s struggles to make the best out of difficult circumstances (such as a husband she no longer loves because among other things he gets drunk at the local pub every night). I also enjoyed the way Lawrence delves into the minds of each of the characters, which seems to give the story multiple layers. However I had a hard time understanding the Nottinghamshire Dialect spoken mostly by Morel Sr., or why Clara—who is at first presented to us as a man-hating suffragette—would so easily accept to become Paul’s mistress. Some passages describing the scenery and the flora were a little bit tedious to my liking but ultimately this novel has so much substance that I was willing to pause and read about the local vegetation once in a while.
June 13, 2009
Sons and Lovers
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4 gave their feedback:
Never read it but it's on Gutenberg, so I will. A tedious Flora is always a selling point. :-) xxx
Monty Python had a bit about a guy who wanted to leave London and his author parents and work down the mines because being an author wasn't good enough for him.
mum: I'm not surprised you're interested by the tedious flora. After all, you're into gardening and I'm not. That explains it.
ArtSparker: I wish I'd seen that sketch but then again, your telling of it pretty much does the job. Hilarious whether you've read the book or not.
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