Lady Chatterley's Lover (Wordsworth Classics) [Paperback]

Although I, like many others, began reading this book due to it's risque reputation, I gained far more from it than I could have imagined. Connie's frustrations with the modern world and her desire for something better touched me, and echoed my own hidden feelings. Regardless of the manner of writing, the philosophical (some would say long-winded) side-tracking, and the sex that it is famous for, I enjoyed every page, every sentence...yes, every word. Any woman who says she cannot relate to Connie has either experienced nothing of nature or felt no yearn for love. As a 20 year old woman from the country who now lives in the town, I was entranced by the imagery of the landscape and the primal feelings it provokes within Connie, and indeed within myself.
To any woman, or indeed, man: Read this book and you won't regret a page.

A book which has achieved more notoriety for its sex scenes (shocking in 1930, when the book was written) than for its character studies, Lady Chatterley's Lover focuses on the affair between Constance, the "sturdy" young wife of Clifford Chatterley, and the antisocial gamekeeper on the Chatterleys' estate in the remote midlands. Constance, Lady Chatterley, who married Clifford a month before he left for World War I, becomes his caretaker when he returns from war paralyzed from the waist down and impotent. A writer who surrounds himself with intellectual friends, he regards Connie as his hostess and caregiver and does not understand her abject yearning for some life of her own.

The distance between Constance and Clifford increases when Mrs. Bolton, a widow from the village becomes his devoted caretaker, and he becomes increasingly dependent upon her. In a remarkable scene, Clifford finally tells Connie that he'd like an heir, and he does not care whom she finds to be the father of "his" child. Connie, yearning for an emotional closeness which she has not experienced in a previous affair, soon becomes involved with Mellors, the estate's gamekeeper. Crude and anti-social, Mellors has an honesty and lack of pretension which Connie finds refreshing.

Throughout the novel, Lawrence creates finely drawn characters whose interactions and gradual changes are explored microscopically. The growth of love between Connie and Mellors is complicated by the increasing self-centeredness of Clifford, whose outrage at rumors of their affair is motivated by Connie's choice of someone so far beneath her. To Clifford, the separation of the social classes is an integral and inevitable part of life. Devoted to achieving financial success even at the expense of his workers, Clifford is depicted as a symbol of unfeeling aristocracy and government. Mellors, by contrast, is a strong man of character who stands up for what he believes, obeying his best instincts.

Dealing with themes of love, passion, respect, honor, and the need for understanding, Lady Chatterley's Lover is a complex, character-driven novel which, though dated, celebrates the driving passions which can make life worth living. The romantic scenes and language here are tame by modern standards, and the extreme behavior and willingness to flout convention by Connie and Mellors may be less realistic psychologically than what would make sense for a modern reader. Firmly rooted in the 1930's, the novel shows an insensitive Clifford adhering to the outdated values, based on outdated economic structures, while Connie and Mellors, freed from these conventions, explore their instincts and their humanity. Mary Whipple

To really appreciate this novel, the reader has to be able to appreciate the context it was written in. At the time that DH Lawrence wrote Lady Chatterly's Lover, the idea of a married upper-class lady of a manor having an affair with anyone, would have been scandalous. Think back, readers, to a time long before women's rights, the vagina monologues, women in politics, and so on. Think back to a time of corsets and tight lips, of compromises, of a strong ruling class, and of ruling etiquette. The fact that Lawrence broke so many taboos with this book, by writing not only about the lady's unfulfilled personal life and her affair, but of her affair with the gamekeeper of her manor. Had Lady Chatterly not conveniently been left a small fortune to support herself with, she would have fallen quickly from grace and into the gutter, much to the pleasure of the rest of society- for any high brow lady who chose to have relations with someone as lowly as a gamekeeper would have been seen as fit for such punishment at the time. Think of Diana and Dodi for more context, if you must.

However, Lawrence treats his characters well. When I started reading this book I was of course aware of all the stigma and controversy surrounding it, but I also know that it was not uncommon for texts to be labelled as 'indecent' in Lawrence's time, as so many things were back then. To speak openly of sexual relations, particularly between members of different classes, would have been a massive slur in Lawrence's England. I expected, then, some rudeness, some crudeness, and some deliberate bating of the classes. What I found however, was that even in today's sexually open society, I was shocked by Lawrence's writing. I have never read anything quite like it- and I've read Mills and Boon! The thing that stands Lady Chatterly's Lover apart is that it is clearly challenging literature, rather than a quick fix for a horny reader. It takes thought. It requires context. The reader can't help but wonder after Lawrence's motives.

Mellors the gamekeeper is a complex character with a crazy ex wife, an interesting past and an apparent dislike of the class system in general. He likes to keep himself to himself. He is portrayed sometimes as a gentleman, who is able to speak the part, and other times as a crass lower class working man, with a thick accent and little gentleness to his gruff manner. He does not hanker after Connie at first: the reader sees a role reversal as Connie, the lady with airs and graces, begins a subtle chase after Mellors. She is married to Clifford, who is bound to a wheelchair and whose character clashes with her greatly. Although he is the well-bred gentleman of high breeding, he is arrogant and tedious, hard to get along with, and consumed with abstract notions of what it is to be a man. Mellors, on the other hand, simply is male: he engages in manual labour and he knows how to take care of himself. Connie is attracted to these qualities, and also to the idea of bearing a child, which Clifford consents to, though he means for her to sleep with another upper class man, and not with their gamekeeper.

I was initially struck by the bluntness with which Lawrence portrayed Connie's sexual desires, and her vivid encounters with Mellors. I knew that Lawrence was a firm believer in people enjoying sex and accepting it as a natural act, which again put him far ahead of his time, as he lived in a society that was rife with sexual rules and tensions. However, the way Lawrence breaks these norms in Lady Chatterly's Lover are simply mesmerising. Lawrence does not hesistate to use the C-word repeatedly, for example, which is still a taboo word in today's society. The reason we dislike it at present, however, is because it is seen as a very derogatory insult, whereas Lawrence's use of the word is used only to refer to the beauty of the vagina. Perhaps the crudeness, then, lies with us rather than in the text.

Although the reader might find it tedious to follow Mellors' and Connie's conversations during, before and after their (constant) foreplay and sexual experiences, it is worth remembering that this is ultimately a love story, though an unlikely one and involving the most unlikeliest of characters; one cannot deny the naturalness between Connie and Mellors, despite their many obvious differences. Despite their upbringings, Connie and Mellors fit together, even if only sexually. Their willingness to experiment with their bodies borders on embarrassing for the reader as s/he reads description after description of whose parts are doing what to whom, yet sex is portrayed as a kind of conversation between Connie and Mellors; one that rises above the different uses of language that they have both been taught.

I am still surprised by the freshness of this classic; it maintains the power of shock and awe even today, yet if the reader is honest s/he will admit that there is no reason for us to react with prudishness now. We now live in a sexually open society, with easy access to porn, naked bodies on show everywhere we look, and sex is an acceptable topic of conversation: something we are, in fact, excellent at debating. Yet Lady Chatterly's Lover is scandalous to us; outrageous even, and I have found people who loved and laughed with The Vagina Monologues, baulk at the uncomical Lady Chatterly's Lover. And perhaps that is where it has been most daring: in telling in-depth stories of sexual encounters, with an entirely serious tone. Whatever you may have heard of this text, it is invaluable as a 'reflective' work: I recommend that you read it, just to see your own reaction. You may be surprised!