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Lawrence's masterpiece... a revelation. (Anthony Burgess)
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The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers (1913) is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of those books that I like to re-read every few years, and every time I find something new and wonderful in it. Although inspired by Lawrence's own early experiences, and the chief focus of the novel is the growth of Paul Morel, the viewpoint shifts throughout - so the characters and their relationships are always changing, and are never finally defined. On my most recent reading I was especially moved by the mother, Gertrude, and the sadness of her unfulfilled life.
There are two important deaths in Sons and Lovers: Lawrence writes them starkly and simply and without sentiment. And he shows how grief can almost kill a person.
The setting of the novel is the Nottinghamshire mining village where Lawrence grew up, and you will never read a truer or more vivid account of early 20th century working class life, anywhere.
This Penguin edition of Sons and Lovers has an excellent introduction by Blake Morrison, with some really interesting insights into the drafting and editing, including the input of Jessie Chambers (Miriam in the novel), Lawrence's wife Frieda and editor Edward Garnett.
There are two important deaths in Sons and Lovers: Lawrence writes them starkly and simply and without sentiment. And he shows how grief can almost kill a person.
The setting of the novel is the Nottinghamshire mining village where Lawrence grew up, and you will never read a truer or more vivid account of early 20th century working class life, anywhere.
This Penguin edition of Sons and Lovers has an excellent introduction by Blake Morrison, with some really interesting insights into the drafting and editing, including the input of Jessie Chambers (Miriam in the novel), Lawrence's wife Frieda and editor Edward Garnett.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first Lawrence I ever read and so still reminds me of being 16,reading in the back garden of my parent's home... but even beyond the lovely memories it's still one of my favourites.
Passionate and enthralling, it shows Lawrence's skills at dissecting the relationships that bind men and women, and not just in a sexual sense. This is visceral and emotional, the kind of book that stops you in your tracks and makes you think 'yes, that's how life it'. Wonderful stuff and one of the most autobiographical of Lawrence's novels.
Passionate and enthralling, it shows Lawrence's skills at dissecting the relationships that bind men and women, and not just in a sexual sense. This is visceral and emotional, the kind of book that stops you in your tracks and makes you think 'yes, that's how life it'. Wonderful stuff and one of the most autobiographical of Lawrence's novels.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Extremely muscular writing uncovers deep emotions in a Nottinghamshire mining community, but Lawrence's focus on cause and effect comes at the expense of plot and story.
If you draw a line from Jane Austin's controlled thought experiments with a set of characters through E M Forster's political and social commentary using the exploration of self,then you arrive at D H Lawrence's Son's and Lovers - an experiment in character explored through politics and societal arrangements. So that Lawrence has much less plot and form but more intensity of emotion and sense of reality. Which you prefer is an entirely personal choice.
Sons and Lovers is a semi autobiographical love triangle, Paul Morel loves his mother, married into the hard edged world of Nottinghamshire coal mining, but as he moves into adulthood he explores his relationships with other women, the intense and compassionate Miriam and the sexual but aloof married woman Clara. Paul is a sensitive artist, a fey boy in a man's world and the book explores his struggle to find himself between his women.
There is very good writing in this work, and Lawrence really knows his world and these characters, what things look like, how people feel, what they are thinking come across as totally accurate. Paul's struggle to become a man and love a woman other than his mother is evoked in great and convincing detail as is Paul's Nottingham and the mining community where he is born. As a study of the limitations of human ambition and the caprice of the heart this is very fine. The emotional ride of the main characters is every bit as satisfying as Jane Austin but much more subtle.
Less successful is the absence of a driving plot line. The first half of the book is back story for Paul. So we get to see his mother's marriage, the battering of her existence, the way that mining turns his father into a brute, the death of his successful brother and so on. The second half concerns Paul and his three women and now the relationship between his mother and father falls away to be replaced by Paul's inability to love anyone except mum, and maybe himself. In all of this tone and atmosphere take the place of plot so that the reader is happy to enjoy the ride even though there is no itinerary for the route.
If you are happy to enjoy good writing alone then this is for you. If you would also like some structure and greater plot around your characters then Austin or Forster might be better choices.
If you draw a line from Jane Austin's controlled thought experiments with a set of characters through E M Forster's political and social commentary using the exploration of self,then you arrive at D H Lawrence's Son's and Lovers - an experiment in character explored through politics and societal arrangements. So that Lawrence has much less plot and form but more intensity of emotion and sense of reality. Which you prefer is an entirely personal choice.
Sons and Lovers is a semi autobiographical love triangle, Paul Morel loves his mother, married into the hard edged world of Nottinghamshire coal mining, but as he moves into adulthood he explores his relationships with other women, the intense and compassionate Miriam and the sexual but aloof married woman Clara. Paul is a sensitive artist, a fey boy in a man's world and the book explores his struggle to find himself between his women.
There is very good writing in this work, and Lawrence really knows his world and these characters, what things look like, how people feel, what they are thinking come across as totally accurate. Paul's struggle to become a man and love a woman other than his mother is evoked in great and convincing detail as is Paul's Nottingham and the mining community where he is born. As a study of the limitations of human ambition and the caprice of the heart this is very fine. The emotional ride of the main characters is every bit as satisfying as Jane Austin but much more subtle.
Less successful is the absence of a driving plot line. The first half of the book is back story for Paul. So we get to see his mother's marriage, the battering of her existence, the way that mining turns his father into a brute, the death of his successful brother and so on. The second half concerns Paul and his three women and now the relationship between his mother and father falls away to be replaced by Paul's inability to love anyone except mum, and maybe himself. In all of this tone and atmosphere take the place of plot so that the reader is happy to enjoy the ride even though there is no itinerary for the route.
If you are happy to enjoy good writing alone then this is for you. If you would also like some structure and greater plot around your characters then Austin or Forster might be better choices.
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