Customer Reviews

Lady Chatterley's Lover (Wordsworth Classics)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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

This is a delightful little gem, well presented and beautifully written. D.H.Lawrence's exquisite use of the English language has been (and still is by those of repressed intelligence) grossly misunderstood since he dared to tell it 'like it is' to a society very much in denial; people living a half-life of pseudo-modesty. Sadly, there'll always be the hypocrites, of course, plus the tabloid mentality brigade who are unable to perceive genius when they're presented with it; it's their loss.
Do buy this lovely book, read, devour and enjoy it at leisure; let it's passionate honesty lift your heart to a better place.

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!

This book was one that I had often wanted to read, if only for the shock value of the 50's. Lawrence is a master of conjuring up atmosphere and whilst reading I almost felt as though I could smell the Midlands mining town referred to!

The book starts out with Lady Chatterley being a very strong willful & independent type of woman. Refusing to give away her "feminine power" to the men she and her sister dallied with !

However, by the time she has been living in the drab and depressing Midlands for a while coupled with her husband inability to satisfy her either mentally or physically, her spirit ebbs away and she only embraces the idea of living again when she meets Mellors the gamekeeper and has a highly charged illicit affair which breaths new life into her.

A different read using old venicular but well worth it once it gets going. I loved the interaction between the main characters and the minor characters to give a great depth of feeling. In the end I couldn't put it down !!

The book's reputation needs no comment. The book's importance is that having been challenged in the English court, it was found to be worthy of artistic expression and therefore, the challenge to its publication failed; a triumph in itself. The story oscillates between suppressed desire and eventual fulfilment. The 'interesting parts' are just that. More significantly though, these parts are expressed not only explicitly at times but also, through the eyes of the Lover who is deeply in love. Any student of sensuality should start here.

Ian Hunter.
Author of `e-Love'.

I loved this book, which is essential to any student studying modernism as it is actively concerned with many of the major issues and feelings of the time. The novel itself is definately a 5 star-er for me! BUT this edition (the Wordsworth Classics) is clearly aimed at people who are reading the book for the literary merit or who have already read it before, as the entire plot (which is admittedly quite simple) is outlined on the back cover, including the ending (although, bizarrely enough they get part of the ending wrong anyway!!)! Now although I was reading it for university, and the literary side of it, I was still quite dissappointed at being given the plot's ending before i had even read the first page! So get another edition, or beware the back cover!

At least Lawrence is such a great writer that I enjoyed the book immensely despite knowing the outcome!

This is a brilliant read. I've had this on my 'to read' list for years, and when I finally got around to reading it, I wasn't disappointed. The only let down is that although the detail and description are very in-depth, D.H Lawrence tends to get too easily side tracked. This was a bargain and I'd willingly pay alot more for a book of this calibre. Well worth it.

D H Lawrence's most notorious novel is basically a straightforward love story with the emphasis on sex, overlain by an interesting delineation of early twentieth century class relationships. Constance Chatterley has married into minor aristocracy but her husband, disabled during the Great War, is incapable of giving her any kind of human warmth or love. He dotes on her only in her role as carer/domestic and is an extraordinarily selfish and cold man. With the arrival of Mrs Bolton from the village as her husband's full-time carer Lady Chatterley finds her life utterly empty. Sexually frustrated, she embarks on a love affair with her husband's gamekeeper, the coarse and humourless Mellors. It is a somewhat implausible cross-class relationship between a flighty young upper-class woman and a rather bitter and unpleasant working-class man. Despite Lawrence's attempt at coaxing us to believe that Lady Chatterley had found true love and tenderness, the reality is that her relationship with Mellors appears to be based on a clandestine behind-the-bike-sheds kind of sex. Because of this there is little real warmth in the book.
Of course, since the 1960s it has become fashionable to ask what all the fuss was about, but anyone with even a notion of English social history could see why the book would have caused a furore at the time: a period when illegitimate children were being removed from their mothers who in turn were often committed to institutions. To be fair, Lawrence has tried his hardest to explore the nature of human sexual relationships and you can almost feel his mind at work, but the sexual passages and language still come across as forced, crude and curiously prurient. The English have never really got to grips with sex.

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 gamekeeper of the Chatterleys' estate in the remote midlands. Constance, who married Clifford a month before he left for World War I, has become his caretaker since his return from the war, paralyzed from the waist down and impotent. A writer who surrounds himself with intellectual friends, Clifford 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. He believes, in fact, that he could treat her affair as if it were a trip to the dentist. Connie, yearning for an emotional closeness which she has never experienced before, 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, the paralyzed Clifford is depicted as a symbol of unfeeling aristocracy and government. Mellors, by contrast, is vigorous and full of life, a strong man of character who obeys his instincts and stands up for what he believes.

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 to a modern reader. Firmly rooted in the 1930's, the novel shows an insensitive Clifford adhering to outdated values, based on outdated economic structures, while Connie and Mellors, freed from these conventions, explore their inner natures and their humanity. Mary Whipple