D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930)

A Remarkable Book

This book follows three generations of the Brangwean family. Each generation struggles to find the meaning of love and life in their lives.
His writing is beautiful:
"It was midsummer, the days were glamorously long." I never thought a simple sentence could convey a sense of adventure and also of luxury at the same time.

My favorite chapter was "A Man's World". In this chapter, Ursula becomes a teacher after completing high school. (Only to avoid the expectation of marriage). She is a fifth grade teacher with a class of 55 students. She faces the daily challenge of engaging unruly students:

"Children will never naturally acquiesce to sitting in a class and submitting to knowledge. They must be compelled by a stronger wiser will. Against which will they must always strive to revolt.... Ursula thought she was going to become the first wise teacher by making the whole business personal, and using no compulsion. She believed entirely in her own personality."

Unfortunately, she abandons her efforts to using her personality to convince the students to complete their writing and sums. Eventually she resorts to "thrashing" a young boy in front of the class. She then has to deal with the wrath of the parent and her headmaster.

Lawrence was a teacher in a primary school for several years. I wonder how much of this chapter came from his own experience! Throughout the book, I marveled that, writing over 100 years ago, Lawrence was able to convey the inner lives of men and women in a way that still resonates today.… (lisätietoja)

This was not my favorite book by Lawrence, although it was more readable than Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover- there was less philosophizing. Although it contain elements of Lawrence's major themes such as the conflict between the life of the mind, body and spirit, this conflict plays out through the actions of the characters instead of through soliloquies as in his later novels. It also touches on the issue of euthanasia, and most importantly, parenting.
The story begins with a marriage between Gertrude and Walter Morel which quickly deteriorates into a battle of wills. Mrs. Morel puts all her energy and love into her son Paul.
"At last, Mrs. Morel despised her husband. She turned to the child, she turned from the father... There began a battle between the husband and wife- a fearful, bloody battle that ended only with the death of one."
Her death leaves Paul lost and alone, unable to truly give himself completely to any woman.

" 'Mother!" he whispered-'mother!'
She was the only thing that held him up, himself amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself. He wanted her to touch him, have him alongside with her."

Of course, the character Gertrude Morel is an extreme example of over parenting- or as we now call it- helicopter parenting, but Lawrence examines her inner life, as well as her son's, in a compassionate way.
… (lisätietoja)

Surprisingly I’d never read this book before although as a schoolboy we would often pass around books for the passages relating to sex. I’ve also read a lot of Lawrence’s other books and enjoyed them. When I saw there was an audiobook version read by Holliday Grainger I decided it was time I discovered what all the fuss was about and the first thing to say is that she was an inspired choice to be narrator and even made the sometimes dull parts listenable. My guess is that, if the book was published today, it would be more rigorously edited to take out some of the repetitive and redundant parts though I wouldn’t want to see Lawrence’s mystical passages excised.
For me it was more about class and the rapaciousness of modern technology than about the affair between Connie and Mellors and even their relationship was as much about a clash between the classes as it was about how men and women approach sex. It helped, I think, that I grew up in Lawrence country and I could recognise all of the characters portrayed in the novel. Though many would deny it I see little difference with the type of people we encounter now to the ones Lawrence was writing about.
As John Lennon put it: “You think you’re so clever, so classless and free but you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”… (lisätietoja)