Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
indulgent and personal and true. but in a good way. I really loved this one.
It took me approximately 500 years to read this book. Partly because it was long, partly because it was slow in places, but mostly because my copy of the book (where did I get it? and why did I bother?) was full of underlines and notes in the margin. Clearly, it was an assigned text, I'm going to guess high school (really? what were they thinking?), and whoever was forced to read this book found it as tedious as I found their notations. I kept telling myself not to read them, but couldn't help it, and they were SO INSIPID that I would have to put the book down in disgust. (Real life example: "hyper-sensitiveness" is underlined -- in the margin it says "sensitivity to an extreme degree.")
Really, I should have ditched this copy and found another, because it's hard for me to differentiate my impatience with the text from my impatience with the notes. But I kept plodding slowly on. And I did find things to admire. Lawrence's sentences and descriptions are skilled and often beautiful. But for all the descriptiveness and detail in just how the relationships between people get so tortured and complicated, I never really felt like I understood or could empathize with any individual character directly. Maybe Mr. Morel I understood the best, which is odd, because he clearly seemed designed to be the least sympathetic.
I don't know. Towards the end I found myself moved by the book, but now, a few weeks later, I feel very meh about it all.
Really, I should have ditched this copy and found another, because it's hard for me to differentiate my impatience with the text from my impatience with the notes. But I kept plodding slowly on. And I did find things to admire. Lawrence's sentences and descriptions are skilled and often beautiful. But for all the descriptiveness and detail in just how the relationships between people get so tortured and complicated, I never really felt like I understood or could empathize with any individual character directly. Maybe Mr. Morel I understood the best, which is odd, because he clearly seemed designed to be the least sympathetic.
I don't know. Towards the end I found myself moved by the book, but now, a few weeks later, I feel very meh about it all.
Can't get enough of the relationship between Paul and Miriam. I re-read this every few years and get invested and frustrated all over again. Love reading it simultaneously with real-life-Miriam Jessie Chambers' "DH Lawrence: A Personal Record". The discord between the two versions of the same story makes it even more compelling.
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug use
One of the best character driven novels I've read. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the people felt so real, since it was largely an autobiographical book. It left me troubled, and in tears more than a few times.
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Blurb;
In Sons and Lovers, his masterpiece of naturalism, Lawrence wrestled with a serious and intimate emotional problem – his relationship with his mother.
The Morel family, the counterpart of his own, live on the Nottingham cornfield. Mrs Morel is disillusioned with her husband, a coarse-grained and hard-drinking miner, and centres all her expectations on her sons, especially Paul. As Paul Morel grows older, tensions develop in this relationships: and his passions for two other women become involved in a fatal conflict of love and possessiveness.
My review;
The book initially introduces its readers to the relationship of Mr and Mrs Morel from the moment they first met. At first, it seems their relationship is a true love story – a higher class woman falling for a man that comes from a lower class background. They marry, and we are then introduced to their married life where we realise that their love is not as strong as we initially believed it to be. You sympathise with Mrs Morel after we find out how uncaring her husband is to her, especially when he’s been drinking. Lawrence does present the loss of the romantic love they shared but how longing Mrs Morel is to retain this love and how, deep down, she does still feel it. As her relationship with her husband is failing, she pushes all her love to her four children – William, Paul, Annie and Arthur. She especially concentrates on her eldest sons William and Paul. The children feel the need to protect their mother from their father and their love for this woman is shown very strongly throughout the book. Mrs Morel’s relationship with her son William becomes more apparent as he grows and gets a job. As he starts to find himself, she begins to get upset – even jealous, of his relationship with other women, disapproving of his lover in London. Sadly, William later dies in the book, leaving a gap in Mrs Morel’s heart which is hard for her to forget about. She then begins to concentrate her love on her second son, Paul and their relationship can be seen as somewhat unhealthy. Paul feels as though he is attached to his mother in some form and “cannot marry until she dies”. His relationships with the two women Miriam and Clara are highly affected by his mother and her disapproval. His long friendship, which seems to be something more, with the character of Miriam makes you scream at the book. They hate each other inwardly, yet they say they love and belong to each other? On more than one occasion we are introduced to Paul’s hatred of practically every characteristic of Miriam, so why does he continue with their relationship in such a way? Why not end it? Well, it turns out they do love one another, and when they eventually share their first kiss, the scene couldn’t be more beautiful. Yet at the same time, Paul hates himself! His later relationship with the character of Clara is much more forward, but at the same time, he again describes hating her character too and how tied he feels to Miriam.
By this time, the Morel’s other children Annie and Arthur have flown the nest and married. This doesn’t seem to affect Mrs Morel so much as she doesn’t seem to have such a close relationship with them as the other two – although it is clear she loves them both. Arthur is certainly the black sheep of the family. As a baby, it is described that he preferred Morel to Mrs Morel, and as an audience you scream how?! Why?! But later on, his troublesome attitude eventually settles down. You don’t hear much about either of them from that moment on.
Paul’s relationship with his mother continues to be slightly worrying. He refuses to leave home until she has died, but it seems impossible for him to be happy with her there but at the same time, he can’t be happy without her. He himself starts to find out how strange their relationship is. When she eventually dies, he is distraught and the book ends on a sad note. Yet we still find ourselves asking ‘could he ever be happy?’ and just willing for him to be so.
The book, at times is slightly confusing, with the authors attempt to write Northern lingo in dialogue form can get slightly confusing from time to time. It also starts off slightly slow, nothing interesting really happens and I did find myself becoming bored. But I continued on non the less. And through this will-power, I found as the book continued it really did get interesting, though irritating at times. I enjoyed this read more than some modern pieces such as ‘notes on a scandal’ by Zoe Heller and I believe this is mainly for the fact that the writers technique was much more defined and clear! I would recommend this book to many a reader and score it a 4 out of 5!
In Sons and Lovers, his masterpiece of naturalism, Lawrence wrestled with a serious and intimate emotional problem – his relationship with his mother.
The Morel family, the counterpart of his own, live on the Nottingham cornfield. Mrs Morel is disillusioned with her husband, a coarse-grained and hard-drinking miner, and centres all her expectations on her sons, especially Paul. As Paul Morel grows older, tensions develop in this relationships: and his passions for two other women become involved in a fatal conflict of love and possessiveness.
My review;
The book initially introduces its readers to the relationship of Mr and Mrs Morel from the moment they first met. At first, it seems their relationship is a true love story – a higher class woman falling for a man that comes from a lower class background. They marry, and we are then introduced to their married life where we realise that their love is not as strong as we initially believed it to be. You sympathise with Mrs Morel after we find out how uncaring her husband is to her, especially when he’s been drinking. Lawrence does present the loss of the romantic love they shared but how longing Mrs Morel is to retain this love and how, deep down, she does still feel it. As her relationship with her husband is failing, she pushes all her love to her four children – William, Paul, Annie and Arthur. She especially concentrates on her eldest sons William and Paul. The children feel the need to protect their mother from their father and their love for this woman is shown very strongly throughout the book. Mrs Morel’s relationship with her son William becomes more apparent as he grows and gets a job. As he starts to find himself, she begins to get upset – even jealous, of his relationship with other women, disapproving of his lover in London. Sadly, William later dies in the book, leaving a gap in Mrs Morel’s heart which is hard for her to forget about. She then begins to concentrate her love on her second son, Paul and their relationship can be seen as somewhat unhealthy. Paul feels as though he is attached to his mother in some form and “cannot marry until she dies”. His relationships with the two women Miriam and Clara are highly affected by his mother and her disapproval. His long friendship, which seems to be something more, with the character of Miriam makes you scream at the book. They hate each other inwardly, yet they say they love and belong to each other? On more than one occasion we are introduced to Paul’s hatred of practically every characteristic of Miriam, so why does he continue with their relationship in such a way? Why not end it? Well, it turns out they do love one another, and when they eventually share their first kiss, the scene couldn’t be more beautiful. Yet at the same time, Paul hates himself! His later relationship with the character of Clara is much more forward, but at the same time, he again describes hating her character too and how tied he feels to Miriam.
By this time, the Morel’s other children Annie and Arthur have flown the nest and married. This doesn’t seem to affect Mrs Morel so much as she doesn’t seem to have such a close relationship with them as the other two – although it is clear she loves them both. Arthur is certainly the black sheep of the family. As a baby, it is described that he preferred Morel to Mrs Morel, and as an audience you scream how?! Why?! But later on, his troublesome attitude eventually settles down. You don’t hear much about either of them from that moment on.
Paul’s relationship with his mother continues to be slightly worrying. He refuses to leave home until she has died, but it seems impossible for him to be happy with her there but at the same time, he can’t be happy without her. He himself starts to find out how strange their relationship is. When she eventually dies, he is distraught and the book ends on a sad note. Yet we still find ourselves asking ‘could he ever be happy?’ and just willing for him to be so.
The book, at times is slightly confusing, with the authors attempt to write Northern lingo in dialogue form can get slightly confusing from time to time. It also starts off slightly slow, nothing interesting really happens and I did find myself becoming bored. But I continued on non the less. And through this will-power, I found as the book continued it really did get interesting, though irritating at times. I enjoyed this read more than some modern pieces such as ‘notes on a scandal’ by Zoe Heller and I believe this is mainly for the fact that the writers technique was much more defined and clear! I would recommend this book to many a reader and score it a 4 out of 5!
Things I liked:
Very little - interesting family dynamic I guess.
Things I didn't like:
The writing - all of the characters hate and love each other multiple times in a page. The only emotion in this novel is expressed to the extreme - it's exhausting!
Also, the incest is a bit weird.
Very little - interesting family dynamic I guess.
Things I didn't like:
The writing - all of the characters hate and love each other multiple times in a page. The only emotion in this novel is expressed to the extreme - it's exhausting!
Also, the incest is a bit weird.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes