A review by bearystarry
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would, despite it also being very frustrating to read. A lot more discussion of capitalism than I ever would have assumed, which is one of my main frustrations. The critiques of capitalism are so nearly good lmfao. And every once in a while D.H. Lawrence touches on gender politics in a way that also seems like he almost comes to a conclusion that makes sense to me, as someone reading this nearly a hundred years after it was published, but there's some latent racism or antisemitism or misogyny or classism or what have you.

Basically all of the societal critiques are so nearly coming to correct, in my opinion, conclusions, but instead he stops short and comes up with half-baked ideas for how things should work. Again, in my opinion as a person reading this nearly a century later, with a lot more access to ideas from people who aren't just cishet white men.

Otherwise, I thought the romance was (mostly) lovely and evocative and there were some really beautifully written passages; the one that comes to mind immediately is about Connie being the rolling sea. Gorgeous.

Money poisons you when you've got it, and starves you when you haven't.

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