NICE STORY TALK ABOUT WHO DRINKS MAY AFFECT PERSON LIFE.
LAILA ( )

Mmmm. . . DH Lawrence! And a Mummy! ( )

It is always difficult to write a review on a book that was just okay. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence was just okay. The books is not a page turner. It doesn't make you want to just read and read until you get to the end. But it is easy to lose yourself in the pages and not notice the time go by. It's like Steinbeck's East of Eden in that perceptive (or East of Eden is like Sons and Lovers).

Sons and Lovers is a nice example of a character based storyline. There really is not plot. The story is a look in the life of Paul Morel. The story begins when his parents meet. Lawrence describes the circumstance of Paul's up bring and how he becomes the man he is.

The story mostly surrounds the complex relationship Paul has with his mother. They have a strong interdependent bond. The back of the copy of the book that I read called it Oedipus complex. But (for me) it seemed more like Paul was a mamas boy. They both provided each other with something that was initial missing in there lives. Paul provided comfort, understanding, and a listening ear to his mother. She provided him with a sense of direction. There was never the since that Paul wanted to get rid of his but rather that his father couldn't (or wouldn't) provide his mother with what she needed, so instead he did it.

There is also the relationships that Paul develops with two women, Clara and Miriam. Like the relationship with his mother, the relationships he has with these women are also based on co-dependency. With Miriam it is emotion and with Clara it is sexual. Paul seems to know this and the women seem to know this, yet they continue on with these relationships. It is a little frustrating. There is never the since that Paul is developing as a person, that any of the central characters are developing as people (except Clara, a little). They all seem to just go on and on with the same patterns of behavior. It gets a little tidiest after awhile.

The writing is great. Like a lot of classics Lawrence is good at giving details, sometimes to much detail. As stated earlier this book is not a page turner. It is really easy to put down and forget. Yet, it is also just as easy to pick up and finish were you started off from. The pages seem to pass by quickly and it never feels labor intensive.

Pros: Character based, Writing, Relationships
Cons: A lot of descriptions, Character based, Relationship

Overall Recommendation:
Sons and Lovers is a great example of a character based novel. It would not be the first classic that I would recommend if asked but it would be someone in the middle of the list. ( )

I really languished my way through this book...loving every page of the countryside and the ambience so artfull presented by this author. ( )

This is my first D.H. Lawrence book, if you don’t count Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which I read in my early teens. I plunged in without doing any research first, and was therefore unaware that the story was autobiographical, though I doubt this would have ultimately altered my impression of it. Among the things I found appealing in this book are the descriptions of working class conditions and the struggle of Mrs. Morel to make the best out of difficult circumstances. I also enjoyed the way Lawrence delves into the minds of each of the characters, which seems to give the story multiple layers. However I had a hard time understanding the Nottinghamshire Dialect or why Clara—who is presented to us as a man-hating suffragette—would so easily accept to become Paul’s mistress. Some passages describing the scenery and the flora were a little bit tedious to my liking but ultimately this novel has so much substance that I was willing to pause and read about the local vegetation once in a while. ( )

Interesting recreation of Lawrence's youth, excellent portayal of his mother. Women characters lamentably stereotyped, except mother. Protagonist disagreeable, a user. Lawrence probably reveals himself unintentionally in this. But well-written and engrossing. ( )

Paul Morel grows up in a mining village in England, the son of a collier -- whom he hates. His mother is slightly more of a genteel lady, and Paul and her are devoted to one another. The book is a portrait of the Oedipal complex and how it affects Paul's relationships with women his own age, and the life of the labouring class as they try to move up to middle class around the start of the 20th Century.

This book had been on my TBR shelves for a long time, and I finally sucked it up and started reading it. It ended up being one of the most boring weeks of my life. I only kept reading this book because it was a "classic" and I had never tried the author before. Generally, I try not to chuck anything that falls under these two traits as I always hope the book will improve or I will start to "get" it. But no, I hated it. I have pages of notes in my book journal about how I felt Lawrence's writing was the most boring thing I've ever read. A lot of the book is dedicated to everyone taking walks in the woods, strolls through the farm land while they look at nature. Miriam would see a bush and then feel "rhapsodies" and "ecstasies" every time she looked at it. Then she would make plans to show Paul the next time he visited her farm. Then the story would have Paul take that walk and swoon over the stupid plant as well. Three of the characters even judge each other about how they like to pick flowers.

Also, Lawrence likes to talk about everyone trying to hold/take everyone else's soul. Stuff like, (paraphrasing) "Miriam's soul quickened at the sight of Paul looking at her flower. Perhaps now she would be able to hold him, she could feel his soul straining towards herself", "Mrs. Morel felt that Miriam would never be able to hold Paul. Miriam would try to hold Paul's soul while giving nothing of her own". I ended up writing things like: 'Miriam = soul-sucker; Miriam = vampire... haha'. Characters constantly contradict their previous assertions, with no explanation why... or even an indication if we were supposed to notice. It's frustrating when you have to read pages and pages of how Miriam loves Paul and wants to love and submit to him with all her soul, and then *poof!*, she says she always hated her love for him and that she knew they would break-up. ARGH. All these problems would cause little things start to bug me; at one point, the book went on and on about how Paul's handwriting was terrible no matter how hard he tried to improve it. But I just didn't this whole kerfuffle was realistic since Paul is an accomplished painter. I just have this notion that if people who have enough skill to professionally paint, they probably could write legibly if they tried.

I did like the inside look of the lower classes and the struggle to move up in station. I've never read any books from this time period, and the book was very detailed about the daily life of a collier and his family.

As a side note: I have the Wordsworth Classics 1993 edition and it is full of printing errors. If you want this book, spend your hard-earned cash on a different edition. ( )

Characters appear out of no where in this poorly edited version which made it a very confusing read for me at age 19. I understand now there is a new version with the editing corrected.

Mrs Morel marries her husband Walter only to find out that he has been less than truthful about the money he has and the property he owns. She consigns herself to a life of poverty with a miner for a husband who also has a drinking problem. As the marriage disintegrates she draws much comfort from their children and Paul in particular (their second son) takes it upon himself to make sure she has everything he needs.

He is the classic second son who can never live up to his eldest brother. Everything he does has been done before and he is a sensitive type who enjoys painting. He puts his mother first in all things which causes his relationships to suffer. He won't marry either of the two women he loves. They are quite different ,one being more practical and dull the other modern and risky. He is very clear he does not want to suffer the same fate as his parents have done and become trapped. He is fickle and can't make up his mind from one moment to the next.

Ultimately he becomes dissatisfied and begins to destroy himself at the end of the novel. This is a look at class struggle told from the perspective of a working class family who try to better themselves yet still look down on those percieved to be of higher status than them. Paul also struggles with his sexuality and finding himself and his purpose. Quite a bleak book in many ways, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. ( )

This was my first D. H. Lawrence. I was, simply put, charmed. His detailed descriptions of places, characters, personalities, situations, feelings, are very grasping in their own smooth ways. It seems all classics hold that very descriptive factor that will eventually bore you or put you to sleep. Not this one. ( )

The use of language was novel at the time of writing. It's since become a part of the English language canon. A highly autobiographical novel but in the third person so the inner lives of the characters are a little more accessible. I liked it more than I thought I might as I am not a big D.H. Lawrence fan. ( )

This book is one of the first books that pops into my head when I think of good, classic fiction. D.H. Lawrence delves so deeply into the psyche that you'd think he was a friend of Freud instead of a brilliant author. If anyone were to come to me and ask me for a good introduction to D.H. Lawrence, I would have to tell them to start with this book. It's absolutely wonderful. In fact, there are not enough positive adjectives and adverbs to describe how wonderful this book is.

If I have to beg, I will. Please read this book! ( )

What an amazing book this is! The character is one which we can all relate to in the beautiful coming of age story. The plot is indicative of the time it was written but the themes go far beyond that. ( )

This is a book I shall never be able to read again because of the power of his description of the death of his mother. A masterpiece, for me any flaws are ignorable because of the strength of feeling and expression. A great writer almost at his peak (The Rainbow). ( )

Love it. I have to say, I've never been a big D.H. Lawrence fan, but this had me so caught up I was almost embarrassed to read it in public (but I did anyway)! ( )

I really enjoyed this book when I didn't expect to at all. I expected it to be highly political when all it was was social history which was very interesting indeed. None the characters were very likeable and the main character Paul Morel was not very moral at all. Very interesting and a very nice read indeed. One that I couldn't put down in the end ! ( )

Any other edition of this would rate five stars, but I am not keen on any of the Modern Library editions. ( )

No one looks deeper into nature and human nature than D.H. Lawrence. ( )

I didn't like Lawrence when I was a youngin, but now that I am a little older, I totally get it--the sexes cannot live in harmony, but we are drawn to the the "otherness" of, well, the other. Superb prose. Superb conjuring of nature, and that most illusive of all things--the mother/son relationship. ( )

You can never tire of this story ( )

I was most happy with the second 200 pages of this book; the first did not hold me so completely. I preferred Lawrence's _Women in Love_, because it seemed more 'universal.' Perhaps that is a result of S&L being more autobiographical, or at least that's what "they" say.

Initially, I was a little turned off by Paul Morel's character. The prose for this book was awfully lush, and at times it seemed a bit over the top - whereas, I think that Women in Love kept on the right side of that particular boundary. ( )

I thought I had read this book but I hope to heaven that I didn't because I didn't remember a single thing from it. In pure Lawrence style, sometimes achingly lyrical, sometimes achingly annoying and embarrassing, it is still a good read as well as an intense portrait of the oedipal relationship between mother and son. ( )

This is a classic 1913 novel about a Welsh family in a mining town. The mother, Mrs. Morel, finds herself locked into a loveless marriage with a man she does not respect, and lives her life through her children. When the oldest dies a young man, her dreams and aspirations find their outlet in Paul Morel, a sensitive and artistic young man, so in thrall to his mother it is almost Oedipal, and hence unable to commit himself to a full relationship with either of the two quite different women he becomes involved with. The novel is filled with beautiful passages. It tells of Paul's ultimate inability to unleash his bonds to his mother, even after her death, and truly love any one thing or being in the world other than her.
The heroine of this story, Gertrude Morel, was based upon Lawrence’s own mother, Lydia. Mrs. Lawrence was also the prototype for Mrs. Beardsall in her son's first novel, The White Peacock, and elements of her life and personality appear in several short stories, notably 'Odour of Chrysanthemums'.
“He could not bear it. On every side the immense dark silence seemed pressing him, so tiny a spark, into extinction, and yet, almost nothing, he could not be extinct. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond stars and sun. Stars and sun, a few bright grains went spinning around for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in a darkness that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted. So much, and himself, infinitesimal, at the core a nothingness, and yet not nothing.

"Mother!" he whispered—"Mother!"

She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself”.
A true description of the schizoid state of being.
This novel outlines very powerfully the impact of family relationships on the growing child. In this case it is the effect of a powerful, engulfing mother on the masculinity of the males around her and her power to castrate, denigrate, and render impotent the masculinity of her partner and children. This is shown to have lasting effects on the ability of her children to have whole, real, and intimate relationships as far ahead as adulthood.

A book where not much happens, it's more of a study on interpersonal relationships and how we stumble our way through misguided ideals of love and romance. I actually liked this book more than I thought I was going to. ( )

This is a classic 1913 novel about a Welsh family in a mining town. The mother, Mrs. Morel, finds herself locked into a loveless marriage with a man she does not respect, and lives her life through her children. When the oldest dies a young man, her dreams and aspirations find their outlet in Paul Morel, a sensitive and artistic young man, so in thrall to his mother it is almost Oedipal, and hence unable to commit himself to a full relationship with either of the two quite different women he becomes involved with. The novel is filled with beautiful passages. It tells of Paul's ultimate inability to unleash his bonds to his mother, even after her death, and truly love any one thing or being in the world other than her.
The heroine of this story, Gertrude Morel, was based upon Lawrence’s own mother, Lydia. Mrs. Lawrence was also the prototype for Mrs. Beardsall in her son's first novel, The White Peacock, and elements of her life and personality appear in several short stories, notably 'Odour of Chrysanthemums'.
“He could not bear it. On every side the immense dark silence seemed pressing him, so tiny a spark, into extinction, and yet, almost nothing, he could not be extinct. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond stars and sun. Stars and sun, a few bright grains went spinning around for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in a darkness that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted. So much, and himself, infinitesimal, at the core a nothingness, and yet not nothing.

"Mother!" he whispered—"Mother!"

She was the only thing that held him up, himself, amid all this. And she was gone, intermingled herself”.
A true description of the schizoid state of being.
This novel outlines very powerfully the impact of family relationships on the growing child. In this case it is the effect of a powerful, engulfing mother on the masculinity of the males around her and her power to castrate, denigrate, and render impotent the masculinity of her partner and children. This is shown to have lasting effects on the ability of her children to have whole, real, and intimate relationships as far ahead as adulthood.