reviews
Nov 02, 2011
WARNING: This review contains a discussion of the c-word, and I plan to use it. Please don't read this if you do not want to see the word spelled out. Thanks.
This is less a review than an homage to my crazy mother (now I have you really intrigued, don't I?)
It was 1983, and I was in my first Catholic school. I'd spent my first six years of school in a public school, but my "behavioral issues" coupled with my lack of growth made me a target for bullies, so my parents More...
This is less a review than an homage to my crazy mother (now I have you really intrigued, don't I?)
It was 1983, and I was in my first Catholic school. I'd spent my first six years of school in a public school, but my "behavioral issues" coupled with my lack of growth made me a target for bullies, so my parents More...
56 comments
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(142 people liked it)
Feb 11, 2009
I see a lot of my GR friends are currently reading this, so I'll be interested to see what they think of it. I understand the importance of this one--free speech, yo---but honestly, I wasn't blown away. I prefer Ginny Woolf, in fact. Part of it is that Lawrence is too damn Freudian for me. And all the stuff about women needing civilization fucked out of them by virile treetrimmers seems a little misogynistic. I know the historical context out of which Lawrence is writing, what with industrializa
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10 comments
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(16 people liked it)
Jan 08, 2012
Lawrence has in recent times fallen out of fashion in the literary world, which is a shame because despite his reputation (often well-deserved) as a misogynist, the themes he explores in this novel go well beyond its sexual reputation. This is a novel about living versus existing. The conversations between the upper class friends proves witty, but ultimately dry, lifeless, as is shown by Tommy Dukes' reasoning as to why he is asexual. Moreso, the novel is about class restrictions, about a dying
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0 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
I bought this book in high school because it was cheap and I thought that because I was going to be a big, bad Enlglish major in college, I should probably expand my literary repertoire. I also thought it might be a little racy, given the title, which piqued my interest. Fast forward seven and a half years and I am now a big, bad graduate of American Studies (Chaucer killed me on the spot, and I changed majors immediately), and I had yet to read this book. I picked it up off my shelf about 2
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Aug 16, 2008
I honestly think that if this book hadn't been banned for obscene content, no one would have ever read it. Yes, there are lots of sex scenes (omg scandalous) but all the stuff in between is, for the most part, ungodly boring. The book gets points for having some very intellectual discussions of class and the differences between men and women, and Lawrence's characters talk about sex with more honesty than any other book I've ever read, but that's about all it has going for it. I was about fifty
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7 comments
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(53 people liked it)
Jul 29, 2008
Okay, DH, so I was sort of with you at the beginning. I was amused by or interested in watching you create a tale that seemed to be a love child of the Lost Gen and existentialist authors that instead turned out a rebelliously nostalgic Romantic, a perverted Wordsworth in a Bacchanalian temple. I rolled my eyes at, yet went along with, the endless repetition, of "everything is nothing," by your twit of a main character, Connie, or at poor Sir Clifford who builds endless castles of theo
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27 comments
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(21 people liked it)
Jan 08, 2012
Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is with no doubt his most controversial work hence I really anticipated reading this novel. Before reading I had no great knowledge of the novel, only that it was banned because it had explicit sex scenes too racy for the time. Unfortunately, the novel just did not hit the mark for me. After reading it, I didn't know what Lawrence was trying to do - tell a romantic love story (with a dash of vulgarity) or an examination of relationships or sex itself. Although
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0 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Feb 13, 2009
The whole book is a just an argument about the power of the mind and of the body upon each other.
'Real knowledge comes out of the whole corpus of the consciousness; out of your belly and your penis as much as out of your brain and mind. The mind can only analyse and rationalize. Set the mind and the reason to cock it over the rest, and all they can do is to criticize, and make a deadness. I say all they can do. It is vastly important. My God, the world needs criticizing today… criticizin More...
'Real knowledge comes out of the whole corpus of the consciousness; out of your belly and your penis as much as out of your brain and mind. The mind can only analyse and rationalize. Set the mind and the reason to cock it over the rest, and all they can do is to criticize, and make a deadness. I say all they can do. It is vastly important. My God, the world needs criticizing today… criticizin More...
0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Sep 14, 2010
This book was a bizarre experience for me. It reads much like a traditional, classic English novel, except with loads of descriptive sex and vulgar words mixed in for shock value. Instead of being shocked, though, I just found it all a bit tiresome and rather silly.
Maybe it was the fact that Lawrence sometimes used words like "thee" and "thy" and "dost" mixed in with modern day vulgarities that added to the overall unintentional humor of it for me, or More...
Maybe it was the fact that Lawrence sometimes used words like "thee" and "thy" and "dost" mixed in with modern day vulgarities that added to the overall unintentional humor of it for me, or More...
0 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Dec 05, 2008
Ah, D.H. Lawrence, why are you so awesome?
I think Lawrence is one of those writers you either love or hate, and this is possibly even more true of Lady Chatterley's Lover, his last novel. The author's confidence speaks on every page: firstly, Lawrence has no qualms about interjecting his opinion in the narration throughout. Secondly, the book is from the perspective of a woman, a challenge for any male author, and thirdly (and possibly most famously), the book makes liberal use of " More...
I think Lawrence is one of those writers you either love or hate, and this is possibly even more true of Lady Chatterley's Lover, his last novel. The author's confidence speaks on every page: firstly, Lawrence has no qualms about interjecting his opinion in the narration throughout. Secondly, the book is from the perspective of a woman, a challenge for any male author, and thirdly (and possibly most famously), the book makes liberal use of " More...
0 comments
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(10 people liked it)
Aug 21, 2008
I found Lady Chatterley's Lover too didactic for my tastes. Lawrence asks the tired question of where one can find authenticity and fulfillment in the stifling modern world, and returns the tired answer of "the body." He is able to make a novel out of this idea only because he approaches it by way of his own misogyny. Consider this passage from the book's beginning pages:
"A woman could take a man without really giving herself away. Certainly she could take him without More...
"A woman could take a man without really giving herself away. Certainly she could take him without More...
Jul 12, 2007
this book disgusts me. what a terrible example of genre romance! oh, but, wait; caroliiiime, (you might say) this book is an important example of literary transgression! it contains several graphic sex scenes and was published way before explicit sex was common in fiction! the publishing was quite a scandal and boldly challenged the line between free speech and obscenity! and, i will still tell you that this novel is bollocks.
far from producing passion in me, the reader, it made m More...
far from producing passion in me, the reader, it made m More...
2 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Jun 09, 2008
I was so excited in high school to read this book because I'd heard it had lots of sex in it AND it was the kind of book grown-ups say you should read anyway.
Bleh. I don't actually remember the story that well, but what I do remember is Lawrence's fatal combo of thinking himself an expert on female sexuality and completely misrepresenting it. Some of the worst men-writing-women I've encountered. Also: not even a very sexy book. A colossal disappointment.
I've heard oth More...
Bleh. I don't actually remember the story that well, but what I do remember is Lawrence's fatal combo of thinking himself an expert on female sexuality and completely misrepresenting it. Some of the worst men-writing-women I've encountered. Also: not even a very sexy book. A colossal disappointment.
I've heard oth More...
0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Apr 03, 2009
Lady Chatterley’ Lover adalah roman sastra terkenal yang kini telah menjadi karya klasik dalam khazanah sastra dunia. Novel karya penulis Inggris D.H. Lawrence ini terbit pertama kalinya pada tahun 1928. Sadar bahwa novelnya tak mungkin diterbitkan di Inggris, maka Lawrence menerbitkannya sendiri di Florence, Italia. Novel ini menuai kontroversi karena deskripisi persetubuhan antara dua orang yang berbeda strata sosial begitu kentara dan bertaburan disepanjang novelnya. Hal yang saat itu masih
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0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
May 22, 2007
I really tried to read this classic, but when Lady Chatterly's lover appeared and fit the description of Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons, I just couldn't do it. I mean, D.H. Lawerence has written in Willie's accent phonetically, and Lady Chatterly was having an affair with a cartoon! I just couldn't read anymore from that moment on...
3 comments
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(6 people liked it)
Feb 15, 2009
This book was a great look at the 1920's, the struggle between classes and the impact the further development of the coal mining industry had in England at the time. We get to see our protagonist fight an inner battle against form and custome to become her self and find happiness and fullfillment.
I admire the way Mr. Lawrence took on society at the time, he was a revolutionary man in the way he offered both social critique and his view of sex in a time where the written world was har More...
I admire the way Mr. Lawrence took on society at the time, he was a revolutionary man in the way he offered both social critique and his view of sex in a time where the written world was har More...
0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
May 16, 2011
Slow paced and tedious I wanted to give up on Lady Chatterly's Lover so many times. But I'm stubborn so I couldn't let myself give up on it.
Whereas I'm sure this book was a shocker in the late 20's when it was published, to my modern eyes, it was no biggie. Yes it was graphic, but in no way could one consider this pornographic!
The first section bored me to tears, full of mind-numbing conversations that had no significance other than for the author to show how intellectual More...
Whereas I'm sure this book was a shocker in the late 20's when it was published, to my modern eyes, it was no biggie. Yes it was graphic, but in no way could one consider this pornographic!
The first section bored me to tears, full of mind-numbing conversations that had no significance other than for the author to show how intellectual More...
2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 30, 2010
"Cand vraja chemarii sexuale e in suspensie, aproape orice femeie moderna isi vede partenerul in aceasta lumina, lumina superioritatii ei dispretuitoare. Numai caldura sexuala face ca barbatii si femeile sa fie posibili unii pentru ceilalti. In momentul in care ii reduci la simple identitati, simple afirmari ale egoismului indivizilor moderni, cu totii vad unii in altii doar dusmanul.Femeia, care, in zilele noastre dintr-un motiv sau altul, se simte triumfatoare, intrucat barbatul si-a depu
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 08, 2012
Having heard about this book all my life as "pornography," I must say I was a bit disappointed in it from that perspective. Certainly there was raunchier material available at the time (even if you did have to keep it under the counter) and it hardly seems to me that Lawrence's purpose in writing the book was to titillate. There are three reasons I can think of that this might have been challenged more often than it deserved: 1) It portrays a woman who enjoys sex with a healthy appetit
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
“I've not taken ten minutes on Lady Chatterley's Lover, outside of looking at its opening pages. It is most damnable! It is written by a man with a diseased mind and a soul so black that he would obscure even the darkness of hell!"
Utah’s Reed Smoot was speaking to the 1930 Senate. To demonstrate just how filthy they were, he’d threatened to read from Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Honore de Balzac's Droll Tales, the poetry of Robert Burns, the Kama Sutra… The place was pack More...
Utah’s Reed Smoot was speaking to the 1930 Senate. To demonstrate just how filthy they were, he’d threatened to read from Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Honore de Balzac's Droll Tales, the poetry of Robert Burns, the Kama Sutra… The place was pack More...
20 comments
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(13 people liked it)
Dec 29, 2008
If you can get past the first 100 or so pages, it really gets more exciting...with the relationship between Mellors and Connie. I loved the conversations and the wit in conversations with the characters. DH Lawrence is such a good writer. There is so much substance, that when you go to some other modern day fictions, it is no comparison. He allows you to really feel the intensity of the moment. Yes, there are some drawn out conversations at times, but overall, he takes you back into the moment
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0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Sep 29, 2008
I suppose the 3 stars for "I Liked It" isn’t quite the same as a 5-star review for being a piece of classic literature, yet the I-like-it-this-much is the only scale offered here on Goodreads. So there you go, only four stars because I personally didn’t find it to be a life changing book, but still rather interesting.
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a well-known classic for various reasons which have been discussed at length by many other people so I’ll skip that and jump right More...
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a well-known classic for various reasons which have been discussed at length by many other people so I’ll skip that and jump right More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 17, 2009
This book was an interesting look at the classes in England in the early 20th Century. It showed how large the difference was between men and women at that time. It also touches on the effect of the coal mine closures, which I found to be interesting to read, as this was something that affected the area in which I live.
The sex wasn't that scandalous... ok I can appreciate that it was scandalous back then, but by today's standards I found it to be pretty tame and in some places quite More...
The sex wasn't that scandalous... ok I can appreciate that it was scandalous back then, but by today's standards I found it to be pretty tame and in some places quite More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 08, 2012
I'd wanted to read this book for quite awhile--and actually owned it for a couple of months before I picked it up. At first I was really drawn into the story, but then not only did it lag, Lawrence began throwing un-camouflaged rants about his beliefs which put a bad taste in my mouth for the narrator. On top of this, Connie herself wasn't particularly likable enough for me to sympathize with by the midpoint of the book. I also disliked Oliver Mellors, whom I can only assume I'm supposed to ador
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 08, 2012
Eh, I'm not quite sure what to think of this book really. Its like a cross between Desperate Housewives, Real Housewives of Orange County or one of those Harlequin Romance novels you get from the supermarket with Fabio on the front. Reading the background to it I can understand why Lawrence was so obsessed with sex (Tuberculosis and his wife's very public affair made him crazy) but I think the sex scenes in the book were gratuitous (sp?) and unnecessary. (but this aside how many times have you
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
May 17, 2008
Is it dated? Yes. I have a sneaking suspicion that the most current thinking does not trace all of a woman's choices, feelings and impulses to her womb. And so much of the story relies on the vagaries of initiative that are attributed to Lady Chatterley's womb. But the language is lush. Having seen some of the countryside that is written about, the images that Lawrence evokes and the moods he suggests are vivid.
And it is sexy. Not titillating in the manner of Maxim or FHM or those we More...
And it is sexy. Not titillating in the manner of Maxim or FHM or those we More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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(1 person liked it)
Aug 21, 2007
I felt the reminiscence of the old English Midlands, quiet and lonely as ever before. This sets the light of sexuality consciousness of Lady Constance Chatterley with her gamekeeper Oliver Mellor as scandalous as it never been in the history of the clash of class love affairs. It took more than 30 years for its publication of this particular work of Lawrence to be freely out for people to read in England and the U.S.
I love this scene where Hilda and Connie (short for Constance), had More...
I love this scene where Hilda and Connie (short for Constance), had More...
0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 28, 2007
Favorite Quotes
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.
For, of course, being a girl, one’s whole dignity and meaning in life consisted in the achievemen More...
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.
For, of course, being a girl, one’s whole dignity and meaning in life consisted in the achievemen More...
0 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jan 28, 2008
I'm going to come out and admit that I read this. Considered pornographic when it was written (and I'm sure that, to some extent, it still is today), D.H. Lawrence's book is definitely not for everyone (I chuckle as I think about handing this to one of my public school students). But the book really is a good one for those who really like literature.
The main character, Connie Chatterly, initially believes that the "intellectual" connection to a male is what she most seeks. More...
The main character, Connie Chatterly, initially believes that the "intellectual" connection to a male is what she most seeks. More...
2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
