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Lady Chatterley's Lover

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 37,880 ratings · 1,995 reviews

D.H. Lawrence finished "Lady Chatterley's Lover" in 1928, but it was not published in an uncensored version until 1960.

Many contemporary critics of D.H. Lawrence viewed the Victorian love story as vulgar, and even pornographic. It was banned immediately upon publication in both the UK and the US. The obscenity trials which followed established legal precedents for litera...more

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Published (first published 1928)

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Nov 02, 2011 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Brad by: Chris Simkulet

Shelves: faves, notorious, personal-mythology, meta-review

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 were advised to move me to ano...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Kelly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brit-lit, fiction, 20th-century-early-to-mid, worlds-lost-dead-and-dying, owned, mawwiageiswhatbringsustogethertoday

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 theories in th...more

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May 11, 2013 Paula rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 "fuck" and "cu...more

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Mar 18, 2008 Vanessa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Aurora rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Vi è mai capitato di leggere "il libro giusto al momento giusto"? A me è successo con questo libro.

Se avessi letto questo libro qualche anno fa credo che non l'avrei apprezzato appieno, perché a mio avviso bisogna vivere delle esperienze simili per riuscire ad immedesimarsi in uno dei personaggi di questo libro.
Non è un romanzo per tutti, a tratti potrebbe risultare ridondante, noioso o addirittura volgare, ma io l'ho trovato vero e attuale.

Il mio personaggio preferito è sicuramente il guardiac...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Kirk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medium-warm

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...more 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 industrialization and war sapping the natural semen-spewing strength of all us who can grow hair on chests (trust me, I value all three of mine; they're insured by Lloyd's of London). Still, that only dates LLCoolLady more for me.

Finally there's the sex. Shocking in its day, but 80 years later, it has all the poetry of your average Penthouse Forum entry. Seriously, dudes, don't name your peen. Especially don't name it John Thomas. It makes your reader think of The Waltons (i.e. John Boy, portrayed by Richard Thomas). And if you feel the need to write about anal, try not to justify it saying you're ridding your lady of "shame, which is fear: the deep organic shame, the old, old physical fear which crouches in the bodily roots of us, and can only be chased away by the sensual fire, at last it was roused up and routed by the phallic hunt of the man.” In my (admittedly limited) experience, chicks don't go for that ole "phallic hunt" line.

In the end (no pun intended), I think this book is most interesting to read alongside the history of 1920s’ and 30s' sexology. To wit, a line from Theodoor van de Velde's Ideal Marriage, one of the most popular (and controversial) sex manuals of the era: “What both man and woman, driven by obscure primitive urges, wish to feel in the sexual act ... is the essential force of maleness, which expresses itself in a sort of violent and absolute possession of the woman. And so both of them can and do exult in a certain degree of male aggression and dominance—whether actual or apparent—which proclaims this essential force.” Like I said, a tough sell these days.

Still, looking forward to seeing other folks' reviews. Get on the stick, RA (not literally, of course).(less)

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May 08, 2012 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

"Afternoon, m'lady - do ye fancy a quick one over yon five barred gate?"

"Oh you earthy gamekeepers, well I don't know... oh alright... but only if you mention my private parts in a rough yet tender manner and clasp them enthusiastically betwixt your craggy extremities."

Lord Chatterley, from a mullioned window: "Grr, if I wasn't just a symbol of the impotent yet deadening power of the English aristocracy I'd whip that bounder to within an inch of an orgasm."

40 years later :

Barrister in full periw...more

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Jun 25, 2008 Teresa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

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Sep 10, 2007 Amber rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of modernist literature

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 wee...more

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Aug 16, 2008 Madeline rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-list, ugh

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...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Giorgia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Riscoprire la passione e l'amore quando questo ti sembra negato per sempre e tu ormai ti eri arreso all'ineluttabilità della tua condizione si può. Ti salva in estremis un tetro guardaccia che insieme a te verrà travolto dalle spire dell'amore dimenticando le rigide regole che una società chiusa e bigotta ha imposto. Affronterete ex mogli gelose e isteriche e ex mariti troppo pieni di se per curarsi dei sentimenti altrui, ma non preoccuparti, quando gli animi si saranno placati il tuo amore e il...more

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Feb 13, 2009 Wealhtheow rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

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… criticizing to de...more 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… criticizing to death. Therefore let's live the mental life, and glory in our spite, and strip the rotten old show. But, mind you, it's like this: while you live your life, you are in some way an organic whole with all life. But once you start the mental life you pluck the apple. You've severed the connexion between the apple and the tree: the organic connexion. And if you've got nothing in your life but the mental life, then you yourself are a plucked apple… you've fallen off the tree. And then it is a logical necessity to be spiteful, just as it's a natural necessity for a plucked apple to go bad.'
The other theme seems to be modernity, a topic DHL never tires of. He just loves nattering on about how industrialized England has killed the inner lives of its people, and how inside we're all dead nowadays, and we're too educated and thoughtful for our own good. ike many of his time, he has the crazed idea that the upcoming generation is somehow completely different from all other people ever, and this is a betrayal of nature or whatevs. It's impossible to take seriously.
"'Their spunk is gone dead. Motor-cars and cinemas and aeroplanes suck that last bit out of them. I tell you, every generation breeds a more rabbity generation, with indiarubber tubing for guts and tin legs and tin faces. Tin people! It's all a steady sort of bolshevism just killing off the human thing, and worshipping the mechanical thing. Money, money, money! All the modern lot get their real kick out of killing the old human feeling out of man, making mincemeat of the old Adam and the old Eve. They're all alike. The world is all alike: kill off the human reality, a quid for every foreskin, two quid for each pair of balls. What is cunt but machine-fucking!---It's all alike. Pay 'em money to cut off the world's cock. Pay money, money, money to them that will take spunk out of mankind, and leave 'em all little twiddling machines.'"

DHL is no good at dialog or plot, and worse at creating believable, coherant characters. He doesn't people his world--he fills it with opinions. Chapter 14 is a horrifying piece of homophobic, racist, sexist hogwash. What kept me reading was his mastery of description--there's nothing like it.
"It was really a lovely day, the first dandelions making suns, the first daisies so white. The hazel thicket was a lace-work, of half-open leaves, and the last dusty perpendicular of the catkins. Yellow celandines now were in crowds, flat open, pressed back in urgency, and the yellow glitter of themselves. It was the yellow, the powerful yellow of early summer. And primroses were broad, and full of pale abandon, thick-clustered primroses no longer shy. The lush, dark green of hyacinths was a sea, with buds rising like pale corn, while in the riding the forget-me-nots were fluffing up, and columbines were unfolding their ink-purple ruches, and there were bits of blue bird's eggshell under a bush. Everywhere the bud-knots and the leap of life!"

Can be read online here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lady_Ch...(less)

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Mar 16, 2012 ميّ أحمد rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

تحكي قصة زوجين كونتستانس وكليفورد كانا شابين مفعمان بالحيوية والحياة وبعد شهر عسلها رجع كليفورد إلى البيت محطما يسير على كرسي متحرك وفقد مقدرته الجنسية
كوني استسلمت لواقعها الرهيب وسخرت نفسها ووقتها لخدمة زوجها ومجالسة أصدقاءه وتسلية زوجها وهو يرفض استئجار خادم للمساعدة , ومع الوقت بدات كوني تشعر بالوحدة القاتلة ولم يستمر إخلاصها لزوجها !
على الرغم من الأسلوب الأدبي الرفيع والمتميز لهذه الرواية إلا أنها منعت في دول أوربية عديدة وقت صدروها واعتبرها الرأي العام الإنجليزي وصمة عار على جبينهم مما حد...more

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Sep 14, 2010 Laurel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction

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 perhaps it was that the vulgarities were si...more 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 perhaps it was that the vulgarities were simply used so darned often. In any event, I found myself laughing out loud (John Thomas and Lady Jane, anyone?). I also found myself cringing. C and F words aside, did anyone tell Lawrence the word "bowels" is not particularly appealing? Anyway, I can see why some people felt at the time this was quite simply a trashy romance disguised as literature. It kind of is. Well-written and intelligent, for the most part, but still a bit trashy nonetheless.

The story is essentially this: Lady Chatterley's young husband is paralyzed from an injury at war, and is rendered impotent. This leaves the question: can Lady Chatterley be happy in her new marriage without sexual intimacy, or is she excused for seeking physical satisfaction elsewhere with another man? This may have made for a somewhat interesting story (whether you sympathized with her or not) had Lady Chatterley and her husband had a loving friendship or an otherwise soulful or intellectual connection of some kind. But, they didn't. They seemed to have little in common at all. And as such, the book became (for me) merely a story about a woman generally unhappy in her marriage who chooses to have an affair. The fact that her husband is paralyzed becomes almost irrelevant, as it appeared their marriage would have lacked love and passion (physical or emotional) regardless.

While I understand Lawrence was trying to argue that both mind and body must be equally satisfied, particularly in a society Lawrence felt was growing more industrialized and thus emotionally and physically stilted (as was Lady Chatterley's husband), I don't think he did so in the most effective or impressive of ways.

I think I had been hoping to read a book about the complexities of what truly defines intimacy, and how a sudden illness or disability can alter a relationship. But that was definitely not this book.

That being said, there are somewhat interesting (and also at times rather dull) discussions on the state of the social classes and industrialization in post-WWI England, as well as some rather open (if not extremely overly stereotypical) dialogues about the differences in which men and women viewed sex at the time. Vulgar words excluded, the prose is quite lovely in places, and there's no doubt Lawrence can write. But in the end, it felt much to me like nothing more than a book trying way too hard to be provocative. I just could not take it seriously.
(less)

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Aug 21, 2008 Drew Edwards rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 giving herself into his pow...more 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 giving herself into his power. Rather she could use this sex thing to have power over him. For she only had to hold herself back in sexual intercourse, and let him finish and expend himself without herself coming to the crisis: and then she could prolong the connection and achieve her orgasm and her crisis while he was merely her tool."

Here, the man loses the game of sex because he desires the individual woman in her specific body, while the woman desires him, if at all, as an industrial "interchangeable part," rather than as an individual. Connie accomplishes an inversion of this perceived power relationship when she desires Mellors individually, and thus finds her authentic fulfillment through their physical relationship. This places the man, as it were, back on top.

This power dynamic can go both ways, of course: a woman may easily be frustrated in her desire for a man, and may find herself at a disadvantage. Lawrence describes these sexual roles from a decidedly male perspective. He does not hate women because he thinks them mean or low; he hates them because they will not accept his love and desire. Although he may love and desire women genuinely and tenderly, the fulfillment of his desires would mean unpleasantness or violence to one who did not share them. He dislikes women for the same reason one may dislike a standoffish cat. Lawrence resolves this conflict by the assertion that women ought to learn to be more passionate lovers, and furthermore, that through this they can find happiness. By their lack of desire and enjoyment they are not only hurting men; they are hurting themselves. In this, we can see the assumption that underlies Lawrence's misogyny: women are choosing not to be attracted to men, and they are doing so in order to have power over them. Lawrence's misogyny is based in a negative moral evaluation of a woman's aesthetic taste.

In reality, of course, attraction or the lack thereof is nobody's fault. Women and men both enjoy sex and can find in it a genuine and authentic respite from the stifling modern world. However, for most people (perhaps more so in the case of the male), the vast majority of their sexual attractions are unrequited. Some, instead of acknowledging that their passions are theirs alone, hold the objects of their unrequited passions responsible for their own misery and unfulfillment.

In Lolita, Nabokov treats this conflict much more honestly and directly. Humbert's love for Dolores is an aesthetic phenomenon, divorced from the interests of its object, and its consummation is ultimately an act of cruelty. The fact that he comes to realize this, to repent, and even to love Dolly truly and tenderly by the end of the book, cannot absolve him, or at least cannot undo the cruelty and violence of the past. Considering the sound of children at play, he laments, "I knew that the hopelessly poignant thing was not Lolita's absence from my side, but the absence of her voice from that concord." This disconnect between man's aesthetic life and the realities of cruelty is one of the fundamental and tragic truths of human life, and Nabokov's masterful treatment of it is one of the many reasons I love Lolita as much as I do.

By contrast, Lawrence attempts to dissolve this conflict in a unity of passions, and what results is necessarily a fantasy. He might be said to adhere to the Neitzschean statement that "It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that mankind and the world are eternally justified," except that his characters require no justification, as they have committed no sin. Neitzsche himself would even have acknowledged that he got it wrong in this early attempt to escape tragedy through some kind of analog to Christian justification. Lawrence refuses to either affirm his passions in the face of cruelty, or acknowledge that they may be at odds with the material interests of his object or of society. Instead, he lays blame on the object of his desires: woman.

Lawrence's writing is not bad, but is not good enough to buoy the density of this novel's material flaws.(less)

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Jul 12, 2007 carolime added it · review of another edition Recommends it for: romantic swamps

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 me ashamed that...more 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 me ashamed that people might read the plight of misguided connie and connect her to me, as we are both women. she's a horrid, boring sort, possessing only the most tame and insipid of emotions. and worse yet, her actions are undeniably lacking in tenacity, conflict, earnestness, shame or any other quality that lends depth to a character. constance is quite ordinary, but it is d.h. lawrence that i really abhor. it upsets me so much that he attempts a novel from the viewpoint of a woman without bothering to consider whether or not his character had any womanishness to her. i consider it an insult.

then there's the excessive word-play. i can't tell if they are merely quaint anachronisms or if the piteous author thought the language needed more romance to accompany "the summation of d.h. lawrence's achievement". (signet's phrasing, not mine). lady chatterley's lover is rife with phrases as "the bitch-goddess of Success;" where lawrence panders to the writer within us all, appealing to our sympathy for the starving artist and his hunger for fame. i'm not fooled. and to guise it all under the curtain of a torrid love affair is truly awful- how moralistic and judgemental it is, all while professing "freedom" from sexual and social mores!

no, dear friends, do not believe such duplicitous cunning. he lies! he preaches the importance of freedom for all-- and yet he seeks to imprison each of us within his novel, championing tired victorian sexual and social stereotypes. for example, connie's insane desire to have a child fuels her desperate extramarital love-fire. this does not free anyone who lives within the confines of a cold marriage, it only sanctifies those who seek to travel down the traditional avenues of escapism. meanwhile, lawrence pushes traditional imprisoning social values of classism, sexism and marriage yet glazes his suckerpunches in the absymal glow of nauseating sex-language. it's true that i chortled over his lumbering descriptions with my own mate, but only insasmuch as we felt truly sorry that anyone might conceive of a sexual experience from such a phallocratic vantage point.

in conclusion, allow me to leave you with these choice quotes. first is a compliment that the lover pays to lady chatterley, a compliment that she treasures in her heart and ponders over in her own mousy and boring way. it is his objectificatory admiration of her, where he denies her the right to be anything other than his construction. she remembers this prison fondly in the second quote. fini.

"Tha's got such a nice tail on thee," he said, in the throaty caressive dialect. "Tha's got the nicest arse of anybody. It's the nicest, nicest woman's arse as is! An ivry bit of it is woman, woman sure as nuts...Tha's got a real soft sloping bottom on thee, as a man loves in 'is guts. It's a bottom as could hold the world up, it is! An' if tha shits an' pisses, I'm glad, I don't want a woman as couldna shit nor piss."
. . .
"And she heard his voice again: Tha's got the nicest arse woman's arse of anybody! And she felt his hand warmly and softly closing over her tail again, over her secret places, like a benediction. And the warmth ran through her womb, and the little flames flickered in her knees, and she said: Oh no! I mustn't go back on it! I must not go back on him! I must stick to him and to what I had of him, through everything. I had no warm, flamy life till he gave it me. And I won't go back on it."(less)

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Jun 09, 2008 Kat rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 other Lawrence books are more w...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Andy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I have the Penguin '50th Anniversary edition' published in 2010, with the orange Penguin cover and a silhouette of a couple 'embracing' mimicking the original phoenix drawn by DHL himself (not on GRs at present). I say that as it also contains afterwords by Geoffrey Robertson QC discussing the legal case, and Steve Hare discussing the decision to publish by Penguin leading up to it all, along with a detailed time-line and facsimile copies of letters and communications relating to the trial (from...more I have the Penguin '50th Anniversary edition' published in 2010, with the orange Penguin cover and a silhouette of a couple 'embracing' mimicking the original phoenix drawn by DHL himself (not on GRs at present). I say that as it also contains afterwords by Geoffrey Robertson QC discussing the legal case, and Steve Hare discussing the decision to publish by Penguin leading up to it all, along with a detailed time-line and facsimile copies of letters and communications relating to the trial (from Aldous Huxley, Kingsley Amis, EM Forster, to name a few). That was pretty much why I bought it, a nice little historical moment in literary history tied together in a compact book. My only experience of Lady Chatterley to date was the BBC version starring Joely Richardson which was broadcast at a formative moment in my youth. Boobs aside, I had little memory of it.

All of which is actually more entertaining than the book itself which I've been slowly reading for a few weeks (I'm having to do lots of reading for work/training at the moment, finding less enthusiasm for it once home).

The novel starts off promisingly but then sags for long stretches until the the affair starts proper. We then go back and forth between endless repetitive discussions on sex and class. The language is surprisingly coarse for a book of the era, though hardly shocking today and the sex is less titillating than mechanical. I found it rather male centric, seemingly trying to empower women but actually achieving the opposite (one of many entertaining incongruities - Mellors explaining his frustration with his wife because he couldn't make her come, doesn't really portray him in a great light). And Connie is just so insipid and stuck in her own head, constantly thinking about her current emotions rather than experiencing them. You want to give the spoilt rich daddy's girl a slap sometimes.

It's frequently dull, somewhat overwritten and occasionally veers off into vast sociological class-driven diatribes on the current state of our youth. I can see what he was getting at, it's just not that great.

The extra information at the end is much more entertaining, scathing about the prosecution for the obscenity case, often very funny in revealing the details of the trial and pretty hard on the book itself. The need to tackle the outdated obscenity law of the time was seen as an important event but the frustration that it had to occur 'with this book' in particular is pretty funny. So many other famous authors supported the trial but bemoaned the story.

With all that, I'm happy for it to maintain a place on my shelves, highlighting a vital point in literary and censorship history. I don't even mind it my wife or servants read it. I just wouldn't recommend it. (less)

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Apr 05, 2013 Celeste Rousselot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-written-reviews

I am 66 years-old. Yes, a Baby Boomer, raised by secular Adlai Stevenson Democrats in the San Francisco Bay Area! At home wherever I turned, books lined the walls: math books, physics and astronomy books, history books, art books, New Age books, religious books, classic and contemporary literature books, even Lady Chatterley’s Lover. But, and here’s the weird part, I never even once peeped between the covers of that infamous book. In spite of my parents’ liberal views, I knew they expected me to...more
I am 66 years-old. Yes, a Baby Boomer, raised by secular Adlai Stevenson Democrats in the San Francisco Bay Area! At home wherever I turned, books lined the walls: math books, physics and astronomy books, history books, art books, New Age books, religious books, classic and contemporary literature books, even Lady Chatterley’s Lover. But, and here’s the weird part, I never even once peeped between the covers of that infamous book. In spite of my parents’ liberal views, I knew they expected me to be “a good girl.” That’s the way they had been raised. What if you get pregnant? Why are you wearing that black coat? It gives the wrong impression. You don’t want to appear loose, do you? And so forth… So not wanting to be “a bad girl,” I decided not to read or look at any books or magazines possibly containing erotic material. I imagine by now, at the least, you realize that I was raised in a conflicted environment.

Well, years have gone by. Both of my parents died several years ago. Partially retired now, my husband and I have been married for 40+ years. Our twin “boys” are 30 years old and trying to make their own way in the world. I could go on and on with my life story but that’s not really the point of this review. Instead with so much life and experience under my belt, I recently wondered what was still keeping me from reading books like Lady Chatterley’s Lover. How could it hurt me? What if I enjoyed it? Would my mother turn over in her grave? Not likely. So I met the challenge, ordered a copy of the book and settled in to read.

It turns out I did enjoy it for reasons I expected and many I did not. (1) The sex scenes were quite graphic, but the language, post-World War I English, sounded funny and archaic. Occasionally I didn’t know what parts of the body D.H. Lawrence was writing about. He wove so much dialect in and out of the King’s English that now and then I couldn’t quite figure out the story line. (2) Profanity abounded, reminding me that the British do swear more than most Americans think. (3) Lawrence’s descriptions of industrial pollution, coal mines, the blackened land and buildings, noxious fumes and especially the down-trodden coal miners and their families contrasted sharply with his discussions of a utopian world in which society would value the human body, encourage love-making, know the need for human touch, and prefer nature and running naked in the rain to creating more pollution to make more money.(4) I found Lady Chatterley and her lover, Oliver Mellors, both to be authentic people, willing to speak their minds, even when their ideas and actions ran contrary to the traditional rules separating England’s upper classes from her lower ones. She and he both saw no problems with their love for one another. It transcended class. (5) Finally I especially celebrated D.H. Lawrence’s support for women’s enjoyment of love-making. Even though his belief in the necessity of simultaneous orgasms (“crises” as they said back then) is dated, the fact that he thought women should be involved in the act just as much as men was really forward thinking. He derided the idea that the passive woman was the preferred (let alone requisite) woman.

I recommend Lady Chatterley’s Lover to anyone who’s ever feared peeking between its pages. After all, it doesn’t hurt; it’s educational and a lot of fun. The only reason I gave the book four rather than five stars lies with D.H. Lawrence’s sometimes awkward writing style, not that it’s old fashion, more because it’s choppy here and there, and his vocabulary seems a bit limited making some lines repetitive.
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Apr 03, 2009 htanzil rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 d...more

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May 22, 2007 Andrea added it · review of another edition

Shelves: triedtoreadbutdidntmakeit

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...

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Feb 15, 2009 Lorena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lorena by: Sidebar

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 hardly an hones...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Zeek rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, literary, banned-challenged

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 he was. I could barely...more

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Nov 06, 2010 Bibliophile rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"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 depus maj...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Rikke rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, owned-books, erotica, romance

When I first started to read "Lady Chatterley's Lover" I was reminded of Flaubert's classic tale of the unsatisfied Madame Bovary, as both novels seemed to examine the women's hungry need for something more than the provincial and trivial rituals their marriages provided them with. However the novels differ greatly on the particular life demands. Where Flaubert's Emma has an undefinable lust for life, Lawrence's Connie suffers from a specific lack of sexual intimacy.
Lawrence's point therefore s...more When I first started to read "Lady Chatterley's Lover" I was reminded of Flaubert's classic tale of the unsatisfied Madame Bovary, as both novels seemed to examine the women's hungry need for something more than the provincial and trivial rituals their marriages provided them with. However the novels differ greatly on the particular life demands. Where Flaubert's Emma has an undefinable lust for life, Lawrence's Connie suffers from a specific lack of sexual intimacy.
Lawrence's point therefore seems to be, that sexual drive is an essential part of life and an important part of the human identity. Along the lines of Freudian tradition, Lawrence's characters simply fade away without their libido.
This is in fact crucial to the novel as all of the three main characters, Connie, Clifford and Oliver Mellors, try to do without sex, and therefore deny themselves a huge part of life.

"Lady Chatterley's Lover" is a beautiful celebration of sex and love in a time where every woman was regarded as a sexless creature, and the bare mentioning of sex was considered an outrage.
So, what could possibly be wrong with it? Why did I choose to give it just one lonely star?

First of all, Lawrence's sentiment that women with "too much will" only can be considered lesbians or invalids is scandalous, and destroys his entire point. If he really was trying to celebrate sexuality, then why on earth would he start handing out offensive remarks such as that? It demonstrates the very same ugly prejudice he is trying so hard to fight.
Secondly, the sex scenes are flat and boring. And so are the characters; Connie has not even a hint of a personality. She simply just exists.
Thirdly, the whole an-affair-with-a-gardener cliché. Please.
And lastly - there is no need to use 'forbidden words' if there's no point with it. Lawrence seems to wish to provoke simply because he can, not because there is any meaning behind it.

Of course there are moments of literary magnificence, and Lawrence's nature descriptions are completely lyrical. And the message Lawrence is trying to convey is really an admirable one; it just falls to the ground and leaves a big, massive hole instead. (less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Fatin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, owned, banned-books, sexual, wonderful-opening-lines

Connie is an old soul who's so young. I felt her pain, her confusion, her innocence, her loss, her anger, her happiness, and her love. I understood how she was not only trapped in a dying house with a dying husband, but also within herself.
"You are a slave to your own idea of yourself."
I loved the opposites and the parallels drawn in the story. Of how Lady Chatterley felt just as trapped in love as she felt free. Of how sweet she was to her husband (view spoiler)...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Body without mind is brutish; mind without body...is a running away from our double being."

*****

And that, ultimately, it seems to me is what Lady Chatterley's Lover is all about. Lawrence's everyday acceptance, and glorification, of the unifying and transforming powers of sex is the medium he used - but the text also talks about the same metamorphosing powers in the reveling in nature or empowering work. Even more than Forster's novel "Howard's End" it deserves the epithet "Only Connect". The f...more "Body without mind is brutish; mind without body...is a running away from our double being."

*****

And that, ultimately, it seems to me is what Lady Chatterley's Lover is all about. Lawrence's everyday acceptance, and glorification, of the unifying and transforming powers of sex is the medium he used - but the text also talks about the same metamorphosing powers in the reveling in nature or empowering work. Even more than Forster's novel "Howard's End" it deserves the epithet "Only Connect". The first world war shattered society: shattered class relationships, shattered gender relationships, shattered hearts and bodies and the relation between the two. And it's into that world that Lady C's L drops us.

I can see many people being disappointed with this book - but not because of what the book itself intends to say, but because of its reputation. If you're looking for pornography, you won't find it here - and I'm sure many open it for titillation and get heartily bored. If you're easily offended by words like fuck and cunt and cock then you'll be reading the novel with pursed lips and a frown, because those words are freely and joyfully used throughout. If you find the act of sex itself ridiculous, and any attempt to portray it automatically an embarassment, then you'll find the passages poeticising about the physical act profoundly excrutiating; but Lawrence anticipates this and points out regularly how ridiculous the act is and looks, but then wonders about something so ridiculous having such power over people.

Connie (Constance) Chatterley and Oliver Mellors are two people disjointed from society - in different social worlds, but each able to see how society is cracked and unable to see how they fit in. Connie's loveless marriage to Clifford (loveless before his wartime injuries left him paralysed from the waist down) is a trap, without use of his legs he becomes a visual symbol of what his intellectual friends are: the overbearing of mind on the body, the mind's dream of simply doing away with bodily functions of all kinds. Mellor's contemporaries in the mining village are the opposite - all bodily cravings needing to be satisfied. Both Milady and the game keeper need more - they need to be absorbed in touch and contact, the ecstasy of joining together in a way that society frowned on even between two of the same class.

When the Penguin paperback was published in 1959 and taken to court on obscenity charges, this novel became famous. And even in 1960, the class divisions of the 1920s were still shining through, in the famous question by the prosecution: "what would you do if your wife, or your servant were to read this book?" What indeed. Fortunately, the jury found in favour of the publishers and opened the way for much greater freedoms in publishing.

So ultimately, in this rambling and incoherent review, I'd say to approach this book without preconceptions, because it's almost certainly not what you expect it to be.(less)

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Jun 03, 2012 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, reading-through-history, smut

Here's what I think happens with this book: I think people think it's Victorian. The title sounds Victorian, right? And it's about...I think we call them the landed gentry*? and their dissolution, which is a major theme of the late Victorians. Lawrence even puts sort of a Victorian feel into his writing, which I believe (and hope) he's doing on purpose. (Does he do that in his other books?)

* which I always thought meant, you know, they had landed somewhere. Like Iceland? I always pictured well-...more Here's what I think happens with this book: I think people think it's Victorian. The title sounds Victorian, right? And it's about...I think we call them the landed gentry*? and their dissolution, which is a major theme of the late Victorians. Lawrence even puts sort of a Victorian feel into his writing, which I believe (and hope) he's doing on purpose. (Does he do that in his other books?)

* which I always thought meant, you know, they had landed somewhere. Like Iceland? I always pictured well-dressed ladies and gentlemen stepping off boats. So that's a confusing thing to call them.

So I think two things happen when people read this book, or decide not to read it:
a) They think it's stuffy, because on the surface it sortof is;
b) The sex bits are totally incongruous - again, I think, on purpose - and people either don't realize what's happening or they do realize it and are confused by it.

Seriously, I've heard people disliking this book and I think they thought they were reading a stuffy old Victorian thing with bizarrely out of place smut shoved into it. And if you think that's what this is, then...well, that sounds great to me, but your mileage may vary.

Anyway, it's not that. It's set in the aftermath of WWI. There's a Brave New World reference.* Lawrence is a contemporary of Hemingway and Steinbeck and Faulkner; this is a modern novel. And I think - I'm not totally sure yet, I'm only 1/4 of the way through - I think he's being ironic. I mean, I think he has serious things to say about the nature of relationships between men and women, and how they're changing, and how women are taking control of their sexuality, but I think he's put it in this anachronistic setting to help make his point. It's sharper than people think it is, is what I'm saying.

* Astute people might note that Lady Chatterley's Lover was published in 1928 and Brave New World wasn't even written until 1931, so wtf? Lawrence and Huxley were apparently friends, so my best guess is that Lawrence saw an early draft. It is not a We reference; the quote is, "Olive was reading a book about the future, when babies would be bred in bottles, and women would be 'immunized.'" That can only be Brave New World.

Also, Lady Chatterley feels a lot of things in her womb. Every time she sees a hot guy her womb, like, twitches. I didn't realize wombs were this jumpy.(less)

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Feb 10, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Historians, Librarians, English Majors

Recommended to Michael by: Miriam Moses and Micheal Vonn

Shelves: literature

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 appetite rather t...more

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Dec 09, 2009 J rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“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 packed. Unfortunately...more

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About D.H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues rel...more

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The Rocking Horse Winner (Travelman Classics)

Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence (Wordsworth Poetry Library)

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