Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Sons and Lovers” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

more photos (1)

Read Book

Sons and Lovers

D.H. Lawrence,

Geoff Dyer (Goodreads Author) (Introduction)

3.62 · Rating details · 43,010 ratings · 1,727 reviews

"She was a brazen hussy."

"She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?"

"I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes ...more

Get A Copy

Or buy for

Paperback, 654 pages

Published August 17th 1999 by Modern Library Classics (first published 1913)

More Details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Sons and Lovers, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Best Books of the 20th Century

7,637 books — 48,317 voters

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend by Hermann Hesse

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke

Best Books of the Decade: 1910's

388 books — 709 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

3.62 ·

Rating details

· 43,010 ratings · 1,727 reviews

Filter

Sort order

Nov 20, 2011 Richard Derus rated it did not like it

Rating: 0.125* of five

BkC51) SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence: The worst, most horrendously offensively overrated piece of crap I've read in my life.

Yeup. Since I'm in a real bitch-slappin' mood, here goes.

The Book Report: Sensitive, aesthetic nebbish gets born to rough miner and his neurasthenic dishcloth of a wife. She falls in love with her progeny and tries to Save Him From Being Like His Father, which clearly is a fate worse than death. So, lady, if you didn't like the guy, why didn't you j ...more

flag 124 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2016 Cecily rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, historical-fict-20th-cent

I started the year transfixed by the visceral floral and fiery passion of Lawrence's The Rainbow (my review HERE). Its rich earth ripened buds of promise into irresistible blooms of vibrant delicacy. But reading this at the end of the year, I felt more like I'd been dragged through barren mud. Perhaps that’s fitting for the story of a miner’s family.

There is lyrical imagery and “caressive” talk (see quotes, below), but far too much plodding Janet-and-John prose, and characters who infuriated me ...more

flag 93 likes · Like · see review

Dec 04, 2013 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage, fiction, mesmerizing, fav-authors

The storyline is in the name, Sons and Lovers, but what you don't expect are the subtleties of the Oedipus complex or Freudian allegory. It was a surprisingly sensational read for me, especially since earlier this year, I gave myself a classics challenge: to read and re-read a few classics just for the sake of it; erase the disdain of forced-readings in high school, college and grad school; read just for how it makes me feel, not because everyone else is doing it. Sons and Lovers ends my pers ...more

flag 76 likes · Like · see review

Apr 27, 2014 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: english-calssics, rated-books, reviewed-books, guardian-1000

Generally considered Lawrence's masterpiece, it is ranked 9th on the Modern Library 100 best books of the 20th century. The story of Paul Morel and his brothers and the influence of the women in their lives, especially of their mother. I think the age old theme of men trying to find a wife or lover in the metaphorical image of their mother is present in all of Lawrence's novels, but more so in Son and Lover's than any other. It is beautifully written and the characters are well developed and ver ...more

flag 59 likes · Like · see review

Nov 15, 2017 Luís C. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: on-my-own, 1001-done, favourites, uk-and-related, dom-quixote, 500-600, reading-the-world

Sons and Lovers or Lovers and Sons in some editions, is the fictionalized autobiography of the origins and youth of D.H.Lawrence.

The main character, like the great writer, was born in the world of the mining country of Nottinghamshire, a sensual father, drinker, choleric, vulgar nature and a mother from a higher background, to the puritanical and bourgeois values constantly wounded by the unseemly attitude, the reckless acts and low appetites of her husband. This volume is an interesting documen Sons and Lovers or Lovers and Sons in some editions, is the fictionalized autobiography of the origins and youth of D.H.Lawrence.

The main character, like the great writer, was born in the world of the mining country of Nottinghamshire, a sensual father, drinker, choleric, vulgar nature and a mother from a higher background, to the puritanical and bourgeois values constantly wounded by the unseemly attitude, the reckless acts and low appetites of her husband. This volume is an interesting document on the daily lives of miners and their families: hard work, modest joys, pubs spent on the meager pay on Friday. It bears witness to the development, precursor to the creation of the Labor Party, of workers 'organizations, such as workers' cooperatives, solidarity funds, women's guilds or temperance societies, while feminist consciousness and aspirations are born in the developed layers of the population. It is also a pretext for the suggestive description of Nottingham, its monuments, its nature, the localities surrounding it. But the main interest of this story is that of being, without any doubt, the most personal work of Lawrence, where the emotion of the thing lived is everywhere exposed. The oedipus of the latter is very well made, as well as the atmosphere of growing hatred of children for this father to the unworthy conduct, nonetheless exempt from a few rare moments of peace and relative happiness. David Herbert Lawrence aka Paul Morel appears as a gentle child, thoughtful, temperament artist, conscientious painter with delicate health, subject to bronchitis, these disorders that will prematurely take the writer of tuberculosis. We follow his launch in life as a clerk in an orthopedic appliance factory in Nottingham, the untimely death of the eldest son of the family, the first long-platonic love affair with the mystical, religious and reserved Myriam, then with the Clara, a meeting marked by the seal of ephemeral passion and the Dionysian impulse so dear to the artist. It is especially in the narration of the fusional attachment with her mother that the work culminates. This love makes a balance of power, confrontation, possessiveness of the mother, jealousy too; finally, the heart-rending agony of the latter and the deep distress that seizes the son at the loss of the irreplaceable, provoke in the reader an unusual emotional tension.

A troubling novel, moving and poignant. ...more

flag 55 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2015 Jr Bacdayan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

How do you leave a mother who associates her life’s meaning and fulfillment to you and your achievements, without breaking her heart? How do you surrender all your passion to a lover while leaving some for the woman who gave birth to you, reared you, and loved you? Should a man give greater love to his mother or his lover? How do you achieve balance between the women in your life? D.H. Lawrence’s semi-autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers displays the pendulum of a young man’s love swinging to- ...more

flag 50 likes · Like · see review

Dec 29, 2013 Perry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: libri-classici

Being Smothered by Controlling Mother
Domineering Mommy

Coal Mining Son

"You made me cry, you told me lies
But I can't stand to say goodbye.
Mama I'm comin' home.
Ozzy Osbourne, Mama, I'm Coming Home, 1991.

D.H. Lawrence, one of my personal favorites, seems to have told a tale no truer than his largely autobiographical Sons and Lovers. While all the primary characters have some major defect of character, I felt the most pity for the protagonist Paul Morel (a real mama's boy) and Miriam (his childho ...more

flag 48 likes · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2018 Khush rated it it was amazing

'Sons and Lovers' is an excellent book on several fronts. It is a story of a young man who is a budding writer. One sees the poet in him. He is sensitive, forlorn and deeply contemplative. He possesses all the mythic features we often assign to artists. We see him discussing books with his girlfriend, his delight at getting published and earning a little money. This aspect of his life, without his other difficulties, might be of supreme interest for those who harbor the same sort of ambition.

Thi

'Sons and Lovers' is an excellent book on several fronts. It is a story of a young man who is a budding writer. One sees the poet in him. He is sensitive, forlorn and deeply contemplative. He possesses all the mythic features we often assign to artists. We see him discussing books with his girlfriend, his delight at getting published and earning a little money. This aspect of his life, without his other difficulties, might be of supreme interest for those who harbor the same sort of ambition.

This young man is Paul who is extremely attached to his mother. His mother marries Walter Morel, socially her inferior, and later comes to regret her decision. Her oldest son dies young, and now she has nothing to hold onto in her life except Paul, her youngest son. She focuses all her attention on him. As Paul grows up, he begins to see girls. First, he meets Miriam who, like Paul, has a refined sensibility. They meet often and establish a good rapport. Although they share a great friendship, there is no passion in their relationship. To aggravate this relationship further comes in Paul's mother. She resents Miriam and thinks of her as 'deep', someone who can take her son away from her. She fears that Miriam seeks to possess her son's soul. Having lost so much in life, she makes sure that nobody comes between her and Paul.

Paul meets another girl Clara. With her, there is no spiritual connection, his relationship with her pivots only on passion, and therefore, it begins to crack as soon as it started. Paul's mother feels less threatened by her, though. One can imagine how a sensitive boy like Paul might have suffered in the web of these powerful forces, each pulling him in a certain direction – and tearing him apart.

What is so impressive about the book is that it captures the tensions and inner turmoil that this young boy grapples with. Lawrence goes very deep in portraying Paul and making him so credible. All his inner thoughts in relation to his mother, his violent father, his two girlfriends, his budding writing career are drawn with extreme care, love, and formidable talent. In addition, the tension that exists between his mother and him is dealt with so powerfully that as a reader I was absolutely lost in the queer vortex of their world. Who can repeat what Lawrence has achieved in bringing to the page what is so often lived by millions, but so rarely understood and discussed.

As I think more about Paul, I feel that there is something about him we do not know. Lawrence probably leaves that for us to figure it out. For instance, Paul's failure with two girls; his overwhelming and complicated relationship with his mother. Most of the time, ordinary people get over whatever close attachments they have with their parents – sibling or friends – once they have a close, intimate, passionate encounter with the 'right other.' However, Paul fails to take that leap.

Towards the end, his mother dies. He walks toward the lights, toward the city; Miriam and Clara, now, belong to another time and place. One can only guess what his walk toward the city meant. What is it that he could not find in spiritually inclined Miriam and sexually daring Clara? One keeps wondering. Even though a perceptive reader knows Paul very early in the book, he can feel Paul's deep desires and understand his profound melancholy. Since he looks for satisfaction in wrong places (or rather forced to do so considering the times he lived in), this brings pain, suffering and long spells of sadness in his life and in the lives of those who are attached to him. ...more

flag 46 likes · Like · see review

Oct 30, 2017 Stephen P rated it really liked it

There has been a robbery. A theft on a grand scale. Cleansed of the detritus of a self, a presence, an ability to act on desire, he waits to be alit upon…The fretwork strums a baroque dirge as an accompaniment to realizations of the smallness of any life upon the vastness of the universe and its grand seduction of infinite stars; the largeness of the interiority of ones passions and the labyrinth they must circumvent. Their interactions and the labyrinthine yearnings of others result in collisio There has been a robbery. A theft on a grand scale. Cleansed of the detritus of a self, a presence, an ability to act on desire, he waits to be alit upon…The fretwork strums a baroque dirge as an accompaniment to realizations of the smallness of any life upon the vastness of the universe and its grand seduction of infinite stars; the largeness of the interiority of ones passions and the labyrinth they must circumvent. Their interactions and the labyrinthine yearnings of others result in collisions sparking a cannibalism of blood spotted gore within their circumvented lives.

Lawrence writes this in the style of his time; a third person narrator who does not hesitate to drift from points of views occasionally to the detriment of the narrative’s pace. He dilutes the meaning of characters gestures and movements by explanation and confirmation. There is a doubt within him the reader will get what is expressed. This leaves less room for the reader to enter into the story but more room for the reader to be filled up by the characters? The author? The duty of the author to fill the reader up? The year is 1913. Readership was less sophisticated then? Yet, I can but imagine how scandalous the contents of this story burned within its package of seeded tropes. Generations tumble through decades. Psychologically steeped in acute vision he understands the psychoanalytic Oedipal situation bordering on the incestuous. Sex whispers through the sentences. His autobiography finding its form of fiction.

Paul finds himself strewn upon the rough edged rocks of a family living within a small English coal mining town. Gertrude, his sensitive mother married to a crude miner, has attached herself to her son’s, Paul, especially after her eldest has died. Quietly she mines an attachment to Paul that may also make up the lack of nourishment gained from her marriage. He a budding artist with little recognition from an often sodden father who is neither a role model or a mirrored reflection back for Paul to see who he is, who he might be as a man. He needs much from others as he grows but is frightened to ask or seek. Attracted to a woman he hesitates, falters, swings back and forth between betrayal of his mother and a withdrawal removed in layered shades from life around him, from any circumference of a globe he may safely enter. Left in a removed isolation alone but only occasionally lonely. This is a space leased to him fitted to his contours.

I hear somewhere deep within my inner ear an echo of Lawrence’s voice asking in an English accent to stop here. He warns that if I go on to describe the others, their relationships, the sucking ooze of life, I will be betraying him by stereotyping his finely wrought complex characters so completely themselves. He is right. Words will dampen their vitality confining them to less than they are.

In the end, this bold book crashing through time, illuminating its elastic taunts and tumbles, questions the minute and the vast, while spinning its compelling tale. ...more

flag 40 likes · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2008 Cyril rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I attempted to read this book twice years ago. I failed to finish each time, finding the novel laborious. Now, married and with children, I have read through this book eagerly. It is perhaps a half-lifetime of experience that has allowed me to see this story in a different light. The examination of Paul Morel's emotionally incestuous relationship with his mother and the way it cripples his love for other women is insightful. My Barnes and Nobles version of this book (I put this review under this ...more

flag 35 likes · Like · see review

Nov 02, 2015 Chrissie rated it did not like it

Shelves: audible, bio, relationships, love, england, classics, 2015-read, disliked, returned, life-stages

I read books for pleasure. I enjoy learning something new and thinking about human relationships. Real human relationships, not those of the fantastical sort. I want to have something to ponder. In addition I want writing that describes places, people and situations well.

I learned nothing new from this book.

The human relationships as described herein are not true to life. Maybe members of the Bloomsbury Group, of which D. H. Lawrence was one, did in fact communicated with each other with extre ...more

flag 31 likes · Like · see review

Oct 05, 2015 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fave-classics

I had no idea what to expect of Sons and Lovers as I went in. I had no idea what the book is about, presumably multiple sons and more than one lovers are involved. With the public domain books just knowing that it is a classic is usually enough. I also had no expectation of D.H. Lawrence, I knew he is the author of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which I have a vague impression of being some kind of Edwardian porn (though it probably isn't). Diving in with no expectation is often fun and rewarding.

The ...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Mar 10, 2019 David Schaafsma rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-20th-century

Sons and Lovers is a 1913 novel by the English writer D. H. Lawrence. The Modern Library placed it ninth on their list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

In stark contrast, Goodreads reviewer Richard Derus has the most popular review here and one that made me laugh aloud, in which he begins: “The worst, most horrendously offensively overrated piece of crap I've read in my life.” He ends his review, ”If you, for some reason, liked this tedious, crapulous drivel, then goody good good, but ...more

flag 28 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2012 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

“I have been reading ‘Sons and Lovers’ and feel ready to die. If Lawrence had been killed after writing that book he’d still be England’s greatest novelist.”
- Philip Larkin in a letter to a friend, aged nineteen.

It’s late, and I haven’t written any reviews for this site up until now, but here goes nothing. Considering the relatively abysmal ratings that Lawrence’s novels seem to have here, I figured I should at least add my two cents and say a couple things about what I feel is one of the better “I have been reading ‘Sons and Lovers’ and feel ready to die. If Lawrence had been killed after writing that book he’d still be England’s greatest novelist.”
- Philip Larkin in a letter to a friend, aged nineteen.

It’s late, and I haven’t written any reviews for this site up until now, but here goes nothing. Considering the relatively abysmal ratings that Lawrence’s novels seem to have here, I figured I should at least add my two cents and say a couple things about what I feel is one of the better novels I’ve read. Published in 1913, Sons and Lovers was D.H. Lawrence’s third novel, and is today generally considered to be his first ‘major’ work. An autobiographical Bildungsroman, S&L documents a time in the author’s life that was filled, in the words of Lawrence himself, with much “writhing and shrieking.” This work is often regarded as the first great modern Oedipal drama, and indeed it is the story of a mother who, stuck with a brute for a husband, turns her sons into something like surrogate lovers. No, that doesn’t mean that there is any incest in this book (if you’re looking for smut, look elsewhere; Lawrence’s reputation as a pornographer is undeserved), but it does mean that these sons, in particular Paul (the Lawrence character), end up finding it immensely difficult to get out from under the shadow of their mother and connect with the women they establish relationships with outside of the family.

It seems that most of the complaints about this work are along the lines of “it was too boring” or “I didn’t like any of the characters.” It is true that most of the conflict in the book is internal rather than external, but I’m unable to see how one could be anything but in awe of Lawrence’s command of the English language, as well as his understanding of the mechanics of human emotions. But if you need action, this book has its share: sickness, death, a killer fight scene, sex, temper tantrums…you name it. If the feelings or the relationships of the characters are not cut-and-dried, it is not a fault of the work. Lawrence succeeds in capturing the humanity of these characters, and for that reason I always felt sympathetic towards them. Granted, this is a painful book to read; no book has yet succeeded in making me cry, but this one may have come closest :_( . It is an excellent coming-of-age tale, and now sits alongside Joyce’s Portrait…as likely the most rewarding Bildungsroman I’ve yet read. Pity they couldn’t stand each other ha ha!

P.S.
I have the Oxford World’s Classics edition (which features a lovely painting by C.R.W. Nevinson on its cover), and in David Trotter’s introduction I discovered that the version I read was the Cambridge University Press version. This version, though far and away the most widely recognized, features extended cuts made by Lawrence’s friend and mentor Edward Garnett. The endnotes of my copy make reference to some of these cuts, including a lengthy one wherein Paul and Miriam meet at a library. Lawrence approved Garnett’s edits, but Trotter seemed to suggest that the original manuscript version is also in print. I've been unsuccessful in my search to find out more about this, but does anyone know if it is possible to obtain an unedited 'manuscript' copy? I know the Penguin edition is also the Cambridge version.

...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Oct 04, 2018 Alok Mishra rated it it was amazing

I have seen many people hating this novel. I ask myself - why? I studied Sons and Lovers during my MA in English Literature and found the novel amazing - yes, a little different if compared to what the usual novels offer. However, the very difference that we find in this novel makes us read it. Paul is a deep-personality who is often in a fix - which way to choose. His relationships are failures because he cannot push himself into any of those entirely. Clara and Miriam are like two distinct pol ...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2017 Jason rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Love & Pain: self love & self-inflicted pain; familial love & the pain of resentment; romantic love & the pain of rejection; physical love & the pain of loss.

I did not love this book during most of the reading, I actually found it to be quite a pain for much of the time. This is not to say that there is not some beautiful writing and superb character development, because there absolutely is. I think I was just frustrated with all the pain - the pain inflicted on themselves an Love & Pain: self love & self-inflicted pain; familial love & the pain of resentment; romantic love & the pain of rejection; physical love & the pain of loss.

I did not love this book during most of the reading, I actually found it to be quite a pain for much of the time. This is not to say that there is not some beautiful writing and superb character development, because there absolutely is. I think I was just frustrated with all the pain - the pain inflicted on themselves and each other. The relationships are largely toxic, but there is love between the pages too, if there weren't it would not be nearly so painful, nor so believable.

Let me go ahead and finish with the gripes straight off, shall I?:
The Nottinghamshire dialect was difficult for me for some reason. The use of dialect often takes some reading before the reader can become accustomed to it, but once they settle into the rhythm and patterns it contributes immeasurably to the immersion. For some reason, I found this particularly stilted and unnatural, and never could quite settle into the Nottinghamshire dialect. It shouldn't have been so - blame the reader for this one. This dialect was in particular used by the father, Walter Morel, and many pages would go by at a time without him speaking at all and when he did it was generally short, so perhaps my not being able to get a handle on it stems from this, but this also means it is not overly detracting.

Praise of sorts:
The story as a whole is psychologically fascinating. The title provides one with the frame for the entire work, we follow the Morel nuclear family relationships from their essential beginnings to their conclusion. Our primary protagonist, Paul Morel, is not focused on until the second part of the book, but everything prior to that provides the basis for the relationships to follow, especially the critical building material/blocks for the paramount relationship, the one between Paul and his mother, Gertrude. The individual characters are sympathetic, but often cruel and manipulative to one another.

A quick and vastly lacking synopsis:
Gertrude marries, but her husband, Walter Morel, turns out to be neither the man she would have preferred nor perhaps the man she thought he was. Walter is coarse and common, and one could debate on how much of his less favorable qualities are innate in him, and how much is brought out by his family's disdain for and exclusion of him. There is plenty of material showing how actions are all really reactions, the results of set relational dynamics and insecurities or misunderstandings. Gertrude, in her dissatisfaction, turns to her sons for companionship and purpose, but I think we see that this reliance on them is in some ways just as dysfunctional as the relationship she has with her husband. Paul was a sensitive child and jealous of his older brother which in time makes him more heavily influenced by and dependent upon his mother. As we follow Paul into manhood, we find that his relationship with his mother influences his romantic relationships. Paul's struggles with the female characters and within himself form the bulk of the second part of the novel. Let's just go ahead and say there is an Oedipus thing going on here.

Wrapping it up - with some praise of sorts:
I found this incredibly intimate novel beautiful and ugly in equal measures. At one stage I grew so frustrated with the characters that I began hoping for a violent turn for them, I think if anything that just demonstrates how effectively Lawrence is able to emotionally draw the reader in. This is a nuanced book wholly concerning it's characters and their relationships, the story is small and intimate, but complicatedly layered.
...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

May 20, 2009 Kacie rated it really liked it

Warning: the book deals with sex. If you're sensitive to that, don't read the book or my review.

I loved this book. It reminded me again of my love for classic English literature. I love the realism in it. "Sons and Lovers" is essentially about relationships. I thought it was going to focus on the relationships of the mother in the book because the first part deals with her marriage and the stages it goes through. It describes the disintegration of love and what it's like to be a woman and have Warning: the book deals with sex. If you're sensitive to that, don't read the book or my review.

I loved this book. It reminded me again of my love for classic English literature. I love the realism in it. "Sons and Lovers" is essentially about relationships. I thought it was going to focus on the relationships of the mother in the book because the first part deals with her marriage and the stages it goes through. It describes the disintegration of love and what it's like to be a woman and have to rely on a man. Then it focuses on her relationship with her sons, and how she transfers that longing for love and hope for the future to her sons, to whom she is an amazing mother. In fact, TOO good of a mother, because the second half of the book is about one of the sons and how her overbearing love has affected him. Lawrence wrote the book to reflect his own relationships with his mother and then lovers, and you can see him trying to process that question we all ask, "Why do I do what I do?"

Lawrence was affected by Freud, who he knew through his lover (in real life), and he recognizes that his mother loved him in a co-dependant way that is perhaps too much like a romantic relationship without ever being sexual. He awknowledges that this leaves him quite dysfunctional in the two relationships that Lawrence has, which are reflected by the two relationships that the son, Paul, goes through in the book.

My predominant reaction going through the book was frustration the character's actions even when I loved them, which is a good thing, it's a sign of being sucked in to the story. The mother is held up as a bit of a long-suffering heroine matched to a loser drunk, but I was even frustrated with her. She's married to a simple man, but a man of joy and loyalty and fun... he's quite quaint. She scorns his simpleness, and I kept thinking... gosh, if she would love him for who he is instead of scorn him because of what he's not, perhaps he'd stay at home instead of heading to the pub for drinks.

Then it was frustrating to feel how trapped the mother is in her life as a woman in that time. She is an incredibly strong woman, and independent. She runs her home and raises her children and holds them together when the father is virtually MIA and totally useless, and begins beating her at times. What option does she have, though? She CAN'T leave, because she can't work. As a woman, she has no place to go where she could actually support a family if she left her husband, even in the worst of the abuse and neglect.

Paul, the son, is an incredibly introspective man who longs for beauty and love and connection, but struggles to love while he is so loyal to his mother, and she jealously holds him to her even as he's tentatively looking for a wife. It's so annoying, because you know the mother has placed so much hope in her son and therefore wants to hold him above a woman who might ruin him. In doing so, though, she IS ruining him, because he longs for a woman and yet can't give himself fully while his mother holds him back. When he turns to a woman who will love him physically, the mother accepts this because it doesn't involve his heart, only his body. This also is devastating, though, because the body only satisfies for so long and the soul cries out for a deeper connection, a deeper love.

I won't go into any more detail, but Lawrence is very, very insightful about the nature of sex and romance within relationships, and how it affects lovers. It is an intense, descriptive, and insightful work. It could be used in a counseling class about relationships. ...more

flag 22 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Rakhi Dalal rated it liked it

Son - I want to review this book Mater.

Mother – Do you really now?

Son – Yes mother.

Mother – I would not advise you to do so.

Son – Why mother?

Mother – Because it will ask too much from you (READ - What about me then? There won’t be anything left for me of you.)

Son – You are being ridiculous mother. I wish to do it because I feel this is right.

Mother – Then do as you deem appropriate. I shall say no more.

Son - I will mother. You can’t hold me now.

So I finally decided to review this book. A midst v ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2016 Mahima rated it really liked it

Lawrence wrote in one of his letters:

“Nobody can have the soul of me. My mother has had it, and nobody can have it again. Nobody can come into my very self again, and breathe me like an atmosphere.”

‘Sons and Lovers’ has many strands it is made up of, and this quote describes the most important one of them. Lawrence’s own unparalleled love for his mother translates in the novel as Paul Morel’s love for his mother, the portrayal of which gives rise to a Freudian subtext. While Lawrence thought tha Lawrence wrote in one of his letters:

“Nobody can have the soul of me. My mother has had it, and nobody can have it again. Nobody can come into my very self again, and breathe me like an atmosphere.”

‘Sons and Lovers’ has many strands it is made up of, and this quote describes the most important one of them. Lawrence’s own unparalleled love for his mother translates in the novel as Paul Morel’s love for his mother, the portrayal of which gives rise to a Freudian subtext. While Lawrence thought that the critics had carved a half lie from an honest portrayal of his childhood, he did admit in many of his letters that he had loved his mother like a lover. In a letter he said, “This has been a kind of bond between me and my mother. We have loved each other, almost with a husband and wife love, as well as filial and maternal.” This love is clearly visible in the novel. It seems to me, however, that the Freudian element, while part of an overarching theme, is not all that important when seen together with the other themes of the novel. At least it doesn’t seem like an intended element. There might be a Freudian element to it, but the love seems like… just love.

The love for his mother gives rise to the most subtle, and sublime tensions in Paul’s life, and also in the novel as a whole. On the one hand is the will to live vitally, a will, which, according to Lawrence, was mixed up with a philosophy of sex. This will is represented by Paul’s relationship with first Miriam, then Clara. On the other hand is the desire to obey, almost a natural impulse in Paul’s case, which is represented by his relationship with his mother. ‘Sons and Lovers’ is an account of a man unable to choose which impulse to follow. The situation is picked up from Lawrence’s life itself, and as Jessie Chambers, the girl on whom Miriam was based, describes, it was simply that while loving his mother with an almost romantic passion, he had nothing left to give to a lover.

For Lawrence, sex was not something crude. “Sex and beauty are one thing, like flame and fire. If you hate sex, you hate beauty.” However, under the yoke of Victorian morels and their mothers’ hold over them, both the writer and the character cannot realize this definition of sex. Sex signified a physical as well as a spiritual union to Lawrence. However, how could he, or Paul, give himself, body and soul, to a lover when it wasn't he who held his own soul?

Be that as it may, it seems to me that both Miriam and Clara just became objects that were intended to be defeated from the very beginning. It seems as if a distorted picture was being portrayed of them, one that would merely serve to make Paul and the mother look like the only victims. I believe Lawrence could perhaps have provided a better picture of the two. I say that because even of Mr. Morel, whom the reader decides to loathe from the very beginning, Lawrence, with remarkable objectivity, presents the other side. There’s no sentimentality, but it does give rise to sympathy, which I feel Lawrence could have evoked with Miriam and Clara’s characters as well. There’s even an honest albeit tender portrayal of the friction between the mother and the son despite their love for each other.

Nonetheless, Lawrence’s writing is remarkable - his insight into character, his understanding of circumstance, and the scope and variety of life that he describes. His writing is also so very beautiful, and some passages, I think, are going to stay with me forever. What would also stay with me is the heart wrenching account of the mother’s death. At one point, it literally made me cry a bit. This was a sad, sad, sad book, and I cannot stress enough on the word sad, but I seem to have a thing for melancholic books.
...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Dec 03, 2015 Pooja rated it liked it

Shelves: 100-pages

3/4th part of this book, I read word by word and could understand each person in the story and why they are as they are. At each point, they created sympathy in my mind for them, specially Mrs. Morel.

It took me 1 month to finally finish this one. And I should admit that this one month didn't go all amazing. I thought each and every time about finishing it. And yet, it was, I feel, daring of me to did so.

It's kinda frustrating book, It sends you off into abyss of depression sometimes, and the do ...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Mar 09, 2010 Alexander rated it did not like it · review of another edition

There has never been a book that made me want to inflict physical pain upon a character -- until Sons & Lovers that is...

The really devious thing about this dreadful book is that the Sons half, the first half, isn't all that bad. Lawrence spends an immense amount of time on what one supposes to be the backstory for the Lovers section. One learns of Paul's youth and temperment, Paul's mother, Paul's parents relationship and his brothers' exploits. It is time consuming and not always entertain ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Aug 13, 2015 Alex rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novel-a-biography, rth-lifetime, 2015

Of all the major writers in the canon, DH Lawrence is the horniest. Lots of people write about sex, but Lawrence writes exclusively about it, entirely about it. He's consumed by sex. Sex motivates everything that happens in his world. It can draw people together like in Lady Chatterley's Lover, or drive people apart. (Its energy in Sons and Lovers is not super positive.)

He thinks there's real communication to be had about what sex is like and why. He wants to talk about how sometimes it's not a Of all the major writers in the canon, DH Lawrence is the horniest. Lots of people write about sex, but Lawrence writes exclusively about it, entirely about it. He's consumed by sex. Sex motivates everything that happens in his world. It can draw people together like in Lady Chatterley's Lover, or drive people apart. (Its energy in Sons and Lovers is not super positive.)

He thinks there's real communication to be had about what sex is like and why. He wants to talk about how sometimes it's not as fun for the woman, and how one might help change that. He wants to discuss how sometimes it gets boring and then you have it in public just to spice it up. And he wants to talk about how sometimes you want to fuck your mom, which brings us to Sons and Lovers.

Paul Morel wants to fuck his mom so bad it ruins every relationship in his life. Everyone can see it. His dad, catching them at a "long, fervent kiss" late in the kitchen, nearly fights him for it. The two women in his life - passive Miriam who says "Yes," and Clara of the body - both know that they're competing with his mother and that they can't win. They're both willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of his overwhelming horniness - "Let me be the sheath to you," says Miriam hopefully - but it's not enough.

And this is, by the way, Lawrence's autobiographical novel. He told Jessie Chambers, the real-life Miriam, "I've loved [my mom], like a lover. That's why I could never love you." Nice, DH.

For context, here we are near the beginning of the century. Here are prudish Virginia Woolf and shitting, twitching James Joyce, careening into modernism, changing the face of literature - and Lawrence, this son of a coalminer, off on the side doing something totally different: writing about sex, over and over, with a persistent urgency that's just as radical. It's not that it's dirtier; Ulysses is dirtier. It's that it's more serious. Joyce is doing it to shock you. Henry Miller, whose Tropic of Cancer (1934) was only a little after Lady Chatterley (1928), is much more shocking - but Miller isn't writing about sex, he's just jerking off while mumbling to himself. Lawrence isn't dirty, or at least not consistently (Lady Chatterley has its moments), but he's erotic. He's horny. That scene where he comes downstairs late at night to find a certain someone "kneeling naked on a pile of white underclothing on the hearthrug, her back towards him, warming herself" - that's, I mean, it's hot stuff.

Also it comes right after a scene where Paul (view spoiler) btw, which comes so unexplained that you're like yeah, that part is definitely autobiographical. (That scene was cut from the original edition, so that's a good way to tell if you're reading the unexpurgated version or not. The original cuts - around 10% - also trimmed out much of the stuff about William at the beginning, which probably improved the flow of the book.)

Lawrence's debt is to Hardy, who also wrote about sex but who was not as horny. They share a knack for vivid scenes; Hardy gives us, for example, swordplay in the ferny glen from Far From the Madding Crowd, and Lawrence delivers Clara and Paul slipping down a rain-soaked cliff of slippery red clay, slick with and stuck in the vermilion mud.

Her shoes were clogged with red earth. It was hard for her. He frowned. At last he caught her hand, and she stood beside him. The cliff rose above them and fell away below. Her colour was up, her eyes flashed. He looked at the big drop below them.

"It's risky," he said, "or messy, at any rate."

That it is, and here's a great book about it. ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

May 25, 2015 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sons and Lovers is a wonderful novel on the complex nature of love in its many forms. We follow the lives of the Morel family who live in a coal mining community in Nottinghamshire at the turn of the twentieth century.

Walter and Gertrude's marriage has problems and Gertrude concentrates her love and hopes on her sons. She becomes a dominating force to them and the life choices they make. The sons suffer with obsession, frustration and indecision about the women in their lives.

Through childhood, ...more

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2017 BAM The Bibliomaniac rated it it was ok

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-death

I think between the stress of the death of my father, the poor narration on my audiobook, and the style of writing, I just did not enjoy this book at all. Something didn't click with me. I'm sorry I can't write more right now.

2017 Reading Challenge: word of a family member in the title

flag 16 likes · Like · see review

Aug 04, 2009 Cristin rated it liked it

Shelves: classics

This marks my first experience of D.H. Lawrence, apart from practically memorizing a famous, passionate excerpt from “The Rainbow,” read during a great episode of Northern Exposure (one of the greatest television shows of all time, in my humble opinion)…that excerpt may have generated some preconceived notions regarding the content of Sons and Lovers…in some ways, my predictions were correct…in others, wholly unmet and practically unfounded.

Sons and Lovers is the story of one family, the Morels, This marks my first experience of D.H. Lawrence, apart from practically memorizing a famous, passionate excerpt from “The Rainbow,” read during a great episode of Northern Exposure (one of the greatest television shows of all time, in my humble opinion)…that excerpt may have generated some preconceived notions regarding the content of Sons and Lovers…in some ways, my predictions were correct…in others, wholly unmet and practically unfounded.

Sons and Lovers is the story of one family, the Morels, which filters into the story of one son in this family, named Paul. As though he absorbed the incredibly “bad vibes” in the Morel household during his fetal development, Paul comes into the world as an innocent baby with a palpable darkness and gloom about him— one inherited, perhaps, by the relentless struggle that binds him to his mother in a preternatural way from the very beginning.

And so, Paul grows in loneliness, frustration and despair, in a household that is patched together by a mother whose propriety is unmatched by many of the surrounding lower middle class mining families. This social backdrop is excellent fuel for social commentary, and Lawrence handles such timeless topics without being overbearing—and without diminishing the integrity of the story, which focuses on Paul’s internal and external conflicts.

In terms of what makes this a classic—Lawrence’s mastery of setting is undeniable…He utilizes the natural landscape as a sort of unyielding metaphor—you, as his reader, know Lawrence means business when he is writing about the “sleek, cool-fleshed fruit” of a cherry. It’s as though Lawrence uses the Earth as the most natural grounds for foreplay; his characters are at the mercy of the weather and the surrounding flora and fauna— they grow dumb and thick blooded at the site of a wet boulevard and seem to consider a row of poplars an open invitation for a raunchy romp in the thicket.

On the whole, the story of Paul Morel’s life and family made me feel more than unsettled... It was rather unpleasant to read about such a desolate and joyless existence as his, and filled me with a sense of fear—that people can actually suffer a fate as isolating and grim as his, his mother’s or his father’s. There is something very realistic about this novel—but the reality is peculiar and unique, as though it belongs to Lawrence alone. That this novel is, in fact, based on Lawrence’s own deeply personal experiences (as the son of a miner, whose relationship with his mother was unnaturally close by his own admission) is a testament to his sensitivity, introspectiveness and insight.

Read this one for the setting and insightfulness alone, and you’ll be able to gain something from it. It’s clear to me now—why Lawrence’s work is considered classic—and why Lawrence seems to be such an acquired taste.

I’ll end with one of my favorite segments from the earlier chapters in Sons and Lovers…Providing some context: Mrs. Morel and her husband just had a vicious fight. Mrs. Morel is several months along with her second child (Paul). She has been locked out of her house by her husband, who came home, senselessly drunk and raving. She is outdoors at night, still staggering from the severity of their argument:

“She became aware of something about her. With an effort she roused herself to see what it was that penetrated her consciousness. The tall white lilies were reeling in the moonlight, and the air was charged as with a presence. Mrs. Morel gasped slightly in fear. She touched the big, pallid flowers on their petals, then shivered. They seemed to be stretching in the moonlight. She put her hand into one white bin: the gold scarcely showed on her fingers in the moonlight. She bent down to look at the binful of yellow pollen; but it only appeared dusky. The she drank a deep draught of the scent. It almost made her dizzy...”

Some time passes and Mrs. Morel is finally allowed back into the house, shivering from the cold night. She has an empty, angry exchange with her husband and is getting ready for bed.

“…As she unfastened her brooch at the mirror, she smiled faintly to see her face all smeared with the yellow dust of the lilies. She brushed it off, and at last lay down. For some time her mind continued snapping and jetting sparks, but she was asleep before her husband awoke from the first sleep of his drunkenness.”

Something about her smiling in the mirror when she noticed the pollen caught me the way a poignant note in a song will. That Lawrence was able to convey such an intimate detail impressed me. It’s that sort of sensitivity that kept me engaged in this otherwise rather unpleasant account of a desolate, disconsolate life.
...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2013 Dolors rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2012

Another of Lawrence's gems.
Not as good as Women in Love, but still worth reading.
In this work you can easily notice one of Lawrence's obsessions. The love for his mother.

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2018 Alex rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: european-literature

I liked it in the beginning, but as the story went by, it got really slowpaced. I started reading it in romanian, the translation was very bad so this contributed to the general impression about this book. At 60% i got a free copy on my kindle and read it in english.
The problem with this books which contain pages and pages of endless dialogue. It is too much.
This whole relationship mayhem (Paul - mother, Paul - Miriam, Paul - Clara) should have been shorter and maybe then would have been inten ...more

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2018 david rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Not his strongest work but I sure do like the writings of DH Lawrence.

This is the story, semi-autobiographical?, of Paul Morel and his concomitant relationships with contemporaries and his mother.

Beyond that, there are four hundred pages that you will need to read to get the full picture.

Many consider this a classic.

flag 14 likes · Like · see review

May 31, 2013 Bionic Jean rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-authors-i-l, classics, kindle

Generally regarded as semi-autobiographical, this is a very brave and evocative portrayal of working-class life in a Nottinghamshire mining community in the very early part of the twentieth century. You feel the characters' claustrophobia, and however much you may dislike them, sense that they are trapped in their lives by both their actions and their aspirations. The story line is engrossing and shocking for its time, both in its accurate portrayal of the imprisonment and desperation of individ ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2008 Roland rated it it was ok

Shelves: modern-library-s-100-best-novels, radcliffe-s-rival-100-best-novels-l, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you

I wanted to read this book for months, and now that I've finished it I can say that it was a terrible disappointment. The main character Paul treats the women in his life like absolute crap, and it's hard to care about a Mama's boy who can barely make decisions for himself. The mother in the book is a bitter, complaining shrew, and regardless of the first part of the book which explains why she's so protective of her son, you still want to slap her one. There are some good passages, but overall ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads România: Citește cu mine: Fii și amanți, de D. H. Lawrence	12	48	Mar 05, 2018 10:08AM
Goodreads Librari...: Add reciprocal ACE info	3	13	Feb 03, 2018 06:35AM
Catching up on Cl...: Sons and Lovers - buddy read	76	81	Sep 08, 2017 11:58AM
Reading 1001: Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence	1	10	Apr 16, 2016 03:52AM
First born sons in literature.	1	17	Oct 08, 2014 01:52AM
Goodreads Librari...: Alternate book cover	3	24	Aug 02, 2014 04:50PM

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

Classics

1,595 users

Fiction

1,015 users

Literature

239 users

See top shelves…

About D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence

2,360 followers

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

Books by D.H. Lawrence

The Rocking Horse Winner (Travelman Classics)

More…

Trivia About Sons and Lovers

7 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Sons and Lovers

“Recklessness is almost a man's revenge on his woman. He feels he is not valued so he will risk destroying himself to deprive her altogether.” — 95 likes

“Sleep is still most perfect, in spite of hygienists, when it is shared with a beloved. The warmth, the security and peace of soul, the utter comfort from the touch of the other, knits the sleep, so that it takes the body and soul completely in its healing.” — 86 likes

More quotes…