Women in Love in Never too Late to Read Classics

Mar 02, 2021 Anubha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Early 20th Century rich British and their relationship problems. All the characters in this book are hypocrites. All of them Now that we have got that out of the way let's begin.

The book is mostly about a group of snotty young Britons and their suppressed sexuality and philosophical ramblings. How so many people can be so sensitive about everything from flowers and grass to snow and cattle I do not understand. Loving nature is one thing but a monologue on every flower and blade of grass gets a l Early 20th Century rich British and their relationship problems. All the characters in this book are hypocrites. All of them Now that we have got that out of the way let's begin.

The book is mostly about a group of snotty young Britons and their suppressed sexuality and philosophical ramblings. How so many people can be so sensitive about everything from flowers and grass to snow and cattle I do not understand. Loving nature is one thing but a monologue on every flower and blade of grass gets a little too much after a while.

So the story mostly revolves around two sisters-Ursula and Gudrun and two guys. One of them is Rupert Birkin who does... I have no clue what he does for a living. He philosophizes a lot and takes himself much too seriously. And the other guy is Gerald Crich, who is an ex-soldier, explorer, and coal-mine owner. The plot revolves around these four characters with other characters from their lives coming in for brief appearances.
Everyone is this book is kinda intense and intellectual. They discuss and philosophize a lot. All of them. Most of their ramblings are pseudo-philosophical, self-satisfying, superficial monologues. All of them seem very self-obsessed.
Here's a close approximation of any group scene from the novel:
A battalion of servants serving them left, right, and center and here they are sitting on a grassy bank of a lake, or under a beautiful tree in the garden at their own property with a picnic basket spread, sipping hot tea and eating refreshing cucumber sandwiches while lamenting about how mechanical and ugly the mankind is. How sordid this living is. How there's no hope for this ugly mankind.... ufff that does sound a struggle. Do you need more cream for your tea? or some scones?... No? ... go on then.

Every discussion in this book is exalted to another level. There are no straighforward, ordinary conversations at all. Here's an example of a guy talking about a chair on the roadside market:

“So beautiful, so pure!” Birkin said. “It almost breaks my heart.” They walked along between the heaps of rubbish. “My beloved country—it had something to express even when it made that chair.”

“And hasn’t it now?” asked Ursula. She was always angry when he took this tone.

“No, it hasn’t. When I see that clear, beautiful chair, and I think of England, even Jane Austen’s England—it had living thoughts to unfold even then, and pure happiness in unfolding them. And now, we can only fish among the rubbish heaps for the remnants of their old expression. There is no production in us now, only sordid and foul mechanicalness.”

That's where this book frustrated me. So many pseudo-philosophical nihilistic platitudes.

And what's with all the hating, and loathing, and revulsion. I mean the book is called 'Women in Love'. Show me some shred of love. All the characters are tortured inside. There's a self-consciousness in all of them that propels them to behave unreasonably. Some of this self-consciousness, at least for Brangwen sisters, stems from their lower social status at the time when class and social status still meant a great deal in Britain. But apart from that characters in this book are selfish, and cruel, and horrible for no apparent reason at all. All the female characters are horrible. I hated Hermione and I hated Gudrun. I like Ursula slightly better because she called Rupert out on his bulls**t machismo thinly veiled as superior philosophy for mankind. Rupert wanted an open relationship without committing to the institution of marriage whereas Ursula wanted stability and total commitment. Yo go girl! Repressed sexuality is a recurring topic. So is fear. Rupert was afraid of Hermione, Hermione was in turn afraid of Rupert, Gerald's father was afraid of his wife, and so on. I think a lot of their problems were existential crises of the kind that occur when you are stuck in a relationship with no love or mutual respect.

I kind of didn't like how every woman was portrayed to be either a predatory man-eater or or a submissive pet. And all woman are portrayed like complex master minds. I just felt it was all so one directional. The women in this story are either exclaiming or keep asking for reassurances of love.

I also didn't like any of the characters. None of them were worth rooting for. They all seemed so occupied in themselves like the universe revolved around them. Oh... I can't finish this review. Some other time maybe. ...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Victoria Evangelina Allen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, kindle, psychology, in-english, write-review

~TRAVEL INTO THE HEAD AND HEART~

Exploring the arousal of interest in another human being and the numerous vulnerabilities one experiences at the onset of a relationship, D.H Lawrence takes his readers on a bumpy ride into the hearts and souls of his heroes. Written in 1920, the book is as true and as fascinating now, almost a hundred years later. From the first couple of pages it swipes a reader off her feet and into the whirling journey of excellent language and attentive descriptions, examinin ...more

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Jul 12, 2017 Jamie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

""Why, why are people all balls of bitter dust? Because they won't fall off the tree when they're ripe. They hang on to their old positions when the position is overpast, till they become infested with little worms and dry-rot.""

This is the first D.H. Lawrence novel I have read and it won't be my last. I enjoyed the book a lot but was surprised it wasn't more obscene. I did not think it was controversial or explicit enough to warrant being banned in the UK for over 10 years but then again it was ...more

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