The writing that describes his desire to please her, to relate to other women, and finally as their relationship come to an end is excellent.Īt its worst the women in Paul's life are not only treated as objects by Paul, but also the narrator. Theirs is a love that builds Paul and hinders him for his whole life. It's brilliant at times, but also far too limited to be deserving a top ten distinction.Īt its best Lawrence constructs and analyzes the complexity of the mother/son relationship. Modern Library did this novel a disservice by ranking it so highly.

Their second son, Paul, craves the warmth of family and community, but knows that he must sacrifice everything in the struggle forindependence if he is not to repeat his parents' failure.Lawrence's powerful description of Paul's single-minded efforts to define himself sexually and emotionally through relationships with two women - the innocent, old-fashioned Miriam Leivers and the experienced, provocatively modern Clara Dawes - makes this a novel as much for the beginning of thetwenty-first century as it was for the beginning of the twentieth. No writer before or since has written so well about the intimacies enforced by a tightly-knit mining community and by a family where feelings are never hidden forlong.When the marriage between Walter Morel and his sensitive, high-minded wife begins to break down, the bitterness of their frustration seeps into their children's lives. Lawrence's first major novel was also the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside.

Dh lawrence and lovers