World Famous Comics: Lady Chatterley's Lover (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Lady Chatterley's Lover (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
By: D. H. Lawrence Publisher: Penguin Classics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Penguin Classics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 400 Publication Date: October 31, 2006
Book Description: One of the most extraordinary literary works of the twentieth century, Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned in England and the United States after its initial publication in 1928. The unexpurgated edition did not appear in America until 1959, after one of the most spectacular legal battles in publishing history.
Amazon.com: Perhaps the most famous of Lawrence's novels, the 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover is no longer distinguished for the once-shockingly explicit treatment of its subject matter--the adulterous affair between a sexually unfulfilled upper-class married woman and the game keeper who works for the estate owned by her wheelchaired husband. Now that we're used to reading about sex, and seeing it in the movies, it's apparent that the novel is memorable for better reasons: namely, that Lawrence was a masterful and lyrical writer, whose story takes us bodily into the world of its characters.
Mixed feelings on this one... On the whole, I would say that this book is considered a classic mostly because of its legendary troubles with the censors. Don't get me wrong - it was an alright book, interesting enough to hold my attention for the most part. However, I don't think that I'll be recommending it any time soon.
First off, I agree with the other commenters about Lawrence's basic lack of knowledge about female anatomy. My god. It's as if there's nothing at all that Clifford could have done for Connie. And apparently Connie is (in Lawrence's eyes) the apex of womanhood because she's one of the (very) few who can reach climax without any clitoral stimulation. Jesus christ, this isn't a book about sex. It's a book about misinformation!
Aside from that, what do we have?
We have Connie, who's barely sympathetic as a protagonist. I'd put her somewhere between Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina on the sympathy scale. On the one hand, who can't sympathize with her situation? She's trapped in an essentially joyless life. On the other hand, she's also a terrible snob. Witness the way that she looks down on the people of Tevershall - "Oh, everything is good and beautiful in Ye Olde English Woode where I screw my husband's gamekeeper, but that dirty dirty little town with all those hunched-over people who work for a living... how disgusting!"
And then we've got Mellors, who, quite frankly, I found kinda annoying. Is it just me, or does he come off as somewhat mentally deficient? Whenever he lapsed into "broad," I always imagined him talking like some kind of Scottish version of Cookie Monster.
And the ranting, oh my god, the ranting. Ok, Lawrence, we GET IT. Mellors is supposed to be the Man O' The Woods. The Green Man. The Great Horned God. Pan. But did you really have to spell it out for us in heavy handed sermons before and after every sex scene? Couldn't you have left just a little for us to figure out for ourselves?
Really, the only character who I kinda liked was Clifford. Sure, he was pathetic. But he knew it. He knew that he was, quite literally, the last of a dying breed. At the same time, though, he had a detached sort of irony, and that great British gift of understatement. You got the feeling that he was smart, and maybe even had a sense of humor. Who knows, perhaps this character would have seemed more terrifying back in the day, back when the British aristocracy was still kind of a threat to someone.
Oh yeah, and that one scene where we're really supposed to hate him? The one where his wheelchair gets stuck up on the hill? I actually felt kinda sorry for him there.
Ultimately, I'll say this about Lady Chatterly's Lover - I like what Lawrence was trying to do, but I don't really feel like he pulled it off. He makes some valid points about getting in touch with our physical, emotional, and spiritual natures. However, this gets obscured by some of his personal prejudices, as well as his total lack of understanding about women and their anatomy.
Didn't make it pass the 16th page I wasted my money and time on this book. It was a painful read. It was boring, dry and not very entertaining. How in the world did this book get turned into a movie. I hope the movie is a lot better than the book. I will find out.
This Book Ain't Bad for a Love Story I picked up Lady Chatterley's Lover (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) from Amazon for $6.95. In the absence of an available Everyman's Cloth Edition, the B&N is likely the way to go. In terms of supplemental material it is quite comparable to this: (Lady Chatterley's Lover (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)). These materials are: 1. Brief Author bioptic 2. Chronology 3. A lengthy (23 pages) and diverse Introduction by Susan Ostrov Weisser, a well credentialed professor of English at Adelphi University (NY). 4. Brief footnotes to explain slang / obscure terms 5. Thorough Endnotes for references (9 pages) 6. Brief comments by thirteen well known writers. 7. Four provoking discussion questions 8. Bibliography for further reading.
The novel centers on the Love affair of the Aristocratic Constance Chatterley. Unique at the time it was released, Lawrence's book, rather than condemning the extra-marital affair, Lady Chatterley and her lover, the groundskeeper Mellors, are in fact spiritually healed from their experience together. In an increasingly industrialized and uniform world, laden with class lines and arbitrary social norms; Lawrence holds that people have become alienated from and ashamed of their bodies; they've forgotten that love between two individuals can spark a sensation of life so primordial that it cannot but be right to pursue.
Originally deemed pornographic, Lady Chatterley's Lover may still shock some readers with its frank portrayal of sexual intercourse. The sex-language is much more apparent than it is in Sons and Lovers. Readers who have aversions to seeing words for body parts may be offended. It is all done in good taste, but still must be called R-rated. Likely, it will be offensive to only a small few.
Lawrence's writing style consistently flows at a level near perfect. Sometimes there are certain phrases that frequently get repeated; some would say too often, others would point out that this is also the case in real life. I find his prose to be perhaps his ultimate strength.
One complaint I have with this book as well as Sons and Lovers, (though it might be deemed trivial) would be his selection of topics. He's always writing about love and relationships. I guess I just prefer topics like Crime, War, Travel, and other general areas of life. Just me though. Still--quite surprisingly--I enjoyed reading Lady Chatterly. Its frank display of love makes it relevant today; while other older novels avoid the actual act as if it were the plague.
I find much truth is contained in Lawrence's philosophy about primal instincts, his observations about industrialism, and his suggestions (however one may interpret them) about feminism (a great discussion point for this, his last, book).
Masterpiece has Social Injustice Underplay Sexual Theme [48] D.H. Lawrence daringly wrote about sexual mores in this novel, to an extent that his socioeconomic theme may have been lost by many of the readers.
Constance Chatterly - affectionately depicted as Connie or Lady Chatterly - is the highlight and nightmare to her husband, Lord Chatterly. After a whirlwind marriage and honeymoon, the lord returns to Word War I's catastrophe and is "shipped home smashed." He is a paraplegic for life, and someone who cannot provide an heir to his family's estate: Wragby.
While confined to the walls of the stately mansion, she is effectively a widow who will never know her sexuality. But she is not alone as one friend tells her, "You have to snivel and feel sinful or awful about your sex, before you're allowed to have any." Sex is a suppressed sin - not an appreciated act.
Her lover concedes women are no fun. ". . . the mass of women are like this: most of them want a man, but don't want the sex, but they put up with it, as part of the bargain." In reflection, being married to a paraplegic may be a blessing to those very women.
But, her lover discovers fun with sex, and vice versa. They actually conjoin in orgasm. Lawrence writes about this, he writes about their propinquity of flesh, of cuddling and more. In return, England banned publication of this until 1960. Almost 32 years this book was shelved by the prurient aristocratic publishers who cringed when reading about the sex, and the details of the same.
But, Lawrence's statement is stronger. Lady Chatterly does not have sex with one of her class - no she opts for one of the servants of the manor. Oliver Mellors, a bloke who chooses to speak in Derby accent instead of proper English (which he is capable of doing) lights a flame to her inner hay stack. And, she goes wild.
Although married to be a Lady, Connie is not from such top-notch stock. But, she is still greater than a commoner, and her sister Hilda remarks about their tryst as ". . .how impossible it is to mix one's life with theirs. Not out of snobbery, but just because the whole rhythm is different."
Those people, the colliers or coal miners, are the people who work the colliery owned by Lord Chatterly. He effectively supplies income to every person's house - at least enough to keep them fed and housed, while they toil in the depths of his mines' bowels in disgusting filth and horrible conditions.
Lawrence saw his father in such mines, but saves us from learning too much of the daily toil - this is not a revelation of bad working conditions like Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." But, this is a statement about social injustice, like Sinclair's "The Jungle."
In the end, all good comes of a bad situation. The commoner is anything but common and Connie's daddy sits and drinks with this potential Gold Digger and leaves the pub slapping the man on the back and opening his heart and soul to the man who somehow managed to have his daughter leave the comforts and prestige of Magbry.
Scenes like that at the pub remind me that Lawrence obviously read Dickens - like probably all his peers did. And, his novel is comparably great as it hits the forefront of not only social injustice, but attacks Victorian restraints on sex, much like other great novelists of England - including Virginia Woolf. But, he attacked such social conservatism head on. This book is a leader of its time.
Why a comic-book cover? The use of comic strips lamely summarizing scenes from D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" came as an unwelcome surprise. The edition itself is excellent, with a fine introduction, authoritative text, maps, notes, and bibliography. But the cover (and a gratuitous list of women the author is alleged to have shagged) is more than disgraceful. What conceivable purpose does this serve? The marketing people at Penguin should think twice before defacing a classic text in this way.
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