Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9781857150223
ISBN number: 1857150228
Label: Everyman's Library
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
Page Count: 443
Printing Date: September 26, 1991
Publishing house: Everyman's Library
Sale Popularity Level: 2960730
Studio: Everyman's Library
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Product Description:
Published in 1913, this is a fictionalized account of Lawrence's love for his mother. It traces Paul Morel's childhood, his growing into adolescence and adulthood, and the frustrations of his love for Miriam and Clara caused by his mother's possessiveness and his devotion to her.
Amazon.com Review:
Sons and Lovers was the very first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Lawrence's young protagonist. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him all his life--for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam, and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Morel. It is, by Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: 'as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers--first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother--urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives.'
Of course, Mrs. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the very first of whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl's deep love of her son will oust her: 'She's not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb him.' Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor, incapable of committing himself in either direction: 'Why did his mother sit at home and suffer?... And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so cruel towards her, at the thought of his mother. If Miriam caused his mother suffering, then he hated her--and he easily hated her.' Soon thereafter he even confesses to his mother: 'I really don't love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you.'
The result of all this is that Paul throws Miriam over for a married suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete relationship to challenge his love for his mother. As Paul voyages from the working-class mining world to the spheres of commerce and art (he has fair sucess as a painter), he accepts that his own achievements must be equally his mother's. 'There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled... All his work was hers.'
The cycles of Paul's relationships with these three women are terrifying at times, and Lawrence does nothing to dim their intensity. Nor does he shirk in his vivid, sensuous descriptions of the landscape that offers up its blossoms and beasts and 'shimmeriness' to Paul's sensitive spirit. Sons and Lovers lays fully bare the souls of men and earth. Few books tell such whole, complicated truths about the permutations of love as resolutely without resolution. It's nothing short of searing to be brushed by humanity in this manner. --Melanie Rehak
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Rated by buyers 
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Sons and Lovers is D.H. Lawrence's highly autobiographical novel of the early years of a young man's life in mid-nineteenth century England. As such, the book is very intense emotionally, as Lawrence seems to convey his own strong feelings about his family into his characters. One result of this exaggerated level of emotions is a constant state of tension and unreality. A simple scene becomes a moment of high drama and the constant repetition of such scenes eventually dulls the reader to those moments of genuine crisis.
The book begins with the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Morel. Gertrude is an educated, sensitive woman who marries Walter because of his physical appearance and charming personality. She also believes, falsely as it turns out, that he does not drink and is the owner of this own house. Mr. Morel is a miner and the family lives in "The Bottoms," a hardscrabble mining community. It soon becomes clear that he cannot cope with the responsibility of raising a family that grows to four children. In response he turns to drink and abusive language (although no real violence) toward his family, and especially toward his wife. Throughout the book Walter is portrayed, not as an evil man, but as one defeated by life. His family comes to despise him and at the same time love him, depending on his moods and behavior.
William, the very first child, is athletic and intelligent. He grows to manhood early in the book and leaves to go to London to seek his fortune, but comes to a tragic end. The second child, Annie, has only a modest role in the novel as benefits a book with this title. Paul, the third child, is the main character and Lawrence's alter ego. Unlike his siblings, Paul is sickly and unathletic, and he and Mrs. Morel develop a strong attachment for each other that carries throughout the book. The final child, Arthur, also plays a minor role in the plot.
The book is divided into two parts; the very first largely concerned with the early years of the Morel family and the second with Paul and his love affairs. As a teenager he meets Miriam, a young girl on a nearby farm. Paul develops a fondness for the whole family and he and Miriam become entangled romantically and the understanding is that they will marry some day. But neither Paul nor Miriam can make a sufficient commitment to this idea and even when Miriam finally does so Paul is incapable of a similar response. At this point an older woman, Clara Dawes, comes into Paul's life. She is married to Baxter Dawes, a brutish man from whom she is separated. Paul is attracted to her physically and they begin an adulterous relationship. But again Paul has difficulty sustaining a mature relationship and is constantly torn between his love for (and even dependence on) his mother and his wish for a mature and stable relationship with a woman.
The novel is also infused with a heavy dose of religion. Miriam in particular, is described as highly religious and even derogatively referred to as a nun. The religion view that sex is something dirty is also evident.
It would help, given the nature of the book, to read a biography of Lawrence before tackling this novel. Many of the characters in the novel act in dysfunctional ways and the reader wonders how much of their behavior is a reflection of Lawrence's own life experiences.
It is difficult for me to rate this book much above three stars because of the depressing tone and unrealistic behaviors of the characters. One wants to say to Lawrence, "get some psychological help before writing about your life!" On the other hand it is a fascinating story written by one of the outstanding English writers of the nineteenth century. It is not his best work, but still quite good in many respects.
Rated by buyers 
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D.H. Lawrence was a guy that came out of the womb knowing how to write. You read his prose and his innate genius quickly becomes self-evident--this is an artist for whom the creative act of literature is akin to a Mozart symphony--airtight, beautiful, logical, NATURAL. Floooooowing.
Compare Lawrence with someone like Wallace Stegner--the latter being a writer with a fair amount of talent and a heckuva lot of dedication...but whose works seem...synthetic. Over-written, almost. As if he would look at a sentence and say, "This needs another adjective here--and a polysyllabic synonym for this word here."
With Lawrence, there is no sense of writerly straaaaaaining for profundity...no sense of sweaty self-consciousness. The sentences seemingly emanate from the ether, with a fundamental soundness and beauty which only a tiny, tiny few lucky people are capable of creating.
Stegner could study the craft of writing for thirty years and still produce an inferior book to the twenty-seven-year-old Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. Lawrence had IT. He was the real deal. The genuine article. He WAS Mozart (Stegner was you-know-who).
Sons and Lovers is a masterpiece. Not without its flaws, surely, but a masterpiece all the same. Some parts drag; some parts are choppy; some parts are frankly uninteresting. Notwithstanding that, it is just a single rung below Lolita and Under the Volcano in terms of quality.
The MLA concluded that Sons and Lovers is the ninth best novel of the 20th century--and it's hard to quibble with that assessment. (Even though it is ranked AHEAD of the supernally brilliant--and better--Under the Volcano.)
If you are a serious connoisseur of literature, this is one you have to get under the belt.
Rated by buyers -
Wow...I don't remember the last time that I've read a novel that would bring out in me such immense sensitivity as this one. With incredible detail Lawrence describes his life and ihs biggest loves. Perhaps I should not be writing this review because I only read 200 pages so far, but it is just too breathtaking.
Rated by buyers -
This novel created considerable controversy, along with Freudian accusations of an Oedipal relationship between Paul the son and his mother Gertrude.
D. H. Lawrence depicted the physical attraction between Paul and Clara in a very frank direct manner that was quite radical for the time. The tormenting uncertainty between
Paul and Miriam, along with his strong attraction to Clara as compared to the mutual emotional dependency between him and his mother were understandably overwhelming to the public.
It was very instructive to see how the absence of love in the mother's life led her to have an emotional dependency on one of her kids, only to switch to another son when she loses the very first one. Portraying human narcissism through motherly love is a very shocking way of examining human nature. It was very interesting, as well, to see how the son was always torn between loving a woman and loving his mom, which are very different and incompatible emotions.
Lawrence's honesty is very admirable considering the period in which the novel was written, and the unique way he described the son's decision while the mom is in pain on her death bed might raise some deep insight regarding this Author's vision. I, though, reject the possibility of a deep emotional thinker, and go with a merely honest portrayal of a pleasure worshipping male, who did not understand typical male desires as compared to typical human feelings.
Lawrence had many admirers, including some smart/confused feminists, who thought of him as a great writer who portrayed quite accurately women's feelings. I, on the other hand, agree with the good writer part but sense in him shallowness and pure blind desire with a great dearth of complex analysis.
Rated by buyers -
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 version since it is the most popular) has a contemporaneous review (Lascelles Abercrombie, Manchester Guardian, July 2, 1913) that assesses this book much better than I can:
"Indeed, you do not realize how astonishingly interesting the whole book is until you find yourself protesting that this thing or that bores you, and eagerly reading on in spite of your protestations...You think you are reading through an unimportant scene; and then find that it has burnt itself on your mind."
This book has truly burnt itself on my mind, and I am glad that I came back to it.
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