Lady Chatterley's Lover Readalong Post 2:

"All hopes of eternity and all gain from the past he would have given to have her there, to be wrapped warm with him in one blanket, and sleep, only sleep. It seemed the sleep with the woman in his arms was the only necessity."

Welcome to post 2 of the readalong of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover! We posted a couple of weeks ago about the first half of Lawrence's highly controversial novel. Here, we'll wrap things up a bit!

After the first half, I was curious as to where Lawrence was headed. Lady Chatterley had begun her scandalous affair with a man "below her station," and I was curious to see where Lawrence was headed with this and what the final result would be.

Lady Chatterley continues her affair, and the reader gets to be in on every moment of the scandal. She sneaks out of the house to meet him in the woods. She even escapes for a night and stays with him in his household! They have conversations about their relationship-its impropriety, her unhappiness in her "marriage," and the struggles he is facing with his own estranged wife.

It is a convoluted mess, but Lawrence's writing style truly made it come alive for me. He is a great writer with some wonderful descriptive passages. It was the same kind of writing that encouraged me to continue Sons and Lovers last winter when I hated the story.

But I will say this-I felt he was shoving a message at me repeatedly and by the time I closed the novel, I was a little sick of what he was teaching me. It is clear from the beginning that Lawrence is exploring the importance of a physical relationship in a marriage. That there must be some level of intimacy and sharing for a relationship to work. The reason Lady Chatterley continues with the affair is that she lacks that in her relationship with her husband (who is paralyzed and in a wheelchair).

And while her husband had the conversation with her early on in the novel that if she wants a child, it would be okay for her to sleep with another man, you can tell that he truly isn't okay with that (and who would be?). He becomes bitter and angry, as I believe anyone would be.

It is through all this misery and despair that Lady Chatterley has her affair. She finds a man who can be with her emotionally and physically, which is what she needs. I get the "point" of the novel and what theme Lawrence was exploring.

It should be fairly obvious why the book has been controversial since it was written. In addition to the affair, there is also the fact that it exists between a man of a lower class and well, Lady Chatterley. When a couple other characters determine who is the lover, they react in an angry fashion. How dare she have an affair with someone so inferior?

The other big issue, and the reason why the book is constantly challenged, is the language. I've read romance novels before and haven't really been shocked. But this book shocked me. The fact is, Lawrence reels you in with his writing-it is so beautiful and descriptive-and then, BAM. Sex scene. And it isn't that he is overly graphic, it is just that you don't expect it. You don't expect to see f*** and c*** in a classic of all things. I think it borders that line of vulgarity simply because you don't see it coming.

I told a girl at work that it was like reading a very old and dirty piece of erotica, but so so beautifully written, with a message and description that you couldn't help but love it.

And when I closed it, I did love it in a way. I liked the fact that it was in my face, pushing issues and ideas to the surface that I don't really think about. I like that it made me uncomfortable as it explored the connection between sexual and emotional relationships. It made me think. I like books that challenge me and give me things to think about. I like that it opened up a conversation with Matt about his thoughts on the ideas Lawrence presented.

It has also made me curious about Lawrence's other writing, which I was no so excited about after my feelings on Sons and Lovers. This was just another reminder that I cannot judge an author by one book, and that I must give authors a chance to woo me with other writing.

So what did you think of the book? Was it as scandalous as you heard it would be? If you completed your post on the second half of the readalong, please leave a link so I can link it below!

Lady Chatterley's Lover Readalong Post 1:

"Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work. There is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen."

Welcome to post 1 of 2 for the readalong of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence hosted here at A Literary Odyssey. This is a title I have been anxious to read, after hearing so many interesting reactions to the scandalous story.

Before continuing on, I want to apologize for this post being up late. I am recovering from being sick and well, I slept most of the day. :) Sometimes, you just need your sleep.

Anyway, onward to the book discussion!

Like I said, I was excited and anxious to dive into this title. I have only had on previous experience with Lawrence, and that was with Sons and Lovers. While I enjoyed Lawrence's writing style, I really couldn't stand the story. I read it last winter and it took me quite some time to get through it.

This title, on the other hand, seems to be more famous than the other, and much more scandalous. When it was first released, there was a lot of outcry against the blatant sexual nature. Copies were confiscated and destroyed. When it was finally released and protected, it shocked many readers.

Obviously, going into reading this one, I was looking forward to seeing what about this title was so controversial and comparing it to some of the things that we might consider scandalous today.

Again, I was drawn into the beauty of Lawrence's writing. I find his style easy to read and comforting. He doesn't cover up his meaning with a lot of bells and whistles, if you know what I mean. But from the beginning, the novel explodes around the concept of sexual relationships between men and women. Lawrence certainly points out the differences in how men and women view sex, and its impact on the relationship.

Connie, our main character, is married to Clifford. When they first married, he was home on leave from the war, but when he went back, he was injured and has lost all feeling from the waist down. Obviously they have to have a different, less physical, relationship as man and wife. But here is where we can see that the two are clearly friends. Connie takes care of her husband, and she seems willing to do anything to make him happy.

She gradually begins to wilt from lack of a physical connection. Her husband even has a conversation with her, urging her to find a man so she may have a child. So she begins to wander and eventually begins to find the sexual, physical relationship she seems to need. The novel is more about relationships than sex, but sex is still a major part of that. You can see that Lawrence is showing that sex, love, and a healthy relationship seem to go hand in hand. I won't argue either way, because honestly, I don't want to go there.

I will say I was surprised at how often sex was brought up in the novel between characters. It reminded me of being in high school and overhearing teenage boys-know what I mean? That silly fascination with a scandalous and outlawed act? But it is talked about, and sometimes in terms that made me squirm. I will say that it wasn't graphic or overdone. I have read worse, and I am sure you have too. But it is CLEAR why the novel has been controversial since the time it was written. The characters have sex. It is talked about. There are controversial words to describe the act. Going into this, know that.

In any case, I am enjoying it. I like the play between the aspects of relationships and what is necessary to have happiness. I hope that those of you who are joining in are seeing those same things. :)

If you are participating in the readalong, please comment below with a link to your post so I can link it here. I will see you back here at the end of the month for the second post!

Lit Addicted Brit
Grace
Anne
Becca

Lady Chatterley's Lover April 2011 Readalong Sign-ups.

Welcome to the sign-up post for April's readalong of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover hosted here at A Literary Odyssey! This post IS a little late in going up, but better late than never, right?

You voted and selected this title over Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, so hopefully this is the one you voted for.

I have very little experience with Lawrence. I read Sons and Lovers by him last year and was left feeling a little..."meh" about the whole thing. However, I have heard that this title is far superior and I am looking forward to reading it.

If you aren't sure if this is something you are interested in, here is a synopsis taken from Goodreads.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 gamekeeper who works for the estate owned by her 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, Lawrence's masterful and lyrical writing, and a story that takes us bodily into the world of its characters."

It certainly sounds interesting, doesn't it?

I have organized this readalong into two posts. Each post will cover half of the book and will take place on the following two days:

• Post 1 will be posted on April 15: Post 1 will cover the first half of the novel (the first ten chapters-in my edition it is 146 pages)
• Post 2 will be posted on April 30: post 2 will cover the second half of the novel (chapter eleven to the end-in my edition it is just over 150 pages)

I do hope you'll consider joining in on this! The length is significantly shorter than some of the other readalongs, so maybe that will entice you. :)

If you want in, please comment and leave me a link to your blog so I can link you here (that way we can all cheer you on!). Keep in mind that all participants of my readalongs who complete the readalong are getting something special (more on that when you finish one!), so sign up if you're interested!

I only require my participants to make their post and link it here. You don't have to comment on other participants' posts, but of course, that is always encouraged.

Please spread the word around so that someone (hopefully YOU) might decide to join me. :)

Participants:

Falaise
Peppermint Ph.D.
laura
Bex
Lit Addicted Brit

Book 17: Finished.

"Sometimes life takes hold of one, carries the body along, accomplishes one's history, and yet is not real, but leaves oneself as it were slurred over.

'I wait,' Mrs. Morel said to herself-'I wait, and what I wait for can never come,'" (7).


When I sit down to write these entries, I usually have a lot of thoughts running through my head about what I want to say. And generally speaking, the entry comes out sounding like nothing in my head, but still gets my point across.

Right now, I am at a loss as to what to say. I finished Sons and Lovers and I don't have a thing to say about it. It is not as if I hated it because I didn't. However, I didn't love it and I am not even sure that I like it. I feel kind of "meh" about the whole book.

It is definitely a weird little story about a man who is so connected to his mother that he cannot break free from her to pursue a relationship with another woman. His mother controls him and he is fine with it. Perhaps you could call him a momma's boy? That makes it sound trivial, which it is not, but that seems to be the essence of this novel. Paul Morel is his mother's boy and he believes he must make her happy, to the expense of his own happiness.

In some passages, it seems as thought his mother, Gertrude, is living through him and accomplishing her goals through her second son. Take this passage for example;

"But Paul was going to distinguish himself. She had a great belief in him, the more because he was unaware of his own powers. There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled. Not for nothing had been her struggle," (161).

It is hard to take in the passage without seeing how she is living through her son. I saw this a lot growing up with my friends, and even with my students. How their parents wanted to achieve more through them by pushing them to do the things that they didn't want to. And while my parents pushed me, it wasn't because they were living through me, but because they wanted me to be successful.

So perhaps this novel was just hard to relate to and that is why I don't have a solid opinion of it.

Or it could be the writing. It was sometimes slow and tedious and sometimes it held a lot of drama. But I found it to be inconsistent. There were long pieces that were description of something that I found to be unimportant. Then there were pieces that were short, but help more action. It just left me feeling like Lawrence was playing games with me. I didn't appreciate it.

But I did like the story. Of a boy trapped between his mother and his lovers. In doing some research online, I found a site with a bunch of D.H. Lawrence's letters to his editor. I think this one explains the book far better than I could ever hope to;

"It follows this idea: a woman of character and refinement goes into the lower class, and has no satisfaction in her own life. She has had a passion for her husband, so her children are born of passion, and have heaps of vitality. But 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, and holds them. It's rather like Goethe and his mother and Frau von Stein and Christiana — As soon as the young men come into contact with women, there's a split. William gives his sex to a fribble, and his mother holds his soul. But the split kills him, because he doesn't know where he is. The next son gets a woman who fights for his soul — fights his mother. The son loves his mother — all the sons hate and are jealous of the father. The battle goes on between the mother and the girl, with the son as object. The mother gradually proves stronger, because of the ties of blood. The son decides to leave his soul in his mother's hands, and, like his elder brother go for passion. He gets passion. Then the split begins to tell again. But, almost unconsciously, the mother realizes what is the matter, and begins to die. The son casts off his mistress, attends to his mother dying. He is left in the end naked of everything, with the drift towards death," (Letter to Edward Garnett, November 12, 1912).

You see, when I finished reading this, I felt none of that. I felt frustrated because I didn't relate to the characters and I was upset with the pace of the book. So I am left here, feeling "meh" about the whole experience.

I suppose I knew going into this that I would not fall in love with every book on my list. After all, there are 250 different stories that I am reading, and there are many different authors as well. And while I have seemingly lucked out in the choices so far, I know that there will probably be books coming that I will hate, and some more that will fall into this middle ground of "meh-ness."

I think I have learned that I cannot love everything I read, but I can learn from it and appreciate it for what it did offer to me. Each of these books has been called a classic for a reason. Those reasons may not always be clear, but they are there and I need to realize that. I suppose for me, Sons and Lovers was a stepping stone towards that realization, a side-journey on my odyssey towards realizing that just like in life, I don't have to like everyone I meet.

Not every book has to become my best friend. But I should give it the benefit of the doubt and see it for what it is. And Sons and Lovers just left me feeling nothing.

Book 17: Length in Novels.

I have no problems reading novels that are lengthy. If I had a problem with length, then I never would have made it through the Outlander series in 2009. There are other big works of fiction that I also hold dear to my heart, like the Harry Potter books. Their length helps rather than hinders the story, so I have no problem reading them.

I also love short books. I like being able to sit down and go through an entire story in one sitting lasting an hour or so, as long as the story is told well. Two of the books I have already read for my odyssey have been short novellas-Ethan Frome and The Old Man and the Sea. Both of those novellas were well done; the characters were developed, the plot was detailed enough, and the story left me thinking.

So it really bothers me when the scope of a work does not fit with the length. Simple plots and characters don't need as much time to develop as elaborate schemes. Harry Potter condensed into 7 300 page books would be a completely different story. The world that J.K. Rowling created would not be as deep or detailed.

In reading Sons and Lovers, I am finding that I am annoyed with Lawrence's use of page space and how the story is developing. To be quite honest, the first 50 or so pages have nothing to do with the rest of the story. Yes, the description of his mother and father and their early life does provide nice background, but it could have been given in another way. And while I appreciate that Lawrence is setting up the character of Paul Morel and his relationship to his mother, I find it completely aggravating. There is too much language and too much exposition for my tastes.

(I am not saying that I don't enjoy description, because I do, but I hate when the description is overbearing. On with the story, you know?)

And since my edition of Sons and Lovers is 370 pages long, there is a lot of time that I know will be wasted trucking through Lawrence's description and what he deems to be important to the story. I am hoping that when it is finished I will feel differently, but I don't think I will.

It is incredibly hard to like a book that drags on and on with only little spurts of excitement. Dull and monotonous writing bores the reader and this reader is bored with Lawrence. I really hate to be so negative, especially towards a book that I had high hopes for, but I can't help it.

Mind, this is not as bad as when I had to force myself through Great Expectations, but this is still pretty bad.

I know I cannot force myself to like a book and I know there will be other books on this list that I will also dislike for various reasons. Obviously not everything will appeal to me and I have been lucky so far that I have enjoyed pretty much everything I've read, but let me ask you this; Why are all the books I dislike the longest ones? It sure seems like they are!

So here are some questions for you, dear readers:

1. What length of book do you prefer and why?
2. Are there books you have avoided because of their length? If so, what titles?

Thanks, and happy reading!

Book 17: Sons and Lovers

I really have no system for picking out which book I am going to read next. I just look at what I have in front of me and choose what I think could be fun. I have also been trying to pick things from all over the map to keep myself (and you) entertained. Like many readers, I need to give myself a variety of things to read or I get bored.

That is how I picked Sons and Lovers. It is 1 of 2 novels by D.H. Lawrence on my list (the other being Lady Chatterley's Lover) and something I thought to be entertaining. And, like a lot of the other titles and authors on my list, it is a book I know next to nothing about.

I am starting to think that my English degree didn't really teach me much of anything, or expose me to as much as it should have.

Anyway, every time I pick up one of these books that I know nothing about I tend to do a little research. Mainly because I like research, but it helps me get a sense of where the author is coming from, and who I can relate him to.

D.H. Lawrence's full name was David Herbert Richards Lawrence, which is quite a mouthful (no wonder he shortened it). He lived around the turn of the 20th century, which happens to be a favorite time period of mine. He wrote a lot about sexuality and modernity, which is a good thing. It keeps me interested.

Also interesting is this quote by E.M. Forster (author of A Room with a View, which was Book #3 on my list-I read it back in September) which was in a obituary notice after Lawrence's death. In that notice, Forster said that Lawrence was;

"The greatest imaginative novelist of our generation."

That is high praise. And considering that Lawrence was also called a pornographer and much of his work was censored, it is also quite a contradiction.

So, needless to say, Lawrence has a lot to live up to. I'm hoping for great things in Sons and Lovers, but I hope it doesn't go the way I am thinking it will based on the information above.

Taken from Barnes and Noble's synopsis;

"Called the most widely-read English novel of the twentieth century, D. H. Lawrence’s largely autobiographical Sons and Lovers tells the story of Paul Morel, a young artist growing into manhood in a British working-class community near the Nottingham coalfields. His mother Gertrude, unhappily married to Paul’s hard-drinking father, devotes all her energies to her other son. They develop a powerful and passionate relationship, but eventually tensions arise when Paul falls in love with a girl and seeks to escape his family ties. Torn between his desire for independence and his abiding attachment to his loving but overbearing mother, Paul struggles to define himself sexually and emotionally through his relationships with two women—the innocent, old-fashioned Miriam Leivers, and the experienced, provocatively modern Clara Dawes.

Heralding Lawrence’s mature period, Sons and Lovers vividly evokes the all-consuming nature of possessive love and sexual attraction. Lushly descriptive and deeply emotional, it is rich in universal truths about human relationships."

I am hoping that this novel offers something for me to think about in regards to my own relationships to my husband and my family, but we'll see. I'm not sure how much I'll have in common with Paul Morel or any of these characters.

I do want to point out one more thing about this novel. In every site I visited to do research, I found the same quote;

"When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life." Richard Aldington

This is a very autobiographical piece and I sometimes have a hard time reading those. Perhaps I think too much, but I always wonder about the authors and writers who put so much of themselves into their work. Do the people they base their characters off of become offended when they see how they are portrayed? Do they hold back in their descriptions of events to protect the people around them?

In my own writing I always find it hard to base too much on my personal experiences, so it will be interesting to compare the qualities of Paul Morel to that of Lawrence.

And now that I am done rambling and being all over the place, I will end this post.

Happy reading!