William Heinemann was repulsed when the novel was submitted - his reaction captures the shock and newness of Lawrence's novel, 'the degradation of the mother [as explored in this novel], supposed to be of gentler birth, is almost inconceivable'The first contemporary reviewer declared it 'shows the mark of genius and inspiration as distinct from talent and invention'Published alongside three other titles by DH Lawrence in a striking new series styleDavid Herbert Lawrence was born 11 September 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. His father was a miner and his mother was a schoolteacher. In 1906 he took up a scholarship at Nottingham University to study to be a teacher. His first novel,
The White Peacock, was published in 1911. Lawrence gave up teaching in 1911 due to illness. In 1912 he met and fell in love with a married woman, Frieda Weekley, and they eloped to Germany together. They were married in 1914 and spent the rest of their lives together travelling around the world. In 1915 Lawrence published
The Rainbow which was banned in Great Britain for obscenity.
Women in Love continues the story of the Brangwen family begun in
The Rainbow and was finished by Lawrence in 1916 but not published until 1920. Another of Lawrence's most famous works,
Lady Chatterley's Lover, was privately printed in Florence in 1928 but was not published in Britain until 1960, when it was the subject of an unsuccessful court case brought against it for obscenity. As well as novels, Lawrence also wrote in a variety of other genres and his poetry, criticism and travel books remain highly regarded. He was also a keen painter. D.H. Lawrence died in France on 2 March 1930.
'A work whose power stands the test of time' Sunday Times
Set in 1900s, this is a lushly descriptive and highly autobiographical portrayal of a young man growing up in class-divided Nottingham.
Paul Morel is the focus of his disappointed and fiercely protective mother's life. Their tender, devoted and intense bond comes under strain when Paul falls in love with Miriam Leivers, a local girl his mother disapproves of. The arrival of the provocatively modern Clara Dawes causes further tension and Paul is torn between his individual desires and family allegiances.
Set in a Nottinghamshire mining town at the turn of the twentieth century, this is a powerful portrayal of family and love in all its forms.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY RICHARD EYRE
He's an intoxicator, a very great writer, punished by the feminists and their ludicrous opinions. The short stories are among the best in the language. I re-read
Sons and Lovers and
The Rainbow recently and thought them wonderful... Has there ever been anyone like him for bringing places and people so vividly to life?Lawrence's masterly portraiture of the human impulse in his fiction had strength and depth...He tore at the rock of life with hand and implement... in
Sons and Lovers he fashioned the hard substance of his place and people in memorable ways.An affecting portrait of a mining family torn apart by class divisions and individual desire at the turn of the centuryHis fierce love for his mother warring with the need to follow his own desires - analysed with a vigorous relentlessness and pungent imagery - makes this a work whose power stands the test of timeWhen I was 13 or 14 this was the book I couldn't put down. It's very good teenager territory
