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Sons and Lovers

by D.H. Lawrence, Geoff Dyer (Goodreads Author) (Introduction)

3.61 · Rating Details · 36,921 Ratings · 1,432 Reviews

"She was a brazen hussy."

"She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?"

"I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes ...more

Paperback, 654 pages

Published August 17th 1999 by Modern Library Classics (first published 1913)

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Community Reviews

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Jun 05, 2013 Richard Derus rated it did not like it

Rating: 0.125* of five

BkC51) SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence: The worst, most horrendously offensively overrated piece of crap I've read in my life.

Yeup. Since I'm in a real bitch-slappin' mood, here goes.

The Book Report: Sensitive, aesthetic nebbish gets born to rough miner and his neurasthenic dishcloth of a wife. She falls in love with her progeny and tries to Save Him From Being Like His Father, which clearly is a fate worse than death. So, lady, if you didn't like the guy, why didn't you j ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Cecily rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, historical-20th-cent

I started the year transfixed by the visceral floral and fiery passion of Lawrence's The Rainbow (my review HERE). Its rich earth ripened buds of promise into irresistible blooms of vibrant delicacy. But reading this at the end of the year, I felt more like I'd been dragged through barren mud. Perhaps that’s fitting for the story of a miner’s family.

There is lyrical imagery and “caressive” talk (see quotes, below), but far too much plodding Janet-and-John prose, and characters who infuriated me ...more

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Jan 16, 2015 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mesmerizing, classics, fiction, fav-authors

The storyline is in the name, Sons and Lovers, but what you don't expect are the subtleties of the Oedipus complex or Freudian allegory. It was a surprisingly sensational read for me, especially since earlier this year, I gave myself a classics challenge: to read and re-read a few classics just for the sake of it; erase the disdain of forced-readings in high school, college and grad school; read just for how it makes me feel, not because everyone else is doing it. Sons and Lovers ends my pers ...more

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Jan 07, 2015 Jr Bacdayan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

How do you leave a mother who associates her life’s meaning and fulfillment to you and your achievements, without breaking her heart? How do you surrender all your passion to a lover while leaving some for the woman who gave birth to you, reared you, and loved you? Should a man give greater love to his mother or his lover? How do you achieve balance between the women in your life? D.H. Lawrence’s semi-autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers displays the pendulum of a young man’s love swinging to- ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 Perry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: libri-classici

Being Smothered by Controlling Mother
Domineering Mommy

Coal Mining Son

"You made me cry, you told me lies
But I can't stand to say goodbye.
Mama I'm comin' home.
Ozzy Osbourne, Mama, I'm Coming Home, 1991.

D.H. Lawrence, one of my personal favorites, seems to have told a tale no truer than his largely autobiographical Sons and Lovers. While all the primary characters have some major defect of character, I felt the most pity for the protagonist Paul Morel (a real mama's boy) and Miriam (his childho ...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Cyril rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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 ...more

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Nov 26, 2015 Chrissie rated it did not like it

Shelves: bio, disliked, relationships, life-stages, england, audible, love, returned, classics, 2015-read

I read books for pleasure. I enjoy learning something new and thinking about human relationships. Real human relationships, not those of the fantastical sort. I want to have something to ponder. In addition I want writing that describes places, people and situations well.

I learned nothing new from this book.

The human relationships as described herein are not true to life. Maybe members of the Bloomsbury Group, of which D. H. Lawrence was one, did in fact communicated with each other with extre ...more

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Oct 21, 2015 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fave-classics

I had no idea what to expect of Sons and Lovers as I went in. I had no idea what the book is about, presumably multiple sons and more than one lovers are involved. With the public domain books just knowing that it is a classic is usually enough. I also had no expectation of D.H. Lawrence, I knew he is the author of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which I have a vague impression of being some kind of Edwardian porn (though it probably isn't). Diving in with no expectation is often fun and rewarding.

The ...more

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Jul 28, 2013 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

“I have been reading ‘Sons and Lovers’ and feel ready to die. If Lawrence had been killed after writing that book he’d still be England’s greatest novelist.”
- Philip Larkin in a letter to a friend, aged nineteen.

It’s late, and I haven’t written any reviews for this site up until now, but here goes nothing. Considering the relatively abysmal ratings that Lawrence’s novels seem to have here, I figured I should at least add my two cents and say a couple things about what I feel is one of the better “I have been reading ‘Sons and Lovers’ and feel ready to die. If Lawrence had been killed after writing that book he’d still be England’s greatest novelist.”
- Philip Larkin in a letter to a friend, aged nineteen.

It’s late, and I haven’t written any reviews for this site up until now, but here goes nothing. Considering the relatively abysmal ratings that Lawrence’s novels seem to have here, I figured I should at least add my two cents and say a couple things about what I feel is one of the better novels I’ve read. Published in 1913, Sons and Lovers was D.H. Lawrence’s third novel, and is today generally considered to be his first ‘major’ work. An autobiographical Bildungsroman, S&L documents a time in the author’s life that was filled, in the words of Lawrence himself, with much “writhing and shrieking.” This work is often regarded as the first great modern Oedipal drama, and indeed it is the story of a mother who, stuck with a brute for a husband, turns her sons into something like surrogate lovers. No, that doesn’t mean that there is any incest in this book (if you’re looking for smut, look elsewhere; Lawrence’s reputation as a pornographer is undeserved), but it does mean that these sons, in particular Paul (the Lawrence character), end up finding it immensely difficult to get out from under the shadow of their mother and connect with the women they establish relationships with outside of the family.

It seems that most of the complaints about this work are along the lines of “it was too boring” or “I didn’t like any of the characters.” It is true that most of the conflict in the book is internal rather than external, but I’m unable to see how one could be anything but in awe of Lawrence’s command of the English language, as well as his understanding of the mechanics of human emotions. But if you need action, this book has its share: sickness, death, a killer fight scene, sex, temper tantrums…you name it. If the feelings or the relationships of the characters are not cut-and-dried, it is not a fault of the work. Lawrence succeeds in capturing the humanity of these characters, and for that reason I always felt sympathetic towards them. Granted, this is a painful book to read; no book has yet succeeded in making me cry, but this one may have come closest :_( . It is an excellent coming-of-age tale, and now sits alongside Joyce’s Portrait…as likely the most rewarding Bildungsroman I’ve yet read. Pity they couldn’t stand each other ha ha!

P.S.
I have the Oxford World’s Classics edition (which features a lovely painting by C.R.W. Nevinson on its cover), and in David Trotter’s introduction I discovered that the version I read was the Cambridge University Press version. This version, though far and away the most widely recognized, features extended cuts made by Lawrence’s friend and mentor Edward Garnett. The endnotes of my copy make reference to some of these cuts, including a lengthy one wherein Paul and Miriam meet at a library. Lawrence approved Garnett’s edits, but Trotter seemed to suggest that the original manuscript version is also in print. I've been unsuccessful in my search to find out more about this, but does anyone know if it is possible to obtain an unedited 'manuscript' copy? I know the Penguin edition is also the Cambridge version.

...more

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May 20, 2009 Kacie rated it really liked it

Warning: the book deals with sex. If you're sensitive to that, don't read the book or my review.

I loved this book. It reminded me again of my love for classic English literature. I love the realism in it. "Sons and Lovers" is essentially about relationships. I thought it was going to focus on the relationships of the mother in the book because the first part deals with her marriage and the stages it goes through. It describes the disintegration of love and what it's like to be a woman and have Warning: the book deals with sex. If you're sensitive to that, don't read the book or my review.

I loved this book. It reminded me again of my love for classic English literature. I love the realism in it. "Sons and Lovers" is essentially about relationships. I thought it was going to focus on the relationships of the mother in the book because the first part deals with her marriage and the stages it goes through. It describes the disintegration of love and what it's like to be a woman and have to rely on a man. Then it focuses on her relationship with her sons, and how she transfers that longing for love and hope for the future to her sons, to whom she is an amazing mother. In fact, TOO good of a mother, because the second half of the book is about one of the sons and how her overbearing love has affected him. Lawrence wrote the book to reflect his own relationships with his mother and then lovers, and you can see him trying to process that question we all ask, "Why do I do what I do?"

Lawrence was affected by Freud, who he knew through his lover (in real life), and he recognizes that his mother loved him in a co-dependant way that is perhaps too much like a romantic relationship without ever being sexual. He awknowledges that this leaves him quite dysfunctional in the two relationships that Lawrence has, which are reflected by the two relationships that the son, Paul, goes through in the book.

My predominant reaction going through the book was frustration the character's actions even when I loved them, which is a good thing, it's a sign of being sucked in to the story. The mother is held up as a bit of a long-suffering heroine matched to a loser drunk, but I was even frustrated with her. She's married to a simple man, but a man of joy and loyalty and fun... he's quite quaint. She scorns his simpleness, and I kept thinking... gosh, if she would love him for who he is instead of scorn him because of what he's not, perhaps he'd stay at home instead of heading to the pub for drinks.

Then it was frustrating to feel how trapped the mother is in her life as a woman in that time. She is an incredibly strong woman, and independent. She runs her home and raises her children and holds them together when the father is virtually MIA and totally useless, and begins beating her at times. What option does she have, though? She CAN'T leave, because she can't work. As a woman, she has no place to go where she could actually support a family if she left her husband, even in the worst of the abuse and neglect.

Paul, the son, is an incredibly introspective man who longs for beauty and love and connection, but struggles to love while he is so loyal to his mother, and she jealously holds him to her even as he's tentatively looking for a wife. It's so annoying, because you know the mother has placed so much hope in her son and therefore wants to hold him above a woman who might ruin him. In doing so, though, she IS ruining him, because he longs for a woman and yet can't give himself fully while his mother holds him back. When he turns to a woman who will love him physically, the mother accepts this because it doesn't involve his heart, only his body. This also is devastating, though, because the body only satisfies for so long and the soul cries out for a deeper connection, a deeper love.

I won't go into any more detail, but Lawrence is very, very insightful about the nature of sex and romance within relationships, and how it affects lovers. It is an intense, descriptive, and insightful work. It could be used in a counseling class about relationships. ...more

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Oct 19, 2016 Pooja rated it liked it

3/4th part of this book, I read word by word and could understand each person in the story and why they are as they are. At each point, they created sympathy in my mind for them, specially Mrs. Morel.

It took me 1 month to finally finish this one. And I should admit that this one month didn't go all amazing. I thought each and every time about finishing it. And yet, it was, I feel, daring of me to did so.

It's kinda frustrating book, It sends you off into abyss of depression sometimes, and the do ...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Rakhi Dalal rated it liked it

Son - I want to review this book Mater.

Mother – Do you really now?

Son – Yes mother.

Mother – I would not advise you to do so.

Son – Why mother?

Mother – Because it will ask too much from you (READ - What about me then? There won’t be anything left for me of you.)

Son – You are being ridiculous mother. I wish to do it because I feel this is right.

Mother – Then do as you deem appropriate. I shall say no more.

Son - I will mother. You can’t hold me now.

So I finally decided to review this book. A midst v ...more

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Dec 19, 2016 Mahima rated it really liked it

Lawrence wrote in one of his letters:

“Nobody can have the soul of me. My mother has had it, and nobody can have it again. Nobody can come into my very self again, and breathe me like an atmosphere.”

‘Sons and Lovers’ has many strands it is made up of, and this quote describes the most important one of them. Lawrence’s own unparalleled love for his mother translates in the novel as Paul Morel’s love for his mother, the portrayal of which gives rise to a Freudian subtext. While Lawrence thought tha Lawrence wrote in one of his letters:

“Nobody can have the soul of me. My mother has had it, and nobody can have it again. Nobody can come into my very self again, and breathe me like an atmosphere.”

‘Sons and Lovers’ has many strands it is made up of, and this quote describes the most important one of them. Lawrence’s own unparalleled love for his mother translates in the novel as Paul Morel’s love for his mother, the portrayal of which gives rise to a Freudian subtext. While Lawrence thought that the critics had carved a half lie from an honest portrayal of his childhood, he did admit in many of his letters that he had loved his mother like a lover. In a letter he said, “This has been a kind of bond between me and my mother. We have loved each other, almost with a husband and wife love, as well as filial and maternal.” This love is clearly visible in the novel. It seems to me, however, that the Freudian element, while part of an overarching theme, is not all that important when seen together with the other themes of the novel. At least it doesn’t seem like an intended element. There might be a Freudian element to it, but the love seems like… just love.

The love for his mother gives rise to the most subtle, and sublime tensions in Paul’s life, and also in the novel as a whole. On the one hand is the will to live vitally, a will, which, according to Lawrence, was mixed up with a philosophy of sex. This will is represented by Paul’s relationship with first Miriam, then Clara. On the other hand is the desire to obey, almost a natural impulse in Paul’s case, which is represented by his relationship with his mother. ‘Sons and Lovers’ is an account of a man unable to choose which impulse to follow. The situation is picked up from Lawrence’s life itself, and as Jessie Chambers, the girl on whom Miriam was based, describes, it was simply that while loving his mother with an almost romantic passion, he had nothing left to give to a lover.

For Lawrence, sex was not something crude. “Sex and beauty are one thing, like flame and fire. If you hate sex, you hate beauty.” However, under the yoke of Victorian morels and their mothers’ hold over them, both the writer and the character cannot realize this definition of sex. Sex signified a physical as well as a spiritual union to Lawrence. However, how could he, or Paul, give himself, body and soul, to a lover when it wasn't he who held his own soul?

Be that as it may, it seems to me that both Miriam and Clara just became objects that were intended to be defeated from the very beginning. It seems as if a distorted picture was being portrayed of them, one that would merely serve to make Paul and the mother look like the only victims. I believe Lawrence could perhaps have provided a better picture of the two. I say that because even of Mr. Morel, whom the reader decides to loathe from the very beginning, Lawrence, with remarkable objectivity, presents the other side. There’s no sentimentality, but it does give rise to sympathy, which I feel Lawrence could have evoked with Miriam and Clara’s characters as well. There’s even an honest albeit tender portrayal of the friction between the mother and the son despite their love for each other.

Nonetheless, Lawrence’s writing is remarkable - his insight into character, his understanding of circumstance, and the scope and variety of life that he describes. His writing is also so very beautiful, and some passages, I think, are going to stay with me forever. What would also stay with me is the heart wrenching account of the mother’s death. At one point, it literally made me cry a bit. This was a sad, sad, sad book, and I cannot stress enough on the word sad, but I seem to have a thing for melancholic books.
...more

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Jan 23, 2017 BAM The Bibliomaniac rated it it was ok

I think between the stress of the death of my father, the poor narration on my audiobook, and the style of writing, I just did not enjoy this book at all. Something didn't click with me. I'm sorry I can't write more right now.

2017 Reading Challenge: word of a family member in the title

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Aug 18, 2015 Alex rated it it was amazing

Shelves: rth-lifetime, 2015, novel-a-biography

Of all the major writers in the canon, DH Lawrence is the horniest. Lots of people write about sex, but Lawrence writes exclusively about it, entirely about it. He's consumed by sex. Sex motivates everything that happens in his world. It can draw people together like in Lady Chatterley's Lover, or drive people apart. (Its energy in Sons and Lovers is not super positive.)

He thinks there's real communication to be had about what sex is like and why. He wants to talk about how sometimes it's not a Of all the major writers in the canon, DH Lawrence is the horniest. Lots of people write about sex, but Lawrence writes exclusively about it, entirely about it. He's consumed by sex. Sex motivates everything that happens in his world. It can draw people together like in Lady Chatterley's Lover, or drive people apart. (Its energy in Sons and Lovers is not super positive.)

He thinks there's real communication to be had about what sex is like and why. He wants to talk about how sometimes it's not as fun for the woman, and how one might help change that. He wants to discuss how sometimes it gets boring and then you have it in public just to spice it up. And he wants to talk about how sometimes you want to fuck your mom, which brings us to Sons and Lovers.

Paul Morel wants to fuck his mom so bad it ruins every relationship in his life. Everyone can see it. His dad, catching them at a "long, fervent kiss" late in the kitchen, nearly fights him for it. The two women in his life - passive Miriam who says "Yes," and Clara of the body - both know that they're competing with his mother and that they can't win. They're both willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of his overwhelming horniness - "Let me be the sheath to you," says Miriam hopefully - but it's not enough.

And this is, by the way, Lawrence's autobiographical novel. He told Jessie Chambers, the real-life Miriam, "I've loved [my mom], like a lover. That's why I could never love you." Nice, DH.

For context, here we are near the beginning of the century. Here are prudish Virginia Woolf and shitting, twitching James Joyce, careening into modernism, changing the face of literature - and Lawrence, this son of a coalminer, off on the side doing something totally different: writing about sex, over and over, with a persistent urgency that's just as radical. It's not that it's dirtier; Ulysses is dirtier. It's that it's more serious. Joyce is doing it to shock you. Henry Miller, whose Tropic of Cancer (1934) was only a little after Lady Chatterley (1928), is much more shocking - but Miller isn't writing about sex, he's just jerking off while mumbling to himself. Lawrence isn't dirty, or at least not consistently (Lady Chatterley has its moments), but he's erotic. He's horny. That scene where he comes downstairs late at night to find a certain someone "kneeling naked on a pile of white underclothing on the hearthrug, her back towards him, warming herself" - that's, I mean, it's hot stuff.

Also it comes right after a scene where Paul (view spoiler) btw, which comes so unexplained that you're like yeah, that part is definitely autobiographical. (That scene was cut from the original edition, so that's a good way to tell if you're reading the unexpurgated version or not. The original cuts - around 10% - also trimmed out much of the stuff about William at the beginning, which probably improved the flow of the book.)

Lawrence's debt is to Hardy, who also wrote about sex but who was not as horny. They share a knack for vivid scenes; Hardy gives us, for example, swordplay in the ferny glen from Far From the Madding Crowd, and Lawrence delivers Clara and Paul slipping down a rain-soaked cliff of slippery red clay, slick with and stuck in the vermilion mud.

Her shoes were clogged with red earth. It was hard for her. He frowned. At last he caught her hand, and she stood beside him. The cliff rose above them and fell away below. Her colour was up, her eyes flashed. He looked at the big drop below them.

"It's risky," he said, "or messy, at any rate."

That it is, and here's a great book about it. ...more

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Jul 29, 2015 Sarah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sons and Lovers is a wonderful novel on the complex nature of love in its many forms. We follow the lives of the Morel family who live in a coal mining community in Nottinghamshire at the turn of the twentieth century.

Walter and Gertrude's marriage has problems and Gertrude concentrates her love and hopes on her sons. She becomes a dominating force to them and the life choices they make. The sons suffer with obsession, frustration and indecision about the women in their lives.

Through childhood, ...more

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Dec 06, 2009 Cristin rated it liked it

Shelves: classics

This marks my first experience of D.H. Lawrence, apart from practically memorizing a famous, passionate excerpt from “The Rainbow,” read during a great episode of Northern Exposure (one of the greatest television shows of all time, in my humble opinion)…that excerpt may have generated some preconceived notions regarding the content of Sons and Lovers…in some ways, my predictions were correct…in others, wholly unmet and practically unfounded.

Sons and Lovers is the story of one family, the Morels, This marks my first experience of D.H. Lawrence, apart from practically memorizing a famous, passionate excerpt from “The Rainbow,” read during a great episode of Northern Exposure (one of the greatest television shows of all time, in my humble opinion)…that excerpt may have generated some preconceived notions regarding the content of Sons and Lovers…in some ways, my predictions were correct…in others, wholly unmet and practically unfounded.

Sons and Lovers is the story of one family, the Morels, which filters into the story of one son in this family, named Paul. As though he absorbed the incredibly “bad vibes” in the Morel household during his fetal development, Paul comes into the world as an innocent baby with a palpable darkness and gloom about him— one inherited, perhaps, by the relentless struggle that binds him to his mother in a preternatural way from the very beginning.

And so, Paul grows in loneliness, frustration and despair, in a household that is patched together by a mother whose propriety is unmatched by many of the surrounding lower middle class mining families. This social backdrop is excellent fuel for social commentary, and Lawrence handles such timeless topics without being overbearing—and without diminishing the integrity of the story, which focuses on Paul’s internal and external conflicts.

In terms of what makes this a classic—Lawrence’s mastery of setting is undeniable…He utilizes the natural landscape as a sort of unyielding metaphor—you, as his reader, know Lawrence means business when he is writing about the “sleek, cool-fleshed fruit” of a cherry. It’s as though Lawrence uses the Earth as the most natural grounds for foreplay; his characters are at the mercy of the weather and the surrounding flora and fauna— they grow dumb and thick blooded at the site of a wet boulevard and seem to consider a row of poplars an open invitation for a raunchy romp in the thicket.

On the whole, the story of Paul Morel’s life and family made me feel more than unsettled... It was rather unpleasant to read about such a desolate and joyless existence as his, and filled me with a sense of fear—that people can actually suffer a fate as isolating and grim as his, his mother’s or his father’s. There is something very realistic about this novel—but the reality is peculiar and unique, as though it belongs to Lawrence alone. That this novel is, in fact, based on Lawrence’s own deeply personal experiences (as the son of a miner, whose relationship with his mother was unnaturally close by his own admission) is a testament to his sensitivity, introspectiveness and insight.

Read this one for the setting and insightfulness alone, and you’ll be able to gain something from it. It’s clear to me now—why Lawrence’s work is considered classic—and why Lawrence seems to be such an acquired taste.

I’ll end with one of my favorite segments from the earlier chapters in Sons and Lovers…Providing some context: Mrs. Morel and her husband just had a vicious fight. Mrs. Morel is several months along with her second child (Paul). She has been locked out of her house by her husband, who came home, senselessly drunk and raving. She is outdoors at night, still staggering from the severity of their argument:

“She became aware of something about her. With an effort she roused herself to see what it was that penetrated her consciousness. The tall white lilies were reeling in the moonlight, and the air was charged as with a presence. Mrs. Morel gasped slightly in fear. She touched the big, pallid flowers on their petals, then shivered. They seemed to be stretching in the moonlight. She put her hand into one white bin: the gold scarcely showed on her fingers in the moonlight. She bent down to look at the binful of yellow pollen; but it only appeared dusky. The she drank a deep draught of the scent. It almost made her dizzy...”

Some time passes and Mrs. Morel is finally allowed back into the house, shivering from the cold night. She has an empty, angry exchange with her husband and is getting ready for bed.

“…As she unfastened her brooch at the mirror, she smiled faintly to see her face all smeared with the yellow dust of the lilies. She brushed it off, and at last lay down. For some time her mind continued snapping and jetting sparks, but she was asleep before her husband awoke from the first sleep of his drunkenness.”

Something about her smiling in the mirror when she noticed the pollen caught me the way a poignant note in a song will. That Lawrence was able to convey such an intimate detail impressed me. It’s that sort of sensitivity that kept me engaged in this otherwise rather unpleasant account of a desolate, disconsolate life.
...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Alexander rated it did not like it · review of another edition

There has never been a book that made me want to inflict physical pain upon a character -- until Sons & Lovers that is...

The really devious thing about this dreadful book is that the Sons half, the first half, isn't all that bad. Lawrence spends an immense amount of time on what one supposes to be the backstory for the Lovers section. One learns of Paul's youth and temperment, Paul's mother, Paul's parents relationship and his brothers' exploits. It is time consuming and not always entertain ...more

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Jan 20, 2015 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: rated-books, reviewed-books, english-calssics, guardian-1000

Generally considered Lawrence's masterpiece, it is ranked 9th on the Modern Library 100 best books of the 20th century. The story of Paul Morel and his brothers and the influence of the women in their lives, especially of their mother. I think the age old theme of men trying to find a wife or lover in the metaphorical image of their mother is present in all of Lawrence's novels, but more so in Son and Lover's than any other. It is beautifully written and the characters are well developed and ver ...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Dolors rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2012

Another of Lawrence's gems.
Not as good as Women in Love, but still worth reading.
In this work you can easily notice one of Lawrence's obsessions. The love for his mother.

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Dec 09, 2013 Gearóid rated it it was amazing

Really brilliant book!
From the minute i started reading i was totally absorbed.
I didnt know what to expect when i started reading this
but it was just go engrossing and the writing so lovely
it just carried me along through this story.
The whole setting in the mining community was so vividly
described and the characters really felt like i knew them.

Really connected with the dad as he was working in the mines
and had such a hard life but i think loved his family anyway.

Miriam was a little gem...i woul ...more

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Mar 05, 2008 Roland rated it it was ok

Shelves: modern-library-s-100-best-novels, radcliffe-s-rival-100-best-novels-l, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you

I wanted to read this book for months, and now that I've finished it I can say that it was a terrible disappointment. The main character Paul treats the women in his life like absolute crap, and it's hard to care about a Mama's boy who can barely make decisions for himself. The mother in the book is a bitter, complaining shrew, and regardless of the first part of the book which explains why she's so protective of her son, you still want to slap her one. There are some good passages, but overall ...more

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Jun 15, 2008 Rick rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: arty people who might better identify with sensitive, moody Paul

Recommended to Rick by: found it on amazon as a suggestion for people interested in soci

It was mostly a bore. Some of the events had me interested, but overall i just kept waiting to be really moved and wasn't. I liked the descriptions of Paul in his discussions with Miriam about their relationship when they were getting close to "breaking off."

I kept wishing I could identify more with Paul. I read an interpretation that said the drive and ambition Mrs. Morel had driven into Paul to help him rise above his roots eventually hindered his ability to accept any woman as good enough fo ...more

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May 14, 2016 Celeste Corrêa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, inglaterra, livros-lidos-2016

Filhos e Amantes de D.H. Lawrence
4 ( quatro) estrelas.

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Jan 15, 2009 James rated it really liked it

Shelves: edminster-group, lincoln-park

D. H. Lawrence is one of those novelists like Dostoevsky who seem to work and rework some of the same themes into his novels. Lawrence's autobiographical novel, Sons and Lovers, initially elicited a lukewarm critical reception, along with allegations of obscenity. However, it established some of Lawrence's favorite themes and it is today regarded as a masterpiece of modernism.
Lawrence began working on the novel in the period of his mother's illness, and the autobiographical aspects of the novel ...more

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Oct 02, 2015 RitaSkeeter rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-english, own-dead_tree, 2015

Re-read September 2015

I first read this book around twenty years ago. Wow. I suddenly feel old having written that. But despite that passage of time, the emotions I felt when I read the book have stayed with me. In particular, the loathing I had for Paul Morel as a character; closely followed by Gertrude as runner-up.

Being older (sob) and wiser, my emotions are a little more refined following this re-read. I still loathe Paul. He is selfish, self-absorbed and treats Miriam and Clara - particular ...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Ian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, fiction

The thing about this book is I thought it was a story about incest. So, as I was reading it, I was waiting for the fateful scene where the son and his mother eventually have sex, which they don't, although they go on dates, caress each other, etc. I think the most provocative moment was where the son lays with his lips on her neck, tenderly feeling her pulse. Pretty provocative, I just wish I hadn't been misinformed, it would have saved me a lot of confusion. That having been said, this book is ...more

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Jul 25, 2014 Jean rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-authors-i-l, classics, kindle

Generally regarded as semi-autobiographical, this is a very brave and evocative portrayal of working-class life in a Nottinghamshire mining community in the very early part of the twentieth century. You feel the characters' claustrophobia, and however much you may dislike them, sense that they are trapped in their lives by both their actions and their aspirations. The story line is engrossing and shocking for its time, both in its accurate portrayal of the imprisonment and desperation of individ ...more

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Oct 07, 2015 Hugo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

Inglaterra, princípios do século XX. No centro de todas as decisões e acções de Paul, o protagonista, está Gertrude, a sua mãe, e é ela que domina todas as cenas. A escrita de Lawrence é brilhante, realismo vincado e pude notar também laivos de feminismo. O título do livro era inicialmente 'Paul Morel', o autor optou por "Sons and Lovers" e, de facto, a quantidade (excessiva!) de páginas dedicadas a Paul e aos seus interesses amorosos dão razão à escolha tomada. Um pouco mais de Gertrude, das me ...more

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May 22, 2015 Sanchi rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: anyone looking for a good read

Recommended to Sanchi by: my school's librarian

This is an amazing piece of literature, and a must read for people who're into classics. The story is slow paced, but somehow its not boring. I read the book a couple of years ago, so I couldn't recall the exact events taking place, but I can say that I enjoyed when I read it.

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Shelfari 1001 group: Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence	1	9	Apr 16, 2016 03:52AM
First born sons in literature.	1	16	Oct 08, 2014 01:52AM
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Eclectic Readers: Sons and Lovers	1	20	Jul 16, 2012 03:06PM

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About D.H. Lawrence

David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English writer of the 20th century, whose prolific and diverse output included novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues rel ...more

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“Recklessness is almost a man's revenge on his woman. He feels he is not valued so he will risk destroying himself to deprive her altogether.” — 84 likes

“Sleep is still most perfect, in spite of hygienists, when it is shared with a beloved. The warmth, the security and peace of soul, the utter comfort from the touch of the other, knits the sleep, so that it takes the body and soul completely in its healing.” — 72 likes

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