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Lady Chatterley's Lover and A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence) |
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Author:
D. H. Lawrence
By Cambridge University Press
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $150.00
Our Price: $95.00
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Product Description
This edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover (and A Propos of `Lady Chatterley's Lover') newly establishes the text of D.H. Lawrence's most famous novel by peeling off the layers of typists' corruptions and compositors' errors that have seriously marred the novel for over sixty years. It is the first edition to restore to Lawrence's text the words he wrote, and the first to correct authoritatively the 1928 Florence edition that Lawrence personally supervised. The introduction establishes an accurate history of composition, publication and reception; the notes identify difficult allusions; and the appendix explains how Lawrence weaves real places and people into his fictional tapestry.
Amazon.com Review
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.
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Not shocking anymore, but dang good, 2008-12-16
A 'Novel' Guest Review By Leigh Wood
After one too many viewing's of the 1992 BBC production of Lady Chatterley, I finally broke down and read the book. I thought the 1928 unedited version of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence would be a tough book to find. Expensive, rare, old leather, smelly, buried in an antiquarian store-that type of book. Indeed I was very pleased to find the 1928 Unexpurgated Oriali Edition in paperback at my local Borders. $4.95!
I wrapped Mists of Avalon as quickly as possible and avoided watching the film before I plunged into Lover. I read other writers' criticisms on D.H. Lawrence and his works before purchasing the book, and I knew the book and movie didn't have the same ending. Of course, I also knew the book's controversial reputation and supposedly salacious use of naughty words and torrid sex talk. My edition opened with forwards and introductions detailing the book's tough road to publication and the aftermath of censorship. Although this story is fairly well known in literary circles, this introduction is informative, with details and facts on the books printing, pirated editions, and trial information. Even if one was a toe towards prudish, you can't not be interested in reading Lady Chatterley's Lover after these words of praise.
Although the 1992 adaptation by Ken Russell is quite faithful, Lawrence's work is naturally bigger and more detailed than what can be translated to the screen. I noticed many cases where the film had taken word for word from the book, and also where scenes had been combined or moved and relocated for the film. Still, much was remaining to surprise me. After her Baronet husband's paralysis during World War I, young Constance Chatterley begins to question her mundane existence as Lady of Wragby Hall and nursemaid to her crippled husband. They are educated and literate, but as she listens to her husband and his friends chit chat about war, sex, society, and money, Connie becomes more and more disenchanted with her upper class standing. After a very dissatisfying affair with playwright Michaelis, Connie begins a saucy love affair with her husband's gamekeeper Olivier Mellors. Despite the fear of being caught and societal pressures upon them, Connie and Mellors continue to meet. When the scandal comes out, they take measures to secure a life together, despite the class divisions against them.
The great part of Lady Chatterley's Lover is the love discovered between the titular characters, so I was intrigued by the intitial Michaelis relationship. We learn much about Connie intellectually and sexually through this affair, internal thoughts and disappointing feelings that can't be show onscreen. I've read other fans commentaries online about Joely Richardson's performance as Lady Chatterley in the BBC version. Women sometimes find her portrayal conceded and flaky. Connie has nothing to loose, where Mellors has everything to loose. In the novel, this is certainly not the case. Connie is already nothing, an emotionless drone whose stature gives her nothing.
Likewise the Mellors in print has everything to gain. His backstory is greatly detailed by Lawrence, yet he maintains his strong silent and mysterious air. Once on officer during the war and a well educated pupil then tutor, Mellors could have the upper class at his fingertips, yet he chooses to be left alone. This book is not just about sex. Our couple is disenchanted with war, industry, money, and the people around them who think that those things give meaning to life. Some of Mellors' dialogue is written in dialect and for an American like me, it took a double take at first. However, Mellors can also speak perfect English, and does so when he chooses, not when people expect it of him. In fact, his speech is often broken when he thinks it will upset people, such as Connie's image conscious sister Hilda.
Lawrence spends a great many of the early chapters discussing artists and their self important selves, yet it is a great and subtle revelation when Connie discovers books in Mellor's house. Its often claimed not to be Lawrence's best work, but Lady Chatterley's Lover intricately weaves the love story between Connie and Mellors with multiple commentaries from Lawrence. Without being too obvious with his author views, Lawrence questions the English post war Jazz society and classes as well as the later artistic society Lawrence often found himself outcast from. This catch-22 is again mirrored in the novel. Where Connie and Mellors affair crosses class divides and angers their entire community, her husband Clifford's unusual relationship with his nurse Mrs. Bolton is entirely acceptable. I love Charles Dickens for his veiled or outright social commentaries, and I dare say Lawrence is on par here in asking those same society questions. Who decides these social barriers and imobilities? Why are some invisible to these restraints via power, position, and money? What is the right reason to circumvent these divides and do something about oneself?
Lady Chatterley's Lover has kept me thinking about itself long after I've finished the book. I'd like to read it again and find answers to these questions. Although it is a thorough British book in time and place, Lover also presents very modern thoughts and conjecture. After Lawrence's difficulty with self publishing and piracy, the book was banned until a 1960 obscenity trial. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't find the book all that shocking. Was it because I was familiar with the film version, or is it because the book perhaps caused our current liberal ideas and desensitizing? Four letter words and sex talk have always existed, but Lawrence's honest treatment of the subjects opened a Pandora's box on erotica, pornography, nudity, and bad words in art, literature, and film. I can't say the same for other works, but Lover is actually a very tasteful book, rather innocent in a way. The rebirth of the main characters through their love for one another. Lawrence was tempted to call the story `Tenderness' and the title would have fit.
Although the work speaks for itself when it comes to sex, society, and even religion, my edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover came with `A Propos on Lady Chatterley's Lover' by D. H. Lawrence himself. After finishing the book on a positive note, I was disappointed in this thirty page essay. One should always let his work speak for itself, and there's no need for this redundant and overlong speech from Lawrence. From World War I to Christianity, Lawrence's essays should be cut in half or is perhaps better for a college classroom discussion.
If you're looking for porn or sexual gratification, you won't find it in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Most certainly the book is not for everyone, and if frank sexual talk and situations is not your cup of tea, do skip this read. I'lm a fairly straight laced individual, and I only second guessed the book once. In Chapter 16 or 19, I thought the anal sex euphuisms were getting a bit redundant. I giggled a few times over the language, but was moved by other beautiful descriptions from Lawrence. At first I looked for Lover in Borders' small erotica section, but Lawrence's works are found in the general fiction section and in the classics section at my local library.
Lady Chatterley's Lover is by no means for children or prudes, but it is a fine novel that has transcended time and place. We may be too loose or vulgar in our society today-celebrities with wardrobe malfunctions and half naked women in music videos. Lover and the books in its wake may have caused this openness, but the book also reminds me of the good things about he past. Women wore gloves, men tips their hats to all, and writers wrote great books.
Still works, 2008-12-01
I have to admit I've missed this classic for too long. Still holds up and works for today's audience.
Love in the Void, 2008-09-23
"Lady Chatterly's Lover" is one of the most (brutally) honest portrayals of love and intimacy in 20th century literature. Turning away from the flowery and the poetic sentiments of many other writers, Lawrence completely de-romanticizes romance and shows it as something visceral and almost beastial. Written during the span between the first and second World Wars, when industrialization and mechanization seemed to threaten the essence of humanity, Constance Chatterly can, I think, be seen as an Every-Wo/man character searching for intimacy in a society that was increasingly cold and cerebral. Is it possible to love someone when you are alienated from everyone around you? Can you feel passion when you are nothing more than a cog in the gears of some great machine? These are the central questions asked by Lawrence in this novel and of course they are still relevant today.
While "Chatterly" may not be considered Lawrence's best work, it is still a great book and definitely worth reading. Of course, this novel has flaws - notably the characterization of Mellors, and also the very abrupt ending - but Lawrence's beautiful language (minus the various 4 letter words that appear throughout the text) and his keen understanding of humanity make this work really great. Read this book and consider the romantic relationships in your life and I'm sure you will have a lot to think about.
Incandescent. Perfect., 2008-09-20
"She saw the clumsy breeches slipping down over the pure, delicate, white loins, the bones showing a little, and the sense of aloneness, of a creature purely alone, overwhelmed her. Perfect, white, solitary nudity of a creature that lives alone, and inwardly alone. And beyond that, a certain beauty of a pure creature. Not the stuff of beauty, not even the body of beauty, but a lambency, the warm, white flame of a single life, revealing itself in contours that one might touch: a body!"
Oh...my...God!!! Speechless, stunned, drooling, floored.
Mixed feelings on this one..., 2008-08-18
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.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780521222662
ISBN: 0521222664
Label: Cambridge University Press
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 522
Publication Date: 1993-03-26
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Studio: Cambridge University Press |
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