LADY CHATTERLEY'S

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. ...

David Herbert (D. H.) Lawrence, whose fiction has had a profound influence on twentieth-century literature, was born on September 11, 1885, in a mining village in Nottinghamshire, England. His father was an illiterate coal miner, his mother a genteel schoolteacher determined to lift her children out of the working class. His parents' unhappy marriage and his mother's strong emotional claims on her son later became the basis for Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (1913), one of the most important autobiographical novels of this century.

In 1915, his masterpiece, The Rainbow, which like it's companion novel Women In Love (1920) dealt frankly with sex, was suppressed as indecent a month after its publication. Aaron's Road (1922); Kangaroo (1923), set in Australia; and The Plumed Serpent (1926), set in Mexico, were all written during Lawrence's travels in search of political and emotional refuge and healthful climate. In 1928, already desperately ill, Lawrence wrote Lady Chatterly's Lover. Banned as pornographic, the unexpurgated edition was not allowed legal circulation in Britain until 1960. D. H. Lawrence called his life, marked by struggle, frustration, and despair "a savage enough pilgrimage." He died on March 2, 1930, at the age of forty-four, in Vence, France.

Book Description
This is the story of Constance Chatterley, a lovely young woman whose parts are all in good working order. Not so her husband, Clifford. He wears repression like armor.

So when Constance is thrown into contact with Oliver Mellors, her husband's gamekeeper, the results are explosive. He restores her sexuality and with it her zest in life and living.

When the book was published in 1928, it caused a sensation. Lawrence wrote of physical love with a lack of inhibition that startled his readers, but his scenes evoked lyrical tenderness and joy. They still do. This edition, banned in the United States until 1959, was the first complete and unexpurgated text of Lawrence's finest and most famous novel.

"The most tender, poignant and liberated love story of all time."

Publisher Comments :
Lyric and sensual, D.H. Lawrence's last novel is one of the major works of fiction of the twentieth century. Filled with scenes of intimate beauty, explores the emotions of a lonely woman trapped in a sterile marriage and her growing love for the robust gamekeeper of her husband's estate. The most controversial of Lawrence's books, Lady Chatterly's Lover joyously affirms the author's vision of individual regeneration through sexual love. The book's power, complexity, and psychological intricacy make this a completely original work--a triumph of passion, an erotic celebration of life.

"Nobody concerned with the novel in our century can afford not to read it." -- Lawrence Durrell

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Novel by D.H. Lawrence, published in a limited English-language edition in Florence (1928) and in Paris (1929). It was first published in England in an expurgated version in 1932. The full text was only published in 1959 in New York City and in 1960 in London, when it was the subject of a landmark obscenity trial (Regina v. Penguin Books Limited) that turned largely on the justification of the use in the novel of until-then taboo sexual terms. This last of Lawrence's novels reflects the author's belief that men and women must overcome the deadening restrictions of industrialized society and follow their natural instincts to passionate love. Constance (Connie) Chatterley is married to Sir Clifford, a wealthy landowner who is paralyzed from the waist down and is absorbed in his books and his estate, Wragby. After a disappointing affair, Connie turns to the estate's gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors, a symbol of natural man who awakens her passions.

Amazon.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 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.

From AudioFile
Lawrence's classic tale of love and discovery comes alive in this audio presentation. Lady Chatterley is trapped in an unhappy marriage with a husband who is paralyzed physically and emotionally. Jill Daly reads in a quiet tone which ebbs and flows with the excitement of the characters. The indecisiveness of Lady Chatterley, the callousness of her husband, the persuasiveness of her lover--all are portrayed in a quiet, even voice until the climactic end. The abridgment is an excellent taste of D.H. Lawrence. Some language and imagery are explicit. M.B.K.

Book Dimension:
length: (cm)17.4 　　　 　　　　　 　 width:(cm)10.7