A classic and amongst the best in literature, this novel is more famous for its scandalous content rather than its brilliant writing.Lady Chatterley's Lover has three different versions. The first two are called The First and Second Lady Chatterley's Lover. It is the third one which is the most famous, Lady Chatterley's Lover. All three books are different from each other. The story, the characters and even their names differ. The material caused quite a scandal when published in 1960, as unlike now some four-letter words were not part of the common vocabulary then. Also, more so in the third version, there was a lot of "explicit and obscene" content, so much so that the publishers were held on obscenity trials!
I lay my hands on the second edition which is said to be the best of the three. To call it an obscene book is quite an exaggeration. True, you'd be better off skipping some pages totally, but there is a lot more to this book than banned four-letter words!
Sir Clifford Chatterley, her ladyship Constance and their gamekeeper Parker are the main characters and I do not like any of them. Especially Constance. Clifford is a typical aristocrat who is too full of himself and has rather strong opinions about everything. He is handicapped and lapses into depression and gloom time and again. Not a very likable character but I feel a certain pity for him.
The story centers around Constance. Her blank and colorless life is changed as she comes across their gamekeeper. No, it is not love that changes it. It is the ability to satisfy her sexual needs. Unlike some feminists, I don't feel that her affair with a man below her status is a sign of independence or freedom. In fact, that is just selfish. She uses Parker to satisfy her needs. There is not much said about Parker and how he feels, he just takes what is offered to him. After all, he has nothing to lose!
This is a very bleak picture I am presenting, but the characters and the story are not what makes this a classic. The portrayal of Constance's plight as she remains trapped in the marriage, the numbness inside her, the cold anger which grips her insides, and her eventual release from all of it, that is what makes this book brilliant. Intense in the extreme, it makes you feel are actually walking the woods with her ladyship. And what woods! Name a flower and see if you don't find it mentioned here. Anemones, primroses, lilies, violets, bluebells and so many more! And they are not just a description of the scenic beauty. They show the transition in Constance's life. Her solitude is mirrored in the dull landscape which slowly turns into flowers blooming everywhere, the different colors and fragrances forming an image of the blooming Constance as she finds companionship and love.
I have been trying to write about this book for many days now but I am still unable to express the intensity Lawrence's writing has. Read it, I'd say. Find out for yourself. Only be careful of which version you are reading.
2 comments:
hey....nice blog!
Wonder how i never came across this.
..seems like u have been doing loads of reading lately...good keep posting more such reviews :)
This is possibly going to sound snobbish but I'll say it anyway -- I love Lawrence, and I think that Chatterley's is not one of his stronger books. Compare it to Sons and Lovers or Women in Love and it seems thin and shrill. I agree with you when it comes to his flower-descriptions, though: he can lend a field of flowers so much emotion that the page practically vibrates and melts under him. If you haven't already, you might want to take a look at his flower-poems, or at the scene near the end of chapter 10, in Sons and Lovers, in which Mrs Morel goes walking in the garden at night. "The tall white lilies were reeling in the moonlight, and the air was charged with their perfume, as with a presence ..."
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