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Customer Review: A Portrait of An Artist as a Young Mama's Boy...
"Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother's love is not." James Joyce
"Mama's gonna check out all your girl friends for you... Mama won't let anyone dirty get through... Mama's gonna wait up till you get in... Mama will always find out where you've been... Mamma's gonna keep baby healthy and clean..." Lyrics from the song "Mother" by Roger Waters of "Pink Floyd"
This rather abstract, deeply affecting autobiographical novel by D.H. Lawrence is sure to unearth a myriad of emotions and conceptions for most readers as it did for me. In fact, one could easily scribe a terse, ten page thesis on this one. Talk about a complex story filled with a group of complicated, and yet captivating characters, especially the two main characters - Paul Morel (based on D.H. Lawrence himself) and his possessive, yet extremely endearing mother Mrs. Gertrude Morel. Yes, as you have probably read in the other reviews, Freud would have loved this one, for it's a prime example of his Oedipus complex theory. However, to focus solely on that aspect of this story would be doing this masterpiece a grave injustice, for it is so much more than that. The abnormal and imperfect relationships of Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers" are among the most widely discussed and analyzed in English Literature. This is one of those novels that will keep you completely absorbed from the first chapter on to the very last page.
The story takes place right around the turn-of-the-century in the small, rather poor, mining village of Bestwood, England (Bestwood actually based on Eastwood where Lawrence was born). All of the main characters (with the exception of Clara Dawes, who was a composite) are based on real people in Lawrence's early life. Essentially, Paul Morel's early life story is the story of D.H. Lawrence. Paul is one of four children of Mr. and Mrs. Morel, two people who are complete opposites of one another, with the former being an uneducated, uncouth, and extremely unsophisticated mineworker. Estranged from her husband early on in their marriage, Mrs. Morel decides to take comfort in her four children, particularly (after a family catastrophe that I will refrain from disclosing) her middle son Paul: "Wherever he went she felt her soul went with him. Whatever he did she felt her soul stood by him..." And to young Paul, completely alienated from his ogre father, his mother is his whole existence, by far and away "the strongest tie in his life". However, trouble soon awaits the pair as Paul begins his slow ascent into manhood.
As Paul enters into his teens, and those hormones start kicking in, he soon falls deeply in love with the austere, esoteric, loner Miriam who lives on a farm not too far from Paul's home. For many years the two of them carry on an extremely intimate, but yet purely platonic relationship. An intimacy that leaves Paul confused and totally unfulfilled. His feelings for this all-consuming girl seesaw back and forth from love to hate. And of course, his mother far from approves, "she's not like an ordinary woman... she wants to absorb him... til there is nothing left of him, even for himself... she will suck him up." Of course, his mother's adverse opinion of Miriam proves to be one of the main reasons he chooses not to marry the girl.
Paul's second love affair is with Mrs. Clara Dawes, a suffragette, who is currently separated from her troubled husband. She is introduced to Paul through Miriam, and at first the two become close friends (it is her sage advice which soon helps him end his frustrating, platonic relationship with Miriam). However, despite her being married and Paul's heart belonging to someone else, the two of them begin a passionate love affair. Of course this affair also leaves his mother very despondent and discouraged to say the least. And in the end, of course... well... I'll refrain from disclosing anything more.
I know this is a rather long review, however I still think I could write for days about this one and even then not quite do it justice. D.H. writes with such detailed, flowery, and poignant prose. This novel is a unique, in-depth look inside of the artist himself. He very bravely sketches for us his true character, warts and all, and about all the events that made him what he was.
Lastly, I've read several reviews bashing Mrs. Morel, but all in all, with what she had to work with, she seemed to do a relatively good job in raising her children. The majority of 'mama boys' I have known in my life usually are self-centered, egotistical, under-achieving, pompous jackasses. They are the type of guys who think that it's their planet, and the rest of us here are just visiting. Thankfully so, D.H. Lawrence did not turn out that way! Ergo, his mother had to do something right.
In closing, all I have to say is - WHAT A MASTERPIECE! If this isn't deserving of five stars, then I don't know what is.
Customer Review: A remarkable examination of relationships
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 version since it is the most popular) has a contemporaneous review (Lascelles Abercrombie, Manchester Guardian, July 2, 1913) that assesses this book much better than I can:
"Indeed, you do not realize how astonishingly interesting the whole book is until you find yourself protesting that this thing or that bores you, and eagerly reading on in spite of your protestations...You think you are reading through an unimportant scene; and then find that it has burnt itself on your mind."
This book has truly burnt itself on my mind, and I am glad that I came back to it.
Customer Review: indescribable
Wow...I don't remember the last time that I've read a novel that would bring out in me such immense sensitivity as this one. With incredible detail Lawrence describes his life and ihs biggest loves. Perhaps I should not be writing this review because I only read 200 pages so far, but it is just too breathtaking.
Customer Review: Well written, but not enough to resist some skepticism
This novel created considerable controversy, along with Freudian accusations of an Oedipal relationship between Paul the son and his mother Gertrude.
D. H. Lawrence depicted the physical attraction between Paul and Clara in a very frank direct manner that was quite radical for the time. The tormenting uncertainty between
Paul and Miriam, along with his strong attraction to Clara as compared to the mutual emotional dependency between him and his mother were understandably overwhelming to the public.
It was very instructive to see how the absence of love in the mother's life led her to have an emotional dependency on one of her kids, only to switch to another son when she loses the first one. Portraying human narcissism through motherly love is a very shocking way of examining human nature. It was very interesting, as well, to see how the son was always torn between loving a woman and loving his mom, which are very different and incompatible emotions.
Lawrence's honesty is very admirable considering the period in which the novel was written, and the unique way he described the son's decision while the mom is in pain on her death bed might raise some deep insight regarding this Author's vision. I, though, reject the possibility of a deep emotional thinker, and go with a merely honest portrayal of a pleasure worshipping male, who did not understand typical male desires as compared to typical human feelings.
Lawrence had many admirers, including some smart/confused feminists, who thought of him as a great writer who portrayed quite accurately women's feelings. I, on the other hand, agree with the good writer part but sense in him shallowness and pure blind desire with a great dearth of complex analysis.
Amazon.com Review
Sons and Lovers was the first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Lawrence's young protagonist. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him all his life--for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam, and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Morel. It is, by Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: "as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers--first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother--urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives." Of course, Mrs. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the first of whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl's deep love of her son will oust her: "She's not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb him." Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor, incapable of committing himself in either direction: "Why did his mother sit at home and suffer?... And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so cruel towards her, at the thought of his mother. If Miriam caused his mother suffering, then he hated her--and he easily hated her." Soon thereafter he even confesses to his mother: "I really don't love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you." The result of all this is that Paul throws Miriam over for a married suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete relationship to challenge his love for his mother. As Paul voyages from the working-class mining world to the spheres of commerce and art (he has fair success as a painter), he accepts that his own achievements must be equally his mother's. "There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled... All his work was hers." The cycles of Paul's relationships with these three women are terrifying at times, and Lawrence does nothing to dim their intensity. Nor does he shirk in his vivid, sensuous descriptions of the landscape that offers up its blossoms and beasts and "shimmeriness" to Paul's sensitive spirit. Sons and Lovers lays fully bare the souls of men and earth. Few books tell such whole, complicated truths about the permutations of love as resolutely without resolution. It's nothing short of searing to be brushed by humanity in this manner. --Melanie Rehak
Product Description
With a new Introduction by Geoff Dyer
Commentary by Anthony Burgess, Jessie Chambers, Frieda Lawrence, V.S. Pritchett, Kate Millett, and Alfred Kazin
Of all Lawrence's work, Sons and Lovers tells us most about the emotional source of his ideas," observed Diana Trilling. "The famous Lawrence theme of the struggle for sexual power--and he is sure that all the struggles of civilized life have their root in this primary contest--is the constantly elaborated statement of the fierce battle which tore Lawrence's family."
Sons and Lovers is one of the landmark novels of the twentieth century. When it appeared in 1913, it was immediately recognized as the first great modern restatement of the oedipal drama, and it is now widely considered the major work of D. H. Lawrence's early period. This intensely autobiographical novel recounts the story of Paul Morel, a young artist growing to manhood in a British working-class family rife with conflict. The author's vivid evocation of the all-consuming nature of possessive love and sexual attraction makes this one of his most powerful novels.
For the critic Kate Millett, "Sons and Lovers is a great novel because it has the ring of something written from deeply felt experience. The past remembered, it conveys more of Lawrence's own knowledge of life than anything else he wrote. His other novels appear somehow artificial beside it."
Customer Review: Weak Characters
Gertrude Morel thought at first that she was getting into a good marriage. Walter Morel seemed happy and successful and was not a drinker. She thought he would make a good husband and a good father to their children. It was only after they were married for awhile that she found that he spent much of his time drunk and didn't own any of the property he'd told her he owned. A seed of resentment was planted.
Once their children, especially two sons, William and Paul, were born, Gertrude stopped caring much about her husband at all and concentrated on her offspring.
Paul ends up with his mother's undiluted attention and affection. His decisions are largely based on keeping her happy, and when his thoughts wander to other females, such as those he dates, his mother grows petulant and her pouting convinces her son to come back to her. Although Paul has a good job and a bright future as an artist, he finds himself unwilling to commit to the girls he dates, because nobody can quite match up to his mother in his mind.
This is a sad story of a mother ruining her son's life without meaning to. She really only wants to love him, but her love is so overbearing that she doesn't leave room for anyone else in his mind.
The characters in this story didn't grab me. They were all incredibly weak, from Walter with his drinking problem drifting farther and farther away from his family; to Paul, unable to break away from his mother; to Gertrude, unable to make a life for herself and clinging to her son instead; to Miriam, allowing herself to be hurt over and over instead of walking away from Paul once and for all. They all needed to have some sense shaken into them.
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