This edition published 1st October 2009 by Penguin Classics. Originally published privately in 1928/29, with a full version published in 1960.
From the cover of the book:
Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the invalid Sir Clifford.
Unable to fulfil his wife emotionally or physically, Clifford encourages her to have a liaison with a man of their own class. But Connie is attracted instead to her husband's gamekeeper and embarks on a passionate affair that brings new life to her stifled existence.
Can she find a true equality with Mellors, despite the vast gulf between their positions in society?
One of the most controversial novels in English literature, Lady Chatterley's Lover is an erotically charged and psychologically powerful depiction of adult relationships.
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Lady Chatterley's Lover is one of those books that comes with a reputation. D.H. Lawrence's salacious 1928 novel of Lady Chatterley's affair with her husband's game keeper, Oliver Mellors, was widely banned in its unexpurgated version. It took a very famous case in 1960 for the full version to be published in all its naked glory, when the ban was challenged by Penguin. With the obscenity charge dismissed, it sold like hot-cakes, and is now easily Lawrence's most well-known book.
I have not read any D.H. Lawrence since my youth, and I remember finding his work a bit dull - in spite of the saucy reputation. However, after recently reading a fascinating article about the significance of the landmark case, I was tempted to delve into this classic once again. By the way, if you get a chance I highly recommend going down a rabbit hole about the case, the position for upholding the ban was based firmly in outrageous classism and misogyny - highly misjudged for a time when social attitudes were changing fast!
Most people probably have a vague idea of what this story is about - an aristocratic woman cavorting with someone so far below her in the social order. But, there is actually so much more to the novel.
Constance, Lady Chatterley, ends up tied to Lord Clifford Chatterley, who returns from the First World War a shell of his former self. Paralysed from below the waist, he is now impotent. Eventually recovering enough to throw himself into high-brow literary pursuits that bring him fame and fortune, Clifford has little use for intimacy of any kind with his wife, but needs her at his beck and call. Duty keeps Connie at the ancestral home, overshadowed by the industrial heartland in which it sits, and she begins to waste away for lack of meaningful connection.
Her life shrinks in way that is rarely captured by any of the adaptations, which focus almost entirely on the passion that sparks between her and Mellors - a quiet man with hidden depths. But her sexual awakening with a man who is not afraid of tenderness is a turning point. Drawn to each other, love blossoms between the lady and the game keeper, much to snobby Clifford's eventual disgust when Connie falls pregnant and leaves him. Earlier in the novel he is keen for her to provide an heir via another man, but Mellors is far too low-born to be acceptable in this role. Much divorce-laced drama results in the final stretch of the story.
Lawrence touches on a wealth of different themes pertinent to time and place in this story, particularly around class, money, marriage, divorce, industrialisation, the natural environment, and the shadow of war. There is a lot of pontificating from Clifford and his cronies in the first half of the book, steeped in arrogant superiority, which is incredibly tedious, but many of Lawrence's themes are very thought provoking - especially those around women's rights, intellectual freedom, social mobility, and elitism.
And then, of course, there is the sex. Although the steamy scenes in this book may be tame by today's standards, they would have been shocking for the time. For the most part, the language used is a bit awkward for modern tastes - far too much use of 'womb and 'loins' - but there is plenty of sensuality. I cannot help feeling Lawrence had a few whimsical John Thomas and Lady Jane fantasies of his own given some of the scenes. And although he is often cited as 'writing women well', the sex is very male-centric.
Connie and Mellors are tricky characters to become fully invested in, as both are frustrating in different ways. Lawrence's need to indulge in lengthy philosophical rants takes the steam out of the love story too - romance and social realism are uncomfortable bed fellows in Lawrence's hands. My favourite character is the very sensible Ivy Bolton, who is brought in to suffer as Clifford's carer - there is a woman you can get behind.
It is an odd book really, but if you are fascinated by post-WWI fiction, then this is definitely worth a read - if only to see what the fuss is all about. I highly recommend taking this is in via the superbly narrated audio book performed by Holliday Grainger (an Audible Original), who pulled me through the more laborious parts of the story.
And if you are not feeling strong enough for text or audio, and just want a beautifully shot, deliciously entertaining adaptation that concentrates on the hot love story element, the 2022 version starring Emma Corrin and Jack O'Connell, as Connie and Mellors, should fit the bill nicely, m'lady!
Lady Chatterley's Lover is available to buy now in various formats.
About the author:
D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), English novelist, storywriter, critic, poet and painter, one of the greatest figures in 20th-century English literature. Among his works, Sons and Lovers appeared in 1913, The Rainbow (1915), Women In Love (1920), and many others.
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