Don’t Skip This: Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Remember that summer reading list in high school that you blew off? There were some pretty great titles you skipped and you’ve spent your adult life hearing references to them. What did you miss? And why are these titles still thrown around today? Are they really that good? Here’s your chance to redeem yourself: we’re taking a candid look at a lot of these books and building a case for finally picking up that book years later.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Author:
D.H. Lawrence
Genre:  Romance
Length:
Roughly 300 pages, depending on the edition and how much it’s been censored.
Difficulty Level:
Late high school
Selling Point:
The sex scenes.

The Gist:

The premise begins with Lord Clifford Chatterley, who was paralyzed from the waist down in World War I. His wife, Constance (also called “Connie”), dutifully stays by him, though she’s frustrated by his sexual impotence. It also doesn’t help that Clifford spends the book devolving into a heartless idiot whose sole obsession is fame and fortune.

Desperately in need of emotional fulfillment, Connie finds it in the Chatterleys’ groundskeeper, Oliver Mellors. The two fall in love and sneak off to have passionate sex in the woods, even as they struggle figuring out what to do about Clifford.

Common Misconceptions:

This is probably one of history’s most famous examples of literary “smut.” Ever since it was first published, the book has been notorious for its depictions of sex and sexuality. In truth, the reputation is only partly deserved. The early sex scenes are brief and mostly devoid of any graphic description, but the love scenes get really hot and heavy when Connie starts her affair at the halfway point. And all throughout the book, the characters are constantly going on about families, procreation, sexuality, the emotional connection between people and their genitals, marriage and its place in society, relations between men and women, etc.

From the 2006 film: The Chatterley Affair.

Still, the book has a lot to say about subjects other than sex. Hell, the story’s central conflict is between Connie’s aristocratic husband and her salt-of-the-earth lover. Lawrence sets aside dozens of pages to discuss humanity’s growing dependence on technology, money, and success in business to provide happiness. Also, the book was set and published at the tail end of the Roaring ‘20s, which makes the book’s treatment of the subject even more timely and ironic.

Is it still worth it?

CLICK to enlarge.

On the one hand, the issue of sexuality isn’t nearly as taboo as it was in the ‘20s. In the time since, we’ve had the sexual revolution, Internet porn, and ubiquitous sexual jokes and phrases in everyday parlance. On the other hand, the issue of sexuality is still a touchy one. To this day, we’re still debating such matters as gay rights, abortions, STD vaccinations, public breast feeding, sex education, the social acceptability of various fetishes, and even the very definition of sex. And of course, there’s the fact that men and women are no closer to completely understanding each other than they were 90 years ago.

Put simply, the book’s treatment of sexuality falls right in that sweet spot where it’s still shocking enough to be relevant, but not shocking enough to be overly offensive by modern standards.

On the other hand, the issue of sexuality is still a touchy one. To this day, we’re still debating such matters as gay rights, abortions, STD vaccinations…

Thematic content aside, the characterization in this book is extremely poor. It doesn’t help that the first two chapters are filled almost entirely with expository narration that tells us about the characters and their backstories, instead of showing us through actions or dialogue. Furthermore, Connie makes for a very weak female protagonist, especially by modern standards. She works nicely as a sounding board for all the other characters and their philosophies, but that’s mostly because Connie shows very little independent thought or action through the proceedings. From start to finish, Connie is entirely reliant upon her male co-stars.

Aside from Connie, the characters are all developed and presented in such a way that they don’t feel like actual human beings so much as they feel like representations of moral arguments. Mellors is presented as Lawrence’s ideal man, Clifford is everything that Lawrence disagrees with, and so on. It’s sort of like Atlas Shrugged in that way, except that Ayn Rand’s philosophy is diametrically opposed to that of Lawrence.

Here is a book that celebrates human sexuality and strongly argues that happiness can’t be bought. The book raises many issues that are as timely as ever, and examines them in terms that are relevant and understandable to this day.

Where can I find it? How much does it cost?
A paperback can easily be found for less than $10, but e-book editions can be bought for a mere dollar. It’s also freely available online.