Introductive passage:

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.

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Lade Chatterley’s Lover is a book about adultery, and in some way also lost love… and the search for happiness in a post war era. It is one of the classics that you have to read, but to me, it didn’t quite fulfil my expectations… I’m not even sure what my expectations were.

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Even though it was banned due to supposed obscenity, I found myself more intrigued by the surroundings of the story and the in some way the sub plots of subject discussions happening in-between Lady Chatterley’s (in this age) rather lame escapades. To be frank.

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What I think D.H. Lawrence successfully captured, was the culture and society’s view on class distinctions. Clifford were painted like a “true” high class society person, and his prejudices shine through in the many interactions with servants and town folks. This is also evident in his relationship with Lady Chatterley… and it comes very evident how important it is, for example, for a man of his standard to have an heir. This is a key point in this novel, I think. Perhaps the novel broke for me when, a few chapters in, the stand point for Lady Chatterley’s choices changed from the goal of acquiring love and intimacy to having a child. I can well understand why some might want a child very much, but I can’t see how anyone would have that as their goal over a loving relationship. It all reminded me of today… and it is not all different. I remember seeing an American talk show about young teenagers having sex with various guys with the only goal of raising their children together… childish behaviour in a way, how one always wanted to do everything with ones’ best friend. Coming to think of it, I also believe I saw a Bones episode with this plot. Anyway, it left me with no satisfaction of really finishing the novel – though I ultimately did, as part of the Read-A-Thon last Saturday.

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The parts that grabbed me most were more the historical retelling of the culture and subject matters that were discussed between Clifford and his acquaintances.

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Notable passages

  • Connie and he were attached to one another, in the aloof modern way.  He was much too hurt in himself, the great shock of his maiming, to be easy and flippant. He was a hurt thing. And as such Connie stuck to him passionately.
  • For Connie had adopted the standard of the young: what there was in the moment was everything.
  • The bitch-goddess, as she is called, of Success roamed, snarling and protective, round the half-humble, half-defiant Michaelis’s heels, and intimidated Clifford completely: for he wanted to prostitute himself to the bitch-goddess Success also, if only she would have him.
  • There’s lots of good fish in the sea… maybe… but the vast masses seem to be mackerel and herring, and if you’re not mackerel or herring yourself, you are likely to find very few good fish in the sea.
  • It was fun. Instead of men kissing you, and touching you with their bodies, they revealed their minds to you.
  • We think we’re gods… men like gods! It’s just the same as Bolshevism. One has to be human, and have a heart and a penis, if one is going to escape being either god or a Bolshevist…for they are the same thing: they’re both too good to be true.
  • Connie thought, how extremely like all the rest of the classes the lower classes sounded. Just the same thing over again, Tevershall or Mayfair or Kensington. There was only one class nowadays: moneyboys. The moneyboy and moneygirl, the only difference was how much you’d got, and how much you wanted.
  • All vulnerable things must perish under the rolling and running of iron.