Lady Chatterley's Lover

By: D. H. Lawrence

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The last and most famous of D. H. Lawrence's novels, Lady Chatterley's Lover was published in 1928 and banned in England and the United States as pornographic. While sexually tame by today's standards, the book is memorable for better reasons---Lawrence's masterful and lyrical prose, and a vibrant story that takes us bodily into the world of its characters. As the novel opens, Constance Chatterley finds herself trapped in an unfulfilling marriage to a rich aristocrat whose war wounds have left him paralyzed and impotent. After a brief but unsatisfying affair with a playwright, Lady Chatterley enjoys an extremely passionate relationship with the gamekeeper on the family estate, Oliver Mellors. As Lady Chatterley falls in love and conceives a child with Mellors, she moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sexual fulfillment. Through this novel, Lawrence attempted to revive in the human consciousness an awareness of savage sensuality, a sensuality with the power to free men and women from the enslaving sterility of modern technology and intellectualism. Perhaps even more relevant today than when it first appeared, Lady Chatterley's Lover is a triumph of passion and an erotic celebration of life.

Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor

Packs a punch

Such fine prose. A moving love-story interspersed with semi-polemics on sex, gender, money, class and civilisation written in a post-war context, and all painfully relevant today. The descriptive sex scenes may have lost their initial shock value, but they still pack a visceral punch (Eros presented here as no wallflower). John Lee's narration was solid.

What a book, What a narrator!

D.H. Lawrence is such a classic writer and a genius with wordplay. And this narrator is amazing with the characters so much that I could listen to it over and over! Amazing!

Perfect Perfidy.

Lady Chatterley's Lover, D. H. Lawrence, Narrated by: John Lee. My first comment is why did I wait so long to read this really revolutionary and introspective work of art? Why did I wait so long to return to D. H. Lawrence? (Maybe because I do not like his personal values.) When a younger man in New York City, I went through a period of watching D.H. Lawrence films; because of the drastic and dramatic considerations it flung out about, women, men, women and men, government and the people, and government control of its diabolical peoples. One film and your mind and soul would dwell upon the movie’s characters, plot and human interactions for days, if not weeks. Metaphysical thought. What a life sustaining set of urges, D. H. Lawrence tales provoked in me (and the rest of humanity). Well I’ve now read Lady Chatterley’s Lover, so I am on my way to curing my deficiency of not reading (or listening to) the actual novels.

The story is of an upper-class woman married to a stick in the mud straight laced fool, suffering from lower body paralysis. Our female lead, receives no emotional support from her husband, finds her way to a lover(s), and finds that sex is physical and soul nourishing. The descriptions of the sexual interactions are poignant. The tale roles forth as if it was written in the Romantic (Victorian) era. But do not dismay, as its story is all-encompassing and you will undoubtedly read addictively until the end.

Not one of the characters, is admirable, yet they (and particularly our heroine, Connie) become your alter ego and make you wonder about yourself. Do I like or unlike these people? How do I change. Can I change. Do I need to change? How about my mother, sister, lover, friend, co-worker; are they as flawed as everyone in a D. H. Lawrence novel?

Well, bottom line. Great read, and no one is as good as John Lee in reading.

Made me blush and I loved it

This book was an unexpected surprise! After so many four letter words I read up on it’s history! Very interesting! But also a good book!

Love Expounded

Lawrence beautifully, unashamedly asserts the essentiality of bodily love. Pairs well with Donne's "The Extasie."

Good read.

Loved the in depth character study and analysis of human emotions and relationships. Highly recommended.

Don't like Lawrence

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I don't think I like DH Lawrence because I don't think he liked women. Couldn't stand the main character, Connie. The narrator reading of her made her even worse, I think. Some male writers can capture women correctly but not Lawrence.

Good narrator

I thought I would have preferred a female narrator for this book but I actually really liked John Lee's performance.

Good book but a bit plodding

This was a good story but I think it could have been half this long. So much talk about nothingness, and ridiculousness. I guess that was an intentional illustration of the frustration of the classes against each other and all the changes during the Industrial Revolution? Overall, I would recommend the book, and I’d also like to commend the John Lee for his excellent narration.

A good casual listen

John Lee was not as good here as he is in the Three Musketeers, but he's still great. Clear storytelling, but all the Scottish accents sound alike and the women don't sound as compelling as in 3 Musketeers (i.e. he performs Lady Chatterly < Milady De Winter). That said, he does do a good Scottish accent, easily distinguishable from his normal English accent. But sometimes I forgot who was speaking.