Sons and Lovers

By: D. H. Lawrence

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence's first major novel, was also the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside. No writer before or since has written so well about the intimacies enforced by a tightly knit mining community and by a family where feelings are never hidden for long.

When the marriage between Walter Morel and his sensitive, high-minded wife begins to break down, the bitterness of their frustration seeps into their children's lives. Their second son, Paul, knows that he must struggle for independence if he is not to repeat his parents' failure. Lawrence's powerful description of Paul's single-minded efforts to define himself sexually and emotionally through relationships with two women---the innocent, old-fashioned Miriam Leivers and the experienced, provocatively modern Clara Dawes---makes this a novel as much for the beginning of the 21st century as it was for the beginning of the 20th.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

Beautiful and lingering

Lawrence had a mastery over the omniscient point of view, and it shines here in his first novel.

Like Lady Chatterly’s Lover, the first quarter of the story dips your heart into a very specific place, and then the rest of the story is a contrast built around it.

Sons and Lovers is a worthy read, and like all other D.H. Lawrence stories, it sticks with you for a long time: the journey he takes you on.

Classic

A little boring for me, but it’s a classic. Focus on the 1913 writing style.

Great beginning but 3/3rd in, boring

The Earle descriptions and lives are fabulous, but once the story involves the love life (and implied incestuous feelings ) of the son Paul, the story is interminably boring. Who cares? Simon Vance, however, is superb, as always, in his narration.

DH Lawrence Classic

I enjoyed the storyline, the character development, and the rich prose of DHL. This was my second book of his. The narration was performed beautifully as well.

Good Prose and Essential Truth through Life

These excellent prose loosely follow the life of struggling artist growing up in an English coal mining town of Nottinghamshire with a strong loving and involved mother and a rough, disillusioned, alcoholic, and uninvolved father. The later parts of the book seem quite autobiographical, while the early book seems more fictional, more novel like, and less focused on the artist’s character. The author pacts a lot of essential truth into this novel. The characters all feel deeply real, with all the inconsistencies, self-compromises, vagueness of memories, and vacillations of real humans. The author seems fair to all the characters portrayed (which is a common defect of autobiographical novels). The novel does not have any action to speak of, no adventure, little philosophy, just a story about real people living a real life, and that is enough.

The narration is very good, handling the dialect particularly well.

A view into Lawrence’s psyche?

Overbearing themes of male commitment issues. The protagonist Paul had an emotionally incestual relationship with his mother. And two of the boys, clung to women the had love hate relationships with but blamed the women for a lack of commitment. I think Lawrence had some serious issues with women, and his mother perhaps?

Perfect narration, but what is Lawrence really doing?

Considering that The Rainbow and Women in Love are about lesbian love, and considering that homosexuality (primarily male) was still punishable with imprisonment in England in the 1950's (we learn in the film The Imitation Game), one must consider that Lawrence was attempting to depict a cause for male homosexuality. Then his characterization of the overbearing mother, though a good portrayal, is a gross oversimplification.

As for our hero, Paul Morel, he loves Miriam/he doesn't. He wants to marry her/he doesn't. He loves Clair/he doesn't. Then he loves Miriam again/he doesn't. He wants to marry her/he doesn't. This vacillation continues until readers are saying "Choose, already!" He becomes a tiresome character. Finally, readers must imagine where his unsteady character leads him.

As for narration, Simon Vance has a different voice for each character, easy to discern, and even different voices for Mrs. Morel as she ages. Indeed, this narration makes listening a pleasure, even for those who aren't extremely fond of the novel.

Sons and Lovers

Timeless story of mother-son-girlfriend relations. Well performed. The Freudian overtones are not neglected.

Amazing and poetic!

Great parable on a mother's influence on boys exploration of masculinity and romance. The narrator is great and fits the deep tone of the story.

Parenting affects the children's adult relationships

A mother's relationship with her two sons has long reaching consequences on them and the way they treat women.