Tuesday, February 18, 2014

LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER by D.H. Lawrence

February selection for Classic Book Club


(The meeting was cancelled on Monday, 2/17 due to a bad ice storm. I did not leave the condo the entire day. A half inch of ice and sleet followed by a couple inches of snow. SMT even shut down by late morning.)


I also enjoyed the novel, but I can't remember any parts that I found particularly amusing, except for the fact that Mellors would inexplicably lapse into his local dialect, but that was more perplexing than humorous (Imagine Obama indulging in Ebonics). Although Mellors did seem to effectively use his slang as a kind of 'attack' against Connie's sister, Hilda before they left on their European tour.

Clifford's egotistical views on his god-given position in the aristocracy were positively medieval, and it's no mystery as to why Lawrence chose to have his 'crippled' character advocate these points of view. Clifford's take on Class, Religion, and Economics were truly horrifying, but I thought that they spoke volumes about how Lawrence really felt about the British caste system. I know that the book was by and large Connie's story, but Clifford and his class are shown to have all of the cards (politically and economically)and maybe Lawrence was trying to imply that their intransigence is the reason for the sexual frustration of modern society. 


After reading more about Lawrence's actual sociopolitical views,  I learn that he seemed to have more disdain for the common man than he did for the aristocracy, and he even advocated a benign form of dictatorship. And, he also seems a bit conflicted about basic heterosexual relationships. Now, I'm not sure what I feel about 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' because I'm remembering many of the less than satisfying sexual encounters between Oliver and Connie, and Mellor's abject racist comments about Black women, and his opinion that women are basically lesbian (although the thought of actual lesbians drives him (Mellors) to rage). I'm probably mistaken in saying that Lawrence blamed the upper class for sexual frustration, and Clifford's disability probably was not meant as a metaphor to underscore his twisted views. I guess I now see the novel as strangely uncomfortable, and the author as more or less of an odd duck. 
 

YouTube Outline of 'Character In Change'

Spark Notes

Google
Politics of DH Lawrence

email for the leader of Classic Book Club
217-753-4900  ext. 219


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