3 Review(s)

Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence’s powerful and passionate novel is regarded as one of the greatest autobiographical novels of the twentieth century. It is the story of Paul Morel, a young man and an artist, his powerful relationship with his possessive mother Mrs. Morel, his passionate love affair with Miriam, his intense liaison with Clara, a married woman, and the effect of his love for his mother on his relationship with these two women—a manifestation of Oedipus complex. The novel contains some universal truths about relationships. It has, what Alfred Kazin says, Lawrence’s “magic sympathy, between himself and life”. “No other writer of his imaginative standing”, continues Kazin, “has in our time written books that are so open to life...since for Lawrence the great subject of literature was not the writer’s own consciousness but consciousness between people, the living felt relationship between them, it was his very concern to represent the ‘shimmer’ of life, the ‘wholeness’...that made possible his brilliance as a novelist.” The book has been brought out under Atlantic Critical Studies for the students of English literature, particularly those pursuing English (Honours) from Delhi University where the novel is prescribed in the syllabus. The chapters cover all the major themes and other aspects of the novel and after reading the book the students should be able to answer all the questions they are likely to face in the examination. For complete text of the novel the students can refer to the Classics Edition published under our imprint Peacock Books, also available online.