Sons and Lovers is a remarkable novel, viewed by many as his earliest masterpiece. It tells the strange story of Paul Morel,
When the book was initially published in 1913, its publishers out of caution and timidity had shortened Lawrence’s originally submitted version by about ten percent – cuts that are restored in the new “uncensored and uncut” edition. In terms of complexity of characterization, intensity of characters’ confrontations, and sexual frankness, the book is now, say the publishers, as the author intended them. As an example: “He could smell her faint perfume” has returned to its original, “He could smell her faint natural perfume, and it drove him wild with hunger.” And that makes a difference.
It is about a woman who marries a coal miner, a man below her class. While he is young there is joy in her life, but as she grows older the class differences create a wall between them. She lives more and more for her two male children. She tries to ensure that they can live middle class lives. As she grows older the children become more important to her. The death of the oldest means that she suffocates the younger son with a love that affects his normal development.
Sons and Lovers, by Lawrence’s own account, is a book aimed at depicting Mrs. Morel’s (and his mother’s) grasp: “as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers – first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother – urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can’t love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives.”
Mrs. Morel does not take her two elder sons as literal lovers, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. She loathes Paul’s Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl’s deep love of her son will oust her: “She’s not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb him.” Later Paul confesses to his mother: “I really don’t love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you.”
So Paul throws Miriam over for a married suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete relationship to challenge his love for his mother. The cycles of Paul’s relationships with women are terrifying at times, and Lawrence displays them in all their intensity.
The story in Sons and Lovers is brilliant. It explores important themes like emotional manipulation and possessiveness in a very elegant and impressive prose. However, it is not a pleasure to read: Paul’s inability to break free from the psychological bondage with his mother is quite frustrating. Even so, I loved reading it and consider it a very important book.
, 
, and 
.
