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Women in Love (平装)
by D.H. Lawrence
| Category:
Literature, Classic, Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 78.00
MSL price:
¥ 68.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Poetic, disturbing, thought-provoking, Women in Love is a book about individual philosophies, personalities, desires, and the conscious or subconscious need for control in relationships. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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Fletcher (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
I think Women in Love must be just about the most emotionally intense book I've ever read. D.H. Lawrence conjures his four main characters in what feels like the heat of a closed-room kiln. The writing is beautiful and amazingly perceptive, but is at times stultifyingly over-analytical.
Yet, despite the book's combined length, density and decided lack of plot, Women in Love is surprisingly readable. What makes this book so good is the honesty with which Lawrence imbues his two title characters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, and their two chosen lovers, Birkin and Gerald. It can be frustrating to read page after page of the mental thrashings of an individual mind's search for truth and authenticity in life and in love, but it can also be a kind of revelation.
These characters think differently about the world around them than I do, and we each think differently about the world than you who are reading this do. And yet we are all basically the same on a certain transcendent level. We are all human and we all long for an authentic connection with the world around us. We are different and we are the same. That's why living in this world isn't always easy, and that's why it's always worthwhile. This book beautifully and even entertainingly captures those basic struggles for human connection and if for that reason alone, it's well worth reading. Highly recommended.
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Mary Whipple (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
Written in 1920 and often regarded as D. H. Lawrence's greatest novel, Women in Love is the complex story of two women and two men who scrutinize their lives and personal needs in an effort to discover something that makes the future worth living. The personal and social traumas of post-World War I, combined with the rise of industry and urbanization, have affected all four main characters, often at cross purposes as they explore love and its role in their lives. Intensely introspective and self-conscious, each character shares his/her thoughts with the reader, allowing the reader to participate in the inner conflicts and crises that each faces.
Ursula Brangwen, a teacher in a mining town in the Midlands, is attracted to Rupert Birkin, a school supervisor; her sister Gudrun, an artist whose sculptures have drawn some attention in London, is drawn to Gerald Crich, whose father is a mine owner. As the two women earn their living and consider the issue of marriage, which they regard as an impediment to their independence, the men deal with issues of sexuality and power, and whether the love of a woman is enough. Both men have homosexual urges which compete with their feelings for women.
Gerald is the most conflicted of the four. Taking over the mines upon the death of his father, he is fiercely committed to making them successful, even if that means hardening his heart toward his workers. He feels no sense of responsibility toward them, dedicating his efforts toward success and power, an attitude he conveys also toward Gudrun, who finds him self-centered but physically attractive. Rupert Birkin, who is eventually drawn to Ursula, is often thought to have been modeled on Lawrence himself, and his sensitivity, self-analysis, and feeling that love is not enough--that one must progress beyond love to another plane - display the kind of agonized soul searching done by many other young men of his age following the horrors of the world war.
Extremely complex in its exploration of the period's social and philosophical influences on the characters (who are archetypes of society), the novel is also full of symbolism, with many parallels drawn between love and death, which the characters sometimes prefer to life. As the love affairs of these four characters play out, filled with complications, disagreements about the meaning of love, questions about love's relation to power and dominance, and the role of sexuality, Lawrence projects the tumult of post-war England as the values of the past yield to newer, more personal goals.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
A sequel to The Rainbow, Women in Love seems to be a more personal novel for its author, as D.H. Lawrence introduces a character to echo his own feelings about love and the world. This character is Rupert Birkin, a misanthrope who thumbs his nose defiantly at any and all social conventions and has few, if any, likeable qualities. It is this man with whom Ursula Brangwen, the individualistic heroine from The Rainbow, falls in love, but even she is not blind to his disagreeableness.
Ursula, now 26 years old, teaches in the school of her coalmining hometown, Beldover. In the first scene in the novel where she and Rupert, a school inspector, reveal their mutual acquaintance, they are standing in front of her class, transforming her botanical lecture into a wellspring of sexual innuendo in what appears to be Lawrence's playful attempt at provoking the censors who prudishly criticized his prior work. Also participating in this scene is Hermione Roddice, a haughty aristocratic woman who harbors a secret desire to humiliate and control men, specifically the headstrong Rupert.
Meanwhile, Ursula's prettier and more vivacious younger sister Gudrun, an artist, is attracted to Gerald Crich, heir to the seemingly cursed Crich coal dynasty. Almost the opposite of Rupert, Gerald is a proud, practical, and conscientious businessman who lays down the law with his coal miners and is cruel to his animals, feeling he deserves nothing less than unconditional obedience. The provocative nature of this novel is that Gerald is attracted to Rupert - socially, physically, sexually - possibly because he considers Rupert a symbol of liberation from the workaday world he is secretly tired of; and this feeling is readily reciprocated. In a scene where the two men strip and wrestle, Lawrence provides the male counterpart to the lesbian scene in "The Rainbow," as though to say what's good for the goose is good for the... well, you know.
The novel basically tracks the trajectories of the love/hate relationships of these two couples. While Ursula and Rupert eventually find compatibility, having in common their rugged individualism, Gerald and Gudrun drift towards a dysfunctional state of potential violence, as he realizes with jealousy and anger that her artistic world is closed to him.
Lawrence's strength is not tight little plots but character study, and the great achievement in "Women in Love" is that the characters do not exhibit any stereotypical or easily describable behavior; it's difficult to pinpoint their personalities from just one conversation, and not much easier even over the course of the entire novel. Ursula, Gudrun, Rupert, and Gerald are fascinatingly, almost frighteningly, complex people whom Lawrence seems deliberately to have designed to leave the reader at a loss, to test the reader's tolerance for sexual and psychological perversity.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
Set in the aftermath of World War I, this deeply philosophical novel brilliantly portrays Lawrence's fascination with the power and activity of the subconscious mind. Lawrence expertly strips away the surface levels of normal awareness and perception to reveal the forces working within the deep inner recesses of the human psyche. His interest in and fascination with the writings of Freud is everywhere made manifest in this story.
In every section of this brilliant book, the reader can grasp the characters' efforts to exert the will against the inviolable forces of nature. The end result, according to Lawrence, is that they sever the organic bond with the natural world and suffer a spiritual death. Through their struggles, we gain a sense of our own futile efforts to control reality, to make it over in our own image. We discover we must complete our being by living in the moment, submerging the self and uniting with others. Above all else, we learn about our true nature and the necessity of living in harmony with the ebb and flow of the larger universe. Buy Lawrence's book, and, more importantly, dwell on its depictions of the mind's power to deliver our destiny.
I highly recommend this masterpiece to all readers wishing to gain insight into human psychology and, ultimately, a truer picture of humanity. Although the book is quite long (nearly 500 pages) and doesn't have a unified plot structure, Lawrence rewards his beautiful bounty to the patient and careful reader.
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Diane Schirf (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence is a sequel, but knowledge of The Rainbow is not necessary to appreciate the second novel. The title is somewhat misleading, as it is really about women and men, men and women, and men and men-and it's not always clear with what they are in love. It is the tale of two teachers, sisters Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen, the son of the local mine owner, Gerald Crich, and school inspector Rupert Birkin.
Their complex relationships start to take shape the day of Gerald's sister's wedding, as Gudrun and Gerald and Ursula and Rupert are drawn together, often despite themselves. The Gudrun/Gerald relationship becomes a series of conflicts that are won only temporarily and that lead to more conflicts and then temporary reprieves of tenderness and sex. His emotional conflicts with Gudrun are mirrored in Gerald's dealings with animals; he brutally forces his mare to stay at a railroad crossing despite her terror until blood is drawn and until the cars have passed. Later, when his sister's rabbit resists being picked up so he can be sketched, Gerald punches him in the head so he will submit instantly. His blind will must triumph in all. The only time that he and Gudrun seem to find an equilibrium is when they balance each other by accepting but not gravitating toward each other. It becomes a tenuous relatonship at best and a dangerous one at worst. Gerald is incapable of love, as is his brooding mother.
Meanwhile, Ursula finds herself in a different kind of battle, with Rupert and his self-contemptous philosophies about relationships, death, and the will. His vision of love, if he even believes it exists, is of two planets circling one another in perfect equilibrium. He did not find that with his former lover Hermione, who does not satisfy his physical desires and who does not calibrate with his spiritual needs. At the end of the novel, he reinforces what he has said all along-his love will always have a missing component and be incomplete without it. As a side note, Rupert seems to be Lawrence's own mouthpiece, reflecting many of his own views.
As with Lady Chatterley's lover, the setting for Women in Love becomes a character-the grimy village, the sordid town, the sullen miners and their wives provide a backdrop of inevitable modernization and dehumanization that counterbalances the individual stories. As mining is mechanized to death, so is the human soul. The will either accepts the inevitable crush of the modern world or fights it to the death. The weakest part of Women in Love may be when the setting changes, that is, when the couples decide to leave all that England has become and to take their relationships and their futures to the Alps, where they find art truly does imitate life with its mechanism. The novel seems to lose a little of its footing at this point, giving in to its tendency to become an intellectual exercise in the arts rather than a human story in a regimented world.
Women in Love starts out slowly, as a lengthy series of vignettes and conversations that seem unlikely or unrealistic, but develops a crescendo as the battles begin. In the end, despite dramatic events and drastic changes, the conundrums remain, and even Ursula's persistence and will cannot eliminate them now, let alone forever. Women in Love is about destruction and regeneration in an endless cycle and the human under the surface that we are not entirely aware of and cannot express.
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Jeffrey Leeper (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
OK, the title for this review may be a little harsh, but the image is hard to shake from my mind. Imagine the close-ups used in a soap opera to show you the intense anguish and inner turmoil the characters feel. Usually, there is pensive expressions which sometimes border on the ludicrous. In Women in Love I can't help imagining Lawrence using the same thing. There is a narrative, there is action, but a lot of the book belongs inside the characters. We see Gudrun looking out at the snow covered valley with a feeling of awe, we hear Birkin go through endless thoughts of the ineffable thing he is looking for but can't state clearly, and we watch Gerald trying to find the next big problem he can solve. Throughout all this ruminating, we, the viewer, must be watching something. Hence, we look at the soap opera close-ups of the Brangwens, Criches, and Birkin.
This is not a bad book, but not a book which moves me like others of Lawrence. This book was a continuation of The Rainbow, but it does not give you the span of time. The novel is primarily focused on Ursula, Gudrun, Rupert, and Gerald. I miss seeing how things work through time. You still have elements from Lawrence's other novels (like dancing uninhibitedly with nature), but it seems as if he is giving us too much information on just a few people. I feel he has more effect with The Rainbow.
I agree that you do not need to read The Rainbow first. Lawrence is a thorough writer, so many times I found myself rereading passages to better understand what he is trying to tell me.
The Wordsworth Classics are inexpensive, but they do not have a lot of room in the margins for notes. This is a good volume to buy for a read, but not for a study.
Although you do not need to read The Rainbow to read this, I would recommend reading Women in Love if you have read The Rainbow. It is interesting to watch how Lawrence develops the women after giving you their history.
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Alysson Oliveira (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
First of all, I have to own you up that reading Women in Love was one of the best experiences on books that I ever had. I know it's not Lawurence's masterpiece, but I touched me very deep. Everthing seems to wok in this book, from the characters to their enviroment.
It seems to me that Lawrence took daily events and showed them the way they are: unglamourised. He showed me what love and support seem to be. It's not about being happy all the time or that kind of love that happens only in movies. The book deals with the ordinary love, the one that normal human beings have the chance to face.
Following the experience of both couples made me see how different love can be and it is the still the same. I could perfectly understand all the worries and anxiets Gudrun had. And I think Gerald and she made quite a couple! Yet Birkin and Ursula look very nice together since the begin. Their love is not as 'wild' as the other couple's, but it is very strong indeed.
When the book was over I got down because I had to let them go. Following the lives of such people for a few days made quite an impression on me. Even though they may not be XXI century people like us, they have the same essence we do.
All in all, I know this review may read very emotive and personal, but this is a book that I couldn't apart in other to write about.
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Vivek Sharma (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-09 00:00>
Women in Love by DH Lawrence is a mature drama, where four characters live and love, debate and denounce, hate and revere each other. The Bragwen sisters (also starring in Rainbow:)) represent two remarkably different women: Ursula is a small town, reserved, schoolteacher kinds; Gudrun the artsy one who hops from city to city. Both are complex characters, as I guess all women are, and the masterful Lawrence explores their love and passion for Rupert Birkin and Gerald Grich respectively.
Like any other Lawrence novel, the beauty is not the story, but how it is told. The heroes are human, feeling the whole array of emotions we feel. The relationship of Birkin and Grich is a relationship of two friends, tied together not only by the women they love, but an essential urge for find the meanings of their lifes. Birkin shuns materialism, Grich revels in it. Their exchanges, their conversations are beautifully captured.
As always, Lawrence gets beneath the skin of his characters, divulging their thoughts, hopes and dreams, echoing their fears and faults to the readers, echoing them through the words and deeds of characters, through sort of trifles and commonplace conversations and combines the disparities and eccentricities of human beings.
While the essential play is between four characters, Lawrence has conjured well developed group of support cast: Hermoine, the enchantress who is rhapsodical in her words, but shallow in self; Gerald's father, whose presence provides remarkable pretext for father son relationship; Loerke, an artist whose appearance in novel makes it multi-dimensional (read to find out why) and Winifried, Possum and so on.
The novel is very different from other Lawrence novels I have read so far. Sons and Lovers is most easily readable, and his autobiographical piece; Rainbow is Lawrence at his best, and so the novel is very rich and complex reading; Lady Chatterley's Lover (as its infamous for) explores human sensuality in a very poetic and honest way. Women in Love does not enchant, does not embellish facts or emotions, does not rely on suspense or sensuality of romance, does not attack moral fiber; what it really does is, it gives us a video camera and constant feed about thoughts of people that we are watching and we see, hear and enjoy according to our own perception! Women in love is sort of heavy read, one needs to labor through the labyrinth's of "words, philosophies, thoughts and ideas", and hence perhaps should not be first Lawrence you read. Start with Sons and Lovers or Lady Chatterley's Lover or his short stories! If you know women, if you think you know love, if you really know Women in Love, you will figure why this novel must be so!:)!
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1 Total 1 pages 8 items |
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