Sons and Lovers (Barnes & Noble Classics - D. H. Lawrence [235]
—from The Dial (September 1922)
Questions
1. Galsworthy compares Lawrence to Tolstoy. Is it the breadth of Sons and Lovers alone that warrants immediate comparison to Tolstoy, or is there a deeper connection between the two writers? How do the two authors’ treatments of morality differ? Does Lawrence more closely resemble Dostoevsky, as T. S. Eliot suggests?
2. Does Paul Morel have an Oedipus complex?
3. To what do you attribute the conflict between Mr. and Mrs. Morel? There is, of course, the difference in class and education. Is that the whole of it? Paul sides with Mrs. Morel, as the young Lawrence sided with his mother. The older Lawrence sided with his father, on whom Mr. Morel is modeled. Whose side are you on?
4. Lawrence’s natural settings are often symbolic. They color, reflect, or suggest the meaning of what happens in them. Analyze one instance.
5. In a preface to his novel Women in Love, D. H. Lawrence wrote, “In point of style, fault is often found with continual, slightly modified repetition. The only answer is that it is natural to the author; and that every natural crisis in emotion or passion or understanding comes from this pulsing, frictional to-and-fro which works up to culmination.” Do you agree that “every natural crisis in emotion or passion or understanding” comes from this kind of movement? Can you find a passage in the novel that bears out Lawrence’s claim?
For Further Reading
Biography
Delavenay, Emile. D. H. Lawrence: The Man and His Work, The Formative Years: 1885-1919. London: Heinemann, 1972. An analysis of Lawrence’s early life viewed through his writing; a good synthesis of biographical material with literary discussion.
Murry, John Middleton. Son of Woman: The Story of D. H. Lawrence. London and Toronto: Jonathan Cape, 1931. Considered to be one of the best books on Lawrence ever published.
Nehls, Edward, ed. D. H. Lawrence: A Composite Biography. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957-1959. An anthology of recollections arranged chronologically in three volumes to create a complete and vivid picture of Lawrence’s life.
Sagar, Keith. The Life of D. H. Lawrence. London: Eyre Methuen, 1980. An illustrated biography.
Worthen, John. D. H. Lawrence: The Early Years, 1885-1912. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991. The definitive account of Lawrence’s youth.
Memoir and Personal Recollection
Lawrence, Frieda. The Memoirs and Correspondence. Edited by E. W. Tedlock. London: Heinemann, 1961. Fragments of writing from Lawrence’s wife, stitched together to create an intimate portrait of her personality and her life with Lawrence.
Leavis, F. R. D. H. Lawrence, Novelist. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956. A review of Lawrence and his work by his friend and admirer, written for the express purpose of securing Lawrence’s place in “The Great Tradition” of English literature.
Miller, Henry. The World of Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation. Edited with an introduction and notes by Evelyn J. Hinz and John J. Teunissen. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1980. An unabashedly biased discussion of Lawrence’s personality and work in entertaining, passionate prose.
Criticism
Black, Michael. D. H. Lawrence, The Early Fiction: A Commentary. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Criticism on Lawrence’s short stories and his first three novels, as well as an informative essay on the different critical approaches to Lawrence and his writing.
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: D. H. Lawrence. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. A review of critical approaches to Lawrence’s work with articles from twenty contributors, including Joyce Carol Oates and F. R. Leavis.
Siegel, Carol. Lawrence among the Women: Weaving Boundaries in Women’s Literary Traditions. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991. A critical analysis of Lawrence