When Connie's aristocrat husband is rendered impotent in war she finds sexual fulfillment with their poor servant. Connie is beautiful bohemian intellectual who, at 23, marries an extravagantly wealthy aristocrat named Clifford. When Clifford is rendered impotent by an injury sustained in war, Connie becomes isolated from her husband. He becomes a successful writer, entertaining famous intellectuals from all around. Connie retreats further, having an unfulfilling affair with one of the men who visits her famous husband. She finds herself attracted to Oliver Mellors, the house gamesman, who maintains distance from her because of his job and their differing class status. She finds the man incredibly sensitive and aware of life's nuances. They meet by chance in the woods and have sex. Despite several such interactions, distance remains between them.
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Again they meet by chance in the woods. For the first time they experience simultaneous orgasms. This experience provides the two with a sense of deep, fundamental connection. Connie imagines herself to be pregnant with Mellors' son. She finds Mellors to be a vital, living man, the antidote to her world of phony, bloodless intellectualism. Mellors' estranged wife returns to him and ruins the man with angry rumors she spreads about him. He is forced to leave and take up a job at a farm. Desperate to be with him, Connie reveals that she is pregnant with Mellors' baby to Clifford who nonetheless refuses to divorce her. She goes to live with her sister. The story ends with Mellors and Connie waiting for Mellors' divorce to go through, hoping they can one day be together.
The simple plotline is filled out with D.H. Lawrence's typical fascination with the smallest of human emotions and motivations. His detailed examination of the emotional map of attraction and sexual union are what make this book an enduring classic, 100 years later.
Best part of story, including ending:
I happen to really like D.H. Lawrence's excavation of the human psyche. This story is super sexy and seems like it's the story her was meant to write, after years of fearing to take it on in a real way.
Best scene in story:
The first time Connie and Mellors have sex in the woods is very erotic. It's interesting to read a sex scene from a truly great writer.
Opinion about the main character:
Sometimes Connie can navel-gaze overly much, very often actually. But she's still a compelling and realistic character.
The story is about a young woman named Constance who tries to keep her marriage together despite her husband being paralyzed and unable to have sex. Constance and Clifford live a peaceful life at their old mansion called Wragby, in Midlands, England. They have met each other before World War I when they were both studying abroad, experiencing young love and discussing political issues. Constance and Clifford got married during the war and they had a one month honeymoon. After that, Clifford went back to France and he got badly injured. In 1920, the couple moved to Wragby as a family even if Clifford was paralyzed from the waist down and unable to have sex. He started writing books and having a lot of people over and he tried to enjoy his life despite him being a cripple.
Constance hates the old mansion and she finds the people who live in the nearby village hostile and unfriendly. She doesn't like her isolation and she starts hating Clifford and her situation as a married woman unable to be satisfied by her husband. She has an affair with one of Clifford's guests, an Irishman called Michaelis, but the affair makes her more restless than ever.
She starts taking frequent walks around the park and she meets her husband's latest employee, a gamekeeper named Mellors, and she is intrigued by his appearance. Mellors is as cold and unfriendly as the other villagers but she sees something different in his eyes and she feels more and more attracted to the man. She asks him for small favors and she ends up going to his small house and actually talking to him for a while. She finds out that he is married but his wife left him for another man. He is not divorced and he has a daughter. They make love in his small cottage and Constance is happy. Her relationship with Clifford is worse than ever but she keeps on going to Mellors and having the time of her life in his arms. They make love in his house and they end up having sex in the woods which proves very satisfying for both of them. Constance realizes that she loves Mellors and that she can actually be happy with him.
Constance, her sister Hilda and their father go to Venice for a while but she receives troubling news from Mellors and she decides to come back right away. Mellors tells her that his wife is back and that she is creating a huge scandal by telling the village people about his affair with the lady of the house.
Constance decides to ask Clifford for a divorce due to the fact that she is pregnant with another man's baby. He refuses to let her go and he believes that the baby must remain in the house and be made his heir even if he is not his child. He fires Mellors and he refuses to believe that Constance actually loves the man and wants to be his wife. He thinks that Constance must remain with him because they have a deep connection of the mind and that they come from the same background.
Constance leaves Wragby and she goes to live with her sister in Scotland hoping that Clifford will change his mind and give her the divorce. Mellors moves away from the mansion and he hopes his wife will divorce him so he can be with the woman he loves, Constance.
Best part of story, including ending:
I like the story because it brings into discussion various important problems like marriage, adultery, devotion, passion, love, sex and the spiritual connection of the minds.
Best scene in story:
I like the scene where Mellors and Constance make love in the woods and they have their first orgasm together. It is the thing that was missing for Constance's life and the problem that made her miserable. It symbolize their deep connection and the fact that they are in the same place in life and they can be together despite their being so different.
Opinion about the main character:
I don't like the fact that Constance is deceiving herself for so long before realizing that her marriage in an impossible one and that Clifford can not make her life whole and happy despite his great mind and intellectual achievements.
A beautiful, tender, sensual story about two people alienated from life, and alienated from each other because of their different social "positions," who ultimately come together and breathe life into one another.
The review of this Book prepared by Fran Upman
