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    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Lady Chatterley's Lover
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Lady Chatterley's Lover

    Written by D. H. Lawrence

    Narrated by Maxine Peake

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Lady Chatterley’s husband returns from the War paralysed from the waist down. Frustrated by his attitudes as much as his disability, she begins a love-affair with the gamekeeper, Mellors. She realises that to be fully alive she must live the life of the body as well as the mind, but in doing so she angers the conventions of her day. Banned for over 30 years for the explicit nature of its language and descriptions of sex, Lady Chatterley’s Lover also exposes the dehumanisation of the mechanical age, and underlines the profound power of tenderness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateMar 1, 2011
    ISBN9781843795094
    Author

    D. H. Lawrence

    David Herbert Lawrence was born on 11th September 1881 in Eastwood, a small mining village in Nottinghamshire, in the English Midlands. Despite ill health as a child and a comparatively disadvantageous position in society, he became a teacher in 1908, and took up a post in a school in Croydon, south of London. His first novel, The White Peacock, was published in 1911, and from then until his death he wrote feverishly, producing poetry, novels, essays, plays travel books and short stories, while travelling around the world, settling for periods in Italy, New Mexico and Mexico. He married Frieda Weekley in 1914 and died of tuberculosis in 1930.

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    Reviews for Lady Chatterley's Lover

    3.5/5

    114 ratings85 reviews

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    • 4/5
      At the start I thought, I'm not going to finish this, as I found the story quite slow moving. I'm glad I persevered, and although by today's standards it wouldn't be on a Banned Books List, I can see why it was at the time of publication. This is my first experience of D.H. Lawrence and his writing style slowly grew on me, so much so that by the end I had settled into and enjoyed the slow pace, the characters and the look back at his time and place. It's very well written and I could easily sympathise with all the characters, and appreciate the way they each found themselves trapped.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Up until I read this, I hadn't imagined that any 'older' books could tackle the sort of topics that Lawrence tackles in Lady Chatterly's Lover. His insights made me look out especially for his other books.
    • 4/5
      I read this book when I was still a kid. It was raining out, and I was bored. I didn't think I'd like it, since classics can be boring. To my surprise, I enjoyed it, and I still think back on it to this day. DH Lawrence is, of course, a really amazing writer and there were some passages that have stayed with me all this time. The bit about there being plenty of fish in the sea, but if you aren't the right sort of fish (herring, mackeral?) then really there weren't that many fish in the sea. He said it better of course!I also really appreciated the depiction of intimacy. Sex as something imperfect and flawed yet still moving and meaningful. The focus on intimacy through imperfection was so new to me. I understand it more now than I did then, and I'm kind of amazed at how well Lawrence wrote the female character's experience so well.I'm really glad I read this book. I wonder if it isn't about time for a re-read!
    • 4/5
      Why do I feel so naughty for having read this?
    • 5/5
      I remember attempting to read this book when I was about 20, I thought it was the most depressing thing and I abandoned it completely. However I re-read this book recently, and now consider it a masterpiece. What I find so fascinating about this book now is the view that romantic love and sexuality are intrinsically linked; that love is felt within physical embodiment, that feelings are generated from and by the body. The character of Clifford Chatterley appears to be symbolic of a man divorced from his own body on many levels. He represents a de-sexualisation of the male body by the war and disability. But he also represents a mind/body split via intellectual disembodiment. The emotional and sexual nothingness of Clifford Chatterley seems to infect Constance with depression. She then finds self-discovery and expression through her affair with Mellors, and through a connection with nature. I think that the contrast between Constance and Chatterley teases out larger dichotomies and tensions between the personal and social/political spheres. I suppose in the character of Mellors, Lawrence was trying to define a sort of archetypal male. However I’m not sure that Lawrence quite gets that right. I don’t believe in a post-feminist era, that Mellors appears in a good light, nor do I agree with Constance’s acceptance of the very little he offers her in terms of emotional support or responsibility.There’s a lot more that can be said about this book, it’s incredibly rich. It is of course remembered for the controversy it inspired, and by today’s standards, the content of the novel is pretty tame. What I find still so fresh and remarkable is how brave this is in its attempt to understand the sexualisation of romantic love. I think it’s a remarkable attempt by Lawrence to understand a subject so mysterious and yet so embedded and fundamental to the human condition.
    • 5/5
      I heard, it's a book of fame for its sensuality. But in my opinion, rather, it's a book of escaping the despair of the rotten world. Through the world of sensuality, they saw hope.The book starts with rather dismay or low situation, makes you think, the ending has to be lifted up, 'cause the chances are just higher at the other half. Clifford and Connie both were struggling in their settings, or in the chasm between their idealisms and their realities. Both painfully realized how repulsive or disgusting the reality was, both pursuing their ideal "kingdom". Though Clifford started out actively, Connie passively. She was doubting from beginning (not very beginning though, otherwise she wouldn't marry him) that his effort could get him anywhere. At the end, Clifford sank hopelessly in his own helplessness, which was reflected by his strange relationship with Mrs. Bolton. Connie, though, wakened by the ecstasy of sensual world, actively sought after the new relationship between her and Mellors.In one way, Lawrence definitely expressed his view of pure intellectual - cold, dry, lifeless and hopeless - in the character of Clifford, who was intelligent in many ways but totally disconnected from the sensual world, because of his disability. I don't think he meant that a person with disability would lead a lifeless life. He just used Clifford as an experiment to test out his theory, that pure intellectual can't save a wrecked life. Especially, at later part of the book, it described more of Clifford's vacancy of his soul. Like Connie's father said "there is nothing in it". Later he invested his intellectual power into coal mining, despite the success, but it can't even be used to maintain his class "dignity" (What a blow to learn that Connie preferred Mellors to him!)Connie with her instincts, eventually penetrated his intellectual nothingness. Her attitude toward him changed from a little fear and admiration at the beginning to despise and hate at the end. She had much richer world of consciousness than Clifford's, which situated her at superior position at the end (she understood the world of Clifford but not vice versa). The world of consciousness is the spiritual world in my opinion. Though religion wasn't even touched in the whole book. I wonder what was Lawrence's view regarding spiritual and religion.The consciousness of characters in the book was expressed mostly in form of narratives. The narrator penetrated the characters' consciousness in way of omnipotence. The characters themselves sometimes are not even aware of his/her own limitations. This is probably the details I enjoyed the most. The subtleties of every turn of human thoughts, naturally flow with the characters, each in its own cunning way, and inevitable by their circumstances.Example 1:Clifford - "You and I are married, no matter what happens to us, We have the habit of each other. And habit, to my thinking, is more vital than any occasional excitement. The long, slow, enduring thing ...""Connie sat and listened in a sort of wonder, and a sort of fear...The long slow habit of intimacy, formed through years of suffering and patience..."At intellectual level, Clifford probably believed such thing. But at deeper level, he himself was not sure. This was the product of his brain during the moment of its peak performance, which can't be maintained. Connie's reaction was unpredictable, at least to me, until it was spelled out so naturally by the narrator.Example 2:"He thought how handsome she looked, but also he shrank from her...He sat square and well-groomed in his chair, his hair sleek and blond, and his face fresh, his blue eyes pale, and a little prominent, his expression inscrutable, but well-bred. Hilda thought it sulky and stupid, and he waited. He had an air of aplomb, but Hilda didn't care what he had an air of;..."How beautifully the narrator drew the image of Clifford: confident appearance, though low self-esteem inside; longing to impress Hilda, though really afraid to get closer...There were hundreds of these subtle details, sometimes I do feel I had the exactly the same inner workings. Lawrence definitely studied the psychology of his character carefully, since they were so real, and falling to their places so naturally. It was one of the true treasures of the book.Mellors had a pessimistic view of the world through his own sufferings. Connie had an apparent optimistic view of the new relationship. Conflicts would be inevitable, but they were no longer Lawrence's concern. His job was done: raising their hopes. If that hope is another illusion, or isn't strong enough to uphold life's many tragedies, then that's up to other authors to prove or disprove it.But how did the sensual experience change Connie's perspective of life? I still don't have a convincing answer. The best I can get is: people's warmheartedness is just appearance, when relationship is getting closer, more and more ugliness would sink any naively conceived relation-ship, then how do you know the true noble heart? the warmhearted to the core? I guess, through the most intimate act - sex.
    • 5/5
      Another treat. Thanks Mr. Lawrence... Apart from the abstract world of ideas, Lawrence showed his readers that he can also be strongly physical and down to the fleshy earth. A very erotic novel.
    • 2/5
      I had such great expectations about this book, but unfortunately it left me disappointed. While i appreciate why this would have been considered a banned book, i found it incredibly tedious and superfluous. I suppose these issues aren't as relevant or taboo in today's society as they were back then, which could be why it failed to impact me. I am looking forward to the 2015 film adaptation though, cause, hey, Richard Madden.
    • 5/5
      The quintessential banned book and more brilliant, warm, tragic and beautiful for being so. A landmark in English literature.
    • 2/5
      Oh boy. More sex and mildly interesting musings on society. I've read fanfiction with better sex in it. I kept chuckling at the penis nicknaming.
    • 5/5
      I'm a babe in the world of D.H. Lawrence. I was assigned Lady Chatterley's Lover as a college assignment in Brit Lit 203. I read the Cliff Notes. I got a B-minus in the course. And that was forty years ago.Yes, I was the guy who never showed for morning classes, and closed the student pub. And at times, I was even the night watchman. So it should come as no surprise that when I finally got around to reading the book, last week, it was already the next century . A bit late. But better than never. Maybe even a form of a haute snobisme, my preferring to read dead authors AND be taught by dead professors?But now at least I have an authentic and passionate opinion on the novel. D.H.Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover is punk rock, in the finest sense. Sex pistols indeed. Anarchy in the UK - turn it up!. The book had me, using just three power chords: the conflict between classes, the barriers to sexual honesty, and the profound exploitation of the environment by capitalism.These were issues, for Lawrence, in England after the Great War of 1914. They remain issues world-wide to this day. Lawrence, speaking sometimes through the character of Mellors, and sometimes through Lady Chatterley, is prophetic in his pessimism. The gap between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless, has not been addressed by a rise in the overall standard of living in the West. Global consumerism is laying waste to the Arctic, Africa and the Amazon. And, ironically, enormous technical advances in communications media, have only added barriers to honest conversation. Like OMG how much of yourself should you reveal if it might be texted, myspaced, youtubed and there for all, on Google, in perpetuity?It's hard not to love this novel for its underlying courage and outrage. And, its wit. I'm glad I never read it until 2008. In 1968, all my peers were rebelling, each to his or her own banner. Lawrence would have elicited a "So?" from me then. Now, many of my peers drive SUVs, live in McMansions, vote Republican, and kow-tow to evangelicals. Now I understand better, what a rare and brave cri de coeur this novel is.
    • 5/5
      **WARNING: This review contains a discussion of the c-word, and I plan to use it. Please don't read this if you do not want to see the word spelled out. Thanks.**This is less a review than an homage to my crazy mother (now I have you really intrigued, don't I?)It was 1983, and I was in my first Catholic school. I'd spent my first six years of school in a public school, but my "behavioral issues" coupled with my lack of growth made me a target for bullies, so my parents were advised to move me to another school where no one knew me.So off I went to the home room of a fallen nun, who'd given up her habit for a family. She wasn't much of a teacher. She was an old school Catholic educator who practiced punitive teaching, which included kicks to the shins, yanking of ears, pulling of hair, and screaming from close range.I kept my head down and tried to blend in with my new surroundings, but my Mother made that difficult from the get go. I was a voracious reader, and she passed on the disease to me. From grade two on she had been recommending great books to me. I was reading everything before most everyone else, but my Mom's recommendation of Lady Chatterly's Lover in my first month of Catholic school was probably her most outrageous and unforgettable recommendation. She bought me a copy at the book store in the mall, and that's where I met one of my favourite words of all time -- cunt. Back in 1983, cunt was not a word in your average child's vocabulary. Sure we'd heard it, and maybe even seen it, but it was not something that was regularly used by kids, and its usage was pretty vague to every 13 year old I knew.But there it was in Lady Chatterly's Lover. It was all over the place. So as I read the story and absorbed the way Lawrence used cunt, his usage became my usage. Lawrence used cunt beautifully; it was not a term of denigration; it was not used to belittle; it was not an insult nor something to be ashamed of; cunt was lyrical, romantic, caring, intimate. And I came to believe that cunt was meant to be used in all these ways. That the poetic use of cunt was the accepted use of cunt, the correct use of cunt, and suddenly cunt was part of my vocabulary. I was thirteen.Now I didn't just start running around using cunt at every opportunity. I did what I always did with new words that I came to know and love. I added them to my vocabulary and used them when I thought it was appropriate.And when I whispered it to Tammy, the girl I had a crush on, a few weeks later, thinking that it was the sort of romantic, poetic language that made women fall in love with their men (I can't remember what I said with it, but I know it was something very much like what Mellors would have said to Constance), she turned around with a deep blush, a raised eyebrow and a "That's disgusting" that rang through the class (I can still see the red of autumn leaves that colored her perfectly alabaster skin under a shock of curly black hair, aaaah...Tammy. Apparently she had a better sense of cunt's societal taboos than I did). Mrs. C--- was on her feet and standing parallel to the two of us in a second, demanding to know what was going on.To her credit, Tammy tried to save me -- sort of. She said "Nothing." Then Mrs. C--- turned on me; I was completely mortified (I'd obviously blown it with the first girl I loved in junior high school), and while I was in this shrinking state, Mrs. C--- demanded to know what was happening and what I had said. I tried to avoid repeating what I had said. I admitted I shouldn't have been talking. I admitted that I should have been working. I tried to divert her attention. But she was a scary lady, and I couldn't help myself. I repeated what I had said -- as quietly as I could -- but as soon as Mrs. C--- heard "cunt" I was finished. That was the moment I knew "cunt" was the catalyst for the whole debacle. Now...I'd known before that the word was taboo, but I didn't think it would generate the response it did. I really thought that Tammy would be flattered. And I certainly didn't expect that I would be dragged to the office by an angry ex-nun. Silly me. I got the strap. It was the first time (although there would be another). Three lashes to the palm of the hand.I didn't use "cunt" in public or private for a long time after that, but my punishment couldn't diminish my love for the word. Lawrence made such and impression on my young mind that neither humiliation nor physical pain could overcome my appreciation of cunt's poetic qualities. To me the word is and always will be a beautiful and, yes, gentle thing.Every time that event was recounted at the dinner table over the years, whether it was amongst family, or with my girlfriends or my future wife, my Mom always got this sly little grin on her face and indulged in a mischievous giggle before refusing to take the blame for me getting the strap. After all, "Who was the one who was stupid enough to use the word, Brad? Not me."I love her response as much as I love the word. And in case you were wondering, my Mom never stopped recommending books to me. She was an absolute kook. I miss her. I can't wait to pass on Lady Chatterly's Lover to my kids...but I think it's going to have to be in grade three if it's going to have the same effect it had on me...hmmm...I wonder how that will go over.
    • 5/5
      A shocking affair between a frustrated wife and the gamekeeper on her estate is explicitly explored in this beautiful novel. Originally banned as pornography, this novel lives up to the hype surrounding it. You must read it!
    • 3/5
      The last DH Lawrence book I read was Sons & Lovers, a required novel for my grade 12 english class. At the time, I remember saying that I liked it, but found the surface of Lawrence's writing impenetrable (a nice irony for a man so concerned with sexual freedom). I always think kids reading this novel for the sexy bits; but I have to say that once Lady Chatterly actually got with the gamekeeper, that's when I lost interest. I found the negotiations and tension leading up to it more interesting; the post-coital dialogue becomes more pedantic.
    • 4/5
      I am pleased to have read The First Lady Chatterley before reading this third draft of the same novel. The first draft, despite a similar plot, had a completely different feel to it. The emergence of socialism has little importance in Lady Chatterley's Lover, almost as if Lawrence tried to wrench away from political commentary and social change so he could nestle the third draft safely back into its own class. Despite the obviously more vulgar language used in this draft, and the notorious details that led to it being banned for decades, I think this more famous draft suffers if it is not read in the context of the first. Rather than predict the rise of nationalisation and social democracy in Britain, Lawrence's character Mellor (formerly Parkin), instead appears to presage the Great Depression. I can only guess as to the differences in the second draft, but I am curious enough to track it down and find out. As for this novel's notoriety, readers today will be well desensitised to the parts that caused a scandal in the past. I can only imagine Lawrence's shock if he were to experience what is now so passé in our own time. With three D.H. Lawrence novels now under my belt, I will venture to read the rest.
    • 2/5
      Lady Constance Chatterley marries her husband shortly before World War I. He returns from the war paralyzed from the waist down. Their relationship continues to stagnant in the countryside until she has an affair with their gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. The book was considered incredibly racy it was published in 1928. The full novel wasn’t even published in England until 1960. I decided to read this because it’s one of the most banned books of all time. To me, the novel was a gross simplification of love. Physical love is part of relationships, but it’s not the only element. Lawrence seemed to think that without the physical connection there was no way that Constance and her husband Clifford could ever love each other. Her superficial connection with Oliver never rang true to me. Oliver Mellors’ character was hard to stomach. He’s racist, homophobic, selfish, and quick to lose his temper. The only thing Constance actually has in common with him is their mutual physical attraction. It’s hard to believe Lawrence’s premise that this is the most powerful relationship she can have. It would be more believable if Constance had an affair with him, began to understand the importance of the physical side of relationships and then found someone that satisfied both the physical and mental desires that she had. BOTTOM LINE: It’s a classic and I’m glad I read it, but it’s definitely not a new favorite. Lawrence writes some beautiful passages, but the characters and the plot fell short.
    • 2/5
      “Sex and a cocktail: they both lasted about as long, had the same effect, and amounted to the same thing.” I was drawn to this book,like many others,due to its notoriety more than anything else having thankfully not had to suffer studying this whilst at school and having read it am convinced that it is only this notoriety which has led to its endurance in the public psyche. Personally I found it rather dull and tedious.OK I get that this book is an outpouring from Lawrence's own unhappy upbringing and is a comment on the class system at the time but this was a class system which was gradually collapsing anyway or at least getting blurred due to the devastating effects of WWI when so many young men,and in particular members of the so called elite,had perished therefore felt that the book was not particularly revolutionary. Whilst the characters were well written I struggled to particularly like any of them,other than probably the exception of Mrs Bolton,all seemed extremely selfish,shallow and insecure in their own way only interested in their own needs and I really could not care what happened to any of them. In fact I felt a certain professional sympathy for Clifford,who despite being a cold fish in his personal life,did at least seem to be striving to find more uses for his coal and thus keep his workers in work and therefore earning.In the end Mellors' and Connie's relationship seems to boil down to being able to orgasm at the same time and I'm not sure that that is really conducive with a real long term relationship. Friendship and common interests are more important or perhaps I've just being doing it wrong all these years. Perhaps the quote at the top should have read champagne rather that cocktail because with that there is a little fizz at first but it soon goes flat rather like this book for me.
    • 4/5
      I am shocked that I enjoyed this. My father - a non-reader - always held DH Lawrence as his standard for unreadable books. While I certainly love reading more than him, I tend to agree with his assessments to a less passionate degree (writes he says aren't half bad, I love, writers he's dislikes, I enjoy, writers he hates, I dislike, etc.). I really liked this though. It felt so oddly anachronistic - like a modern author *trying* to write a regency-era romance - it created a pleasantly jarring experience. I was so confused the first few scenes - I couldn't fathom when this book took place or was written. I was shocked to find it was in the early days of the Depression.
    • 4/5
      Radical for its time and, indeed, languishing out of print for more than thirty years, this book explores sex and skims over adultery. I read it many years ago and never felt the urge to read it again. I felt that it said more about the author than its characters.
    • 4/5
      A young woman is torn between the man she married who is disabled by war early after their union and the virile gamekeeper who relieves her from her desperate loneliness. A familar theme, but this version is told impeccably well. Definitely worth the read, but I can't help wondering what happened to the baby.
    • 2/5
      In vergelijking met de andere werken van Lawrence echt een afknapper, ondanks de taboedoorbreking. Het ligt er te dik op om te shockeren. Wel interessante sociale duiding: een verhouding binnen de eigen klasse is aanvaardbaar, erbuiten niet. Opvallende romantisch accent: afkeer van industrie en teloorgang van de oude wereld.
    • 3/5
      I can see why this was so controversial in the past, but the language and images are definitely mild by today's standards. A lyrical story of sexual awakening. I would recommend reading this back-to-back with [Their Eyes Were Watching God] by [[Zora Neale Hurston]], another excellent story of sexual awakening.
    • 4/5
      Sir Clifford Chatterley (partially a self-portrait of author D.H. Lawrence) is a frustrated writer who thinks he knows Everything about Everything, but he is actually an embittered and impotent World War I veteran suffering from PTSD. His wife Connie finds solace in his gamekeeper's hut and in the gamekeeper's bed, discovering The Joy of Sex decades before Alex Comfort coined the term.Here, the prose of Lawrence is occasionally purple, it is occasionally profane, it is occasionally full of nearly incomprehensible dialect. But it's never dull. However, if you laugh whenever you see the words "loins" or "bowels" in connection with human intercourse, you might want to avoid this book!!!
    • 5/5
      Started reading this as an e-book from Project Gutenberg but I wanted to make too many notes so I switch to a paper edition and discovered that the e-book was the censored / edited version. Grrrr!*** Kinda / Sorta Spoilers ***There are really two different books to review in the Penguin hardcover -- Lady Chatterley's Lover and then Lawrence's bizarre letter afterward. The novel itself is frustrating, beautiful, a little dry, and passionate. I can see why it was called Lady Chatterley's *Lover* and not "Lady Chatterley". The gamekeeper was a fantastic character - I loved his little speeches, his mixed up dialects, and his stubbornness. Lady Chatterley herself I found pretty boring pretty early. But the gamekeeper kept me reading. And then... you finish the book, and find this defense by D.H. Lawrence written several years after the first edition was published. In some parts, it's brilliant and in other parts, he seems completely, without-a-doubt insane. And then I find myself agreeing with some of the things he wrote and start wondering, "Am I insane, too?"
    • 2/5
      I read this for the 1001 books to read before you die group challenge. The book was known for it's discussions on class systems and social conflict, and not to forget the challenge on censorship. But despite all that I just couldn't find myself liking this one that much.
    • 3/5
      This classic novel is more than just an outrageous accounting of one couple's sexual adventures; it's a commentary on the British class system, the role of women in this system, and yes, the unromanticized sexual appetites of the fairer sex. While some believe that Lawrence didn't understand these appetites and that his approach to Lady Chatterly was sexist, I feel that he was being sarcastic in his interpretation of events, trusting the reader to understand that he disagreed with how she was being treated. Good (and steamy!!) read. :)
    • 2/5
      In vergelijking met de andere werken van Lawrence echt een afknapper, ondanks de taboedoorbreking. Het ligt er te dik op om te shockeren. Wel interessante sociale duiding: een verhouding binnen de eigen klasse is aanvaardbaar, erbuiten niet. Opvallende romantisch accent: afkeer van industrie en teloorgang van de oude wereld.
    • 2/5
      A more literate than average romance novel. One of the first of its kind, so important, but for this reader at least, banal and uninspiring.
    • 3/5
      I did not approve of the morals of the characters in the book.
    • 4/5
      Clifford Chatterley returns from WW1 wheelchair bound, and with his young wife Connie goes to manage Wragby, the family estate, in an industrial area in the english midlands. While initially happily married, Connie's desire for a child gains tacit approval from the sexless Clifford. An unexpected meeting with the estate's game keeper and the ensuing affair awakens Connie to a sexuality she did not know existed.I did not immediately take to the book, but enjoyed it more once the rythm of the story was established It is certainly easy to understand why it created such a stir when originally published