Kundenrezensionen

Lady Chatterley's Lover

5 Sterne:		(15)
4 Sterne:		(5)
3 Sterne:		(4)
2 Sterne:		(1)
1 Sterne:		(0)

 

 

One can learn so much from Lawrence's wonderful sense of feminine intuition about people, love, circumstance, politics, environment and the choices humans make, that one read of this book is simply not enough. Personally, I have read this book eight or nine times (usually once a year)and never tire of Lawrence's insight into human nature and why we do the things we do. Don't let the title fool you. This book is much less about sex than it is about us taking charge of our own destiny and not letting the machinery of life bog us down. If you are at a crossroads in your life, you must read this book. If not, you will still enjoy this novel greatly. It is highly recommended. If I could, I would give it ten stars!

This is a beautiful novel that is fragile yet steel-strong. The emotions of its characters are extremely well-developed, for e.g. Connie's dogged loyalty towards Clifford in the beginning turns slowly into doubt, and finally into contempt. This is a novel about the path to freedom, not only sexual freedom, but freedom from pressure, from rules, from the chains of life and society. Although there are only 3 main characters: Connie, Clifford and Mellors, this book does not bore me. Some authors may kill the novel when handling so delicate a subject, but Laurence not only allows the emotions of his characters to live, but also gives them room for expression. Connie's sexual desire is placed in the context of an England that is slowly being brutalised by industrialism, and the author expresses his horror against this world we had created through the eyes of Connie. As Connie is slowly being suffocated by her husband, I feel, surprisingly, not hate for Clifford, but a strange pity. This book sparks neither love nor hate for its characters, but the reader is able to weigh them at their true value. In this way, the novel itself is never overpowered by the strength of its characters. The author allows us to find our own freedom while Connie seeks hers. This book improves with a second reading. At first the characters seem rather detached, but later they fitted out wonderfully. The language, of course, is beautiful. Everyone is in their own way suffocated by something, and that is why as a teenage reader I can relate myself to Lady Chatterley.

Many people dismiss this book as nothing but pervertedness and filthiness. They fail to see the beauty of this tale. This book deserves literary merit, for it's a brave masterpiece. Not, as one prosecutor put it, "dirt for dirt's sake."

This book should not be seen as a piece of work advertising pornography, but rather as a mere attack against industrialization. Perhaps Lawrence, through the tale of Lady Chatterley and her lover, was trying to bring a message across about industry (Clifford Chatterley's coal mine) and the working class (significantly the gamekeeper, Mellors). But, of course, we can't overlook the endless romance between Lady Chatterley and her lover, for it is what this story is about.

The fact that it contains that little four-lettered Anglo-Saxon word that begins with an "F" is more reason why this book deserves literary merit, for it is one of the first and foremost important works of literature to contain it. Now, of course, it is hard to find a book, a movie, or a song without that famous word.

If D. H. Lawrence should be remembered a thousand years from now, it should be for writing this story. He was a very courageous, very daring person to have written it. This taboo of a story is one that will stay in the reader's mind forever.

(Note: If you are to read this book, I'd recommend the unexpurgated version.)

As with any good novel there are several levels on which this book may be read. Taken factually, here a woman forsakes her incapacitated husband and takes the gamekeeper of their estate as her lover. Pretty ugly scenario! How can such a cruel action be justified? Lawrence is not afraid to take on this formidable challenge.

To some people there is absolutely no issue here. When you marry, you commit yourself exclusively to your mate. Period! Case closed! But in real life, the matter is not so simple, unless you choose to make it so.

On a deeper level a marriage inherently has hidden strings attached. It requires an honest effort by both partners to commit to the marriage, to sense their partner's needs, and to respond to them honestly and with sensitivity. If one mate is not perceptive, not doing their part, not "truly interested" in the marriage, then the marriage is in reality already dissolved, albeit not legally. This was the case with Lady Chatterly and her husband. It was also the case with the gamekeeper and his wife. Lawrence had to courage to recognize and to address this marriage problem, which probably is more common today than we would care to admit.

The level at which I most liked this novel was in the descriptions of the actual physical encounters between the Lady and her lover. I have not counted them but there are perhaps four or five, all under different circumstances, all resulting in different degrees of satisfaction. Which suggests to me tht the sex act, in itself, is an almost neutral event. What gives it meaning are the attitudes and sensitivities that its participants bring to the occasion.

At its deepest level sex is a reverent act, a sacrament. It is an uncompromising, fully trustful yielding of one's body to the care and love of another person. The result can be the most glorious feeling a human can experience. It can also be the most degrading feeling in the world. In this novel Lawrence follows the Lady and her lover through their progressing relationship. The novel can serve the reader as an inspiring view of the great beauty and joy that a loving relationship may eventually engender.

Should teenagers read this book? In my opinion, no. Nevertheless, they will. But, like Shakespeare, they will not be able to absorb its wealth. I encourage them to save its reading for their later years when they are trying to bring new riches to their lives. Sort of like saving the icing on the cake, and eating it last. I think Lawrence would like that.

Constance Chatterley, a beautiful and passionate woman, is deeply unhappy in her marriage to Sir Clifford Chatterley who became an invalid after having been injured in the First World War. His physical condition is mirrored in Constance's emotional paralysis. When she meets the gamekeeper Mellors, she finds refuge in his arms and feels regenerated. Together they shield themselves from the chaos of the outer world and move to the sanctum of the inner world of fulfilment.
The character of Constance is an interesting one because there is a certain complexity in her: she is both in touch with nature, yet educated; sensitive, yet wise; female in her sensitivity, yet almost male in her strength and attitude. She is a woman with a social position who is drawn to an outsider of a lower class. The structure of the novel is also interesting because it shows three stages in Constance's relationship with her husband and Mellors. In the first phase, she denies her husband, responding to a failed marriage, she finds refuge with Mellors. Then begins the second stage when Constance regenerates in the peaceful world of her lover's hut. Finally in the third stage, she escapes the world of Wragby Hall as she leaves for a holiday to Venice. There she takes the resolution never to return to Clifford's world. This resolution is taken all the more easily by Constance because being away from Wragby Hall she can reconsider her commitment to Mellors while their relationship is gradually exposed as a scandal which really prevents her from returning to her husband. Then the novel's central struggle shifts from that between a Lady and a gamekeeper to that between Constance's and Mellor's commitment to each other and the forces hostile to their relationship.
Constance's transformations occur in an set of tensions and an artistic dualism: tenderness against apathy, nature against culture, wood against stone, flesh against intellect, frankness against manipulation or fertility against sterility. These tensions strongly mark the first phase of the novel where Wragby Hall symbolises sterility and spiritual and emotional apathy, will and intellectual control; the hut symbolises the free play of the instinct and sensual pleasure, the haven of tenderness. The two worlds cannot interact: Clifford intrudes into nature with his mechanical wheelchair as much as Mellors is an intruder and outsider inside Wragby Hall. Perhaps the most striking opposition is that between silence and talk. As Constance and Mellors retreat into the sheltered world of the hut, the author insists on the stillness and the silence of the place, focuses on the internal and emotional feelings since both characters are fugitives from "the outer world of chaos." That's why enclosures are so present in the novel: the hut, the clearing, the cottage, an enclosed yard, a bedroom, as many shelters from psychological suffering. Mellors is "afraid of society" whereas Constance recoils from the "insanity of the whole civilised species." They both linger in pure silence, even anonymity since they hardly ever call each other by name.
D.H. Lawrence's critics have deplored the numerous love making scenes in which Constance and Mellors induldge and which are described in a surprisingly open language, considering the epoch in which the novel was published. But these scenes show how Constance is "reborn", how sex is the act that most completely unites a man and a woman and its power of renewal is attuned to day, season or year - it is in this novel the most regenerative experience possible. There is indeed strong hope that John Thomas will be reunited with lady Jane in the future! In this sense, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" ranks among the 20th century most extraordinary achievements.

Schauplatz der Geschichte ist zunächst Wragby Hall, wo Constance (genannt Connie) mit ihrem Gatten Clifford Chatterley lebt. Clifford, der im Ersten Weltkrieg schwer verwundet wird und fortan sein Leben im Rollstuhl fristen muss, entwickelt sich mehr und mehr zu einem komischen, gefühllosen Kauz. Als Connies Vater zu Besuch kommt, sieht er, dass mit ihr etwas nicht stimmt, dass sie isoliert und einsam lebt, dass ihr zwischenmenschliche Kontakte fehlen. Er weiß, dass sein Schwiegersohn impotent ist und Constance ihm keine Kinder schenken kann. Constance Vater schlägt vor, dass seine Tochter Reisen unternehmen sollte, um Abwechslung zu haben und andere Menschen kennen zu lernen. Auf einem Spaziergang suggeriert Clifford seiner Frau dies und räumt ihr die Freiheit ein, sich Liebhaber zu nehmen und Kinder zu bekommen. Er würde auch ein uneheliches Kind als sein eigenes akzeptieren, vorausgesetzt, der Vater entspricht seinen standesgemäßen Vorstellungen.

Doch die kluge und eigensinnige Constance verliebt sich in den Wildhüter von Wragby Hall, Oliver Parkin, und beginnt eine Affäre mit ihm, von der Clifford bis zum Ende nichts erfahren wird. Durch das Bewusstwerden ihrer eigenen Körperlichkeit erleben beide eine Wandlung, sie finden zu neuer Lebenskraft zurück. Doch während Constance auf Europareise ist, kehrt Parkins verhasste Frau zu ihm zurück

Lady Chatterley's Lover ist ein gut zu lesendes, geradliniges Buch. Lawrence beschreibt die Charaktere sehr genau und treffend und nicht in schwarz-weiß, so dass man oft nicht genau einordnen kann, ob man diejenige Person nun sympathisch finden soll oder nicht. Das Buch wurde wegen seines angeblichen pornographischen Inhaltes lange Zeit verboten, doch wenn man das Buch liest, kann man darüber eigentlich nur schmunzeln. Dies ist kein Porno-, sondern schlicht und ergreifend ein Liebesroman aus den 20er Jahren. Die "Aktszenen" werden recht abstrakt und emotionslos beschrieben. An sich nicht weiter schlimm, aber wenn man bedenkt, dass der Autor die ganze Zeit rüberzubringen versucht, dass zwischen den beiden mehr als nur das F-Wort besteht, dann wirkt das schon wieder unglaubwürdig. Die Thematik der Überwindung einer Klassengesellschaft durch die Kraft der Liebe ist ein recht komplexes Thema, doch hier hat mich Lawrence nicht restlos überzeugen können. Aus der Gesamtsicht heraus finde ich das Buch recht oberflächlich, das Ende geradezu unbefriedigend. Die Gesellschaftskritik baut Lawrence im ersten Drittel des Buches recht zusammenhanglos ein. Zwar ist richtig, was er am Kapitalismus und an der Industrialisierung zu kritisieren hat, doch kommen seine Worte eher unbeholfen und schmalbrüstig herüber. Das Merkwürdige an dem Buch ist, dass es kaum Höhen und Tiefen gibt, die Geschichte plätschert so vor sich hin und man wartet als Leser regelrecht auf den großen Knall, dass das Liebespaar enttarnt wird. Doch nichts Weltbewegendes geschieht. Nicht einmal die Tatsache, dass Parkins Frau während Constances Abwesenheit auftaucht, haut einen vom Hocker.

Alles in allem ein unterhaltsames Buch, was mich aber nicht restlos begeistert und auch wenig berührt und aufgewühlt hat.

Ein unterhaltsamer und zugleich zeitkritischer Roman, der dem Leser Hintergrundinformationen

über das industrielle England Anfang des vorigen Jahrhunderts gibt. Ein Roman, der trotz

unterhaltsamer vordergründiger Handlung einen Blick in die sozialen Mißstände jener Zeit gibt.

Leider wurde D.H. Lawrence in seiner Zeit nicht verstanden und seine Literatur als sexistisch

verurteilt.

Robert Schmidt

Apart from the wonderful - and by modern standards not at all outrageous - romantic/erotic aspect, this novel convinced me most with it's accurate and touching insight in it's protagonists minds and morals as well as into the social and political landscape of England post WW1.

A fast, easy and absolutely deep read.

I didn't find this novel perverted at all. I think the underlying depiction of human sexuality was just but eye-opening honest and fundamentally beautiful, as opossed to so many hypocritical, really perverted, or really prejudiced points of view about sexuality that populate our cultures and societies. I really wish I had read this book when I was 15. In my opinion very few writers can be as honest, frank, and genuine about sexuality as Lawrence is. This is the first of Lawrence's books I read, and am planning to read many of his books now.

If you want a good Lawrence book, read Sons and Lovers or Women in Love instead. Lady Chatterly, although written later, is much more immature in terms of style than Lawrence's first book, sons and lovers. The popularity probally results from the scandal that surrounded the book and not the writing or plot. The book only has real importance in a sociological reading, showing the social mores of the period it was written in.