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Sons and Lovers cover art

Sons and Lovers

By: D. H. Lawrence
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Summary

Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence's first major novel, was also the first in the English language to explore ordinary working-class life from the inside. No writer before or since has written so well about the intimacies enforced by a tightly knit mining community and by a family where feelings are never hidden for long.

When the marriage between Walter Morel and his sensitive, high-minded wife begins to break down, the bitterness of their frustration seeps into their children's lives. Their second son, Paul, knows that he must struggle for independence if he is not to repeat his parents' failure. Lawrence's powerful description of Paul's single-minded efforts to define himself sexually and emotionally through relationships with two women---the innocent, old-fashioned Miriam Leivers and the experienced, provocatively modern Clara Dawes---makes this a novel as much for the beginning of the 21st century as it was for the beginning of the 20th.

Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor

What listeners say about Sons and Lovers

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Sons and Lovers

A good reading of Lawrence classic unabridged. Locations come to life . Characters and dialogue well delineated by the narrator. I would recommend this.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • DA
  • 08-04-13

Fantastic read

Absolutly fantastic read. Wonderful depth to the characters without slowing the pace of the story. You get a real feel for what life was like in a mining town at the turn of the century. Basically terrible. All the characters are so real and you feel as if you really get to know them and understand them. This is my first D H Lawrence, it will not be my last. The narration is spot on, strong, understandable accents.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

My first D.H. Lawrence novel, and I loved it.

A mesmerising story with tragedy that took my breath away at times and so very well read by Simon Vance - the pace was perfect.

I shan't forget about the Morels.

Great book and great app

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

My first and probably last Lawrence experience

At the start of the book I was taken with the writing which is excellent throughout and the description of a Nottingham mining village. By the end, I was desperate for it to end and probably won't try another DHL. I didn't like any of the characters and found the endless agonised soul searching mawkish - it reminded me of Dostoyevsky's Bros K. So, not to my taste.
The production and reading were faultless. Vance manfully waded through the accents and the anguish, and only slightly faltered in doing the children.

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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars

Thorougly overrated

Has Sons and Lovers put you off other books in this genre?

It has put me off books by DH Lawrence

Would you listen to another book narrated by Simon Vance?

He's ok, not one of my favourites

Any additional comments?

So dull I couldn't finish it.Although I felt pity for most of the characters, the book didn't inspire me to like them or feel interested in them.The descriptions of life in a mining family, while no doubt accurate, were pedantic and uninspired.The writing itself is poor quality. It is a mystery that he is such a famous writer.Please don't think I have a low attention span or lack interest in the subject matter. I found The Road to Nab End fascinating both as a story and for its insight into the hardship faced by the working class a few generations ago. Even How Green Was My Valley, and No Mean City, were just as educational as Sons and Lovers and more interesting to read.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Took a long time to get into it

Quite slow going, and I didn't initially care much about the characters. Parts of it were very good, like the early difficulties between the mother and father, and with the brother William, but then for long periods I would find I was waiting for something interesting to happen. At times it was a very in-depth exploration of the characters' lives and inner thoughts and motivations, and followed their lives quite closely, but then other things would be noted and brushed over in a few simple sentences, which was a bit jarring at times. There was a lot of "At this time, xyz was happening," or "By now the family had moved house", so there were strange gaps in the timeline, and it sometimes felt like an afterthought, like the book wasn't necessarily written in a planned way, or edited to remove inconsistencies. For example, I seem to remember when Paul first goes to Willy Farm it sounded like Miriam is the only daughter with her rowdy farmer brothers, and then all of a sudden another sister is introduced out of nowhere.

It did get more interesting towards the end, but it was quite tortuous (in the sense that Therese Raquin was tortuous/stressful to read). I wonder if perhaps the author was being too ambitious in what they were trying to do, by covering all these different elements of the Morrell's lives. Perhaps if it had had a narrower focus it would have been able to hold my interest more, but it just felt drawn out and overall I didn't feel like I connected with the plot and the characters much emotionally until the very end.

On a minor point, I did find it very difficult to follow some of the accents on a number of occasions, so had to refer to an online copy of the book so I could double check what was being said. Maybe it would have been better to read than listen to...

I've enjoyed other classic fiction, but overall this just didn't grip me in the way I hoped it would. Maybe I would have enjoyed an abridged version more, but I'm all honesty, I'm not sure I'll be reading any more D.H. Lawrence if the other books are like this.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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A favorite

I read the paper book years ago and it touched my heart. It still is a favorite book of mine and the interpretation is superb. The ending is one of the most intense pieces of literature I know, and a beautiful depiction of the immensity and loneliness of the human condition.

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

What writing and language.

It’s worth a listen just for the beautiful use of the English language. Very well narrated too.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I want to continue but ……..it’s gone!!

I must have removed sons and lovers by mistake and haven’t finished it yet! It was my first credit…..how do I get it back….

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Accents sound wrong

I've only listened to the sample so may be wrong, but the accent adopted by the narrator seems to veer around a bit and sounds more like a Yorkshire than a Notts one to me. I'm going to try the 'Naxos' version instead.

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