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Lady Chatterley's Lover cover art

Lady Chatterley's Lover

By: D. H. Lawrence
Narrated by: Samantha Bond
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Summary

The story of Lady Chatterley and her love for her husband's gamekeeper outraged the sensibilities of Edwardian England. Lawrence had already been dismissed as a purveyor of the obscene for the attitudes to sex that he had shown in The Rainbow, which had been fiercely suppressed on its publication in 1915. Chatterley, written in several versions around 1928 in Italy in the final part of Lawrence's life, was a deliberate choice on the author's part to address sex head on, describe the act and its pleasures in detail and put forward his belief that mankind had lost touch with its pagan and natural roots, its link to the earth and therefore its strength.

Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned from publication in Britain until 1960, when the radical new publishing house Penguin Books brought out a paperback edition and was immediately taken to court for obscenity. The trial that followed became one of the marking posts for the '60s' 'revolution', with arguments for the beauty of Lawrence's descriptions of love and sex finally conquering the prudish sensibilities that Lawrence so despised and leading to a landmark legal ruling in Penguin's favour. For all the campaigning and crusading that has accompanied Lady Chatterley's Lover, it remains in essence a beautiful description of a true and lasting passion.

Public Domain (P)2007 Silksoundbooks Limited

What listeners say about Lady Chatterley's Lover

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

Probably a five 🌟 book, but my courage failed me.

I've never read a book like this before. I know that he had very many important things to say so I tried to shelve the prude in me so that I could hear what he had to say. Having read a few other Lawrence I knew that he could use ,'naughtiness' to make his point. His use of language is quite beautiful. That's when it's deliberately not! He was a brave man for his time - no wonder the book was banned. Even today this could be seen as very explicit. I don't think that it is needlessly excessive in its use of crudeness. No rude word was accidentally written. He set out to crush such taboos for once and for all!

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • mj
  • 06-12-16

I wish I had read this sooner

I loved listening to this book. I wish I had read it sooner.
It was not the vulgar book that I had been lead to believe it would be. It was lovely and moving.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Perfect Narration

Samantha Bond's narration of this story allows one into the very being of the three main
characters. One is given access to their feelings and what makes the act as they do. It's a remarkable
achievement by Ms.Bond, and a remarkable experience for the listener.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Underrated

Like many, I read this too young, skipping passages to find the racy bits.
But it has an eloquence and a penetration if observation that reaches well outside in time. In this era of woke, gaslighting and mansplaining, Lawrence is one if the few male writers that men strugglung with these developments might turn.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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it was good to listening this book the performance

the performance was good too. The lady was impersonated each different caracter very very well.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect Narration

Samantha Bond is a wonderful narrator.She breathes life into this classic tale and I do not think anyone else could have performed better.Loved it!

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliantly Read

Always wanted to read this but found it a slog. Really well read and easy to listen to. Made it really accessible.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lady Chatterleys lover

Engaging story brilliantly read by Samantha Bond. Beautifully written, much more than I thought

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

unexpected pleasure

like others I've heard a lot about this book and the sex scene with the game keeper. its so much more than that, and more than 1 sex scene.
Its a picture of the times, the distinction between classes, it explores what intimacy and love are as separate things. The language at times is ripe, 1 word in particular for me, has an uncomfortable brutality. There are moments of amusement when naming of sexual body parts 😁. will listen to this again

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

Great performance but not a great novel

Not the best of DH Lawrence - hard to take seriously. But the performance helped

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