Editing Sons and Lovers

{{short description|1913 novel by DH Lawrence}}
{{other uses}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=April 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox book| 
| name           = Sons and Lovers
| title_orig     =
| translator     =
| image          = Sonslovers.jpg <!--prefer 1st edition-->
| caption  =
| author         = [[D. H. Lawrence]]
| illustrator    =
| cover_artist   =
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| series         =
| subject        = <!-- Subject is not relevant for fiction -->
| genre          = [[Autobiographical novel]]
| publisher      = [[Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd]]
| pub_date       = 1913<ref>[http://www.s4ulanguages.com/dhlawrence.html Facsimile of the 1st edition (1913)]</ref>
| english_pub_date =
| pages          = 423
| isbn           = <!--n/a-->
| preceded_by    = [[The Trespasser (novel)|The Trespasser]]
| followed_by    = [[The Rainbow]]|wikisource=Sons and Lovers
}}

'''''Sons and Lovers''''' is a 1913 novel by the English writer [[D. H. Lawrence]]. It traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with a demanding mother and two very different lovers, which exert complex influences on the development of his manhood. The novel was originally published by Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd., London, and Mitchell Kennerley Publishers, New York. While the novel initially received a lukewarm critical reception, along with allegations of obscenity, it is today regarded as a masterpiece by many critics and is often regarded as Lawrence's finest achievement. It tells us more about Lawrence's life and his phases, as his first was when he lost his mother in 1910 to whom he was particularly attached. And it was from then that he met Frieda Richthofen, and around this time that he began conceiving his two other great novels, ''[[The Rainbow]]'' and ''[[Women in Love]]'', which had more sexual emphasis and maturity.

==Development and publication history==

The third published novel of [[D. H. Lawrence]], taken by many to be his earliest masterpiece, tells the story of Paul Morel, a young man and budding artist.

The original 1913 edition was heavily edited by [[Edward Garnett]] who removed 80 passages, roughly a tenth of the text.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith, Helen.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1016045858|title=An uncommon reader : a life of edward garnett, mentor and editor of literary genius|date=2017|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-0-374-71741-4|oclc=1016045858}}</ref> The novel is dedicated to Garnett. Garnett, as the literary advisor to the publishing firm Duckworth, was an important figure in leading Lawrence farther into the London literary world during the years 1911 and 1912.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=PATEMAN|first=JOHN|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1136964863|title=ORPINGTON TO ONTARIO 2019.|date=2020|publisher=LULU COM|isbn=978-1-7948-4199-4|pages=9|oclc=1136964863}}</ref> It was not until the 1992 [[The Cambridge Edition of the Letters and Works of D. H. Lawrence|Cambridge University Press]] edition was released that the missing text was restored.<ref name=":0" />

Lawrence began working on the novel in the period of his mother's illness, and often expresses this sense of his mother's wasted life through his female protagonist Gertrude Morel. Letters written around the time of its development clearly demonstrate the admiration he felt for his mother – viewing her as a 'clever, ironical, delicately moulded woman' – and her apparently unfortunate marriage to his coal-miner father, a man of 'sanguine temperament' and instability. He believed that his mother had married below her class status. Unlike her husband, Lydia grew up in a middle class religious family, and the differences in their backgrounds often caused family conflicts. On one hand, Mr. Lawrence would spend his wages on drink after working for hours in the coal mine; on the other hand, Mrs. Lawrence focused on their children's upbringing, welfare, and education while also harboring a desire to open her own haberdashery shop.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Inspire |title=D H Lawrence's mother – Mrs Lydia Lawrence {{!}} Inspire |url=https://www.inspirepicturearchive.org.uk/image/26503/D_H_Lawrences_mother_-_Mrs_Lydia_Lawrence |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=inspirepicturearchive.org.uk}}</ref>{{Clarify|date=August 2010}} This personal family conflict experienced by Lawrence provided him with the impetus for the first half of his novel – in which both William, the older brother, and Paul Morel become increasingly contemptuous of their father – and the subsequent exploration of Paul Morel's antagonising relationships with both his lovers, which are both incessantly affected by his allegiance to his mother.

The first draft of Lawrence's novel is now lost and was never completed, which seems to be directly due to his mother's illness. He did not return to the novel for three months, at which point it was titled 'Paul Morel'. The penultimate draft of the novel coincided with a remarkable change in Lawrence's life, as his health was thrown into turmoil and he resigned his teaching job to spend time in Germany. This plan was never followed, however, as he met and married the German minor aristocrat, Frieda Weekley, who was the wife of a former professor of his at the [[University of Nottingham]]. According to Frieda's account of their first meeting, she and Lawrence talked about [[Oedipus]] and the effects of early childhood on later life within twenty minutes of meeting.

The third draft of 'Paul Morel' was sent to the publishing house [[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]]; the response, a rather violent reaction, came from [[William Heinemann]] himself. His reaction captures the shock and newness of Lawrence's novel, 'the degradation of the mother [as explored in this novel], supposed to be of gentler birth, is almost inconceivable'; he encouraged Lawrence to redraft the novel one more time. In addition to altering the title to a more thematic 'Sons and Lovers', Heinemann's response had reinvigorated Lawrence into vehemently defending his novel and its themes as a coherent work of art. To justify its form, Lawrence explains, in letters to Garnett, that it is a 'great tragedy' and a 'great book', one that mirrors the 'tragedy of thousands of young men in England'.

==Title==
Lawrence rewrote the work four times until he was happy with it. Although before publication the work was usually titled ''Paul Morel'', Lawrence finally settled on ''Sons and Lovers''.

== Synopsis ==

=== Part I ===

The refined daughter of a "good old burgher family," Gertrude Coppard meets a rough-hewn miner, Walter Morel, at a Christmas dance and falls into a whirlwind romance characterised by physical passion, but soon after her marriage to Walter, she realizes the difficulties of living off his meagre salary in a rented house. The couple fight and drift apart, and Walter retreats to the pub after work each day. Gradually, Mrs. Morel's affections shift to her sons beginning with the oldest, William.

As a boy, William is so attached to his mother that he does not enjoy the fair without her. As he grows older, he defends her against his father's occasional violence. Eventually, he leaves their [[Nottinghamshire]] home for a job in London, where he begins to rise up into the middle class. He is engaged, but he detests his fiancée's superficiality. William dies, and Mrs. Morel is heartbroken. When her second son, Paul, catches [[pneumonia]] she rediscovers her love for Paul.

=== Part II ===

Both repulsed by and drawn to his mother, Paul is afraid to leave her but wants to go out on his own, and needs to experience love. Gradually, he falls into a relationship with Miriam, a farmer's daughter who attends his church. The two take long walks and have intellectual conversations about books but Paul resists, in part because his mother disapproves. At Miriam's family's farm, Paul meets Clara Dawes, a young woman with, apparently, feminist sympathies who has separated from her husband, Baxter.

After pressuring Miriam into a physical relationship, which he finds unsatisfying, Paul breaks with her as he grows more intimate with Clara, who is more passionate physically. But even she cannot hold him, and he returns to his mother. When his mother dies soon after, he is alone.

=== In Lawrence's own words ===

Lawrence summarised the plot in a letter to [[Edward Garnett]] on 19 November 1912:

: It follows this idea: a woman of character and refinement goes into the lower class, and has no satisfaction in her own life. She has had a passion for her husband, so her children are born of passion, and have heaps of vitality. But as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers – first the eldest, then the second. These sons are ''urged'' into life by their reciprocal love of their mother – urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives, and holds them. It's rather like [[Goethe]] and his mother and Frau von Stein and Christiana – As soon as the young men come into contact with women, there's a split. William gives his sex to a fritter, and his mother holds his soul. But the split kills him, because he doesn't know where he is. The next son gets a woman who fights for his soul – fights his mother. The son loves his mother – all the sons hate and are jealous of the father. The conflict goes on between the mother and the girl with the son as object. The mother gradually proves stronger, because of the ties of blood. The son decides to leave his soul in his mother's hands, and, like his elder brother, go for passion. He gets passion. Then the split begins to tell again. But, almost unconsciously, the mother realises what is the matter, and begins to die. The son casts off his mistress, attends to his mother dying. He is left in the end naked of everything, with the drift towards death.

==Literary significance and criticism==

Jenny Turner described ''Sons and Lovers'' as a semi-autobiographical work in ''The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion'' (1993). She maintained that it showed both "great candor" and "much self-pity".<ref>{{cite book|author=Turner, Jenny|editor=Gilbert, Harriett|title=The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion|publisher=Jonathan Cape|date=1993|page=149}}</ref> The critic [[Harold Bloom]] listed ''Sons and Lovers'' as one of the books that have been important and influential in Western culture in ''[[The Western Canon]]'' (1994).<ref>{{cite book|author=Bloom, Harold|title=The Western Canon|publisher=Riverhead Books|date=1994|page=522}}</ref> In 1999, the [[Modern Library]] ranked ''Sons and Lovers'' ninth on a [[Modern Library 100 Best Novels|list of the 100 best novels in English of the 20th century]].<ref>[http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ 100 Best Novels], Modern Library</ref>

The novel contains a frequently quoted use of the English dialect word "[[nesh]]". The speech of several protagonists is represented in Lawrence's written interpretation of the [[East Midlands English|Nottinghamshire dialect]],<ref>[http://www.dedicatedwriters.com/paper/Sons_and_lovers_and_1984_func-146706.html] Sons and Lovers and 1984, functions of the Nottinghamshire dialect and Newspeak</ref> which also features in several of his poems.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/abj76/PG/pieces/lawrence/colliers_wife.shtml |title=Dialect poems by D.H. Lawrence |access-date=2008-09-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719182102/http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/abj76/PG/pieces/lawrence/colliers_wife.shtml |archive-date=19 July 2008 }} Dialect Poems by D.H. Lawrence</ref>

==Film, TV and theatrical adaptations==

''Sons and Lovers'' has been adapted for the screen several times including the [[Academy Award]] winning [[Sons and Lovers (1960 film)|1960 film]], a [[Sons and Lovers (1981 TV serial)|1981 BBC TV serial]] and another on ITV1 in 2003. The 2003 serial has been issued on DVD by [[Acorn Media UK]].

== Standard editions ==
* {{cite book |first= D. H. |last= Lawrence |display-authors= 0 |title= Sons and Lovers |orig-year= 1913 |editor-first1= Helen |editor-last1= Baron |editor-first2= Carl |editor-last2= Baron |publisher= Cambridge University Press |date= 1992 |isbn= 0-521-24276-2 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/sonslovers00lawr_3 }}
* {{cite book |first= D. H. |last= Lawrence |display-authors= 0 |title= Paul Morel |orig-year= 1911 |editor-first= Helen |editor-last= Baron |publisher= Cambridge University Press |date= 2003 |isbn= 0-521-56009-8 |quote= An early manuscript version of Sons and Lovers }}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |first= Michael |last= Black |title= D. H. Lawrence: The Early Fiction |url= https://archive.org/details/dhlawrenceearlyf0000blac |url-access= registration |publisher= Palgrave MacMillan |date= 1986 |isbn=  978-0521322935 }}
* {{cite book |first= Michael |last= Black |title= Sons and Lovers |publisher= Cambridge University Press |date= 1992 |series= Landmarks of World Literature |isbn= 978-0521369244 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/dhlawrencesonslo0000blac }}
* {{cite book |first= Thomas L. |last= Jeffers |title= Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana |url= https://archive.org/details/apprenticeshipsb00jeff |url-access= limited |location= New York |publisher= Palgrave |date= 2005 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/apprenticeshipsb00jeff/page/n145 135]–158 |isbn= 978-1403966070 }}

==External links==
{{Wikisource}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/d-h-lawrence/sons-and-lovers}}
* {{Gutenberg|no=217|name=Sons and Lovers}}
* {{librivox book | title=Sons and Lovers | author=D. H. LAWRENCE}}
* {{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/aug/16/classics.dhlawrence1 |work= The Guardian|first= Helen |last= Baron |date= 16 August 2003 |title= Home Truths |quote= ...the novel recast material from an earlier, less autobiographical work [''Paul Morel'']... Baron explores the making of a masterpiece [''Sons and Lovers'']... }}
* {{cite book |first= John E. |last= Stoll |url= http://dmr.bsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/BSMngrph&CISOPTR=2&CISOBOX=1&REC=7 |title= D.H. Lawrence's ''Sons and Lovers'': Self-Encounter and the Unknown Self |date= Mar 2009 |orig-year= 1968 |publisher= [[Ball State University]] |series= Ball State monograph |volume= 11 |lccn= 68-64778 |format= pdf/tiff }}

{{D. H. Lawrence}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sons And Lovers}}
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:1913 British novels]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Modernist novels]]
[[Category:Novels by D. H. Lawrence]]
[[Category:Novels set in Nottinghamshire]]
[[Category:Novels set in London]]
[[Category:Psychological novels]]
[[Category:Gerald Duckworth and Company books]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]