Night before last I finished 'Sons and Lovers' by D.H. Lawrence. It is a tome of a book; but only in length. It took me some time to finish.
It was touted as one of the masterpieces of its time. Maybe. I do not have an evolved sense of critique, but I do not think it was a masterpiece at all.
The story is about a Walter Morel's family with a wife, three sons and a daughter; Gertrude, William, Paul, Arthur and Annie.
When I took up the book with the name such as it has I thought it would be about the sons. It is actually about a son, Paul. Annie has been shown to have a small role towards the end when mother is dying. But Arthur is almost entirely ignored. After oldest boy's, William's, untimely death Paul has become the center of his mothers existence, or shall I say mother has become the center of Paul's existence. He develops relationship with two girls, Miriam and Clara, both willing and able, one after another, and yet leaves them without due causes. He cannot form a lasting relationship because his mother does not approve of either girl.
Hundreds of pages have been written about Paul's intellectualizing and philosophizing during these affairs. But one cannot clearly understand Paul's mind. With all that romancing and intimacies with two girls, we do not know that he has even a mustache till the four fifths of the book. Many paragraphs started with "one day...". I do not consider this a good beginning for a paragraph from a very good writer. Lot has been written without saying much. And lot has not been said which could have made the book more understandable.
Mother eventually dies of tumor. Paul wants to kill himself but decides instead, on a long journey.
One thing I liked about the author's writing style is that he uses short sentences unlike his contemporaries who wrote paragraph length sentences. The concept of feminism was used which I thought was well ahead of their time.
This is the only novel I have read which is based on "Oedipus" complex. I think this novel could have been abridged and certainly with a more apt name.
It was touted as one of the masterpieces of its time. Maybe. I do not have an evolved sense of critique, but I do not think it was a masterpiece at all.
The story is about a Walter Morel's family with a wife, three sons and a daughter; Gertrude, William, Paul, Arthur and Annie.
When I took up the book with the name such as it has I thought it would be about the sons. It is actually about a son, Paul. Annie has been shown to have a small role towards the end when mother is dying. But Arthur is almost entirely ignored. After oldest boy's, William's, untimely death Paul has become the center of his mothers existence, or shall I say mother has become the center of Paul's existence. He develops relationship with two girls, Miriam and Clara, both willing and able, one after another, and yet leaves them without due causes. He cannot form a lasting relationship because his mother does not approve of either girl.
Hundreds of pages have been written about Paul's intellectualizing and philosophizing during these affairs. But one cannot clearly understand Paul's mind. With all that romancing and intimacies with two girls, we do not know that he has even a mustache till the four fifths of the book. Many paragraphs started with "one day...". I do not consider this a good beginning for a paragraph from a very good writer. Lot has been written without saying much. And lot has not been said which could have made the book more understandable.
Mother eventually dies of tumor. Paul wants to kill himself but decides instead, on a long journey.
One thing I liked about the author's writing style is that he uses short sentences unlike his contemporaries who wrote paragraph length sentences. The concept of feminism was used which I thought was well ahead of their time.
This is the only novel I have read which is based on "Oedipus" complex. I think this novel could have been abridged and certainly with a more apt name.
No comments:
Post a Comment