A Family Writer

Family blogs like this often suggest good books for family reading enjoyment. One that we heartily recommend is Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence.

Lawrence was born in 1885 and was a middle child. His father was a coal miner and his mother a housewife. His family figured prominently in his early writing. Sons and Lovers (1913), his third novel, focuses on the close relationship he had with his mother. The coal mines also figure prominently in the book as Paul Morel's father works in the mines. The character of Miriam (Paul's girlfriend) is based on Jesse Chambers, who was Lawrence's girlfriend for many years. The novel offers a living portrait of the young Lawrence. Mr. Noon (1920) offers a similar portrait of Lawrence's relationship with his future wife, Frieda Weekley. She left her husband and three young children to run off with Lawrence. Their elopement suggests some of the magnetic attraction he had for women. He certainly put all he knew about relationships into his books, and they are quite unlike anything else in modern literature.

Lady Chatterly's Lover (1928) was banned for many years in the United States. Lawrence believed sexuality should be discussed openly, and his vocabulary was, in that book, rather direct and shocking for its day. Lawrence and his wife moved to warm climates in an attempt to deal with his tuberculosis. They lived for some time in Taos, New Mexico.