Women in Love (Abridged) Audiobook

" The edition I read had some critical commentary in the frontmatter. In one case, someone or other was quoted as having said this book should have been called "Everyone In Hate". That's only the beginning of the story: everyone is completely, irrationally hateful, spiteful, and petty at times, especially the women -- including the painfully incomprehensible act of attempted murder with a paperweight over a shockingly mild disagreement about the meaning of a probably meaningless painting of a duck, compounded by the victim's later conclusion that he deserved the unprovoked attack, which in a better writer's work might have been attributed to the severe concussion he received. Meanwhile, the attention on the manly physiques of the heroic male characters was absurd in its poorly suppressed and utterly gratuitous lasciviousness, while the fatuous, excrutiating attention to irrelevant details (such as the comically out of place page and a half devoted to the yellow dress worn by one of the key female characters in the midst of what could have been a tragic incident involving a boy's untimely demise) boggled the mind. One could easily be forgiven for coming away from this book with the idea that its author was a misogynistic, cowardly, loathesomely passive-aggressive man who lashed out at everyone who did not regard him with stars in their eyes through the pathetic mechanism of turning them into comically vile people in his writing, his view of the world twisted by his inability to reconcile his latent (but obviously emerging) homesexuality with his cultural indoctrination. In fact, if one was to then go on to read about Lawrence's life at the time he wrote the book, one's ideas to that effect would be fully justified. The asinine double-helping of teenage angst behind Lawrence's piss-poor writing might be forgivable if he was not about twice the age normal for that kind of self-pitying pathos. I'm convinced the only reason this overwrought, overvalued, overlong bundle of kindling is regarded as a "classic" is its controversy at the time it was published and the fact it is a relatively early indicator of the way repressed sexual deviations from the norms of the time found outlet in what we might call "the arts" for lack of a better, less flattering term for this novel. "

" Ok, definitely NOT in the caliber of Lady Chatterley's Lover, I thought the characters, sisters Gudrun & Ursula, annoying as heck. They were seriously wishy washy, not really knowing WHAT they wanted, & the story just didn't "flow" for me. Hoping Sons & Lovers will be better! "

" one of my all-time faves. "

" One of a very few books I struggled to get through. "

" I had to read this for my 20th century lit class. I just couldn't get into the story or the characters at all. I never finished it because I could get away with never finishing it. I don't think I even made it half way through. It is possible that I would have liked it I had read more of or if I had more support from my professor or if I wasn't reading so many other books at the time. "

" Love D.H. Lawerence. Sometimes it seems I am the only person that does. "

" I love this book and keep coming back to DH Lawrence again and again. "

" Not memorable for me. But I know I really liked everything I ever read by DH Lawrence. "

" The only thing I hate more than Return of the Native and Sons and Lovers is this book. Chthonic in the most horrifying sense. Traumatic and awful. As many have quipped, "It should be called Men in Love." Read Kate Millet's book on Lawrence instead. "

" Just ordered this book from an online bookseller, exteremly excited, have been saving it for this winter. "

" After about 150 pages, I can't bring myself to finish this, which will probably have me thrown out of all literary circles I might have a chance to come close to. The women and the relationships are just ridiculous. "

" As I young woman I recall loving this book. "

" I find it riveting in a really refreshing way. Why did we not have to read this in high school? "

" ...I will never think of `love` in the same way ever again...a tad bit too much existentialism for my taste... "

" i've been reading this book for about 8 years. does it still count? "

" Have to say I did not get on very well with this book and could not relate to the characters at all. I did manage to get to then end but can not say that I enjoyed it. "

" I had to put it down. "

" Ken Russell is a fun guy. Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, the others are troopers hanging in for these films of his. Fucking hilarious and pleasing. "

" One of his greatest books. "

" Also the movie was great "

" The book is a slog to get through, the film version with Alan Bates is much better. "

" Not a book for the faint of heart. You'll doze off in the 6,000 pages of endless nothingness. But, it describes the human spirit in the most grotesque and real way it possibly could. D.H. Lawrence is a fucked up hero. Let us applaud him. "

" Terrible book, do not read. It's very long and very boring. "

" Well, it was a little depressing, but a great book. I just finished it last week and I am still a little bummed. "

" A wonderful novel of a boy who loves his mother a little too much. At first, when Lawrence is laying down the background, the story is a bit shaky and seems to move rather quickly. But once he settles down and slows a bit, the novel really shines. "

" Not a huge fan. It's basically the story of an egoist character partially based upon on the young life of the egoist author. He had to of used the term "he hated her" about 100+ times. "

" See the flowers. Smell the flowers. Take them! Mother! Mother! "

" I can see why it was controversial at the time but overall I wasn't impressed. "

" Fairly interesting, although I admit a tad dry at times. "

" This book is fantastic. It takes Lawrence awhile to say what he wants to say but I found it to be worth the wait. Clara was a bore but I adored Miriam. Lawrence's obsession on love and hate existing as one is quite interesting. "

" BRILLIANT. Captures relationships between men and women and mothers and sons so well. Influence of the countryside and nature on the characters is beautiful. "

" This was a set book when I was at school. It was OK but I don't want to read it again. "

" This book was okay. The characters weren't memorable. The only bit of interesting language was the way he captured the dialect. Generally boring. "