Sons and lovers (novel)

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Sons and Lovers (Original title: Sons and Lovers ) is a novel by the British writer DH Lawrence , which was first published in 1913 by Gerald Duckworth and Company . It was Lawrence's third novel and is now commonly referred to as his early masterpiece, although after its initial publication it received only indifferent reviews and was vilified as obscene by many.

When the Modern Library drew up a list of the hundred best English novels of the 20th century in 1999, it placed Sons and Lovers 9th ahead of works by John Steinbeck and Malcolm Lowry . This showed that Lawrence could eventually break free from being an obscene poet for women; a reputation that his 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover had earned him .

In 1925 the Insel Verlag in Leipzig published a German translation by Franz Franzius, and in 1932 another translation by Georg Goyert was published by the same publisher .

The novel is an educational and artist novel that describes Paul Morel's career and his behavior towards women, especially his mother, his long-time friend Miriam and the married but separated Clara Dawes.

action

part One

The first part mainly describes the young marriage of the Morels. Walter Morel works in the mines as a miner and often gets into arguments with his wife. She then turns intensely to her children; her sons William and Paul both have a very close bond with her. William tries to escape his mother's influence by going to dance evenings and trying to have fun without her. When he moves to London to live and work, their second son, Paul, becomes more involved. Nevertheless, William keeps an intensive letter contact with his mother and tells her about his relationship with other women. He eventually dies young shortly after visiting with his fiancée. Ms. Morel was hit hard by this, but eventually found her meaning in life in her relationship with her second son Paul.

Part II

Paul Morel is slowly entering life when he accepts a job as a clerk in a hosiery factory in Nottingham . His health suffers a lot from the long working hours and the journey, but he feels at home in the factory full of women and often and happily flirts with them. Meanwhile, he has an intimate relationship with Miriam, a girl of the same age on a nearby farm. However, he emphasized several times before her and others that it was only about a friendly relationship. The love between the two is overshadowed by Paul's belonging to his mother and never really blossoms. Nevertheless, Paul becomes guilty of either setting Miriam free for other men or of marrying her.

Paul devotes himself to different hobby horses , he paints passionately and even wins a prize and is able to sell several of his paintings. The motif that shows Paul as a painter is mentioned again and again in the course of the novel. Paul is now close friends with Clara Dawes. She is a little older than him and lives in separation from her husband. She is a women's rights activist , but she does not actively participate in protests. She is very vain and does not get along with the other workers in the stocking factory, whom she consider vain and despicably call the Queen of Sheba . After all, it is she who leads Paul to rethink his relationship with Miriam. Towards the end of the second part he admits to himself and Miriam his love for the girl and when they spend a weekend together in a hut, they live together like man and woman and he even sleeps with her . When the mother is sick, Paul finally proves that his deepest love belongs to the mother.

Part III

Although he temporarily planned to marry Miriam, he finally decided to break up with her because the relationship was going nowhere and he did not love her. His mother encourages him to take this step; she never liked Miriam and couldn't bear the thought of sharing her Paul with her . The breakup is painful and Miriam accuses him of having known from the start that nothing would come of the relationship. In the following time Paul devotes himself more intensively to Clara. The two eventually become a couple, but their love is overshadowed by Clara's marriage. Although Paul's mother gets on well with Clara, she can't get over pointing out that she is already married. Meanwhile, she rejects a divorce. Finally, one evening in a field there is a fight between Paul and her husband Baxter Dawes, who has since been abandoned by his lover and is very depraved. After the fistfight between the rivals, the two men begin to accept and get along with each other. When Dawes fell ill with typhoid one day , Paul visited him, as he had no one else. Over time, a strange friendship develops between the two. Meanwhile, Paul's mother has cancer , and although the doctor says she won't live much longer, she refuses to die. Paul longs for her imminent death in order to finally withdraw completely from her influence. Yet he cannot imagine a world without her. She eventually dies after Paul overdoses her with morphine . At first he feels her death as a release, but nothing changes in his behavior towards women. He realizes that the relationship with Clara is over, so he makes sure that she goes back to her husband. Paul is slowly becoming neglected and longing to return to his mother; he develops a suicidal mindset. When he sees Miriam again, she suggests a marriage to save him. He refuses. In the end, however, Paul decides to make a fresh start without his mother; with this decision the novel ends.

Film adaptations

Jack Cardiff directed a 1960 film adaptation of the novel with Dean Stockwell in the role of Paul Morel. The adaptation was very well received by critics and the public and also contributed to the re-evaluation of the novel and Lawrence's oeuvre.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 100 Best Novels - Modern Library
  2. ↑ Sons and Lovers / DH Lawrence. Transferred by Franz Franzius, Insel Verlag 1925
  3. ↑ Sons and Lovers / DH Lawrence. New transfer by Georg Goyert, Insel Verlag 1932

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