Rating: 
Summary: If you love Lawrence, read it
Review: "Women in love" is the first Lawrence book i have read in english (all the others in my own language, italian). I think Lawrence, in this novel, more then in "The Rainbow" is at the beginning of a search that will finally bring him to "Lady Chatterley": i mean the search of i life-sens and of the knowledge of the real through the relationships between human beeings, male and female etc. I like more the conceit that emerges from the last Lawrence's books, but i appreciate in "Women In Love" some kind of "scritto giovanile".
Rating: 
Summary: So this is love
Review: A sequel to "The Rainbow," "Women in Love" seems to be a more personal novel for its author, as D.H. Lawrence introduces a character to echo his own feelings about love and the world. This character is Rupert Birkin, a misanthrope who thumbs his nose defiantly at any and all social conventions and has few, if any, likeable qualities. It is this man with whom Ursula Brangwen, the individualistic heroine from "The Rainbow," falls in love, but even she is not blind to his disagreeableness. Ursula, now 26 years old, teaches in the school of her coalmining hometown, Beldover. In the first scene in the novel where she and Rupert, a school inspector, reveal their mutual acquaintance, they are standing in front of her class, transforming her botanical lecture into a wellspring of sexual innuendo in what appears to be Lawrence's playful attempt at provoking the censors who prudishly criticized his prior work. Also participating in this scene is Hermione Roddice, a haughty aristocratic woman who harbors a secret desire to humiliate and control men, specifically the headstrong Rupert.
Meanwhile, Ursula's prettier and more vivacious younger sister Gudrun, an artist, is attracted to Gerald Crich, heir to the seemingly cursed Crich coal dynasty. Almost the opposite of Rupert, Gerald is a proud, practical, and conscientious businessman who lays down the law with his coal miners and is cruel to his animals, feeling he deserves nothing less than unconditional obedience. The provocative nature of this novel is that Gerald is attracted to Rupert -- socially, physically, sexually -- possibly because he considers Rupert a symbol of liberation from the workaday world he is secretly tired of; and this feeling is readily reciprocated. In a scene where the two men strip and wrestle, Lawrence provides the male counterpart to the lesbian scene in "The Rainbow," as though to say what's good for the goose is good for the...well, you know. The novel basically tracks the trajectories of the love/hate relationships of these two couples. While Ursula and Rupert eventually find compatibility, having in common their rugged individualism, Gerald and Gudrun drift towards a dysfunctional state of potential violence, as he realizes with jealousy and anger that her artistic world is closed to him. Lawrence's strength is not tight little plots but character study, and the great achievement in "Women in Love" is that the characters do not exhibit any stereotypical or easily describable behavior; it's difficult to pinpoint their personalities from just one conversation, and not much easier even over the course of the entire novel. Ursula, Gudrun, Rupert, and Gerald are fascinatingly, almost frighteningly, complex people whom Lawrence seems deliberately to have designed to leave the reader at a loss, to test the reader's tolerance for sexual and psychological perversity.
Rating:
Summary: So this is love
Review: A sequel to "The Rainbow," "Women in Love" seems to be a more personal novel for its author, as D.H. Lawrence introduces a character to echo his own feelings about love and the world. This character is Rupert Birkin, a misanthrope who thumbs his nose defiantly at any and all social conventions and has few, if any, likeable qualities. It is this man with whom Ursula Brangwen, the individualistic heroine from "The Rainbow," falls in love, but even she is not blind to his disagreeableness. Ursula, now 26 years old, teaches in the school of her coalmining hometown, Beldover. In the first scene in the novel where she and Rupert, a school inspector, reveal their mutual acquaintance, they are standing in front of her class, transforming her botanical lecture into a wellspring of sexual innuendo in what appears to be Lawrence's playful attempt at provoking the censors who prudishly criticized his prior work. Also participating in this scene is Hermione Roddice, a haughty aristocratic woman who harbors a secret desire to humiliate and control men, specifically the headstrong Rupert.
Meanwhile, Ursula's prettier and more vivacious younger sister Gudrun, an artist, is attracted to Gerald Crich, heir to the seemingly cursed Crich coal dynasty. Almost the opposite of Rupert, Gerald is a proud, practical, and conscientious businessman who lays down the law with his coal miners and is cruel to his animals, feeling he deserves nothing less than unconditional obedience. The provocative nature of this novel is that Gerald is attracted to Rupert -- socially, physically, sexually -- possibly because he considers Rupert a symbol of liberation from the workaday world he is secretly tired of; and this feeling is readily reciprocated. In a scene where the two men strip and wrestle, Lawrence provides the male counterpart to the lesbian scene in "The Rainbow," as though to say what's good for the goose is good for the...well, you know. The novel basically tracks the trajectories of the love/hate relationships of these two couples. While Ursula and Rupert eventually find compatibility, having in common their rugged individualism, Gerald and Gudrun drift towards a dysfunctional state of potential violence, as he realizes with jealousy and anger that her artistic world is closed to him. Lawrence's strength is not tight little plots but character study, and the great achievement in "Women in Love" is that the characters do not exhibit any stereotypical or easily describable behavior; it's difficult to pinpoint their personalities from just one conversation, and not much easier even over the course of the entire novel. Ursula, Gudrun, Rupert, and Gerald are fascinatingly, almost frighteningly, complex people whom Lawrence seems deliberately to have designed to leave the reader at a loss, to test the reader's tolerance for sexual and psychological perversity.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Lawrence
Review: Compared to "The Rainbow", of which "Women in Love" is the sequel, I found this novel really heavy-going. The heroines from "The Rainbow", Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, seek love and happiness with their prospective suitors. There are passages containing very effective descriptive writing, but the majority of the novel is taken up with Lawrence revealing his beliefs via dialogues between the main characters. This goes on for quite some time in places. The end effect, I thought, was that there was a novel in there somewhere, but it was drowned by what is really Lawrence's dialogue with himself. I imagine that the true Lawrence fans will love the novel on precisely those terms. I think Lawrence was a fine writer, but only intermittently. "Women in Love" is too self-indulgent for my tastes. The interesting themes that re-surfaced from "The Rainbow", such as the strength of the emotions of love and hate making them part of the same feeling rather than separate and distinct, and the ambiguity of male sexuality were drowned by Lawrence's need to (over)state his credo.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Men and the Women Who Love Them
Review: D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love" features various philosophical ideas, each thinly disguised as a character. They are: the sisters Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen (rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?), collier's son Gerald Crich, and idealist Rupert Birkin. Eventually Gerald pairs off with Gudrun and Ursula with Birkin. Gudrun and Gerald have a rather violent relationship, in which each partner is always struggling for power. Ursula and Birkin strive to relate on a "higher plane", on some vague cosmic level. Unlike some readers here, I was not particularly bored by the characters' theoretical discussions on love. More annoying were the exhaustingly detailed descriptions of their actions (to use the word broadly) and thoughts. For long stretches of time nothing much happens and no one speaks. Presumably the reader is meant to identify most with Birkin, who is very close to Lawrence himself. But if the reader is anything like me, he will instead identify with the minor character of a young girl who drowns in a lake. The reader, too, is drowning, but in a sea of philosophy rather than water. One looks frantically about for a plot to cling to. Then why does this book deserve any stars at all, much less three? Well, some parts are beautifully written. And there are a number of underdeveloped but quite intriguing ideas: such as the way Gerald's belief in ruthless, triumphant industrialization permeates his romantic life as well. The possibility of love (even erotic love) between men who also love women is explored from time to time, to much interest, then sadly dropped. In a few places the plot moves along nicely, and sometimes it is quite involving. I don't know if these moments make the entire book worth reading, however. I should say, to be fair, that "Women in Love" is a sequel/companion to Lawrence's "The Rainbow," which I haven't read. But I doubt that it would have made much difference.
Rating:
Summary: Danielle Steele, it ain't
Review: Facts: Women in Love is a story about Ursual and Gudrun Brangwen. The history of the Brangwen family may be referenced by reading "The Rainbow" as a foundational text. Likewise, "Sons and Lovers" as a foundational text will explain the life of a coal mining family. Ursula has a love relationship with Rupert Birkin, a school administrator. They eventually marry. But in this relationship, Birkin wants more than love can offer - "something other" including a love for a man. Gudrun has a relationship with Gerald Crich, a wealthy and good looking man. Although, they have an affair, the relationship fails because it was based upon pity. Gudrun was not ready for a life as a wife and mother to a coal mining family even if he was the manager. Gudrun remains unloved and single with her future course in question. Issue: Is "love" immutable, absolute, and eternal? NO Held: In Chapter 13, there was a contest between a male and female mino cats. The female was wild, but submitted to the dominance of the male cat. This metaphor for male and female relationships was lacking. Both Ursula and Gudrun were the stronger in both relationships. Birkin was a flawed idealist. Gerald was looking for a mother. One can be happy that Ursula has managed to love a man, and we can only hope that perhaps she will explore her further potentiality as a mother perhaps. Gudrun has moved on with the minimal knowledge of what not to look for in a relationship with a man. She is a strong character which I prefer to assume will do very nicely in the future in love and all things.
Rating:
Summary: mino vs. mino, England C13, 1915
Review: Facts: Women in Love is a story about Ursual and Gudrun Brangwen. The history of the Brangwen family may be referenced by reading "The Rainbow" as a foundational text. Likewise, "Sons and Lovers" as a foundational text will explain the life of a coal mining family. Ursula has a love relationship with Rupert Birkin, a school administrator. They eventually marry. But in this relationship, Birkin wants more than love can offer - "something other" including a love for a man. Gudrun has a relationship with Gerald Crich, a wealthy and good looking man. Although, they have an affair, the relationship fails because it was based upon pity. Gudrun was not ready for a life as a wife and mother to a coal mining family even if he was the manager. Gudrun remains unloved and single with her future course in question. Issue: Is "love" immutable, absolute, and eternal? NO Held: In Chapter 13, there was a contest between a male and female mino cats. The female was wild, but submitted to the dominance of the male cat. This metaphor for male and female relationships was lacking. Both Ursula and Gudrun were the stronger in both relationships. Birkin was a flawed idealist. Gerald was looking for a mother. One can be happy that Ursula has managed to love a man, and we can only hope that perhaps she will explore her further potentiality as a mother perhaps. Gudrun has moved on with the minimal knowledge of what not to look for in a relationship with a man. She is a strong character which I prefer to assume will do very nicely in the future in love and all things.
Rating:
Summary: mino vs. mino, England C13, 1915
Review: Facts: Women in Love is a story about Ursual and Gudrun Brangwen. The history of the Brangwen family may be referenced by reading "The Rainbow" as a foundational text. Likewise, "Sons and Lovers" as a foundational text will explain the life of a coal mining family. Ursula has a love relationship with Rupert Birkin, a school administrator. They eventually marry. But in this relationship, Birkin wants more than love can offer - "something other" including a love for a man. Gudrun has a relationship with Gerald Crich, a wealthy and good looking man. Although, they have an affair, the relationship fails because it was based upon pity. Gudrun was not ready for a life as a wife and mother to a coal mining family even if he was the manager. Gudrun remains unloved and single with her future course in question. Issue: Is "love" immutable, absolute, and eternal? NO Held: In Chapter 13, there was a contest between a male and female mino cats. The female was wild, but submitted to the dominance of the male cat. This metaphor for male and female relationships was lacking. Both Ursula and Gudrun were the stronger in both relationships. Birkin was a flawed idealist. Gerald was looking for a mother. One can be happy that Ursula has managed to love a man, and we can only hope that perhaps she will explore her further potentiality as a mother perhaps. Gudrun has moved on with the minimal knowledge of what not to look for in a relationship with a man. She is a strong character which I prefer to assume will do very nicely in the future in love and all things.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I 've ever read
Review: First of all, I have to own you up that reading Women in Love was one of the best experiences on books that I ever had. I know it's not Lawurence's masterpiece, but I touched me very deep. Everthing seems to wok in this book, from the characters to their enviroment. It seems to me that Lawrence took daily events and showed them the way they are: unglamourised. He showed me what love and support seem to be. It's not about being happy all the time or that kind of love that happens only in movies. The book deals with the ordinary love, the one that normal human beings have the chance to face. Following the experience of both couples made me see how different love can be and it is the still the same. I could perfectly understand all the worries and anxiets Gudrun had. And I think Gerald and she made quite a couple! Yet Birkin and Ursula look very nice together since the begin. Their love is not as 'wild' as the other couple's, but it is very strong indeed. When the book was over I got down because I had to let them go. Following the lives of such people for a few days made quite an impression on me. Even though they may not be XXI century people like us, they have the same essence we do. All in all, I know this review may read very emotive and personal, but this is a book that I couldn't apart in other to write about
Rating:
Summary: I Am In Love
Review: Genius--pure and utter genius! His talent with words is unsurpassed. I disagree with many of these reviews--his characters are so real, their emotions and fears are so true it is hard not to relate. It makes you think, plain and simple. Allow yourself to question your own desires and motives in this world; then ponder these with Ursula, Gudrun, Birken and Gerald. A wonderful read that truly enlightens. Love is complicated and Lawrence certainly weaves a tale.
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