Women in Love

Rating:
Summary: Way too much theatre and not nearly enough play!
Review: I was tricked into reading this book due to it being a well known classic and from a desire to read a good romantic story which I thought it would be. Well, um, IT'S NOT.

I like to read books that draw me right into the story and then a couple of hours later you notice you are turning page 250 when the last you recall touching was page 97. This book was not like that at all. Unfortunately, I was always conscious that I was reading print from a page but kept reminding myself that a book this famous had to get good sooner or later. Far from not being able to put it down, I found myself often looking to see what page I was on and if I had read my quota for the night. It never did get good and when I had finished the last sentence I felt frustrated and cheated.

I worried that my lack of appreciation for this classic must be due to my inferior intellect and that I must after all be just some obtuse hill-billy. Thankfully I found that several people who had offered their reviews here shared my opinions for this book and I was quite relieved that I was not alone in my reaction.

For me, Lawrence's supremely descriptive, possibly brilliant (although I really wouldn't know) and flowery writing is all for not because of selfish, unlikeable and unbelieveable characters who don't really do anything. At the very end, the only care I had for anyone in the book was poor little Winifred. I hope she was alright.

In conclusion may I suggest that you pass on Women in Love and read instead Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It is so much more a wonderful book about believable, likeable, women in love.

Rating:
Summary: Explores the depths of both alienation and love.
Review: Lawrence's characters are entering the 20th Century, some with a deep sense of longing, all with a sense that human relationships are difficult in the modern world. Lawrence's philosophies on love and human connection are spoken through the words of the mostly autobiographical Birkin.

Rating:
Summary: Almost a soap opera....
Review: OK, the title for this review may be a little harsh, but the image is hard to shake from my mind. Imagine the close-ups used in a soap opera to show you the intense anguish and inner turmoil the characters feel. Usually, there is pensive expressions which sometimes border on the ludicrous. In "Women in Love" I can't help imagining Lawrence using the same thing. There is a narrative, there is action, but a lot of the book belongs inside the characters. We see Gudrun looking out at the snow covered valley with a feeling of awe, we hear Birkin go through endless thoughts of the ineffable thing he is looking for but can't state clearly, and we watch Gerald trying to find the next big problem he can solve. Throughout all this ruminating, we, the viewer, must be watching something. Hence, we look at the soap opera close-ups of the Brangwens, Criches, and Birkin.

This is not a bad book, but not a book which moves me like others of Lawrence. This book was a continuation of "The Rainbow," but it does not give you the span of time. The novel is primarily focused on Ursula, Gudrun, Rupert, and Gerald. I miss seeing how things work through time. You still have elements from Lawrence's other novels (like dancing uninhibitedly with nature), but it seems as if he is giving us too much information on just a few people. I feel he has more effect with "The Rainbow."

I agree that you do not need to read "The Rainbow" first. Lawrence is a thorough writer, so many times I found myself rereading passages to better understand what he is trying to tell me.

The Wordsworth Classics are inexpensive, but they do not have a lot of room in the margins for notes. This is a good volume to buy for a read, but not for a study.

Although you do not need to read "The Rainbow" to read this, I would recommend reading "Women in Love" if you have read "The Rainbow." It is interesting to watch how Lawrence develops the women after giving you their history.

Rating:
Summary: I hated this book despite the great message it conveys.
Review: Okay, I normally love classics, but while reading Women in Love I couldn't help thinking what a horrible book it was. Although in the novel Lawrence tries to portray the effects of an industrial world on the mind and soul, a very interesting topic, the novel itself is dark, frightening, and way too wordy. Reading this book is like being on an intellectual merry go round that never ends. Even the love story of the novel is demonic and twisted. The story just seems so farfetched from reality -- the characters are just not people you can connect with and the women seem either stupid, cold, or calculating. The story could have been told so much better, and if Lawrence wanted to comment yo such an extent much on man's mind, why not become a psychologist and not waste a reader's time with so much intellectual blabber! Far too dark and wordy for my taste!

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Book I've Ever Read
Review: Over this past year, I've been unfortunate enough to be assigned to reading this horrid piece of work in my Literature class. I found it terrible. The characters were completely unlikeable, unbelievable and all the same. I heard good things about D.H. Lawrence prior to reading this book, but I refuse to ever read anything by him again. This book totally traumatized me. The people who tried to censor it 80 years ago were right. Nobody should ever be forced to endure the torture of going through this book. It was so uneventful and boring; the conversations that occurred were also completely arbitrary and all conveniently led to some sort of philosophical topic. DON'T READ THIS BOOK!!!

Rating:
Summary: D.H. Lawrence's Women In Love: Our Mind, Ourself, Our World
Review: Set in the aftermath of World War I, this deeply philosophical novel brilliantly portrays Lawrence's fascination with the power and activity of the subconscious mind. Lawrence expertly strips away the surface levels of normal awareness and perception to reveal the forces working within the deep inner recesses of the human psyche. His interest in and fascination with the writings of Freud is everywhere made manifest in this story.

In every section of this brilliant book, the reader can grasp the characters' efforts to exert the will against the inviolable forces of nature. The end result, according to Lawrence, is that they sever the organic bond with the natural world and suffer a spiritual death. Through their struggles, we gain a sense of our own futile efforts to control reality, to make it over in our own image. We discover we must complete our being by living in the moment, submerging the self and uniting with others. Above all else, we learn about our true nature and the necessity of living in harmony with the ebb and flow of the larger universe. Buy Lawrence's book, and, more importantly, dwell on its depictions of the mind's power to deliver our destiny.

I highly recommend this masterpiece to all readers wishing to gain insight into human psychology and, ultimately, a truer picture of humanity. Although the book is quite long (nearly 500 pages) and doesn't have a unified plot structure, Lawrence rewards his beautiful bounty to the patient and careful reader.

Rating:
Summary: Annoying yet engrossing
Review: The ideas and relationships explored in Women in Love are intense and fascinating although they are undermined by Lawrence's unneccessary verbosity and his seeming obsession with his own cleverness. The impersonal style employed would, I feel, better suit a philosophical discursive essay than a novel.

Rating:
Summary: Love and Hate
Review: The sequel to The Rainbow is alike only in the fact that Ursala Branwagen is a main character. Women in Love was written with much more passion than The Rainbow, dealing with the realtionships of two sisters and their lovers.

The charcater's all seem to be on the verge of madness with their emotins running amok between love and hate for each other.

Lawrence was proported to be depressed by the treatment of his works by the censors. This book is not pornographic but it does have an implication of homosexuality that would have shocked the readers of 1918. I wonder about Lawrence's own sexuality as both the Rainbow and Women in Love lightly deal with homosexual relationships.

Rating:
Summary: What a waste of time.
Review: This book has no likeable characters, and because of this, no one really cares about the characters' feelings and actions. In fact, I wanted them all to be miserable, because they made me so miserable. The characters are too self-centered to enjoy them.

Rating:
Summary: What do you all do with your time?
Review: This book is amazing. I agree with Maureen--genius! How deep this man dives in his exploration of love set against a god-awful backdrop of dankness and eternity! He speaks to me. How can he not speak to you? Look around you. How can he not be mirroring our lives in these characters? Dreadful, huh? Why? Because they're not like you. That's the crux--they're better.

And to know that Lawrence wrote this tedious book under 8 months amazes me. The intensity, the love, the hope.

He's the man...