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[Nick]

I found this to be a very dark read, lifeless, bleak, yet oddly compelling. I was particularly annoyed by the constant cycle of each character wanting then hating each other. With so much hate flowing, it's a wonder the characters would interact at all. Because of this I could not feel anything for any of the characters, save perhaps poor Miriam. The tone of the novel is like a pencil drawing--a sketch that's perhaps masterfully drawn yet without paint doesn't seem to quite come to life. <br><br>What is definitely missing from this novel is a sense of real love. No one is touched by love, save of the pseudo-jealous, possessive type. Perhaps that was the intent, but one cannot go through one's entire life as drearily as Lawrence's characters seem to and not want to just end it all. His focus is only on the negative in life, and as most people will attest, that is simply not how life is lived. Because of this, the characters seem lifeless, cardboardish, and don't really grow at all. Paul still broods and Miriam simply endures. The landscape and characters he draws are simply a lifeless charcoal drawing. <br>I found the same tone and conventions in Lady Chatterly's Lover as well. <br>I get the definite sense that, given the auto-biographical nature of the work, D.H. Lawrence must have had a dreary life. Pity.