Women in Love and Jane Austen

[Zee.]

I have two questions for you.
I'm not very clued in when it comes to D.H Lawrence. But I was given a really beautifully bound book last year, his Women in Love. I was wondering if I had to read any of his other work prior to Women in Love. Is it part of a series or no?

And on another note, I know there are a million threads on Austen, I was curious to which of her novels you found most interesting. I'm contemplating reading Persuasion, Emma or Sense and Sensibility but i'm unsure of which to choose. I've read Sense and Sensibility once before but don't remember much of it.

[mortalterror]

http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347 This one is her most interesting novel, by a wide margin.

[Zee.]

Doesn't impress me. I already know of it.

[Janine]

I have two questions for you.
I'm not very clued in when it comes to D.H Lawrence. But I was given a really beautifully bound book last year, his Women in Love. I was wondering if I had to read any of his other work prior to Women in Love. Is it part of a series or no?


limajean, hi, I can answer your question. I am very versed in Lawrence (my main focus of study), and I actually read "Women in Love" first, years ago when I was about 28. The book had a great influence on my thinking/life. Since then, I did discover that Lawrence planned "The Rainbow" and "Women in Love" as it's sequel or continuing story of his main character Ursula; but he admitted, that they stand alone as novels. I agree with this; these two books stand on their own totally and need not be read seqencially. How wonderful to receive a beautifully bound edition. I am quite jealous. I am glad that I read WIL first; because it still remains to this day my favorite Lawrence novel (I read it twice, listened on audio once). "Sons and Lovers" runs pretty close behind; read that one twice. About two years ago, we discussed WIL on this site; then S&L. Both discussions were just great. Sorry you missed them. We had and still are planning later to read and discuss "The Rainbow". Hope when we do you can join in the discussion thread.

[Virgil]

Lima, we had a great discussion of Women In Love when it was a Book Forum selection almost two years ago. That discussion is here: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25347. I think it was chapter by chapter and if you wish you can read along and check people's thoughts. I remember it being a great discussion. :)

Now we had said we were goiing to read The Rainbow shortly after and now it's two years and we still haven't.

[Janine]

Lima, we had a great discussion of Women In Love when it was a Book Forum selection almost two years ago. That discussion is here: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25347. I think it was chapter by chapter and if you wish you can read along and check people's thoughts. I remember it being a great discussion. :)

Virgil, that is what I said above but glad you added the link. I wondered where that discussion thread got to by now. I had wanted to copy the pages as a text file. I guess that would take me a long time to accomplish though, right? That was a very good discussion. We all learned a lot.



Now we had said we were goiing to read The Rainbow shortly after and now it's two years and we still haven't.

That's because we are terrible procrastinators!

[photogray]

Thats a favorite book of mine
http://www.snagpic.com/users/img/2269/n09x0302vnsn/clear.gif

[IJustMadeThatUp]

My favourite Austen is Persuasion and my least favourite was Sense and Sensibility. I guess then I'd recommend Persuasion.

[JBI]

I'm a sucker for Austen (I consider her by far my favorite English novelist), but my personal favorite is Emma. Really though, I think Austen has suffered considerably from the movies based on her books, which capture maybe 10% of the actual content, and miss 95% of the irony. When I first read her, I thought she would be more like generic romances, but as I got into her books more, I realized that she wasn't saying anything that she was saying, but had a knack for making virtually everything ironic. I know Wayne C. Booth in his text which I am currently reading, "The Rhetoric of Irony" makes good use of Austen, which may be an interesting place to start before reading her, though his prose can be quite dry and boring at times.

As for D. H. Lawrence, I confess to not having read his novels, and restricted myself to only short stories and his poetry, which is a shame, especially since I own both Sons and Lovers and Women in Love, though haven't touched them yet. I think Virgil, if you are interested more into a deeper reading, and further questions, would be one of the better people to ask though.

By the way Virgil, have you looked into the letters Lawrence penned before he died? I have come across a few references to them lately, and I'm wondering if/where they are available, and if they are of any real interest to someone looking for an everyday understanding of his work.

But yeah, Jane Austen, Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility - that's how I rank the works. The top four though, are generally accepted as each being as good as equals, and there is a slight rejection of the latter two amongst many readers as juvinelia. That being said, they are all good, and you can't really miss.

[Mr Endon]

Of the two authors I've only read Women in Love and Sense and Sensibility.

Women in Love is a must read. A very unconventional, otherworldly writing style, and definitely a classic.

Sense and Sensibility I didn't care much for whilst reading some years ago, especially because of plot holes, some of its all-too-convenient solutions, and what I thought was an emphasis on frivolity. Though I missed out on much of the irony, I maintain that it is a flawed novel. I'm very much looking forward to reading her now that I can appreciate a novel more properly. I will admit however that the reason I want to give her another chance is that I'm reading Beckett's letters and he, who was remarkably hard to please, thinked very highly of her. Well, I guess I might as well give her another go.


Bottom line
WIL: 'YES' in block capitals
S&S: definitely read Austen, but consider reading something else

[Scheherazade]

For Lawrence, I would start with Sons and Lovers, which introduces the author quite well, in my opinion.

Austen> Emma (quirky character) or Northanger Abbey (fun all over even though not Austen at her best as an author).

[Janine]

For Lawrence, I would start with Sons and Lovers, which introduces the author quite well, in my opinion.

Scher, That's true, but S&L and WIL are so entirely different; even Lawrence acknowledged that fact, when he made the statement that he would never write another novel in the style of S&L. I personally think of the two books, WIL is the most complete and better novel; it has gained in Lawrence's maturity, although it is still exploring key questions. limajean said she already owns WIL; but you are correct in, saying that S&L introduces one to the author quite well; that is because, basically, the novel is autobiographical. That is not to say that in WIL, there is no autobiographical/biographical references; because there are a few. In fact, one of the main characters, Birkin, actually does represent Lawrence himself and voices many of Lawrence's views. In my opinion only, it would not matter which novel you read first, lima. I read WIL and it was many years later that I finally read S&L. In fact, I tried it years back after reading WIL, and abandoned it. Not until I found out it was based on Lawrence's own childhood/young manhood (a sort of coming of age story) did I pick it up again and then I loved it, by then my perspective had greatly changed.


Women in Love is a must read. A very unconventional, otherworldly writing style, and definitely a classic.

Mr.Endon, I fully agree with this. Great way to word it - otherworldly style and definitely unconventional. This is one of my favorite novels and it is definitely a classic! Glad to see you appreciate Lawrence's genius.

[Virgil]

As for D. H. Lawrence, I confess to not having read his novels, and restricted myself to only short stories and his poetry, which is a shame, especially since I own both Sons and Lovers and Women in Love, though haven't touched them yet. I think Virgil, if you are interested more into a deeper reading, and further questions, would be one of the better people to ask though.

By the way Virgil, have you looked into the letters Lawrence penned before he died? I have come across a few references to them lately, and I'm wondering if/where they are available, and if they are of any real interest to someone looking for an everyday understanding of his work.


Yes I've read quite a few of the letters. I did my masters thesis on Lawrence. There is a collected letters which is one volume (and there may be more than one collection) and there is a seven volume complete letters. He wrote an incredibe amount in his short life. If you have a research library available it's quite possible they have any of these. If you just have a passing interest, there is a selected letters. Here: http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Letters-D-H-Lawrence/dp/0521777992. I know there's a cheaper selected letters than that. I have it somewhere in my bookcase. It may be out of print.


For Lawrence, I would start with Sons and Lovers, which introduces the author quite well, in my opinion.


I agree, Sons and Lovers is a great place to start. And it's a great novel. Let me put in a plug for my favorite of the Lawrence novels, The Rainbow.

[Mr Endon]

[Why thanks, Janine, and yes, Lawrence really grew on me. Did an essay on search for an ideology through dialectics in WIL. Virgil, I did read a couple of letters from him, a very entertaining writing he had, I might read these collected letters next year then]

Lima, in response to your original question about WIL, like it has been said, The Rainbow is the first novel of the series, and WIL complements it. You can read them separately, but I think it'd be a good idea to start with The Rainbow. Besides, personally I hate reading the masterpiece first and then feeling like everything else sort of falls short.

Here's what you could do, read the first paragraph of WIL, it's representative enough of his idiosyncratic style.
If you love it, read The Rainbow first.
If you like it, but feel like you wouldn't be able to stand it throughout, say, 1200 pages, then just read Women in Love.
If you hate it, well, maybe Jane Austen will suit you best :)