When I was a teenager, I couldn’t wait to get my grubby little paws on D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover because I had heard it was banned when it was first published, and I expected it to be filled with very naughty sex scenes. I recall being bored by the book and not finding it naughty or sexy, though I was highly perplexed by this “crisis” that Lawrence kept describing. Lady Chatterley and her lover would cry out as they reached their “crisis” simultaneously or one after the other, or sometimes Lady Chatterley was spared the crisis altogether, and oddly, she was disappointed.
Anyway, I just reread it and have to say that now, from my middle-aged perspective, it is one of the sexiest books I have ever read. But also, there are so many layers to the book that fascinated me. Lady Chatterley’s invalid husband, Clifford, was a popular novelist, so there was a lot about the writer’s process, which I believe was D.H Lawrence describing his own work to a certain degree. Anyway, here is a passage that I found just riveting, because I have felt that writing fiction is somehow more honest and intimate than writing nonfiction, but have never been able to articulate why. Thankfully D.H. Lawrence was able to do it for me. The passage describes the way Lady Constance Chatterley felt when she overheard their housekeeper sharing local gossip with her husband.
“Connie was fascinated, listening to her. But afterwards always a little ashamed. She ought not to listen with this queer rabid curiosity. After all, one may hear the most private affairs of other people, but only in a spirit of respect for the struggling, battered thing which any human soul is, and in a spirit of fine, discriminative sympathy. For even satire is a form of sympathy. It is the way our sympathy flows and recoils that really determines our lives. And here lies the vast importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into new places the flow of our sympathetic consciousness, and it can lead away and recoil from things gone dead. Therefore, the novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for it is in the passional secret places of life, above all, that the tide of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and refreshing.”
Well, I’ll just leave you with that.
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I’ve heard of the book and D.H. Lawrence long ago, but have never read it. Which is probably a good thing because I can see that I would have been thoroughly lost and confused…lol. But if I were to read it now, I hope that I would be able to follow along and understand what I’m reading.
That was intense….
Such a crime we read these classics in our days before life has really impacted us much.
Thanks for sharing it.
And I vote red but you’ll dazzle in either!
Dear Ann, speaking of books:
This morning I picked up An Innocent, A Broad which I had order months ago. For some reason, since it was borrowed from another library, I have been given little time to read and return it. What a wonderful way to spend the day… laughing out loud in parts, feeling my throat tighten so as not to sob….many emotions. I kept thinking throughout, “what would I ever have done in that situation?” I guess you do what you have to but what a scary time it must have been! Thank you for writing it….I look forward to getting my own copy.
study aid, can put on itunes, and by repetition get some words memorized.
Julio Iglesias.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZtja97SsY&feature=related
Spanish
me olvide de vivir
De tanto correr por la vida sin freno
Me olvidé que la vida se vive un momento
De tanto querer ser en todo el primero
Me olvidé de vivir los detalles pequeños.
De tanto jugar con los sentimientos
Viviendo de aplausos envueltos en sueños
De tanto gritar mis canciones al viento
Ya no soy como ayer, ya no se lo que siento
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
De tanto cantarle al amor y la vida
Me quede sin amor una noche de un día
De tanto jugar con quien yo más quería
Perdí sin querer lo mejor que tenía.
De tanto ocultar la verdad con mentiras
Me engañé sin saber que era yo quien perdía
De tanto esperar, yo que nunca ofrecía
Hoy me toca llorar, yo que siempre reía.
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
De tanto correr por ganar tiempo al tiempo
Queriendo robarle a mis noches el sueño
De tanto fracasos, de tantos intentos
Por querer descubrir cada día algo nuevo.
De tanto jugar con los sentimientos
Viviendo de aplausos envueltos en sueños
De tanto gritar mis canciones al viento
Ya no soy como ayer, ya no se lo que siento.
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
Me olvidé de vivir
********************************
English
I forgot to live
From so much running through life without stopping
I forgot that life is lived in a moment
From so much wanting to be the first in everything
I forgot to live the small details
From so much playing with feelings
Living off applause wrapped in dreams
From so much screaming my songs to the wind
I am no longer how I was yesterday, now I don’t know what I feel
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
From so much singing about love and life
I was left without love one night and one day
From so much playing with who I loved most
I lost without wanting to the best I ever had.
From so much hiding the truth with lies
I cheated myself without knowing it was me who had lost
From so much waiting, when I never offered anything
Today it’s my turn to cry, when I always was laughing
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
From so much running to have time beat time
Wanting to rob the dream from my nights
From so many failures, from so many attempts
From wanting to discover something new every day
From so much playing with feelings
Living off applause wrapped in dreams
From so much screaming my songs to the wind
I am no longer how I was yesterday, now I don’t know what I feel
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I forgot to live
I have two more almost done;
“agua dulce, agua sala”
and
“baila, morena, baila’
“The cat is out of the bag, along with various other pussies. You have heard that my wife Bertha came back to my unloving arms, and took up her abode in the cottage: where, to speak disrespectfully, she smelled a rat, in the shape of a little bottle of Coty. Other evidence she did not find, at least for some days, when she began to howl about the burnt photograph. She noticed the glass and the back-board in the square bedroom. Unfortunately, on the back-board somebody had scribbled little sketches, and the initials, several times repeated: C. S. R. This, however, afforded no clue until she broke into the hut, and found one of your books, an autobiography of the actress Judith, with your name, Constance Stewart Reid, on the front page. After this, for some days she went round loudly saying that my paramour was no less a person than Lady Chatterley herself. The news came at last to the rector, Mr Burroughs, and to Sir Clifford. They then proceeded to take legal steps against my liege lady, who for her part disappeared, having always had a mortal fear of the police.”D.H.Lawrence
Favorite excerpt!.
Yeap, half of the book contains plenty of “watching her own belly button” deciphering.(Boring!) From the middle onwards, the language is more descriptive and funny and to the point. I think.
Still thinking about Ann’s favorite part.
To Ann and her bloggers,
I just want to drop a quick note to say I was at the reading last night. It was thoroughly entertaining. You and the other panelists were funny, smart, candid, honest and engaging. And I think the three of you should write, produce, and perform a musical comedy and bring it on the road (Lauren can provide the sparkling lipstick and makeup.) I think your readers, fans, and bloggers would enjoy it.
Thanks again for the fun and thoughtful reading/show.
Since people are mentioning the “Kindle”–did you know that “An Innocent, A Broad” is not available on Kindle?
Ann,
I guess I will be doing some reading over the weekend. Please let us know about tonight’s reading at U CONN.
Good evening:
To Candy in Chicago and D.
Lady Chatterly’s Lover is a free download from Gutenberg and you do not need a ‘fancy’ reader for it.
To Ann:
I am going to summarize your entry on the book (the excerpt) into my kind of English and see if I got it.
Looking forward to being able to ask questions to your fashion advisors, as I need help!. refuse to change with the times, and hang onto my leather pants (some jean like, other smooth cabritilla, swede ones…. ) which was okay in San Francisco because there you could stand on your head with no undies and people would just continue walking.. but in a suburban environment, it does not work. I really really like them. That and jeans. I would wear jackets of all kinds, shoes of all kinds, stilettos too!. And the bit about my hair style or lack thereof.
I restrained from my lovely hike today because a) it is coming down, really pretty b) there was a mountain lion who got killed on the highway, and it is not far from my area, and i wonder if some of his familiars are around. And what would I do?.
Read the book when I was a senior in high school MANY years ago. I had to place it inside a regular textbook because it was being passed around on the sly, trying not to get caught by our teachers, and we of course went right to all the “good parts”. That was in the day when “the good parts” weren’t talked about publicly and tried by youngsters in middle school as I hear they are today. That was the first time I had ever heard of one particular,(I’ll continue my euphemism)”good part”.
Tried the book as an adult, but found it hard going. Not a DH Lawrence fan I guess.
I agree one can get a good idea of a novelists sympathies by their writing.
Hi Ho Hi Ho–off to the library I go….time to reread the book…my interest is piqued.
downloading now, i have never heard of it to be honest….yes so sheltered and heads in clouds during school….keep up book recommendations.
oh and on a side note my kindle died yesterday wouldnt open. those lovely people at amazon sent me an advance exchange next day air !
I never read the book, but now it is on my to do list, because of Slumdog I am currently into The Three Musketeers. What part of your book have you chosen for tonights’ reading? I have read both of your books.
I have to admit, I’ve never read the book (probably because it was VERY discouraged by my Mother), but I’m off to the Amazon site to find it.
Hopefully, it’s on Kindle and I can start tonight!
Any decisions on the dress?