Dear D.H. Lawrence,
Books that were banned in the past truly interest me! I was intrigued, so I picked this up to see to what extent England was full of prudes. Until 1960, an unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom, which made me laugh.
The story follows Lady Chatterley, whose upper-class husband, the 'handsome' Sir Clifford Chatterley has been paralysed from the waist down due to an injury in the war. In addition to Clifford's physical limitations, his emotional neglect of Lady Chatterley forces distance between the couple. Her emotional frustration leads her into an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. It was a pretty raunchy one, which gave English officials a stroke and deemed it 'forever banned.'
At first, I couldn't put the book down. I was entirely sold to Lady Chatterley's story and witnessing the distance between Lady Chatterley and Sir Clifford Chatterley deepen. I particularly enjoyed the tension between Mellors and Lady Chatterley; it felt like something was going to explode if the scene didn't end, and as a result, I couldn't put the book down – even if it meant that I would sacrifice my sleep. While the tension was powerful, the philosophical discussion held towards the beginning, between Sir Clifford (the big red dog- okay, I'm sorry) and his friends compelled me. Their differing ideas concerning sex and relationships felt incredibly raw, and compared to the rest of the discussions in the book, I felt like this one was the best.
After Lady Chatterley and Mellors started their affair, you might as well have shot a bullet through the pages, for I got nothing out of the pages that followed. As soon as the tension evaporated, all my excitement dried up. I sort of saw this coming; I had an awful, icky feeling in the beginning, that I'd become bored with this book. Not only was I bored, but I began to hate it. I never ceased to look at the page number and calculate how far away I was from finishing it.
It became boring because the tension between Mellors and Lady Chatterley was my only source of entertainment. I got sick of the pretentious intellectuals' conversations, and frankly, the relationship between Mellors and Lady Chatterley was so mind-numbingly dull, that I was inclined to abandon this book. But I didn't! And I gained nothing from doing so!
I grew tired of Lady Chatterley and Mellors very quickly. I found that there seemed to be an endless cycle of sex and Sir Clifford getting on my nerves with his pompousness. There was only so many times where I would…enjoy (?) reading Mellors saying the word 'cunt’ for the 60th time. Even the ending, which I thought was supposed to be the climax, had the same effect on me as a sleeping tranquiliser. I can barely recount what happened – Lady Chatterley is pregnant so she asks one of her friends (I forgot his name, but to be fair, I might end up forgetting Lady Chatterley's name, even if it's in the title of the book!) to act as the father so Sir Clifford wouldn't get angry because he would certainly be a bit miffed if he realises that Mellors, a mere gamekeeper, is the father. This 'scandal' was an exciting way of incorporating the shifting social changes at the time, and the irritating attitudes of the upper-classes, but I was still bored.
One major factor that irked me was the characters themselves. I can't name a single character that I liked. Sometimes I felt like slapping Lady Chatterley and Mellors in the face. In the beginning, Lady Chatterley was a fascinating character, and I admired her sexual freedom, but towards the end, it seems that her dialogue only consisted of 'Mellors, tell me you love me! Tell me you'll never leave me! Oh, Mellors, tell me you're happy I'm with child!' I can't blame Lady Chatterley for asking Mellors so many questions because Mellors lacked any necessary communication skills. Whenever Lady Chatterley asked him a question, and he remained silent, I felt like climbing into the book and prying his jaws open so he could finally speak! So he could finally say something to pique my interest! But he muttered a few sarcastic phrases and left it at that. Even towards the end, I still doubted whether he loved Lady Chatterley.
As for the other characters, I couldn't give a toss about them. I don't even remember their names.
I don't know if I even have the right to say I've 'read' this book because I skimmed the last quarter of it anyway. And I don't regret it! I was particularly tempted to skim parts of the book whenever you referred to the 'bitch goddess, Success.' It was so peculiar; I feel like God personally – or perhaps it was the bitch-goddess, Success, herself – gave me extra power in my thumb to turn over these pages with extra speed whenever I saw that dreadful metaphor.
I have been incredibly harsh in this letter, dear Mr Lawrence! Before I go, let me do some extra damage – I'm feeling particularly mean today. This book was put on an obscenity trial, but are you sure it wasn't put on trial for mass murder? Because readers all over England must've been bored to death.
Yours Sincerely,
Akatsuki Vivi (>‿◠)✌
Rating: 2/5 ★
Date Started: 20/01/21
Date Finished: 27/01/21