Lady Chatterley's Lover, D.H. Lawrence (Grove Press, 1957, orig. 1928) ***

This was Lawrence's last novel, and his most controversial. The unexpurgated version was not available in the United States until 1957, following a successful court battle. It had been labeled as obscene because of the explicit nature of some of the sex scenes (mild by today's standards) and the use of several four-letter words (which are now in use all too commonly). The story and Lawrence's writing make it a book well worth reading, however, even though some of his earlier novels (e.g., Sons and Lovers) are considered better by many critics.

The story focuses on the development of an adulterous affair between an upper-class Englishwoman, Constance Chatterley, and her estate's gamekeeper, Oliver Mellers. Lady Chatterley's aristocratic husband has been handicapped by a wartime wound and moves about in a motorized wheelchair. The injury has also left him impotent.

His wife seeks a sexual outlet with several of her husband's acquaintances but is generally disappointed--until she begins an affair with Mellers. Mellers is from a much lower class and is reluctant at first to risk his job. He is also estranged from a wife who has turned him off women altogether. However, he is taken with Constance's beauty and spirit and proceeds to show her how a man and woman can relate in a natural and more sensitive way than she has thus far experienced. She eventually becomes pregnant and complications abound, not only because they are both married but because of their class differences (and we all know how important that was in England, especially when the book was written).

An underlying theme in the story is Lawrence's condemnation of the class system and labor relations in England, and because of this some critics have considered his novels too 'preachy'-- but some of history's most memorable novels have been written by authors who were criticizing society's shortcomings.