Readalong: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence: Post 2

This is the second, and final, post for the Lady Chatterley's Lover readalong, hosted by A Literary Odyssey. My first post can be found here.

I generally liked the second half of this book more than the first half. I did not connect with any of the characters right away, but in the second half, the characters become more personable. This is especially true of  Mellors, the gamekeeper and Connie's lover. We know very little about him from the first except that is very reserved. In the latter half of the novel, we see that he really does care about Connie and wants her as she is, she is not just a sex object for him but a person. We also learn more of his history, which I thought was interesting. Mellors served in the army for a while.  He also was separated from his wife, who tried coming back, but she was crazy and just tries to hurt him. One of the things I liked the most was that Mellors could talk both like a refined, intellectual gentleman and with the common dialect of the region. I thought that was interesting way to sort of bridge some of the gap of  classes between him and Connie.

Class differences is definitely an important topic in Lady Chatterley's Lover. Many characters were not shocked to find out that Connie had taken a lover, but they were shocked or upset when they found out that was the gamekeeper instead of a nobleman. Connie's sister is particularly upset with this news, although it does not stop her from allowing Connie to see him.

One of the aspects of Lady Chatterley's Lover that I liked most was Lawrence's notion of the importance of both the mind and the body in creating a fully functional and fulfilled person. Lawrence believes that you can't live well through just the mind (such as Clifford) or the body (such as Bertha Coutts, Mellors estranged wife). Through Connie's sexual reawakening, we see that she becomes a more fully developed person because she fills the needs of both her mind and her body.

Overall, I enjoyed Lady Chatterley's Lover. I thought it was fairly easy to read with some interesting, apparent themes. The history behind the publication/banning of the book is also interesting to learn. I didn't love this book though, I think the characters were still a little too distant for me.