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| Women in Love |
Title: Women in Love
Author: D. H. Lawrence
Publication Date: 1920
Pages: 400
How I Found It: 100 Best Novels list
Date Completed: 7/5/16
Summary: Brangwen sisters Ursula and Gudrun become involved with two local men, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich. The relationships between the foursome ebb and flow as each wrestles with philosophical ideals and what they want from life.
What I Thought: I have enjoyed Lawrence's writing. It's in a style I can follow and enjoy and I like his characters. I think this particular work was my favorite of his thus far.
I'm understanding more and more why his writing was so very controversial. When you look at these books and their content and then think about the early 20th century....it's not surprising they made such a stir. At one point in this book, Gerald sneaks into the Brangwen house and takes Gudrun's virginity - all while her family sleeps below. It's not explicit by modern standards, but it is certainly steamy. Lawrence's writing reminds me that sometimes less is more.
Women in Love is a loose sequel to The Rainbow. While one of my completes with the previous book was lack of character development, the sequel satiated that need. It's very character driven and all four protagonists are continually mulling over philosophies and life decisions. I found this a really nice balance of Lawrence's previous style of quick moving plots with little character investment and some of the purely character driven novels that lack most any plot. Lawrence hit a sweet spot for me here and I enjoyed it.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Will I Re-Read: Perhaps
Other Books By D. H. Lawrence: Sons and Lovers / The Rainbow
A Reduced Review: My favorite Lawrence novel thus far, this sequel finds a nice balance of plot and character development.
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