A book most notable for the controversy surrounding its publication, Lady Chatterley's Lover underwent various printings due to its sexual content: it was published privately in Florence in 1928, in a bowdlerized version in London in 1932 and finally unexpurgated by Grove Press in America in 1959. It was also Lawrence's last novel. It is the story of Connie, Constance Reid, who marries Sir Clifford Chatterley in 1917 only to have him wounded in the war such that he must be confined to a wheelchair permanently soon afterwards. After a brief affair with Michaelis the playwright that leaves her unsatisfied, Lady Chatterley enjoys an extremely passionate relationship with Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on their estate. The later stages of the novel move onto the issue of her pregnancy by Mellors and her trip to Venice to disguise the true parentage of the child. The truth is eventually uncovered and the novel ends with a sense of fulfillment for both Lady Chatterley and Mellors although the situation is never fully resolved. The story and its sentiments suggest that the sexual relationship is the most profound of all and that it may be debased either by treating it lightly or by viewing it with shame (the attitudes seemingly taken by young and old respectively). The main reason for the censorship of the book in England was the unprecedented unrestrained and explicit language used to describe the Mellors affair.

Top Sellingbooks