Sons and Lovers

D. H. Lawrence, 1913

Modernist novels

Life in a mining family shapes a young man's developing attachments, ambitions and sense of himself.

Read the book Contents

Listen free: the LibriVox audiobook, read by Mark F. Smith.

Length: 15 chapters
Reading time: About 11 hr 13 min
Words: 160,126

About the book

The novel begins with a changing mining landscape and the homes built around it. Within that setting, the Morels' marriage carries differences of expectation and temperament into daily family life. Work, fatigue and household money give those differences immediate consequences.

Lawrence follows emotional relationships through bodily sensation, domestic detail and the natural world surrounding the town. The family's closeness can offer both support and pressure as its children grow. The novel is interested in how the desire for a separate life develops within attachments that remain deeply felt.

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Modernist novels

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. D. H. Lawrence died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK.