Book Six - Women In Love

"take the love as you find it."


This quote among many sum up the book. 


The four protagonists, Rupert, Gerald, Gudrun and Ursula have passion for one another in a complicated love square, and their major desires are what keep you enthralled throughout the book.


The book title is a little misleading as it isn't about women in love, it does focus on Gudrun and Ursula and their inner passions but it is the dynamics between their lovers Rupert and Gerald that Lawrence is focusing on. 


This is clear in the very, very, very graphic sex scene between Rupert and Gerald.  To be honest society is more liberal nowadays but my ears were burning in the vividness of imagery, Lawrence went all out to make it clear about their feelings. 


So on its release in 1920 you may be surprised to read some the reviews, or not.


It's first critics said; "I do not claim to be a literary critic, but I know dirt when I smell it, and here is dirt in heaps—festering, putrid heaps which smell to high Heaven"


It isn't dirt it is modern thinking, one way ahead of its time. The point is Rupert and Gerald are not homosexual, they love women, Rupert states at the end that Ursula is his completion as the perfect woman, Gerald the perfect man. Gerald proves this with his violent showdown at the end of the book as he attempts to prove to Gudrun his manhood. 


Lawrence wants his characters to express their sexuality, to be bold. It is stirring stuff  for a book written over 90 years ago and still reflects the challenges of modern society that people go through.


Phew is it hot in here well book six is down, just another 46 to read.