Women in Love

Author: D.H. Lawrence
Date completed: March 7, 2011
What I remember:

This is the sort of classic I read a lot of as a teenager. At that time there was nothing I loved better, but reading this made me realize how much my tastes have shifted. I have been reading much more contemporary fiction in recent years, and the pacing and use of language are jarringly different. It took some concentration to get through it and appreciate the nuances. It resides in my memory as a kind of verbal Impressionist painting; I have a sense of the whole without recalling many specifics of the plot. It was written during the first world war, but seems to take place in some unspecified time shortly before; the story is caught in a rift between the stasis of upper-class ennui and the uneasiness of a brewing storm that, in the novel, will never come. Overall it is an uncomfortable tale, and despite the passionate relationships of the four main characters, no one is having much fun. It does pop into my consciousness as musing-fodder more frequently than A Bend in the River, but for the most part both are instances where I read the book and then moved on.