Sons and Lovers: Cambridge Lawrence Edition (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
Sons and Loverswas the first modern portrayal of a  phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as  the Oedipus complex. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's  love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Lawrence's  young protagonist. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him  all his life--for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam,  and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Morel. It is, by  Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: "as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers--first the eldest, then the second. These sons areurgedinto life by their reciprocal love of their mother--urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't  love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives."Of course, Mrs. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the first of  whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on  Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is  immense. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that  the  girl's deep love of her son will oust her: "She's not like an ordinary  woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb  him." Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor,  incapable of committing himself in either direction: "Why did his  mother  sit at home and suffer?... And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so  cruel  towards her, at the thought of his mother. If Miriam caused his mother  suffering, then he hated her--and he easily hated her."  Soon  thereafter he even confesses to his mother: "I reallydon'tlove her. I  talk to her, but I want to come home to you."The result of all this is that Paul throws Miriam over for a married  suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his  ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete  relationship to challenge his love for his mother. As Paul voyages from  the working-class mining world to the  spheres of commerce and art (he has fair success as a painter), he  accepts that his own achievements must be equally his  mother's. "There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich  with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled... All his work was  hers."The cycles of Paul's relationships with these three women are  terrifying at times, and Lawrence does nothing to dim their intensity.  Nor does he shirk in his vivid, sensuous descriptions of the landscape  that offers up its blossoms and beasts and "shimmeriness" to Paul's  sensitive spirit.Sons and Loverslays fully bare the souls of  men and  earth. Few books tell such whole, complicated truths about the  permutations of love as resolutely without resolution. It's nothing  short  of searing to be brushed by humanity in this manner.--Melanie  Rehak--This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.