I expected passion and lust for life, but the book delivered the complete opposite. It documents Lady Chatterley's disillusionment with the world which she effectively makes up for with sex. The love is so impersonal and yet we are told it is rare and special. It gives little hope for a happy functioning relationship where one can actually talk with and get to know their partner. Smothering the plot, is a sense of doom at the modern world and man's impression upon the earth with its metal and coal and dirt. Reading it in 2013 I began to be almost insulted at the "slagging off" of modern life. I guess it was meaningful in the way that human's are ruining the earth and so on, but there was so little hope expressed in this novel. Positive notions were only really extended to Lady Chatterley and her lover; everything else was made to seem fake or trivial or uncivilized or unreal or plain ridiculous. I found the book much more of a commentary on society than a love story, which, for me, was a little disappointing, however interesting it was.
This sense of gloom was achieved extremely well and it impacted strongly upon me. I sometimes wonder if when an author so skillfully creates negative feelings that a reader dislikes reading a book or absolutely abhors a character, it is a good thing or not. I suppose if that is what they set out to achieve, then it is just a display of their writing talent.
So basically, if you know what to expect, this novel is interesting and definitely worth a read, but don't be foolish like me and expect a nice romantic novel!!
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