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| A view of Montcagnou where Monsieur and Madame Laurent died in a house fire in December 2006 |
A thick grey canopy yesterday and French drizzle. I did not feel motivated to venture out with Pierre so he stayed on the gravel and I stayed indoors.
I didn't speak to anyone yesterday apart from a half hour phone conversation with Shirley in the evening. I didn't see another human being all day. It was just me and the cats.
I am halfway through "Sons and Lovers". Lawrence was just twenty seven when he wrote it and there are strong autobiographical chimes throughout - feeding the fiction, making it resonate like truth.
The novel's chief protagonist - Paul Morel is Lawrence in disguise. His relationship with his mother is strong while his coalmining father is ignorant and brutish. Paul falls in love with Miriam Leivers who lives with her family in a nearby farm, just as Lawrence fell in love with Jessie Chambers. Similarly, Paul is weighed down by the social mores of the time, by his mother's protectiveness and by his own inability to surrender to his feelings. Miriam dangles on a string, unfulfilled, confused and hopelessly in love.
Very early in the novel there are references to the ruins of a priory and to "Robin Hood's Well", These locations were within a hundred yards of where I parked Clint last week. And there are other references to the very landscape I walked through. However, as a novelist, Lawrence was not bound to adhere accurately to the geography of his home territory.
It's good to immerse oneself in a book - without distraction. And it's salutary to note that "Sons and Lovers" was published in 1913 - just a year before the so-called "Great War" kicked off - killing twenty million people. The world was changed for ever but "Sons and Lovers" allows us to glimpse a time of relative innocence before the hostilities began.
And now you will be pleased to note, this morning's literary lecture is over. Time to clean up the cat litter and sort out the fireplace. Maybe another mug of coffee and if the French mist ever lifts maybe a trip to Mirepoix and another healthy perambulation in le pays francaise.
I would absolutely relish the solitude you're enjoying. Instead I'm drinking my morning coffee and preparing to go to work where I'll talk to approximately 1000 people in the course of the day, all needing something. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI've never read any DH Lawrence, but I'll add it to the list. I'm currently reading A Gentleman in Moscow...it's a good one so far.
Enjoy your day!
And enjoy yours too Jennifer. Having worked in schools for so many years I well recall the endless interactions when sometimes all you wanted was a bit of peace.
DeleteI read Sons and Lovers many, many years ago. I was too young to appreciate it, I think. I'm going through a spell of not being able to find a book that holds me. Might be me. Might be my choices. I don't know.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your solitude, your walks. Sounds like pure heaven to me.
A book read at eighteen or twenty five will seem very different in our sixties. We bring so much more life experience to our reading.
DeleteI've never read this book. Perhaps I should add it to my list. Life in the French countryside can be very quiet and solitary in the winter months.
ReplyDeleteAt least you had your own Paul Morel to converse with.
DeleteLike the other commenters before me, I have not (yet) read Sons and Lovers, but it sounds like something I'd enjoy.
ReplyDeleteAre the cats mostly doing their business (What a strange euphemism this is! By the way, we use the same on in German.) indoors, forcing you to change the litter all the time? With nine cats I imagine this is at least a part-time job.
Mostly they do their (cough-cough) business outside but when I first arrived it was so cold and wintry that some of them preferred the litter tray.
DeleteI have not read this but I enjoyed your review. Are you feeling a bit of cabin fever with the weather and the solitude? I find solitude can be a healing break from all the noise and craziness of our everyday life. Enjoy it while you can and love those cats!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy my own company Bonnie. It's okay for a few days. It's what I expected here.
DeleteI don't know why, exactly, but I have always dismissed "Sons and Lovers" as being something that wouldn't interest me, but your introduction is intriguing and I am inclined to keep my eyes peeled for a second-hand copy now. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned you are halfway through the book - aren't you halfway through your visit now as well? Are you portioning out the book to make it last?
I hope to have it read before I leave Jenny. I think it is a peculiarly English novel. I am not sure how a literate Canadian might view it. Some of the dialogue may be challenging to decipher.
DeleteI read Sons and Lovers back when I studied English at university... 1982... Can't find my old paperback now (I may have let it go in some clear-out) but I have it on Kindle. (My eyes prefer that nowadays...) I wouldn't be able to tell the plot but there is still a sort of hazy impression lingering at the back of my mind - enough to recall that I read it, at least!
ReplyDeleteBefore embarking upon this novel, I really could not remember if I had ever read it but now after almost four hundred pages I am sure it is new to me. It has been a real pleasure so far.
DeleteSomehow Lawrence has never appealed to me. At this stage in my life with so much yet to read I suspect I will die a Lawrence innocent. In the meantime I keep getting confused by you going to Mirepoix which, to me has always been a cookery term.
ReplyDeleteIt is a lovely little town between here and Carcassonne.
DeleteWell, you make me feel like I should read this story. Don't give anything away!
ReplyDeleteNo spoilers from me Monsieur Rouge.
DeleteIt is so easy to become immersed in Lawrence's written words. I've have become so many, many times throughout my life.
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