This was particularly a slow read for me. It got me wondering as to how I will cope with my future reads of books, from a distant century, which has been in my TBR list for some time now - particularly, Bleak House. Yet, after a reading the book at a leisurely pace, stretched over more than six weeks, I must admit that there is more than enough payment for the time invested - the single most metric, I feel to evaluate whether the time you spent reading the book was worth it.
Reading into the characters of Paul Morel, Gertrude Collard (Morel), Walter Morel, Miriam ( Leivers ) and Clara Dawes ( or even Baxter Dawes), results in a fascinating display of lives with their quirks. Paul's own characteristics, how it was influenced by his mother, and how his mother's stance was a consequence of the failure of her expectations from her husband - yet, was it fair to expect anything more from Walter Morel than what he could give ? The receiver of this hierarchy of lessons, is none other than Paul Morel - and he has a load, a pressure as it were, which is so intricately bound with his love for his mother ( or is it pity for the lot that she's been destined with ? There is pity, but there's undeniable love too ).
To start with the relationship between Walter and Gertrude, the following quote captures the true essence of the debacle, I felt. Gertrude may not be guilty of destroying Walter, but I felt that Walter was doubly not guilty, for this initial injustice - which he carried throughout his life, being ridiculed, and at times hated by his children.
"The pity was, she was too much his opposite. She could not be content
with the little he might be; she would have him the much that he ought
to be. So, in seeking to make him nobler than he could be, she destroyed
him."
Then, later, comes the reading of Miriam's character so capably by Paul's mother.
"She is one of those who will want to suck a man's soul out till he has none of his own left," she said to herself; "and he is just such a gaby as to let himself be absorbed. She will never let him become a man; she never will."
Gertrude too, will naturally be circumspect, having lost a son already, and all but lost her husband too. Paul' own account of Miriam is not too different from his mother's. Even by the end of the novel, Paul prefers adventure ( with the risk of destitution ), over Miriam's self-sacrifice.
It is these influences and character traits which make this book a wonderful read. The reader is tasked to wonder, whether Paul's mother wanted Paul to have a relative freedom, which his father tasted only with a daily visit to the inn on his way back from the mines. Maybe her own love for finer things in life ( which she had to forego, largely), appears to have twisted her son away from a overly devoted future wife. For, not withstanding the rather obvious reasons to object, Gerturde almost blesses Paul's relationship with Clara - as one between two consenting healthy, young adults. Clara's own reading of Paul is possibly the litmus test here. Despite the healthy physical relationship that Clara and Paul have, Clara too realises that Paul is not quite husband material, even when compared to her once failed husband - this suggests that it is not only Miriam's own overly pious devotion which Paul cannot live through. Sufficient influences by his mother had made a base, with possibly his own sense of restlessness adding to it ensure, that Paul was likely to fail as a husband. The beauty of the nature of the narration, is that no one could be blamed for how things did end up. It is a complex mix of character traits, influences passed to children by their parents, the sense of women squaring up a man as husband material ( or not, as the case maybe).
The drawbacks that I found in this novel was the lengthy descriptions of the environs, especially - am sure that at the time that the book initially was published, such long descriptions would've been appreciated - during an era when time wasn't as scarce as now, and sources of entertainment was limited. In fact the pace of the book may have so suitably synchronized with the pace of the times, back then. But reading this today, the reader is necessary called upon to read with a discipline of patience. This could be looked upon as a drawback of the novel, if the reader is not particular about the novel's place in history.
Finally, the main reason why I read Lawrence now, was to see the amount of influence that he had had, on my own vernacular (Sinhala) novelists of the first half of the 20th century. In that respect too, the novel was helpful in divulging an essence of the relationship between a mother and her son as a source of influence - which our authors largely appear to have used successfully in a local context.
Rating - ****
Genre - novel ( 1913 )
