In Sons and Lovers, D. H. Lawrence depicts the harrowing struggles of William and Paul Morel—two workingclass sons of a coal miner and his socially and morally superior wife—to achieve maturity, financial independence, and a sense of fulfillment in life. (This great novel was so shocking and revolutionary that it was not published in Lawrence's full text until 1992.) While turn-of-thecentury England offered increased educational opportunities and the consequent hope of upward social mobility for bright sons of the working class, the Morel boys are hindered in their efforts for a better life by the unhappy marriage of their parents, which causes Mrs. Morel to have an overly possessive love of her sons, a substitute for the marital love she lacks.

Part of the originality of the book is Lawrence's genius for linking the internal struggles of family life to outward striving, including...