Résumé
Résumé de Femmes amoureuses
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love novels of ideas, close studies of relationships, and English fiction of the early twentieth century. It also suits anyone curious about Lawrence and his questions about love, freedom and power.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What if the love you want could cost you yourself? Women in Love, the novel by D. H. Lawrence, follows two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, and two men, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich. Lawrence wrote it during the First World War, when many people felt the old England was finished. The four argue, fight and change one another. They ask what love is for, and whether a person can stay free inside a bond. Around them stand coal mines, country houses and a changing class system.
Dans ce résumé
- 1Two sisters wait in a mining townFree
- 2Birkin and Gerald are opposite kinds of men
- 3Hermione shows the danger of a mind without body
- 4Ursula and Birkin fight their way toward each other
- 5Gerald brings machine order to the mines
- 6Gudrun and Gerald turn desire into a contest
- 7Birkin wants a bond between men as well
- 8The novel asks how to love and stay free
- 9How Lawrence tells the story
Point clé 1 sur 9
Two sisters wait in a mining town
The novel opens in Beldover, a coal town in the English Midlands. Ursula teaches at a school. Gudrun has come home from art studies in London. They talk about marriage, and they are not sure they want it.
Gerald Crich is tall, fair and self-possessed. Rupert Birkin is thin, restless and apart. Gudrun feels a sharp thrill at once, and Ursula is drawn to Birkin and annoyed by him.
This opening plants the pairs that the book will test. Each woman and man feels a pull and cannot yet trust it. Their world is full of rules and display, and the sisters long for something truer.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Ursula Brangwen
- A schoolteacher and Gudrun's sister, Ursula seeks an independent life and becomes drawn to Rupert Birkin.
- Gudrun Brangwen
- Ursula's sister Gudrun is a proud painter and sculptor whose attraction to Gerald tests her independence.
- Rupert Birkin
- A restless school inspector, Birkin questions conventional love through his relationships with Ursula, Hermione, and Gerald.
- Gerald Crich
- Thomas Crich's commanding son, Gerald manages the family mines and attracts Gudrun while maintaining a friendship with Birkin.
- Hermione Roddice
- A wealthy hostess at Breadalby, Hermione has an emotionally strained attachment to Birkin and prizes intellectual conversation.
- Thomas Crich
- Gerald's father Thomas is a charitable mine owner whose paternal approach contrasts with his son's industrial discipline.
- Winifred Crich
- Gerald's younger sister Winifred is an artistic child who keeps pets and takes drawing lessons from Gudrun.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 186,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 12 h 25 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Femmes amoureuses
What is Women in Love about?
It follows two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, and two men, Birkin and Gerald Crich, as they search for love in an industrial English town. Their talks and quarrels ask how to love without losing freedom.
Is Women in Love a sequel to The Rainbow?
Yes. Lawrence wrote it as a follow-up, and Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen appear in both books. The Rainbow tells of earlier Brangwen generations, but you can read Women in Love on its own without difficulty.
When was Women in Love written and published?
Lawrence wrote it mostly between about 1913 and 1917, during the First World War, and it was published in 1920. The war's shadow and the sense of a society in decline run through the book.
Is Women in Love hard to read?
No. The story is easy to follow: two sisters are drawn to two men in a mining district, and each scene is a clear moment, like a quarrel, a wrestling match or a horse at a railway crossing. The four people are vivid and easy to tell apart.
What is the main message of Women in Love?
There is no single message, but Lawrence argues that real love must involve body, mind and freedom, and that a society ruled by money and machines starves feeling. He lets his characters test these claims.