D. H. Lawrence has 15 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 16 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 9 ratings. The most-rated is Sons and Lovers.
Sons and Lovers
Summary
Sons and Lovers, Lawrence's third published novel, was written by the author at the height of his literary powers. The story of class differences (the relationship between a middle-class woman and a miner) in the tough world of coal mining brought a refreshing realism to literature. It remains a challenging text and is studied widely. It is particularly effective on audiobook in the hands of Nottinghamshire reader Paul Slack. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2008 Naxos Audiobooks (P)2008 Naxos Audiobooks
Women in Love
Summary
Considered the most widely read novel of the 20th century, D. H. Lawrence's fiery fifth book continues the loves and lives of The Rainbow's Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gerald Crich, son of a wealthy colliery owner, captures the heart of Gudrun, while Ursula becomes enamored with Rupert Birkin, a school inspector - their complex relationship likely modelled on that between Lawrence, his wife Frieda, and John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield. Things are far from harmonious, and the discord and conflict leads to many heated and elaborate philosophical discussions about modern society and the nature of love, while tragedy looms large. Lawrence held this to be his best book, and F. R. Leavis regarded it to be his most profound and rewarding. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks
The Rainbow
Summary
D. H. Lawrence's controversial classic, The Rainbow, follows the lives and loves of three generations of the Brangwen family between 1840 and 1905. Their tempestuous relationships are played out against a backdrop of change as they witness the arrival of industrialization - the only constant being their unending attempts to grasp a higher form of existence symbolized by the persistent, unifying motif of the "rainbow". Lawrence's fourth novel, a prequel to Women in Love, is an invigorating, absorbing tale about the undying determination of the human soul.
Public Domain (P)2015 Naxos AudioBooks
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Summary
The last and most famous of D. H. Lawrence's novels, Lady Chatterley's Lover was published in 1928 and banned in England and the United States as pornographic. While sexually tame by today's standards, the book is memorable for better reasons---Lawrence's masterful and lyrical prose, and a vibrant story that takes us bodily into the world of its characters. As the novel opens, Constance Chatterley finds herself trapped in an unfulfilling marriage to a rich aristocrat whose war wounds have left him paralyzed and impotent. After a brief but unsatisfying affair with a playwright, Lady Chatterley enjoys an extremely passionate relationship with the gamekeeper on the family estate, Oliver Mellors. As Lady Chatterley falls in love and conceives a child with Mellors, she moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sexual fulfillment. Through this novel, Lawrence attempted to revive in the human consciousness an awareness of savage sensuality, a sensuality with the power to free men and women from the enslaving sterility of modern technology and intellectualism. Perhaps even more relevant today than when it first appeared, Lady Chatterley's Lover is a triumph of passion and an erotic celebration of life.
Public Domain (P)2011 Tantor
Women in Love
Summary
A powerful and engrossing tale of extremes and extremists, D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love follows the passionate relationships of two sisters, Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen, with their respective lovers, the ominous Gerald Crich and the charismatic but fragile Rupert Birkin. Beginning in a narrow-minded English colliery town and culminating amidst the ice and snow of the Alps, the abortive alliance between the two men and the couples' affairs are played out against the derangements of industrialism and the need to find new ways of living and better ways of dying. A masterpiece that heralded the erotic consciousness of the 20th century, Lawrence considered Women in Love his best novel, exploring through it his belief that love is "the great creative process".
Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor
The Rainbow
Summary
Set in the rural midlands of England, The Rainbow revolves around three generations of Brangwens, a family deeply involved with the land and noted for their strength and vigour. When Tom Brangwen marries a Polish widow, Lydia Lensky, and adopts her daughter, Anna, as his own, he is unprepared for the conflict and passion that erupts between them. Their stories continue in Women in Love.
©1995 The Estate of Frieda Lawrence Ravagli (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
L'amant de Lady Chatterley
Summary
Le roman le plus connu de D.H. Lawrence. Son succès repose sur l'idée que c'est le chef-d'œuvre de la littérature érotique, l'histoire d'une épouse frustrée, au mari impuissant, et qui trouve l'épanouissement physique dans les bras vigoureux de son garde-chasse. Mais l'importance du livre est dans la peinture d'un choc historique et social qui constitue le monde moderne. Entre la communauté rurale anglaise et le monde industriel, c'est tout le tissu d'un pays qui se déchire. La forêt du roman, où vit Mellors, le garde-chasse, représente le dernier espace de sauvagerie et de liberté ; Lady Chatterley l'y retrouve et s'y retrouve, tout en voyant basculer son univers habituel. Ce roman poétique doit être lu comme un mélange de voyage initiatique, de descente aux enfers, comme une grande lamentation sur l'état de l'Angleterre, aux échos bibliques. L'intrigue amoureuse séduit à une première lecture ; mais le roman a une valeur historique et symbolique.
©1932 Editions Gallimard (P)2020 Editions Gallimard
Selected Shorts
Summary
Strong female protagonists grace this collection of passionate stories dedicated to mothers, daughters, wives, and lovers. A woman splurges on an irresistible coat that becomes her; a feisty teenager who has grown up as her activist mother's poster-child realizes the strength of her own convictions; and a young peasant woman saved from drowning is suddenly drawn to her rescuer and hopeful about her life. Feature stories include Kim Edwards' "The Story of My Life", read by Holly Hunter; Teolinda Gersào's "The Red Fox Fur Coat", translated by Margaret Jull Costa and read by Kathleen Chalfant; Allan Gurganus' "It Had Wings", read by Marian Seldes; David Haynes' "Taking Mis Kezee to the Polls", read by Michael Genet; D. H. Lawrence's "The Horse Dealer's Daughter", read by Jon DeVries; and Richard Russo's "The Whores' Club", read by Harold Gould.
©2008 Symphony Space, Inc. (P)2008 Symphony Space, Inc.
The Rainbow
Summary
Set in the rural midlands of England, The Rainbowrevolves around three generations of the Brangwen family over a period of more than 60 years, setting them against the emergence of modern England. When Tom Brangwen marries a Polish widow and adopts her daughter as his own, he is unprepared for the conflict and passion that erupt. Suffused with biblical imagery, The Rainbow addresses searching human issues in a setting of precise and vivid detail. In The Rainbow, D. H. Lawrence challenged the customary limitations of language and convention to carry into the structures of his prose the fascination with boundaries and space that characterize the entire novel. A visionary novel, considered to be one of Lawrence's finest, it explores the complex sexual and psychological relationships between men and women in an increasingly industrialized world.
Public Domain (P)2010 Tantor
NBC University Theater: Sons and Lovers
Summary
NBC University Theater initially started in Chicago with a remit to bring adaptations of classic novels, usually Anglo-American, to a radio audience. Additionally, if listeners signed up, they received college credit to a radio-assisted correspondence course. A study guide, The Handbook of the World's Great Novels, was available for 25 cents. In its later years, it also included short stories and plays and went on to win the distinguished Peabody award. Unlike many other radio shows, University Theater did not pursue glamorous stars for its productions but instead relied on excellent distillations of the novels and first-class acting alongside high production values. But now it is time to enjoy these timeless novels. Let’s begin.
©2019 Deadtree Publishing (P)2019 Copyright Group
The Virgin and the Gypsy
Summary
In a claustrophobic household, oppressed by her blind, toad-like grandmother and a cowardly, conventional father, Yvette’s exuberance seems doomed to suppression. But meeting a gypsy awakens unfamiliar emotions in her, making her challenge the family’s accepted morality. As she wavers between conformity and rebellion, a flash flood threatens her home, her world, and her life. This short novel deals with all the major themes of sexuality and identity that made Lawrence one of the most original and influential writers of the 20th century; and it is a satirical, atmospheric, moving and surprising masterpiece.
©1930 the Estate of Mrs. Frieda Lawrence Ravagli (P)1988 Recorded Books
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Summary
Lady Chatterley’s husband returns from the War paralysed from the waist down. Frustrated by his attitudes as much as his disability, she begins a love-affair with the gamekeeper, Mellors. She realises that to be fully alive she must live the life of the body as well as the mind, but in doing so she angers the conventions of her day. Banned for over 30 years for the explicit nature of its language and descriptions of sex, Lady Chatterley’s Lover also exposes the dehumanisation of the mechanical age, and underlines the profound power of tenderness.
Public Domain (P)1988 Recorded Books
Sons and Lovers
Summary
A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of D. H. Lawrence's classic story about working class love, loss, and hardship. Sensitive, intellectual Gertrude Coppard married miner Walter Morel for his rich, ringing laugh and colourful character. But now, years later, she finds there is little behind the bluster and their marriage has become riddled with disillusionment. Instead, Gertrude pours all her love and attention into her two sons, William and Paul. Determined that they will not go down the pit and lead the same life as their father, Gertrude encourages the boys to succeed and is rewarded when they both secure jobs as clerks. But then tragedy strikes: William becomes ill with pneumonia and dies. In her grief, Gertrude draws even closer to her surviving son and the bond between the two becomes so strong that, even as Paul is torn between two loves of his own, he cannot fully break away from his mother.
©2012 Michael Butt (P)2013 BBC Worldwide Limited
Women in Love
Summary
"Let us hesitate no longer to announce that the sensual passions and mysteries are equally sacred with the spiritual mysteries and passions", wrote D. H. Lawrence in Women in Love, his masterpiece heralding the erotic consciousness of the 20th century. Lawrence explores love, sex, passion, and marriage through the eyes of two sisters, Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen. Intelligent, incisive, and observant, the two very different sisters pursue thrilling, torrid affairs with their lovers, Rupert and Gerald, while searching for more mature emotional relationships. Against a haunting World War I backdrop of coal mines, factories, and a beleaguered working class, Gudrun and Ursula's temperamental differences spark an ongoing debate regarding their society, their inner lives, and the mysteries between men and women. Lawrence considered this to be his best novel.
Public Domain (P)2017 Blackstone
The Woman Who Rode Away
Summary
The Woman Who Rode Away is a dark troubling story set in the wilderness of South America. What makes this story compelling is that the woman at the end of her personal tether and the Indians at the end of their cultural one, seek one another out for terrible but, perhaps, predictable uses. Each of them looks to the other for "salvation" in a way that expresses the desperation and futility of their situation.
Public Domain (P)2021 Alan P. Avery