One thing I find surprising about Lady Chatterly’s Lover is how relevant Lawrence’s criticism of modern life feels. A lot of the book is about how the quest for power, money, and possessions kills off an authentic sense of self and chances for real happiness, which is certainly an issue in today’s world as well.

Although I don’t agree with Lawrence’s assertion that the cure for modern malaise is to have an affair with a game keeper in a shack in the woods, I like some of the passages in the book, like this one spoken by the game keeper, Mellors (even though it is written in a ghastly vernacular that I think the book would have been better off without):

Let’s live for sommat else. Let’s not live ter make money, neither for us-selves nor for anybody else. Now we’re forced to. We’re forced to make a bit for us-selves, an a fair lot for the bosses. Let’s stop it. … The least bit of money will really do. Just make up your mind and you’ve got out of the mess.

…

Look at yourselves! That’s working for money! — Hark at yourselves! That’s working for money. … Look at your girls! They don’t care about you, and you don’t care about them. It’s because you’ve spent your time working and caring for money. You can’t talk nor move nor live, you can’t properly be with a woman. You’re not alive. Look at yourselves.

Does that seem scarily relevant to you too? Written almost 100 years ago.