Thursday, September 18, 2008

Lady Chatterley's Luv-ah!

Hehe, I was watching the 1st season of Mad Men last night and in one scene the secretary pool is all giggling over a copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover. They lend it to the new girl with the admonishment, 'Don't read it on the train, people will get the wrong idea about you.'

That's funny to me because I'm reading Lady Chatterley's Lover and I ONLY read it on the train. I wish I could have scanned in the cover of the copy I'm reading because it's this really amazing stylized drawing of a woman all in black except for one pink nipple. It's also, according to the cover, the 1st edition to come out uncensored. Ooh!

There is a lot of sex but nothing that would raise an eyebrow now. I can see how it would make a stir 80 years ago though, it deals with some pretty post modern themes. Connie, the protagonist, has a rich, landed but crippled husband who can't service her, so she has a few pretty graphic affairs. One with an Irish writer who gets mad at her for not being able to climax when he does (they call it 'coming to their crisis') and one really juicy one with the studly grounds keeper who she can achieve simultaneous orgasm with.
That's how you know it's love.

I also like it because she's constantly referring to money and fame as 'the bitch goddess', which from now on I will also be calling them. Can you really say bitch goddess enough in one day?
I'm sure things will end disastrously for Connie as is always the case for free thinking women in fiction but what can you do? You gotta read something.

PS. this book has had some amazing cover treatment. You can just see the editor's meeting, "We have to convey sex but only use old paintings and black and white photos so people still know it's LITERATURE.'

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