100 Years of 'Sons and Lovers'

1913 saw the first publication of a number of novels which are still widely read, such as Proust's Swann's Way, MacKenzie's Sinister Street, Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes and Cather's O Pioneers! But arguably the most important novel to be published in Britain that year was Lawrence's third work, Sons and Lovers.

Edited with over 80 deletions by Edward Garnett, who feared that the original text might be considered obscene, the book had previously been rejected by Heinemann. The book was the product of several years' work, and had gone through a number of re-writes, having originally been called Paul Morel, the name of the largely autobiographical hero.

Although initially seen as remarkable in presenting the lives of people in a mining community, the novel perhaps owes its lasting reputation to its depiction of the development of an example of the Oedipus complex, a phenomenon which at the time of publication had only recently been recognised.