Sons and Lovers (Critical Studies, Penguin)

About the Author Brian Finney is a writer and Professor Emeritus of Literature at California State University, Long Beach. Educated in England, he obtained a BA from the University of Reading and a PhD from the University of London.  Between 1964-1987 he taught and arranged extra-mural courses for the University of London. Since immigrating to the US in 1987 he has taught at the University of California, Riverside, University of Southern California, UCLA, and California State University, Long Beach.He has published eight books including Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Biography (1979) which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize,  Terrorized: How the War on Terror Affected American Culture and Society (KDP 2011/2018), and Money Matters: A Novel (May 2019).He is married and lives in Venice, California. Product Description This critical study of Lawrence’s third novel, partly based on his own circumstances and upbringing, is primarily written for the undergraduate student. So it applies different literary theories to the novel, revealing the plurality of meanings inherent in it, while avoiding the use of technical language that theorists are prone to employ. Its nine chapters clearly indicate the theoretical lenses through which the novel is looked at: Genesis; Genre; the Psychoanalytic Perspective; History, Class and Society; Lawrence and Women;  Structure, Theme and Form; Narrative Voice and Focus; Character; and Symbolic Motifs. Seen from these various perspectives, Sons and Lovers reveals a proliferation of meaning that reflects the writer’s deep ambivalence and offers the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Review “This is a very useful guide to Lawrence’s first major work, and to the application of various approaches to literature.” – Essays in Criticism”Readable discussion of the main categories of critical approach.” – Cambridge Lawrence edition of Sons and Lovers”Finney has accomplished his task skillfully and altogether professionally. He communicates his easy command of the novel with clarity and conciseness.” — Keith Cushman, Modern Language Quarterly From the Author By the time I came to write this book I had entered the world of critical theory that dominated the humanities from the later eighties well into the new century. Most of my students found the major theorists infuriatingly abstruse and stylistically convoluted. So when I was invited to undertake a book-length study of Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers I decided to use the opportunity to offer students examples of how the different theories can uncover very different aspects of a literary text.  From teaching theory I knew that students found theory much easier to grasp when it was applied to a text. Behind the bland chapter headings lurked such figures as Derrida, Lacan, and Foucault. But they are rarely explicitly mentioned, Because this approach relied on a much deeper understanding of theory, I was pleased with its approachability, and still do. From the Back Cover Sons and Lovers, Lawrence’s third novel, encompasses the literary traditions of both the nineteenth and twentieth century. Its concern with social conditions and the class system connects it with the great Victorian novels, but in its profound exploration of the consciousness of its characters it must be viewed as “modern.”Brian Finney uses a variety of critical techniques to probe the heart of this rich ad diverse novel. Marxist, feminist, Freudian, structuralist, symbolist. Each approach throws light on different aspects of the work, and, brought together, they illustrate its brilliance and complexity. For the student unfamiliar with critical theory, Brian Finney’s study clarifies the use of different methods and shows how they can be applied to reveal meaning and significance. It also contains chapters on characterization, theme and the form of the novel. This masterly work offers many interpretations of Sons and Lovers, but, as the