First published 1985
Paul Morel grows up in a Nottinghamshire mining town, caught between his passionate mother Gertrude and his weak father Walter. Gertrude pours all her thwarted ambitions into her sons, especially Paul, binding him to her with fierce devotion. As Paul becomes a young artist, he tries to love other women. First comes Miriam Leivers, an intense farm girl who shares his intellectual interests but whose spiritual nature conflicts with his physical desires. Then Clara Dawes enters his life, a married woman who offers him sexual fulfillment but cannot compete with his mother's emotional hold. Paul finds himself torn between these relationships and his suffocating bond with Gertrude. Each romance fails because no woman can match his mother's place in his heart. When Gertrude falls ill, Paul faces an agonizing choice that will determine whether he can ever break free to live his own life. The story explores how family bonds can both nurture and destroy.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Nottinghamshire
Period: 20th-century
568 pages · Paperback · Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd
Content warnings: emotional-abuse