'I tell you I have written a great book ... Read my novel, it is a great novel,' Lawrence declared shortly before Sons and Lovers was published in 1913.

Drawing on his own childhood and adolescence, Lawrence depicts the early married life of the Morels - the father a hardworking, hard-drinking Nottinghamshire coal miner, the mother a refined woman of middle-class aspirations. Born into
the family battle, their son Paul Morel initially takes his mother's part, until in adolescence he meets and falls in love with a young girl, Miriam, and discovers a new conflict of loyalties.

Sons and Lovers portrays the sexual and emotional struggle of Paul Morel, caught between the women he attempts to love, and in it D. H. Lawrence transforms autobiography into art.