Class, Sex, and Revolution in Lady Chatterley’s Lover

D. H. Lawrence rewrote Lady Chatterley’s Lover three times in two years before it was published. This article shows how he transformed the novel from a study of class centred on the relationship of Constance Chatterley and the gamekeeper (Parkin in the first two drafts; Mellors in the published version) into an innovative fiction of sex and intimacy. While the changes in plot and themes are important, more significant still is the development of the work from a fairly traditional mode of realist novel to a revolutionary one, designed to challenge the reader through its confrontational form and style.