DD1 and Lady Chatterlery's Lover

[ticktocktiptap]

DD1 is 14 and is a mature 14 yo.

All the DCs have always been able to read anything in the house.

She was going though my book shelf and picked up Lady Chatterlery's Lover the other day, after flicking through it and reading blurb etc. She asked could she read it. Of course she can.

DH found book in living room and asked me if I was re-reading it. I said it was DD1.

DH thinks it is not a appropriate book for her to read at all, and I should have said she couldn't read it.

I think it isn't like it is the Cement Garden or anything, and it isn't that bad at all in my eyes. And I would just tell her not to leave it in living room where younger DCs could pick it up and flick though and read (as they do with mine and DHs books if we leave them around)
He thinks we should say that actually she can't read it until she is older.

In my eyes the language isn't aything worse than she will hear at school, the sex isn't that explicit, And she knows herself - if she doesn't get on with it for whatever reason she will put it down and get back to it at a later date. Also we are close and she is the sort to tell me about what she is reading,what she thinks ec.

DH thinks it is highly unsuitable for her.

So AIBU to let her read it?

LOL - I went to catholic school and we discussed it in english class in 4th or 5th form (mid 70's) - our teacher suggested we read the earlier version too "John Thomas and Lady Jane" and compare and contrast.... great way to take the fun out of reading the sex scenes .

Your DH is probably in panic mode that his little DD is growing up...

Am I the only one having naughty thoughts about Sean Bean having read this thread?

Oh for gods sake, tell him to get a grip. I was reading Jackie Collins (The Bitch, The Stud etc), Jilly Cooper and Virginia Andrews at 12. Never did me any harm; if anything it put me in touch with my own body and I taught myself what was enjoyable - so I could teach the blokes what to do years later down the line

I remember getting told off by the woman at the library for trying to take out a Virginia Andrews book and my mum and aunt were furious - my aunt (who I was living with at the time) came and told the old biddy to mind her own business and got me an adult library card so they couldn't complain (although as Virginia Andrews is such tripe, maybe they should have objected on that basis ). Her and mum were just pleased I read constantly and trusted I was mature enough to learn at my own pace.

Now, years later, I don't think my 16 year old cousin has ever picked up and read any book on her own just for fun - due to being spoilt with laptops, xboxes, mobiles etc. I think that's far worse than choosing to read 'too mature' literature.

I probably read it around that age. I didn't think much of it, tbh. Back then it was quite shocking to see the C word on the page but I doubt it is for kids now.

Agree with the others that she's not too young. Also agree that you should talk about the misogynistic stuff.

And this: Just so long as you tell her that women do not, on the whole, wait for the man to come and then make little wriggling motions afterwards to "bring themselves off. needs an agreement all of its own

My sister's English A level class, in a single sex catholic school the late 70s, was told to watch the film of Women in Love for homework as it was on TV that evening.

My father refused to let her on moral grounds. She got into trouble at school and the teacher didn't even try to hide her impatience with his prudery.

Mind you her error was asking. I just read everything I could lay my hands on and my dad never thought to ask.

DH waits for us to be in places requiring solemnity (funerals, libraries, churches etc) and then he whispers, pitch perfect and with a killer accent "get thee in the shed". He's a bad, bad man.

Thelastnameleft....nope. Not at all.

It has been described as an interesting book about the management of a Midlands shooting estate but with a lot of extraneous material you have to wade through . . .

I just read LCL a few weeks ago. I thought it was pretty feminist for the time. The notion that women could take pleasure in sex or had their own needs, or went off and had affairs was pretty radical at the time, even in the 60s when it was banned.

Just so long as you tell her that women do not, on the whole, wait for the man to come and then make little wriggling motions afterwards to "bring themselves off.

I thought it WIL that illustrated how selfish the husband was not to consider his wife's pleasure? Not misogynistic I'd say.

Anyway, with LCL I can see why it was shocking to Mary Whitehouse types in the 60s but it is considerably tamer than my mum's Judith Krantz books I was reading when I was 13.

Oh dear, some poor girl is in for a hard time off her dad for the next few years...

Other than an inappropriate and temporary fascination with game keepers I have remained mostly unscarred after also reading it 14

I was reading Flowers in the Attic at that age, along with Valley of the Dolls, any Jackie Collins I could borrow off my mother, and Dennis Wheatley books.. didnt do me any harm at all!

When is there a rape in Twilight?

I also read Virginia Andrews, Jackie Collins etc when I was quite young and read LCL in the school library when I was about 14, hasn't done me any harm. Although I do know someone whose first names are John Thomas and it makes me snort a bit.

actually the only thing I would consider censoring when i comes to books is the super violent or anything with strong sexual violence. There were a few books that I came across while still too young that left me really disturbed for a while. The teenage mind is very fertile ground and can create some horrible fucking scenes in your head :(

I belong to the "better read anything than nothing" camp and as others have said, Lawrence is preferable to any of the women's magazines out there. However, he's a bit dull - you might want to point her in the direction of something more contemporary, there are some very cool novels by Japanese writers around which appeal to young adults.
As to your DH, its not about Lawrence is it? It's about his little girl and sex .

I too grew up on inappropriate books. I got my sex education from Harold Robbins, Virginia Andrews, and other tacky novels. There weren't a lot of teenage books which were well written at that time, so a precocious reader like me went straight from finding children's books too basic to trying to read adult books at about 11. Proper literature was a bit too difficult, so I read the bottom end of the market. Including The Happy Hooker .

LCL is pretty tame. I'd be delighted if a daughter of mine took an interest in it at 14. Don't worry about the misogyny; kids are good at realising which world views are author or period specific. They study Austen at GCSE without taking on her virgin until married morality. I studied Thackeray at O Level (yes I'm old) and there were references to "woolly-haired mulatto heiresses" who only married well because of their money, as black women were not thought of as conventionally attractive at the time. It didn't mould my views on black people. Nor did studying The Merchant of Venice inform my views on Judaism. If she is bright enough to appreciate Lawrence at 14, she is bright enough to form her own opinions on sexual politics.