作为现代情爱小说的先驱，劳伦斯在这部小说中以前所未有的深度和热情探索了厄休拉和古兰迪姐妹俩的情感问题。作为艺术家的妹妹古迪兰遇上矿主的独生子杰拉德，原始的欲望点燃了爱的激情；然而在狂暴的激情过后，失望和痛苦的她又与另一位艺术家陷入了爱的狂欢。作为中学教师的姐姐厄休拉温柔美丽，在与督学伯基的相爱中，她一心要让对方成为爱情的囚鸟，而对方却希望在灵与肉的交融中保持彼此心灵上的距离……
劳伦斯毕生致力于性爱题材小说的原创，在揭示男欢女爱的同时，也深入探讨了政治、历史、经济、宗教等社会问题，因而将这一题材上升到哲学和审美的高度。《恋爱中的女人》与他的另一部小说《虹》并称为劳化斯最脍炙人口的两部长篇。他本人也认为此书是他的“最佳作品”。
1.劳伦斯对他的母语具有娴熟的驾驭能力，且笔端充满激情，叙事简洁生动，十分富有生活气息，这在他创作成熟期的“情爱三部曲”之一的《恋爱中的女人》中表现得是十分突出的。
2.劳伦斯一生落魄，早年曾当过会计、工厂雇员、小学教师，又曾漂泊欧陆和美洲十余年，因而，他对本国的内政及社会痼疾有着清醒的认识，笔锋犀利，这在他同时代的作家中也是十分突出的。
3.劳伦斯是长于描写情爱的大师，尤其擅长刻画女性在特定生活环境中的状貌及心理特征，现代小说在这方面的写作技巧通过劳伦斯的创作发展到一个展新的阶段。英国著名作家、评论家伍尔芙评论说：“（劳伦斯是个）对物质世界，对其颜色、质地及形状格外敏感的作家；在他看来，身体是活生生的，而有关身体的问题既迫切，又十分重大。”
4.此外，为了帮助读者进一步理解原著，并对劳伦斯一生的创作有一个整体的把握，本书还选取了国外学者近年来发表的几篇论文。
5.本书附赠一枚由设计师精心设计的藏书票。
（英）D.H.劳伦斯，在19、20世纪之交，D.H.劳伦斯可谓英国最富有创造力、最有争议的作家。劳伦斯出身于诺丁汉郡一个矿工家庭，从他的成名作《儿子和情人》开始，劳伦斯即将目光投向性与情爱这一敏感领域，接连创作了《虹》、《恋爱中的女人》（这两部小说与前者构成“性爱三部曲”）和《查泰莱夫人的情人》等作品，不仅聚讼纷纭，且屡遭当局查禁。尽管后来劳伦斯也写过《袋鼠》、《羽蛇》等反大国沙文主义、反天主教传统的作品，但其主要成就仍表现在情爱主题方面，难怪时至今日，人们一直将其目为“现代情爱小说之父”。
劳伦斯以其独特的视角和敏感的心灵体验着工业文明对人性的戕贼，体验着人类本能的被扭曲与迷失。“在世界的开端和末日之间出现了人。人既不是创世者，也不是被创者，但他是创造的核心。”劳伦斯如是说。可以说，劳伦斯是人类的性与美的永不疲倦的发现者。
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 SISTERS
CHAPTER 2 SHORTLANDS
CHAPTER 3 CLASS-ROOM
CHAPTER 4 DIVER
CHAPTER 5 IN THE TRAIN
CHAPTER 6 CREME DE MENTHE
CHAPTER 7 FETISH
CHAPTER 8 BREADALBY
CHPTER 9 COAL-DUST
CHPTER 10 SKETCH-BOOK
CHPTER 11 AN ISLAND
CHPTER 12 CARPETING
CHPTER 13 MINO
CHPTER 14 WATER-PARTY
CHPTER 15 SUNDAY EVENING
CHPTER 16 MAN TO MAN
CHPTER 17 THE INDUSTRIAL MAGNATE
CHPTER 18 RABBIT
CHAPTER 19 MOONY
CHAPTER 20 GLADIATORIAL
CHAPTER 21 THRESHOLD
CHAPTER 22 WOMAN TO WOMAN
CHAPTER 23 EXCURSE
CHAPTER 24 DEATH AND LOVE
CHPTER 25 MARRIAGE OR NOT
CHAPTER 26 ACHIR
CHAPTER 27 FLITTING
CHAPTER 28 GUDRUN IN THE POMPADOUR
CHAPTER 29 CONTINENTAL
CHAPTER 30 SNOWED UP
CHAPTER 31 EXEUNT
APPENDIX
I Birkin's"nitro-glycerine，"used in both explosives and the treatment of heart disease，neatly encapsulates the contradiction.Linguistic ties between Birkin and Loerke show the sculptor to be，in part，a caricature or ironic double of the ideologue.In"An Island，"Birkin treats love as a relativistic phenomenon of no speaal account that one may or may not feel"according to circumstance".Loerke maintains that love is the same old instinct masquerading under a multiplicity of guises and that sexual choice is a matter of convenience as arbitrary as the difference between words for love in different languages.Birkin talks of love as an emotion too often idealized and absolutized，Loerke as an appetite that can be indiscriminately satisfied;but their irritation and boredom with the subject link them as critics of the prevailing ideology.
They even use the same metaphor-a hat-to symbolize identity（as in Freud），albeit with different assoaations.For Birkin and his interlocutors in"Shortlands，"the hat stands for property and one's liberty and independence，rightly or wrongly based on it;for Loerke the hat represents sexual possession.As property or sexuality the hat，a disposable part of one's apparel，is something that alienated intellectual and artist alike despise.But there the resemblance ends：Loerke's reductive cyniasm is a caricature of Birkin's serious criticism of love.Birkin does love Ursula，but he wants to liberate himself from the inertia and falsity that linguistic and social codes attach to the word and its interpretation."The point about love，"he insists，"is that we hate the word because we have vulgarised it.It ought to be proscribed，tabooed from utterance，for many years，till we get a new，better idea".The issue for Birkin is whether being can flow through the hardened arteries of a soaalized language.In"An Island，"he arrests the automatic flow of consciousness so that Ursula"could not know.She could only watch the brilliant little discs of the daisies veering slowly in travel on the dark，lustrous water".But the return to language，with its witty anthropomorphic conceits metaphorizing daisies as social orders，is parodic，demonstrating the tendency of language to turn natural facts into artifiaal concepts，a logocentric imperialism that substitutes culture for nature.
Birkin and Loerke are set apart by their quickness and vitality，critical sense，and awareness of corruption to the point of seeming antihuman.They live unto themselves and are contemptuous of the social contract.Birkin tells Ursula："I don't believe in the humanity I pretend to be a part of，I don't care a straw for the soaal ideals I live by，I hate the dying organic form of mankind".His attitude toward corruption is ambivalent，but he shows personal integrity in his search for understanding and fulfilment.Loerke，however，is cynically corrupt：he conspires with the mechanical principle，and his art，subserving industry，undermines life.Basing his identity on a compulsive work ethicu he cross-examines Gudrun in a tri-lingrustic diatribe：He broke into a mixture of Italian and French，nstinctively uszng a foreign language when he spoke to her.
"You have never worked as the world works，"he said to her with sarcasm.
……
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