《儿子和情人》产生于20世纪初叶，背景是英国诺丁汉郡矿工们的生活。矿工瓦尔特原本性格开朗，充满活力，后因酗酒而日渐沉沦。妻子格特鲁德失望之余，转而将希望寄托在两个儿子身上，长子威廉又不幸早夭，遂对次子保罗产生了强烈的感情。面对情感变态的母亲，以及两个各有其不同恋爱观的女友，年轻的保罗一时颇感迷惘。
具有半自传性的《儿子和情人》生动、广泛地描绘了现代工业文明背后普通工人的境遇，然而角度的确十分独特，作者意在探索两性之间的关系，正如评论家所指出的，小说中表现了作者内心隐藏着的俄狄浦斯情结，其中的主线之一便是以劳伦斯与杰茜的私情为蓝本。此书初步显示了劳伦斯作为现代性爱小说之父，风靡文坛90年，魅力不减，至今仍为广大读者所喜爱。
"THE BOTTOMS"succeeded to "Hell Row."Hell Row was a block of thatched, bulging cottages that stood by the brookside on Greenhill Lane. There lived the colliers who worked in the little gin-pits two fields away The brook ran under the alder trees, scarcely soiled by these small mines, whose coal was drawn to the surface by donkeys that plodded wearily in a circle round a gin. And all over the countryside were these same pits, some of which had been worked in the time of Charles II, the few colliers and the donkeys burrowing down like ants into the earth, making queer mounds and little black places among the corn- fields and the meadows. And the cottages of these coal-miners, in blocks and pairs here and there, together with odd farms and homes of the stockingers, straying over the parish, formed the village of Bestwood.
Part One
CHAPTER I THE EARLY MARRIED LIFE OF THE MORELS..
CHAPTER II THE BIRTH OF PAUL, AND ANOTHER BATTLE
CHAPTER III THE CASTING OFF OF MOREL--THE TAKING ON OF WILLIAM
CHAPTER IV THE YOUNG LIFE OF PAUL
CHAPTER V PAUL LAUNCHES INTO LIFE
CHAPTER VI DEATH IN THE FAMILY
Part Two
CHAPTER VII LAD-AND-GIRL LOVE
CHAPTER VIII STRIFE IN LOVE
CHAPTER IX DEFEAT OF MIRIAM
CHAPTER X CLARA
CHAPTER XI THE TEST ON MIRIAM
CHAPTER XII PASSION
CHAPTER XIII BAXTER DAWES
CHAPTER XIV THE RELEASE
CHAPTER XV DERELICT
