Lady Chatterley's Lover has been published in three versions. The story concerns a young married woman, the former Constance Reid (Lady Chatterley), whose upper class husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley, described as a handsome, well-built man, has been paralysed from the waist down due to a Great War injury. In addition to Clifford's physical limitations, his emotional neglect of Constance forces distance between the couple. Her emotional frustration leads her into an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. The class difference between the couple highlights a major motif of the novel which is the unfair dominance of intellectuals over the working class. The novel
William Simmonds Chatterley died at Lynn in Norfolk in 1822, a victim of most forms of excess, particularity alcohol abuse. In Bath, he played such characters as Sir Anthony Absolute, Launcelot Gobbo, Foresight in 'Love for Love,' Sir Solomon Sadlips in the 'Double Gallant.' In London, his great character was Justice Woodcock, in which he came only behind Munden and Dowton. He 'created,' on 24 May 1799, the rôle of the boy in 'Pizarro.' Mrs. Chatterley, who was an agreeable actress in comedy, had the reputation of being the best representative of a Frenchwoman on the English stage. Attribution William Simmonds Chatterley William