She had endured this torture of belonging to him but not being claimed by him for a very long time. The famed English author D.H. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers was published in 1913. The protagonist of this tale of a working-class family is Paul Morel, a young artist who has a strong bond with his mother, Gertrude. His relationship with his mother is far more important than his relationships with Clara Dawes, a mature and free-spirited woman, and Miriam Leivers, his repressed and devout girlfriend. It is thought that Lawrence's parents served as inspiration for the alcoholic miner father and the mother who opposes him in the book. Lawrence's brother Ernest passed dead, just like the older brother William who dies early in the book.