L is for Lady Chaterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published privately in 1928 in Italy, and in 1929 in France and Australia. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, when it was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial against the publisher Penguin Books. Penguin won the case, and quickly sold 3 million copies.The book was also banned for obscenity in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Japan. The book soon became notorious for its story of the physical (and emotional) relationship between a working class man and an upper class woman, its explicit descriptions of sex, and its use of then-unprintable words.

The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence’s own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, where he grew up. According to some critics, the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with “Tiger”, a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story. Lawrence at one time considered calling the novel Tenderness and made significant alterations to the text and story in the process of its composition. It has been published in three versions.

I picked this as part of my A to Z Classic Reads for three reasons. One, it is mentioned in a Judy Blume book. Two it is a banned book, it has been banned and fought for over and over in it’s life time of being published. Three I am curious. I most recently picked up the cover pictured because I found it beautiful and only a few cents at my local used book store.

I own The Unexpurgated 1928 Orioli Edition. D.H. Lawrence’s 1928 novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover holds the distinguished title of being one the most banned books in history. This version is the original.

AND

I own a 1956 copy published in the Netherlands that acutally says ‘This edition may not be introducted into the British Empire or the U.S.A.’ How crazy is that?!?! This copy is missing it’s dust jacket, which is sad.