Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is the final novel written by D. H. Lawrence. He began work on the novel in the autumn of 1926, after returning from a trip to England. Although English by birth, Lawrence spent the last part of his life living abroad, and was living in Italy during the time that he wrote his final novel. Over the course of the next year, Lawrence completed three different versions of the novel, experimenting with different ways of depicting the characterization and central relationship between Connie and Mellors.

The degree of sexual explicitness and the use of language that would be considered obscene (and thus unpublishable) varied significantly across these versions. It seems likely that, based on conversations with other writers who had self-published books, Lawrence arrived at a plan of self-publishing the novel around the fall of 1927, and then felt empowered to take more risks in his use of language and depiction of a cross-class relationship. The third version, which he worked on in the latter part of 1927, is the novel that has gone on to become famous.

Lawrence self-published Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Florence, Italy, in 1928, meaning that he himself bore the financial costs of having the book printed, and was not under any contract or agreement with a publishing house. Since Lawrence was a well-known author who already had a reputation for pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in his previous novels, curiosity quickly arose about this new novel that could not be legally purchased in Great Britain or the United States. Readers sought out pirated copies that were sometimes bought and sold illicitly, or smuggled across borders, especially after Lawrence published a second edition in Paris in 1929. While controversial, the novel was lucrative. Due to growing interest and curiosity, heavily censored versions of the novel were published in the United States and the United Kingdom in 1932.

Over the subsequent decades, a steady interest in the novel continued alongside changes in social norms that made it seem less and less reasonable to suppress a work of literature for frank depictions of sexual activity. By the mid-20th century, legal cases were challenging the assumption that Lady Chatterley’s Lover was an obscene work; for example, a case was successfully won lifting the ban on the novel in the United States in 1959, and it was defended to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1962. Many of the various cases and appeals introduced legal defense on the basis that the novel had literary merit.

Likely the most famous legal challenge to the suppression of the novel occurred in Great Britain, in the case of R versus Penguin Books Limited. In 1959, the United Kingdom passed the Obscene Publications Act, which superseded previous obscenity legislation. Notably, this new act allowed for material deemed obscene to be defended on the grounds of “the public good,” including literary and artistic merit. Under this new Act, it seemed much more possible to mount a defense of the unexpurgated novel. In August 1960, Penguin Books published an uncensored version, deliberately provoking a legal trial (upon publication, copies of the novel were deliberately sent to the police). Sure enough, legal action to suppress the novel on the grounds of obscenity followed, leading to a trial spanning late October through early November 1960.

During the trial, the defense argued that the novel merited distribution because of its literary value. In order to support this argument, they called witnesses including academics, writers, and even members of the clergy. An Anglican bishop named John Robinson testified to the merits of how Lawrence portrayed sexuality as a spiritual act. The jury (who were also provided with copies of the novel to read during the trial) returned a verdict acquitting Penguin Books of the charge of obscenity; this verdict allowed for uncensored editions of the novel to be published in the United Kingdom for the first time.

The establishment of legal grounds on which to publish the novel in uncensored form is largely seen as part of a wider movement toward more permissive social norms and the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Unfortunately, this event occurred decades after the death of D. H. Lawrence, who died in Italy in 1930. Subsequent editions published by Penguin Books included a dedication to the 12 jurors who made the decision to acquit the publisher of obscenity charges.