Description
Third edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by David Herbert Lawrence.
Octavo, xxxix, [3], 368pp. Tan boards with blue cloth spine, title in gilt on spine. Stated “third manuscript version” on copyright page. Slight lean to text block, sunning to spine, a near fine example. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $6.00 retail price on front flap, sunning to spine, shelf wear, short closed tears along top edge. A nice example of the original unexpurgated edition.
D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) was a controversial novelist and poet, focusing his writings on gay and lesbian relationships in modern, industrialized settings. Lady Chatterley’s Lover was a particularly offensive work to many people, due to its graphic descriptions of a romantic relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman. After many years of producing a heavily censored version in the United Kingdom, the publication of an unexpurgated edition brought Penguin Books to trial in 1960. This trial tested the recently passed Obscene Publications Act of 1959, allowing publishers to produce previously inappropriate materials if it showed literary merit. With a jury returning a not guilty verdict, the uncensored edition of the book was made available to the British public.
