The Lady Chatterley Trial
Lady Chatterley on Trial
I’ve just watched a film which is part true and part fiction. It focuses on the trial at the Old Bailey where Penguin Books had to defend their publication of the classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Lady Chatterley’s Lover location map
It is a semi-fictitious account of the obscenity trial as it shows the fictional jury deliberating over whether the novel should be banned or not. English law states that nothing can be recorded with a jury when its deliberating the case and so no notes on this exist. However, in the film, two of the jurors have a passionate affair that mirrors some of the issues and sexual themes being discussed at the trial – the very issues that are in the novel.
The film changes the set up in the novel however by showing a relationship between a worldly woman and a naïve man. In the novel it was Connie who was the naïve women and Mellors the gardener was more worldly wise. Novel and film both look at class stereotypes and the way we, as a society, view sex and what should and should not be evoked on the page. (Imagine them discussing the books printed today!?)
Lady Chatterley’s Lover location map
Lady Chatterley Trial
A very interesting film – I don’t know why I had never heard of it. I immediately skimmed the novel again and can totally understand the shock value at the time. Of course, it all seems very tame by today’s standards. It’s an interesting film about how a book can provoke so much feeling whether good or bad. It was also a very good marketing ploy as straight after the trial, the book sold in its thousands!
Lawrence’s novel had been the subject of three drafts before the final version was set to the Florentine printers on 9 March 1928. They refused to print it and so Lawrence had to do it himself. Later that year, US customs and Scotland Yard confiscated copies of it. However:
Lady Chatterley’s Lover location map
1959 – A U.S. court rules that the first authorised unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover is not obscene
1960 – On 16 August 1960, Penguin published the first unexpurgated English edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Allen Lane (c) Wikipedia
Lady Chatterley’s Lover location map
When a book is almost banned or is banned or there’s even talk of it being banned, I want to read it straight away. I’d read it years ago and have recently had a reread. Now seeing this film made me think about how society changes, how we change our minds about what is and isn’t fit for print, how books reflect societal changes and how powerful the printed word can actually be…
What do you think of this and other banned books?
Susan x
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