A report on Lady Chatterley's Lover, D. H. Lawrence and Obscenity

Cover of an undated American edition of Fanny Hill, c. 1910

The 18th century book Fanny Hill has been subject to obscenity trials at various times (image: plate XI: The bathing party; La baignade)

Translator Sei Itō (left) and his publisher Hisajirō Oyama (right) at the first Chatterley trial in Japan.

Photograph of Lawrence by Lady Ottoline Morrell, 29 November 1915

D. H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire

Lady Chatterley's Lover is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France.

- Lady Chatterley's Lover

The book was also banned for obscenity in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Japan.

- Lady Chatterley's Lover

His best known novels—Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley's Lover—notably concerned gay and lesbian relationships, and were the subject of censorship trials.

- D. H. Lawrence

Many historically important works have been described as obscene or prosecuted under obscenity laws, including the works of Charles Baudelaire, Lenny Bruce, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, and the Marquis de Sade.

- Obscenity

Both novels were highly controversial and were banned on publication in the UK for obscenity, although Women in Love was banned only temporarily.

- D. H. Lawrence

The trial of Penguin Books over their publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1960 failed to secure a conviction and the conviction in the 1971 trial of Oz magazine was overturned on appeal.

- Obscenity

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Penguin Books

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British publishing house.

Plaque marking the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Penguin Books by Allen Lane at 8 Vigo Street.

Penguin's English edition of Yuri Krimov’s novel The Tanker “Derbent"

The 80 Little Black Classics published in 2015 marking the 80th anniversary Penguin Books

Four Pelican book covers, showing the gradual shift in the design. From left – 1937 (three bands), 1955 (grid), 1969 (illustrated), and 2007 (a "Penguin Celebrations" throwback edition)

Just as Lane well judged the public's appetite for paperbacks in the 1930s, his decision to publish Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence in 1960 boosted Penguin's notoriety.

The novel was at the time unpublished in the United Kingdom and the predicted obscenity trial, R v Penguin Books Ltd, not only marked Penguin as a fearless publisher, it also helped drive the sale of at least 3.5 million copies.