Lady Chatterley’s Lover has a unique history of being  privately published, banned, pirated, expurgated, republished, and the center of a groundbreaking obscenity trial.

The notorious novel by D.H. Lawrence was originally published in 1928. It was panned by critics who dismissed the work as smut. Beyond containing some naughty Anglo-Saxon slang (rhymes duck and runt), it was the themes of the work — sexual liberation, the crushing heel of marriage, and the securing one’s individuality through sexual relationships— that made European and American censors squirm.

In 1959, thirty years after his death, the novel was re-released. It was a sensation. Within a year Lady Chatterley’s Lover sold two million copies, outselling even the Bible.

Penguin was then accused of breaking obscenity laws in England by publishing the book. The prosecution argued that there was no artistic merit in distributing such morally dubious prose and that the novel was just pornography. To defend the artistic merits of the piece Dame Rebecca West, EM Forster and Richard Hoggart took the stand.

The prosecution failed to make a substantial case against the novel and at one point prosecution counsel asked the jury: “Is it a book you would wish your wife or servants to read?”

Or your steno pool?!