''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An

unexpurgated Expurgation, also known as bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media. The term ''bowdlerization'' is a pejorative term for the pract ...

edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, when it was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial against the publisher

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. The book was also banned for obscenity in the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Japan. The book soon became notorious for its story of the physical (and emotional) relationship between a working-class man and an upper-class woman, its explicit descriptions of sex and its use of then-unprintable four-letter words.

Background

The story is said to have originated from certain events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, where he grew up. According to some critics, the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, ...

who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story. Lawrence, who had once considered calling the novel ''John Thomas and Lady Jane'' in reference to the male and the female sex organs, made significant alterations to the text and story in the process of its composition. Lawrence allegedly read the manuscript of '' Maurice'' by E. M. Forster, which was published posthumously in 1971. That novel, although it is about a homosexual couple, also involves a gamekeeper becoming the lover of a member of the upper classes and influenced ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''.

Plot

The story concerns a young married woman, the former Constance Reid (Lady Chatterley), whose upper-class

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley, described as a handsome, well-built man, is paralysed from the waist down because of a Great War injury. Constance has an affair with the gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors. The class difference between the couple highlights a major motif of the novel. The central theme is Constance's realisation that she cannot live with the mind alone. That realisation stems from a heightened sexual experience that Constance has felt only with Mellors, suggesting that love requires the elements of both body and mind.

Themes

In ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', Lawrence comes full circle to argue once again for individual regeneration, which can be found only through the relationship between man and woman (and, he sometimes asserts, man and man). Love and personal relationships are the threads that bind this novel together. Lawrence explores a wide range of different types of relationships: the reader sees the brutal, bullying relationship between Mellors and his wife, Bertha, who punishes him by preventing his pleasure; there is Tommy Dukes, who has no relationship because he cannot find a woman whom he both respects intellectually and finds desirable; there is also the perverse, maternal relationship that ultimately develops between Clifford and Mrs. Bolton, his caring nurse, after Constance has left.

Mind and body

Richard Hoggart argues that the main subject of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is not the explicit sexuality, which was the subject of much debate, but the search for integrity and wholeness.. Key to this integrity is cohesion between the mind and the body, for "body without mind is brutish; mind without body... is a running away from our double being". ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' focuses on the incoherence of living a life that is "all mind", which Lawrence found to be particularly true among the young members of the aristocratic classes, as in his description of Constance's and her sister Hilda's "tentative love-affairs" in their youth: The contrast between mind and body can be seen in the dissatisfaction each character experiences in their previous relationships, such as Constance's lack of intimacy with her husband, who is "all mind", and Mellors's choice to live apart from his wife because of her "brutish" sexual nature. The dissatisfactions lead them into a relationship that develops very slowly and is based upon tenderness, physical passion, and mutual respect. As the relationship between Lady Chatterley and Mellors builds, they learn more about the interrelation of the mind and the body. She learns that sex is more than a shameful and disappointing act, and he learns about the spiritual challenges that come from physical love. Jenny Turner maintained in ''The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion'' (1993) that the publication of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' broke "the taboo on explicit representations of sexual acts in British and North American literature". She described the novel as "a book of great libertarian energy and heteroerotic beauty".

Class

''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' also presents some views on the early-20th-century British social context. That is most evidently seen in the plot on the affair of an aristocratic woman (Connie) with a working-class man (Mellors). That is heightened when Mellors adopts the local broad Derbyshire dialect, something he can slip into and out of. The critic and writer

Mark Schorer Mark Schorer (May 17, 1908 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin. Biography Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936. Durin ...

writes of the forbidden love of a woman of relatively superior social situation who is drawn to an "outsider", a man of a lower social rank or a foreigner. He considers that to be a familiar construction in Lawrence's works in which the woman either resists her impulse or yields to it. Schorer believes that the two possibilities were embodied, respectively, in the situation into which Lawrence was born and that into which Lawrence married, which becomes a favourite topic in his work. There is a clear class divide between the inhabitants of Wragby and Tevershall that is bridged by the nurse Mrs Bolton. Clifford is more self assured in his position, but Connie is often thrown when the villagers treat her as a Lady like when she has tea in the village. This is often made explicit in the narration such as here: There are also signs of dissatisfaction and resentment from the Tevershall coal pit colliers, whose fortunes are in decline, against Clifford, who owns the mines. Involved with hard, dangerous and health-threatening employment, the unionised and self-supporting pit-village communities in Britain have been home to more pervasive class barriers than has been the case in other industries (for an example, see chapter 2 of '' The Road to Wigan Pier'' by

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

.) They were also centres of widespread

Nonconformism Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

(Non-Anglican Protestantism), which hold proscriptive views on sexual sins such as

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...

. References to the concepts of

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

and

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

permeate the book. Union strikes were also a constant preoccupation in Wragby Hall. Coal mining is a recurrent and familiar theme in Lawrence's life and writing because of his background, and it is prominent also in '' Sons and Lovers'' and ''

Women in Love ''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel '' The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...

'' and short stories such as ''

Odour of Chrysanthemums "Odour of Chrysanthemums" is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. It was written in the autumn of 1909 and after revision, was published in ''The English Review'' in July 1911. Lawrence later included this tale in his collection entitled '' The Prussia ...

''.

Industrialisation and nature

As in much of the rest of Lawrence's fiction, a key theme is the contrast between the vitality of nature and the mechanised monotony of mining and industrialism. Clifford wants to reinvigorate the mines with new technology and is out of touch with the natural world. In contrast, Connie often appreciates the beauty of nature and sees the ugliness of the mines in Uthwaite. Her heightened sensual appreciation applies to both nature and her sexual relationship with Mellors.

Censorship

A publisher's note in the 2001 Random House Inc. edition of the novel states that Lawrence "was unable to secure a commercial publication fthe novel in its unexpurgated form". The author privately published the novel in 2000 copies to his subscribers in England, the United States and France in 1928. Later that same year, the second edition was privately published in 200 copies. Then, pirated copies of the novel were made. An edition of the novel was published in Britain in 1932 by Martin Secker, two years after Lawrence's death. Reviewing it in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', the journalist

Gerald Gould Gerald Gould (1885 – 2 November 1936) was an English writer, known as a journalist and reviewer, essayist and poet. Life He was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and brought up in Norwich, and studied at University College London and Magdalen C ...

noted that "passages are necessarily omitted to which the author undoubtedly attached supreme psychological importance—importance so great, that he was willing to face obloquy and misunderstanding and censorship because of them". An authorised and heavily censored abridgment was published in the United States by

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

also in 1932. That edition was subsequently reissued in paperback in the United States by Signet Books in 1946.

British obscenity trial

In November 1960, the full unexpurgated edition, the last of three versions written by Lawrence, was published by

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...

, had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of

literary merit Artistic merit is the artistic quality or value of any given work of art, music, film, literature, sculpture or painting. Obscenity and literary merit The 1921 US trial of James Joyce's novel '' Ulysses'' concerned the publication of the ''Naus ...

. One of the objections was to the frequent use of the word "

fuck ''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to ar ...

" and its derivatives. Another objection related to the use of the word "

cunt ''Cunt'' () is a vulgar word for the vulva or vagina. It is used in a variety of ways, including as a term of disparagement. Reflecting national variations, ''cunt'' can be used as a disparaging and obscene term for a woman in the United St ...

". Various academic critics and experts of diverse kinds, including E. M. Forster, Helen Gardner, Richard Hoggart,

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contrib ...

and

Norman St John-Stevas Norman Antony Francis St John-Stevas, Baron St John of Fawsley, ( ; born Norman Panayea St John Stevas; 18 May 1929 – 2 March 2012) was a British Conservative politician, author and barrister. He served as Leader of the House of Commons in t ...

, were called as witnesses. The verdict, delivered on 2 November 1960, was "not guilty" and resulted in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing explicit material in the United Kingdom. The prosecution was ridiculed for being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked if it was the kind of book "you would wish your wife or servants to read". The Penguin second edition, published in 1961, contains a publisher's dedication, which reads: "For having published this book, Penguin Books was prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, 1959 at the Old Bailey in London from 20 October to 2 November 1960. This edition is therefore dedicated to the twelve jurors, three women and nine men, who returned a verdict of 'not guilty' and thus made D. H. Lawrence's last novel available for the first time to the public in the United Kingdom". In 2006, the trial was dramatized by BBC Wales as ''

The Chatterley Affair ''The Chatterley Affair'' is a BBC television drama, produced by BBC Wales and broadcast on BBC Four on 20 March 2006. It is a semi-fictitious account of the obscenity trial surrounding the publication of D. H. Lawrence's 1928 novel ''Lady Ch ...

''.

Australia

The book was banned in Australia, and a book describing the British trial, ''The Trial of Lady Chatterley'', was also banned. In 1965 a copy of the British edition was smuggled into the country by Alexander William Sheppard, Leon Fink, and Ken Buckley, and then a run of 10,000 copies was printed and sold nationwide. The fallout from that event eventually led to the easing of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

of books in the country. The ban by the

Department of Customs and Excise The Department of Customs and Excise was an Australian government department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (adminis ...

on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', along with three other books—'' Borstal Boy'', '' Confessions of a Spent Youth'', and ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Hum ...

''—was lifted in July 1965. The Australian Classification Board, established in 1970, remains.

Canada

In 1962,

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

Professor of Law and Canadian modernist poet F. R. Scott appeared before the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

to defend ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' from censorship. Scott represented the appellants, who were booksellers who had been offering the book for sale. The case arose when the police had seized their copies of the book and deposited them with a judge of the Court of Sessions of the Peace, who issued a notice to the booksellers to show cause why the books should not be confiscated as obscene, contrary to s 150A of the Criminal Code. The trial judge eventually ruled that the book was obscene and ordered that the copies be confiscated. That decision was upheld by the Quebec Court of Queen's Bench, Appeal Side (now the Quebec Court of Appeal). Scott then appealed the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which allowed the appeal on a 5–4 split and held that the book was not an obscene publication. On 15 November 1960, an Ontario panel of experts, appointed by Attorney General Kelso Roberts, found that novel was not obscene according to the Canadian Criminal Code.

United States

Lady chatterley's lover 1959 US unexpurgated edition

''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was banned for obscenity in the United States in 1929. In 1930,

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Bronson Cutting proposed an amendment to the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which was being debated, to end the practice of having

U.S. Customs The United States Customs Service was the very first federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. Established on July 31, 1789, it collected import tariffs, performed other selected border security duties, as well as conducted c ...

censor allegedly obscene imported books. Senator

Reed Smoot Reed Smoot (January 10, 1862February 9, 1941) was an American politician, businessman, and apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). First elected by the Utah State Legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1902, he serv ...

vigorously opposed such an amendment and threatened to read indecent passages of imported books publicly in front of the Senate. Although he never followed through, he included ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' as an example of an obscene book that must not reach domestic audiences and declared, "I've not taken ten minutes on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', outside of looking at its opening pages. It is most damnable! It is written by a man with a diseased mind and a soul so black that he would obscure even the darkness of hell!" A 1955 French film version, based on the novel and released by Kingsley Pictures, was the subject of attempted censorship in New York in 1959 on the grounds that it promoted adultery. The

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

held on 29 June 1959 that the law prohibiting its showing was a violation of the First Amendment's protection of free speech. The ban on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towa ...

'' and '' Fanny Hill'' was fought and overturned in court with assistance by publisher Barney Rosset and lawyer Charles Rembar in 1959. It was then published by Rosset's

Grove Press Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United Sta ...

, with the complete opinion by United States Court of Appeals Judge

Frederick van Pelt Bryan Frederick van Pelt Bryan (April 27, 1904 – April 17, 1978) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bryan received an Arti ...

, which first established the standard of "redeeming social or literary value" as a defence against obscenity charges. Fred Kaplan of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated the overturning of the obscenity laws "set off an explosion of

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay " Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. He ...

, in a 1961 essay in ''The Supplement'' to the '' Columbia Spectator'' that was republished in '' Against Interpretation'' (1966), dismissed ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' as a "sexually reactionary" book and suggested that the importance given to vindicating it showed that the US was "plainly at a very elementary stage of sexual maturity".

Japan

Ito and Oyama at the 1st Chatterley trial

The publication of a full translation of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' by Sei Itō in 1950 led to a famous obscenity trial in Japan that extended from 8 May 1951 to 18 January 1952, with appeals lasting to 13 March 1957. Several notable literary figures testified for the defence. The trial ultimately ended in a guilty verdict with a ¥100,000 fine for Ito and a ¥250,000 fine for his publisher.

India

In 1964, the bookseller Ranjit Udeshi in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

was prosecuted under Section 292 of the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established ...

(sale of obscene books) for selling an unexpurgated copy of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''. ''Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra'' (AIR 1965 SC 881) was eventually laid before a three-judge bench of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. Chief Justice Hidayatullah declared the law on the subject of when a book can be regarded as obscene and established important tests of obscenity such as the

Hicklin test The Hicklin test is a legal test for obscenity established by the English case ''Regina v Hicklin'' (1868). At issue was the statutory interpretation of the word "obscene" in the Obscene Publications Act 1857, which authorized the destruction of ...

. The court upheld the conviction:

Cultural influence

In the United States, the full publication of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was a significant event in the "

sexual revolution The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...

". The book was then a topic of widespread discussion and a byword of sorts. In 1965, Tom Lehrer recorded a satirical song, "Smut", in which the speaker in the song lyrics cheerfully acknowledges his enjoyment of such material; "Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately?/I've got a hobby: rereading ''Lady Chatterley''". The British poet Philip Larkin's poem "Annus Mirabilis" begins with a reference to the trial: In 1976, the story was parodied by

Morecambe and Wise Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew, 14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984) and Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman, 27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999), known as Morecambe and Wise (and sometimes as Eric and Ernie), were an English comic double act, workin ...

on their BBC sketch show. A "play what Ernie wrote", ''The Handyman and M'Lady'', was obviously based on it, with

Michele Dotrice Michele Dotrice (born 27 September 1948) is an English actress. She portrayed Betty Spencer, the long-suffering wife of Frank Spencer, portrayed by Michael Crawford, in the BBC sitcom ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', which ran from 1973 to 1978, ...

as the Lady Chatterley figure. Introducing it, Ernie explained that his play "concerns a rich, titled young lady who is deprived of love, caused by her husband falling into a combine harvester, which unfortunately makes him impudent". In the 1998 film '' Pleasantville'', a film that narrativizes conservative cultural nostalgia for the 1950s as a response to the sexual revolution of the 1960s, Jennifer (played by Reese Witherspoon) reads ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' as a principal part of her character development, causing her to become "colored", the film's metaphor for personal growth and transformation.

Bibliography

Editions

* First published privately in 1928 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, with assistance from

Pino Orioli Giuseppe "Pino" Orioli (1884–1942) was a Florentine bookseller best known for privately publishing the unexpurgated first edition of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' and for his long association with Norman Douglas. Giuseppe Orioli was born in 1884 ...

, and in France in 1929. A private edition was issued in Australia by Inky Stephensen's Mandrake Press in 1929. * *Soon after the 1928 publication and suppression, an unexpurgated

Tauchnitz Tauchnitz was the name of a family of German printers and publishers. They published English language literature for distribution on the European continent outside Great Britain, including initial serial publications of novels by Charles Dickens. ...

edition appeared in Europe. Jock Colville, then 18, purchased a copy in Germany in 1933 and lent it to his mother Lady Cynthia, who passed it on to Queen Mary, only for it to be confiscated by

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

. *In 1946, Victor Pettersons Bokindustriaktiebolag

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

, Sweden published an English hardcover edition, copyright Jan Förlag. It is marked "Unexpurgated authorized edition". A paperback edition followed in 1950. * These two books, ''The First Lady Chatterley'' and '' John Thomas and Lady Jane'', were earlier drafts of Lawrence's last novel. * Lawrence's 1927 version, first issued in English in 1972. * * . * . * **.

Adaptations

Books

''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was re-imagined as a love triangle set in contemporary Silicon Valley, California in the novel ''Miss Chatterley'' by Logan Belle (the pseudonym for American author Jamie Brenner) published by Pocket Star/Simon & Schuster, May 2013.

Film and television

''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' has been adapted for film and television several times: * ''

L'Amant de lady Chatterley ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (french: L'Amant de lady Chatterley) is a 1955 French drama film directed by Marc Allégret who co-wrote screenplay with Philippe de Rothschild and Gaston Bonheur, based on the 1928 novel by D. H. Lawrence. In 1955, ...

'' (1955), French drama film starring Danielle Darrieux, was banned in the United States because it "promoted adultery", but was released in 1959 after the Supreme Court reversed that decision. * ''

Edakallu Guddada Mele ''Edakallu Guddada Mele'' () is a 1973 Indian Kannada-language film directed by Puttanna Kanagal. It is based on the novel of same name by Bharathi Suta which was an adaptation of the English novel '' Lady Chatterley's Lover'' by D. H. Lawrence. ...

'' (''On top of Edakallu Hill'') (1973), an

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Kannada language Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native ...

film starring Jayanthi and directed by

Puttanna Kanagal Shubraveshti Ramaswamiah Seetharama Sharma (1 December 1933 – 5 June 1985), known popularly as S. R. Puttanna Kanagal, was an Indian filmmaker known for his work in Kannada cinema. He is often considered one of Kannada cinema's most influent ...

, was loosely based on the Kannada novel of the same name which was inspired by ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''. * '' Sharapancharam'' (''Bed of Arrows'') (1979), an Indian

Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

film starring

Jayan Krishnan Nair (25 July 1939 – 16 November 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan, was an Indian actor, naval officer, stunt performer and cultural icon of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in over 150 Malayalam films. During his film car ...

and Sheela and directed by Hariharan, was loosely based on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''. * ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (1981), French film directed by Just Jaeckin and produced by

Menahem Golan Menahem Golan ( he, מנחם גולן; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014, originally Menachem Globus) was an Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He was best known for co-owning The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon ...

and Yoram Globus, starred Sylvia Kristel and Nicholas Clay. (Jaeckin had previously directed Kristel in ''

Emmanuelle Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French erotic films based on the main character in the novel '' Emmanuelle'' (1959), created by Emmanuelle Arsan. Character history Emmanuelle appeared as the pen name of Marayat Rollet-And ...

,'' which was released in 1974.) * '' Lady Chatterley'' (1993), is a BBC Television serial which was directed by

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptation ...

for BBC Television; it starred Joely Richardson and Sean Bean and incorporated some material from the longer second version ''John Thomas and Lady Jane.'' * ''Milenec lady Chatterleyové'' (1998) is a Czech television version directed by Viktor Polesný and starring Zdena Studenková (Constance),

Marek Vašut Marek Vašut (born 5 May 1960 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech film, stage, and television actor, best known for his appearances in ''Solomon Kane'' and ''Blade II''. He voiced the character Tommy Angelo for the Czech version of the video ...

(Clifford), and Boris Rösner (Mellors). *''Ang Kabit ni Mrs Montero'' (''Mrs. Montero's Paramour,'' 1998) is a Filipino soft-core film adapted by director Peque Gallaga. *The French director Pascale Ferran filmed a French-Language version (2006) with Marina Hands as Constance and Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the gamekeeper, which won the Cesar Award for Best Film in 2007. Marina Hands was awarded best actress at the 2007

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

. The film was based on ''John Thomas and Lady Jane'', Lawrence's second version of the story. It was broadcast on the French television channel Arte on 22 June 2007 as ''Lady Chatterley et l'homme des bois'' (''Lady Chatterley and the Man of the Woods''). *''Lady Chatterley's Daughter'' (Lady Chatterley's Ghost) (2011) an American film. Director/

Fred Olen Ray Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter of more than 200 low-to-medium-budget feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, erotic thrillers, crime ...

. Actress/Cassandra Cruz. *'' Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (2015) is a BBC television film starring

Holliday Grainger Holliday Clark Grainger (born 27 March 1988), also credited as Holly Grainger, is an English screen and stage actress. Some of her prominent roles are Kate Beckett in the BAFTA award-winning children's series ''Roger and the Rottentrolls'', L ...

, Richard Madden and James Norton. Produced by Hartswood Films and Serena Cullen Productions, it was first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on 6 September 2015. It was released by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

as a drama series and stars Madden as the eponymous lover, Oliver Mellors; Grainger as Lady Chatterley; and Norton as Lady Chatterley’s disabled husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley. *'' Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (2022) is a film directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and starring

Emma Corrin Emma-Louise Corrin (born 13 December 1995) is an English actor. They portrayed Diana, Princess of Wales in the fourth season of the Netflix historical drama '' The Crown'' (2020), for which they won a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Award ...

and Jack O’Connell as Constance Reid and Mellors, respectively. It was released on 25 November 2022 in UK cinemas and on 2 December 2022 on

. ; ;Use of character The character of Lady Chatterley appears in ''Fanny Hill Meets Lady Chatterly'' (1967), ''Lady Chatterly Versus Fanny Hill'' (1974) and '' Young Lady Chatterley'' (1977). Bartholomew Bandy meets her shortly after her 1917 marriage in the novel ''Three Cheers for Me'' (1962, revised 1973) by Donald Jack.

Radio

''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' has been adapted for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

by Michelene Wandor and was first broadcast in September 2006.

Theatre

Lawrence's novel was successfully dramatised for the stage in a three-act play by British playwright John Harte. Although produced at the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...

in London in 1961 (and elsewhere later on), his play was written in 1953. It was the only D.H. Lawrence novel ever to be staged, and his dramatisation was the only one to be read and approved by Lawrence's widow, Frieda. Despite her attempts to obtain the copyright for Harte to have his play staged in the 1950s, Baron Philippe de Rothschild did not relinquish the dramatic rights until his film version was released in France. Only the Old Bailey trial against

Lord Chamberlain's Office The Lord Chamberlain's Office is a department within the British Royal Household. It is concerned with matters such as protocol, state visits, investitures, garden parties, royal weddings and funerals. For example, in April 2005 it organised the ...

on 12 August 1960 with passages censored. It was fully booked out for its limited run at the Arts Theatre and well reviewed by Harold Hobson, the prevailing West End theatre critic of the time. A new stage version, adapted and directed by Philip Breen and produced by the English Touring Theatre and Sheffield Theatres, opened at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, between 21 September and 15 October 2016, before touring the UK until November 2016.

Parody

Comedian Spike Milligan parodied the story in his ''

According to Spike Milligan ''According to Spike Milligan'' is a series of literary pastiche novels written by Spike Milligan from 1993 to 2000. Each part of the series was a rewriting of an original novel, with surreal comic elements added that fit into certain points of ...

'' series, under the title of ''D. H. Lawrence's John Thomas and Lady Jane – Part II of Lady Chatterley's Lover''.

References

External links

* Free e-text of
Lady Chatterley's Lover
' on Project Gutenberg Australia.
''Lady Chatterley's Lover''
at

, the American publisher of the book
''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (D.H. Lawrence)
study guide, SparkNotes
''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' trial papers
University of Bristol Library Special Collections ** ** * {{Authority control 1928 British novels Adultery in novels British erotic novels Novels by D. H. Lawrence British novels adapted into films Obscenity controversies in literature Modernist novels Novels set in Nottinghamshire United States pornography law British novels adapted into television shows Censored books Controversies in the United Kingdom