Editing Lady Chatterley's Lover

{{short description|1928 novel by D. H. Lawrence}}
{{about|the novel}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox book
| name              = Lady Chatterley's Lover
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = Lady chatterley's lover 1932 UK (Secker).png
| caption           = 1932 UK authorised edition
| author            = [[D. H. Lawrence]]
| illustrator       = 
| country           = Italy (1st publication)
| cover_artist      = 
| language          = English
| series            = 
| genre             = Romance<br/>Erotic
| publisher         = Tipografia Giuntina, [[Florence]], Italy<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5146586 |title=Lawrence, D. H. (1885–1830). Lady Chatterley's Lover. [Florence: Printed by the Tipografia Giuntina, directed by L. Franceschini] |website=www.christies.com |access-date=31 July 2020}}</ref>
| release_date      = {{plainlist|1=* 1928 (private)
* 1932 (authorised)
"Complete and unexpurgated" edition:
* 1959 (US)
* 1960 (UK)
}}
| preceded_by       = [[John Thomas and Lady Jane]] (1927)
| followed_by       = 
| external_url      = 
| wikisource        = Lady Chatterley's Lover
}}
'''''Lady Chatterley's Lover''''' is the final novel by English author [[D. H. Lawrence]], which was first published privately in 1928, in [[Florence, Italy]], and in 1929, in [[Paris, France]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/22/dh-lawrence-lady-chatterley-trial|title=The trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover|last=QC|first=Geoffrey Robertson|date=22 October 2010|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=6 September 2016}}</ref> An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, when it was the subject of a watershed [[R v Penguin Books Ltd|obscenity trial]] against the publisher [[Penguin Books]], which won the case and quickly sold three million copies.<ref name=":0" /> 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 profane words.

==Background==
Lawrence's life, including his wife, Frieda, and his childhood in [[Nottinghamshire]], influenced the novel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who was the real Lady Chatterley? |url=https://www.hachette.com.au/news/who-was-the-real-lady-chatterley |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=www.hachette.com.au}}</ref> According to some critics, the fling of [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]] with "Tiger", a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story.<ref>{{Citation | first = Maev | last = Kennedy | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,,1891481,00.html | title = The real Lady Chatterley: society hostess loved and parodied by Bloomsbury group | newspaper = [[The Guardian]] | place = London | date = 10 October 2006 | access-date = 19 June 2008}}.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lady Chatterley's predecessor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/08/27/archives/john-thomas-and-lady-jane-by-dh-lawrence-372-pp-new-york-the-viking.html |access-date=23 August 2020 |newspaper=The New York Times|date=27 August 1972 |last1=Moore |first1=Harry T. }}</ref>

Lawrence allegedly read the manuscript of ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' by [[E. M. Forster]], which was written in 1914 but 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''.<ref>King, Dixie (1982). "The Influence of Forster's ''Maurice'' on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''", ''[[Contemporary Literature (journal)|Contemporary Literature]]'' Vol. 23, No. 1 (Winter, 1982), pp. 65–82</ref><ref>Delaveny, Emile (1971). ''D. H. Lawrence and Edward Carpenter: A Study in Edwardian Transition''. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company. {{ISBN|978-0800821807}}</ref>

==Plot==
The story concerns a young married woman, the former Constance Reid (Lady Chatterley), whose upper-class [[baronet]] 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. 
==Characters==
'''Lady Constance Chatterley (Connie):''' The main character of the novel. Connie, who is an intellectual and socially progressive, distances herself from her cold and passionless husband after marrying Sir Clifford Chatterley. She falls in love with the gamekeeper Oliver Mellors and establishes a sexual bond with him. She matures as a sensual being and eventually leaves her husband.

'''Oliver Mellors:''' The gamekeeper at Clifford Chatterley's estate. Cold, intelligent, and noble in spirit, Mellors escapes a miserable marriage and lives a quiet life. His relationship with Connie rekindles his passion for life. At the end of the novel, he plans to marry Connie.

'''Sir Clifford Chatterley:''' Connie's wealthy, but paralyzed and impotent husband. Clifford, who is a successful writer and businessman, is emotionally cold and focused on material success. He is dependent on his nurse, Mrs. Bolton, and looks down on the lower classes.

'''Mrs. Bolton (Ivy Bolton):''' Clifford's nurse. She is a middle-aged, complex, and intelligent woman. Her husband died in an accident in the mines owned by Clifford's family. Mrs. Bolton both admires and despises Clifford, and their relationship is intricate.

'''Michaelis:''' A successful Irish playwright. He has a brief relationship with Connie and proposes to her, but Connie sees him as a slave to success and devoid of passion.

'''Hilda Reid:''' Connie's older sister by two years. Hilda shares the same intellectual upbringing as Connie, but she looks down on Connie's relationship with Mellors due to his lower-class status. However, she eventually supports Connie.

'''Sir Malcolm Reid:''' The father of Connie and Hilda. He is a renowned painter and a sensual aesthete. He finds Clifford weak and immediately warms to Mellors.

'''Tommy Dukes:''' Clifford's friend and a brigadier general in the British army. He talks about the importance of sensuality but is personally detached from sexuality, only engaging in intellectual discussions.

'''Charles May, Hammond, Berry:''' Clifford's young intellectual friends. They visit Wragby and participate in meaningless discussions about love and sex.

'''Duncan Forbes:''' Connie and Hilda's artist friend. He paints abstract art, and at one point was in love with Connie. Connie initially claims she is pregnant with his child.

'''Bertha Coutts:''' Mellors' wife. Although she doesn't appear in the novel, her presence is felt. Separated from Mellors due to sexual incompatibility, she spreads rumors about Mellors, leading to his dismissal from his job.

'''Squire Winter:''' A relative of Clifford. He strongly believes in the old privileges of the aristocracy.

'''Daniele and Giovanni:''' Venetian gondoliers who serve Hilda and Connie. Giovanni hopes the women will pay him to sleep with them, but he is disappointed. Daniele reminds Connie of Mellors, as he is seen as a "real man."

== Themes ==
=== 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.<ref name="Intro, 2nd edition">{{Harvnb | Hoggart | 1961 | p = viii}}.</ref> 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".{{Sfn | Hoggart | 1961 | p = viii}}  ''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:

{{blockquote|So they had given the gift of themselves, each to the youth with whom she had the most subtle and intimate arguments. The arguments, the discussions were the great thing: the love-making and connection were only sort of primitive reversion and a bit of an anti-climax.{{Sfn | Lawrence | 1961 | page = 7}}}}

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.{{Sfn | Hoggart | 1961 | p = x}} 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".<ref>{{cite book|author=Turner, Jenny|editor=Gilbert, Harriett|title=The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion|publisher=Jonathan Cape|date=1993|page=149}}</ref>

=== 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]] 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.<ref>{{Citation | last = Schorer | first = Mark | contribution = Introduction | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover | place = New York | publisher = Grover Press | year = 1993 | page = 17}}.</ref> 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:

{{blockquote|Clifford Chatterley was more upper class than Connie. Connie was well-to-do intelligentsia, but he was aristocracy. Not the big sort, but still ''it''. His father was a baronet, and his mother had been a viscount's daughter.{{Sfn | Lawrence | 2003 | p = 5}}}}

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]].) They were also centres of widespread [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformism]] (Non-Anglican Protestantism), which hold proscriptive views on sexual sins such as adultery. References to the concepts of [[anarchism]], [[socialism]], [[communism]] and [[capitalism]] permeate the book. [[Strike action|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]]'' and short stories such as ''[[Odour of Chrysanthemums]]''.

=== 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lawrence and the Nature Tradition: A Theme in English Fiction 1859–1914|last=Ebbatson|first=Roger|publisher=Harvester|year=1980|page=44}}</ref> 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 [of] the novel in its unexpurgated form".<ref name="Random House Note"/> 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.<ref name="Random House Note">{{cite book |author=Random House Inc. |year=2001 |chapter=A Note on the Text |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ean_IacEE18C&dq=%22lady%20chatterley's%20lover%22%201932%20united%20states%20-wikipedia&pg=PA359 |title=Lady Chatterley's Lover |edition=2001 Modern Library Paperback |publisher=Modern Library |isbn=9780375758003 }}</ref> 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 journalist [[Gerald Gould]] 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".<ref>"New Novels", ''The Observer'', 28 February 1932, p. 6.</ref> An authorised and heavily censored abridgment was published in the United States by [[Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.]] also in 1932.<ref name="Censored2017">{{cite book |last1=Fellion |first1=Matthew |last2=Inglis |first2=Katherine |year=2017 |chapter=Chapter 12: ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (D.H. Lawrence) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ean_IacEE18C&dq=%22lady%20chatterley's%20lover%22%201932%20united%20states%20-wikipedia&pg=PA359 |title=Censored: A Literary History of Subversion and Control |publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press |location=Montreal |pages=191, 193 |isbn=978-0-7735-5127-5}}</ref> That edition was subsequently reissued in paperback in the United States by Signet Books in 1946.

=== British obscenity trial ===
{{main |R v Penguin Books Ltd}}
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Lady chatterley's lover 1960 UK unexpurgated edition.png|thumb|upright|1960 British "complete and unexpurgated" edition{{ffdc|1=Lady chatterley's lover 1960 UK unexpurgated edition.png|log=2020 November 4}}]] -->

In November 1960, the full unexpurgated edition, the last of three versions written by Lawrence,<ref name="compleatseanbean-chatterley">{{cite web |last1=Kent |first1=Winona |title=Lady Chatterley |url=https://www.compleatseanbean.com/chatterley.html |website=CompleatSeanBean.com |publisher=Winona Kent |access-date=4 March 2022 |location=Vancouver <!-- https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-news/people-you-should-know-in-new-west-winona-kent-3876294 -->}}</ref> was published by [[Penguin Books]] in Britain, selling its first print run of 200,000 copies on the first day of publication.<ref name="theguardian.com/books/quiz">{{cite news |title=How well do you know Lady Chatterley? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/quiz/2015/sep/06/lady-chatterleys-lover-quiz-bbc-adaptation |access-date=4 March 2022 |work=[[the Guardian]] |date=6 September 2015 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday">{{cite news |title=10 November 1960: Lady Chatterley's Lover sold out |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/10/newsid_2965000/2965194.stm |access-date=4 March 2022 |work=ON THIS DAY |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

The [[R v Penguin Books Ltd.|trial of Penguin]] under the [[Obscene Publications Act 1959]] was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law. The 1959 Act, introduced by [[Roy Jenkins]], had made it possible for publishers to escape conviction if they could show that a work was of literary merit. One of the objections was to the frequent use of the word "fuck" and its derivatives. Another objection related to the use of the word "cunt".

Various academic critics and experts of diverse kinds, including [[E. M. Forster]], [[Helen Gardner (critic)|Helen Gardner]], [[Richard Hoggart]], [[Raymond Williams]] and [[Norman St John-Stevas]], 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]]''.

=== Australia ===
The book was banned in Australia,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74571643/penguin-books-may-contest-ban-on-lady-c |title=Penguin Books May Contest Ban on 'Lady Chatterly' |newspaper=[[The Age]] |location=[[Melbourne]] |page=13 |date=24 February 1961 |accessdate=28 March 2021 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.grin.com/document/205358 |title=Censorship in Australia – The Case of Lady Chatterley's Lover |first=Sophie |last=Lamell |date=2011 |accessdate=28 March 2021}}</ref> and a book describing the British trial, ''The Trial of Lady Chatterley'', was also banned.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74573518/publishing-action-to-test-the-law |title=Publishing Action to Test The Law |first=H. G. |last=Kippax |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |page=12 |date=17 April 1965 |accessdate=28 March 2021 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> 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.<ref>Patrick Mullins, ''The Trials of Portnoy: How Penguin Brought down Australia's Censorship System'', Brunswick, Victoria: Scribe Publications, 2020, chapter 4.</ref><ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/221080682 The trial of Lady Chatterley : Regina v. Penguin Books Limited], worldcat.org. Retrieved 6 June 2021.</ref> The fallout from that event eventually led to the easing of [[censorship in Australia|censorship]] of books in the country. The ban by the [[Department of Customs and Excise]] on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', along with three other books—''[[Borstal Boy]]'', ''[[Vance Bourjaily|Confessions of a Spent Youth]]'', and ''[[Lolita]]''—was lifted in July 1965.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/74572326/police-to-decide-on-book-prosecutions |title=Police to Decide on Book Prosecutions |newspaper=[[The Age]] |location=[[Melbourne]] |page=3 |date=28 July 1965 |accessdate=28 March 2021 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> The [[Australian Classification Board]], established in 1970, remains.

=== Canada ===
{{see also|Censorship in Canada}}
In 1962, [[McGill University]] Professor of Law and Canadian [[modernist]] poet [[F. R. Scott]] appeared before the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] 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 (Canada)|Criminal Code]].<ref>''Criminal Code'', SC 1953–54, c 51, s. 150A, as enacted by SC 1959, c 41, s 12.</ref> 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]]).<ref>''Brodie v The Queen'' (1961), 36 CR 200 (Que QB (App Side)).</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/6798/index.do?r=AAAAAQAKY2hhdHRlcmxleQE|title=Brody, Dansky, Rubin v. The Queen, [1962] S.C.R. 681|website=scc-csc.lexum.com|language=en|date=1962|access-date=24 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104203113/http://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/6798/index.do?r=AAAAAQAKY2hhdHRlcmxleQE|archive-date=4 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 (Canada)|Criminal Code]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Nov&day=15 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121210072433/http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Nov&day=15 |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 December 2012 |title=News |publisher=Sympatico.ca |access-date=14 February 2011}}</ref>

=== United States ===
[[File:Lady chatterley's lover 1959 US unexpurgated edition.jpg|thumb|One of the US "unexpurgated" editions (1959)|333x333px]]
''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was banned for obscenity in the United States in 1929. In 1930, [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Bronson Cutting]] proposed an amendment to the [[Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act]], which was being debated, to end the practice of having [[United States Customs Service|U.S. Customs]] censor allegedly obscene imported books. Senator [[Reed Smoot]] 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!"<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,738937,00.html "Decency Squabble"]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827230559/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C738937%2C00.html |date=27 August 2013 }}, ''Time'' magazine, 31 March 1930</ref>

A [[Lady Chatterley's Lover (1955 film)|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.<ref>{{cite news|last=Crowther |first=Bosley |url= https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=980CE4DE143BEF3BBC4952DFB1668382649EDE |title=Controversial Movie has Première Here | newspaper= The New York Times | date=11 July 1959 |access-date=14 February 2011}}</ref> The [[US Supreme Court]] held on 29 June 1959 that the law prohibiting its showing was a violation of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment's]] protection of free speech.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?friend=nytimes&navby=case&court=us&vol=360&invol=684 | title = Kingsley Pictures Corp. v. Regents, 360 U.S. 684 | date=29 June 1959 | publisher = Find law}}.</ref>

The ban on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'', ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'' and ''[[Fanny Hill]]'' was fought and overturned in court with assistance by publisher [[Barney Rosset]] and lawyer [[Charles Rembar]] in 1959.<ref>{{Citation | url = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15811131582924106766 | title = Grove Press, Inc. v. Christenberry, 175 F. Supp. 488 (SDNY 1959) | date = 21 July 1959}}.</ref> It was then published by Rosset's [[Grove Press]], with the complete opinion by United States Court of Appeals Judge [[Frederick van Pelt Bryan]], which first established the standard of "redeeming social or literary value" as a defence against obscenity charges. Fred Kaplan of ''[[The New York Times]]'' stated the overturning of the obscenity laws "set off an explosion of [[free speech]]".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kaplan|first1=Fred|title=The Day Obscenity Became Art|newspaper=The New York Times |date=21 July 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/opinion/21kaplan.html|agency=The New York Times|access-date=17 February 2018}}</ref>

[[Susan Sontag]], in a 1961 essay in ''The Supplement'' to the ''[[Columbia Daily Spectator|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".<ref>{{cite book |author=Sontag, Susan |title=Against Interpretation and Other Essays |publisher=Anchor Books |location=New York |year=1990 |pages=ix, 256 |isbn=0-385-26708-8}}</ref>

=== Japan ===
[[File:Ito and Oyama at the 1st Chatterley trial.JPG|thumb|Translator [[Sei Itō]] (left) and his publisher Hisajirō Oyama (right) at the first Chatterley trial in Japan.]]
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]] was prosecuted under Section 292 of the [[Indian Penal Code]] (sale of obscene books)<ref>{{cite web | work = Indian penal code | url = http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/IndianPenalCode/S292.htm | title = Laws – IPC – Section 292 | publisher = Vakilno 1 | access-date = 14 February 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110518194308/http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/IndianPenalCode/S292.htm | archive-date = 18 May 2011}}</ref> 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]]. 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]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.worldlii.org/in/cases/cen/INSC/1964/177.html|title=Ranjit D. Udeshi v. State of Maharashtra (1964)|publisher=Worldlii | access-date=14 February 2011}}</ref>

The court upheld the conviction:

{{blockquote|When everything said in its favour we find that in treating with sex the impugned portions viewed separately and also in the setting of the whole book pass the permissible limits judged of from our community standards and as there is no social gain to us which can be said to preponderate, we must hold the book to satisfy the test we have indicated above.}}

== Cultural influence ==
In the United States, the full publication of ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was a significant event in the "sexual revolution". 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:

{{poemquote|
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the "''Chatterley''" ban
And [[Please Please Me|the Beatles' first LP]].
}}

In 1976, the story was parodied by [[Morecambe and Wise]] on their [[The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968 TV series)|BBC sketch show]]. A "play what Ernie wrote", ''The Handyman and M'Lady'', was obviously based on it, with [[Michele Dotrice]] 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".<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1700689/ “The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968–1977). Episode #9.2”]. IMDb.</ref>

In the 1998 film ''[[Pleasantville (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.

A [[Marriage of Figaro (Mad Men)|2007 episode]] of [[Mad Men]] saw [[Joan Harris|Joan]], [[Peggy Olson|Peggy]], and other women in the office discuss ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''. It is spoken of in scandalous tones and Joan remarks that the pages 'just fall open' to presumably the most salacious portions of the book.

A 2020 episode of ''[[Ghosts (2019 British TV series)|Ghosts]]'' had Fanny (a ghost and the former [[Lord of the manor|lady of the manor]] from the [[Edwardian era]]) reading the book, and then developing feelings for Mike (the alive husband of her descendant, whom she otherwise thinks of as uncouth and uncultured) while he does garden work. Any pretenses of a full relationship are dashed, however, when she sees him slovenly eating a plate of nachos.

''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is also mentioned by characters in [[Meyer Levin|Meyer Levin's]] novel ''[[Compulsion (Levin novel)|Compulsion]]''.

== Bibliography ==

=== Editions ===
* First published privately in 1928 in [[Florence]], with assistance from [[Pino Orioli]], and in France in 1929. A private edition was issued in Australia by [[P. R. Stephensen|Inky Stephensen]]'s Mandrake Press in 1929.<ref>{{Citation|last=Winter|first=Barbara|title=The Australia-First Movement and the Publicist, 1936–1942|year=2005|place=Carindale, Queensland|publisher=Glass House|isbn=1-876819-91-X}}.</ref>
* {{cite book|title=Lady Chatterley's Lover|year=1928|editor= Michael Squires|publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]], 1993| isbn= 0-521-22266-4}}
*Soon after the 1928 publication and suppression, an unexpurgated [[Tauchnitz]] edition appeared in Europe. [[Jock Colville]], then 18, purchased a copy in Germany in 1933 and lent it to his mother [[Lady Cynthia Colville|Lady Cynthia]], who passed it on to [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]], only for it to be confiscated by [[King George V]].<ref>''Footprints in Time''. John Colville. 1976. Chapter 6, Lady Chatterley's Lover.</ref>
*In 1946, Victor Pettersons Bokindustriaktiebolag [[Stockholm]], Sweden published an English hardcover edition, copyright Jan Förlag. It is marked "Unexpurgated authorized edition". A paperback edition followed in 1950.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}
* {{cite book|title=The First and Second Lady Chatterley Novels|editor= Dieter Mehl & [[Christa Jansohn]]|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year= 1999| isbn= 0-521-47116-8}} These two books, ''The First Lady Chatterley'' and ''[[John Thomas and Lady Jane]]'', were earlier drafts of Lawrence's last novel.
* {{cite book|title=The Second Lady Chatterley's Lover|publisher= Oneworld Classics|year= 2007| isbn =978-1-84749-019-3}} Lawrence's 1927 version, first issued in English in 1972.
* {{cite book |last= Lawrence |first= D. H. |editor-first= Michael |editor-last= Squires |title= Lady Chatterley's Lover and A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' |series= The Cambridge Edition of the Works of D. H. Lawrence |location= Cambridge |publisher= University of Cambridge Press |date= 2002 |isbn= 0-521-00717-8 |quote= Edited with an introduction, explanatory notes, glossary, textual apparatus and various appendices by Michael Squire. The standard and definitive text.}}
* {{Citation | last = Lawrence | first = D. H. | year = 1959 | orig-year = 1928 | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover | publisher = Grove | edition = 1st }}.
* {{Citation | last = Lawrence | first = D. H. | year = 1959 | orig-year = 1928 | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover | publisher = Signet | edition = 1st }}.
* {{Citation | last = Lawrence | first = D. H. | year = 1961 | orig-year = 1928 | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover | edition = 2nd}}
* {{Citation | last = Lawrence | first = D. H. | orig-year = 1928 | year = 2003 | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover | place = New York | publisher = Signet | author-mask = 3}}.
*{{cite book | last = Hoggart |first=R. | chapter =Introduction | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover |location=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin |year=1973 | edition = 2nd |isbn = 0-14-001484-5 }}.
**{{Citation | last = Hoggart | first = R | year = 1961 | contribution = Introduction | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover | edition = 2nd | author-mask = 3}}.

=== Further reading ===
* Sybille Bedford (2016), ''The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover'', with an introduction by Thomas Grant, London: Daunt Books, {{ISBN|978-1-907970-97-9}}
*{{cite book |title=The Trial of Lady Chatterley |first=C. H. |last=Rolph |location=London |publisher=Penguin |year=1961 |isbn=0-14-013381-X |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/trialofladychatt00rolp }}
* {{cite thesis |last1=Augustine |first1=Ivyanne Marie |title=Regeneration and Social Spaces in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" |date=Winter 2018 |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] |url=https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/english-assets/migrated/honors_files/Augustine,%20Ivyanne_Thesis.pdf |quote=A thesis presented for the B. A. degree with Honors in The Department of English}}

== 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Miss Chatterley| first =Logan | last = Belle | date =May 2013|publisher=Pocket Star/Simon & Schuster}}</ref>

=== Film and television ===
''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' has been adapted for film and television several times:
* ''[[L'Amant de lady Chatterley]]'' (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.<ref>{{cite news|url= http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/33521/|title= Mariane's Labyrinth: ''A Mighty Heart'' is a powerful journey down terror's rat holes. Plus: French erotics and Hollywood piety| first = David | last = Edelstein |date= 17 June 2007}}</ref>
* ''[[Edakallu Guddada Mele]]'' (''On top of Edakallu Hill'') (1973), an [[India]]n [[Kannada language]] film starring [[Jayanthi (actress)|Jayanthi]] and directed by [[Puttanna Kanagal]], 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]] film starring [[Jayan]] and [[Sheela]] and directed by [[Hariharan (director)|Hariharan]], was loosely based on ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''.
* [[Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981 film)|''Lady Chatterley's Lover'']] (1981), a British/French film directed by French director [[Just Jaeckin]] in the English language and produced by [[Menahem Golan]] and [[Yoram Globus]], starred [[Sylvia Kristel]] and [[Nicholas Clay]]. (Jaeckin had previously directed Kristel in ''[[Emmanuelle (1974 film)|Emmanuelle]],'' which was released in 1974.)
* ''[[Lady Chatterley (1993 TV serial)|Lady Chatterley]]'' (1993), is a [[BBC Television]] serial which was directed by [[Ken Russell]] 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]] (Clifford), and [[Boris Rösner]] (Mellors).<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q104894540|title=Milenec lady Chatterleyové |description=(1998 Czech-language television version) }}.</ref>
*''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<ref>{{IMDb name |id=0273863 |name=Pascale Ferran}}</ref> filmed a [[Lady Chatterley (film)|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]].<ref>{{Citation | first = André | last = Soares | url = http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/tribeca-film-festival-awards-2007-winners/ | contribution = Tribeca Film Festival Awards – 2007 Winners | title = Alternative Film Guide | date = 5 May 2007 | access-date = 19 June 2008}}.</ref> 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)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1777586/ |title = Lady Chatterley's Daughter|website = [[IMDb]]|date = 15 February 2011|access-date=27 May 2020}}</ref> an American film. Director/[[Fred Olen Ray]]. Actress/Cassandra Cruz.
*''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015 film)|Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'' (2015) is a [[BBC]] television film starring [[Holliday Grainger]], [[Richard Madden]] and [[James Norton (actor)|James Norton]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/lady-chatterley|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118160059/http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/lady-chatterley|title=BBC - Stellar cast announced for Jed Mercurio's adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover - Media Centre|archive-date=18 November 2015|website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> Produced by [[Hartswood Films]] and Serena Cullen Productions, it was first broadcast on [[BBC One]] on 6 September 2015.<ref name="BBC Online 6 September 2015">{{cite web | title= BBC One: Lady Chatterley's Lover |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06b4jpw| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date= 6 September 2015 | website= [[BBC Online]] | access-date= 6 September 2015}}</ref> It was released by [[Netflix]] 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Emma Corrin's Next Period Drama Role Would Make Diana, Princess Of Wales Blush|url=https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/lady-chatterleys-lover|access-date=13 March 2021|website=British Vogue|date=12 March 2021|language=en-GB}}</ref> 
*''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022 film)|Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'' (2022) is an American film directed by French director [[Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre]] and starring [[Emma Corrin]] and [[Jack O'Connell (actor)|Jack O’Connell]] as Constance Reid and Mellors, respectively. It also featured Matthew Duckett as Sir Clifford Chatterley. It was released on 25 November 2022 in UK cinemas and on 2 December 2022 on [[Netflix]].<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/nov/24/lady-chatterleys-lover-review-sensuality-as-an-almost-religious-revelation | title = Lady Chatterley's Lover review – sensuality as an almost religious revelation | first = Peter | last = Bradshaw | date = 24 November 2022 | work = The Guardian}}</ref>

;
;Use of character
The character of Lady Chatterley appears in ''Fanny Hill Meets Lady Chatterley'' (1967),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7159f30e|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210818141929/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7159f30e|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 August 2021|title = Fanny Hill Meets Lady Chatterley (1963)}}</ref> ''Lady Chatterly'' [''sic''] ''Versus Fanny Hill'' (1974)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aacec11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171112035631/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6aacec11|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 November 2017|title = Games That Lovers Play (1971)}}</ref> 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]] by Michelene Wandor and was first broadcast in September 2006.<ref name="BBC Online 17 September 2006">{{cite web | title= BBC Radio 4: Open Book |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/openbook_20060917.shtml| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date= 17 September 2006| website= [[BBC Online]] | access-date= 6 September 2015}}</ref>

=== Theatre ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2013}}
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]] 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 von Richthofen|Frieda]]. Despite her attempts to obtain the copyright for Harte to have his play staged in the 1950s, [[Philippe de Rothschild|Baron Philippe de Rothschild]] did not relinquish the dramatic rights until [[Lady Chatterley's Lover (1955 film)|his film version]] was released in France.

Only the [[Old Bailey]] trial against [[Penguin Books]] for alleged obscenity in publishing the unexpurgated paperback edition of the novel prevented the play's transfer to the much bigger [[Wyndham's Theatre]], for which it had already been licensed by the [[Lord Chamberlain's Office]] on 12 August 1960 with [[Theatre censorship|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|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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/lady-chatterly-the-crucible-13501|title=Theatre review: Lady Chatterley's Lover at The Crucible|website=British Theatre Guide|date=21 September 2016 |accessdate=17 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/theatre-lady-chatterleys-lover-at-the-crucible-sheffield-tzcw3h00t|title=Theatre: Lady Chatterley's Lover at the Crucible, Sheffield|first=Ann|last=Treneman|date=27 September 2016 |access-date=17 February 2021|via=www.thetimes.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ett.org.uk/our-work/lady-chatterleys-lover/|title=Lady Chatterley's Lover|website=English Touring Theatre|accessdate=17 February 2021}}</ref>

==Parody==

''MAD Magazine'' published in 1963 a spoof called ''Lady Chatterley's Chopped Liver And Other Recipes''.<ref>''Mad Follies'' #1 (1963)</ref><ref>[https://www.ellipsisrarebooks.com/product/lady-chatterleys-chopped-liver-mad-magazine-book-cover ''Lady Chatterley's Chopped Liver And Other Recipes'']</ref>

Comedian [[Spike Milligan]] parodied the story in his ''[[According to Spike Milligan]]'' series, under the title of ''D. H. Lawrence's John Thomas and Lady Jane – Part II of Lady Chatterley's Lover''.

== See also ==
*[[Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century|''Le Monde''{{'s}} 100 Books of the Century]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* {{wikisource-inline|Lady Chatterley's Lover|''Lady Chatterley's Lover''|single=true}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/d-h-lawrence/lady-chatterleys-lover}}
* Free e-text of ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100181h.html Lady Chatterley's Lover]'' on Project Gutenberg Australia.
* {{librivox book | title=Lady Chatterley's Lover| author=D. H. Lawrence}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110417163825/http://www.bristol.ac.uk/is/library/collections/specialcollections/archives/penguin/chatterley.html ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' trial papers] University of Bristol Library Special Collections
**{{cite news |last1=Robertson |first1=Geoffrey |author1-link=Geoffrey Robertson |title=The trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/22/dh-lawrence-lady-chatterley-trial |work=[[the Guardian]] |date=22 October 2010 |language=en}}
**{{cite news |last1=Clements |first1=Toby |title=History of Penguin archive |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/4691018/History-of-Penguin-archive.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=19 February 2009 |quote=The archive contains all the legal papers from the trial}}
* {{cite web |last1=Gertz |first1=Stephen J. |title=The Most Pirated Novel of the 20th Century |url=http://www.booktryst.com/2011/12/most-pirated-novel-of-20th-century.html |website=BOOKTRYST |date=12 December 2011}}

{{Lady Chatterley's Lover|state=expanded}}
{{D. H. Lawrence}}
{{Sexual revolution}}
{{British pornography}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1928 British novels]]
[[Category:Novels about infidelity]]
[[Category:British erotic novels]]
[[Category:Novels by D. H. Lawrence]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in literature]]
[[Category:Modernist novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in Nottinghamshire]]
[[Category:United States pornography law]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Works subject to expurgation]]
[[Category:Controversies in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1920s]]
[[Category:Interclass romance in fiction]]
[[Category:Works subject to a lawsuit]]
[[Category:Book censorship in India]]
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