Lady Chatterley's Lover has landed on Netflix and fans of Atonement, Emma and Anna Karenina won't want to miss it.
The Crown's Emma Corrin and SAS Rogue Heroes' Jack O'Connell portray Lady Chatterley and Oliver Mellors, respectively, telling a love story that will have your pulse racing and your heart melting.
Mrs. America and The Act director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and Life of Pi's David Magee are behind the most recent adaption of D.H. Lawrence's novel of the same name.
While the Netflix movie is sure to get people talking, the original novel itself hit headlines for alleged "obscenity."
Newsweek has everything you need to know about the controversy behind D.H. Lawrence's classic novel.
The Controversy Behindthe Novel
D.H. Lawrence's novel was once at the center of an obscenity trial in the United Kingdom for its explicit and detailed descriptions of sex, as well as what was deemed offensive language peppered across the book's pages.
Lady Chatterley's Lover was first published in 1928, privately in Italy and then in France in 1929, before an officially censored version arrived in the U.K. in 1960.
Before then, Lawrence readers had limited access to the original version or had to purchase pirate copies.
The novel was also banned in numerous countries, including Canada, Australia, India and Japan. In the U.S., the book was banned since 1929, but that was eventually overturned and it was finally published in 1959, a year before the U.K. followed suit.
Like the 2022 Netflix movie, Lawrence's novel follows the love story of Lady Constance "Connie" Chatterley and game-keeper Oliver Mellors.
Their love affair challenges all social norms and Connie is faced with the decision of ending her loveless marriage to wealthy landowner Sir Clifford Chatterley and shedding her upper-class social status to be with Oliver.
The novel's plot caused an outcry due to its details of a romantic relationship between a young working-class man and an upper-class woman.
In November 1960, the full unexpurgated edition was published by Penguin Books in the U.K. However, the book came under fire for its use of four-letter words, which were then deemed unprintable.
An obscenity trial was held in the United Kingdom in 1960 regarding Lawrence's novel, known as Regina v. Penguin Books Ltd under the Obscene Publications Act 1959.
The act stated publishers could escape conviction if they could prove the work was of literary merit.
After a six-day trial at the Old Bailey, which featured authors and critics such as E.M. Forster, Richard Hoggart and Helen Gardner as a witnesses, the jury found Lady Chatterley's Lover wasn't obscene, and an uncensored version could therefore be published.
Following Penguin's victory, Lady Chatterley's Lover quickly sold 3 million copies, according to The Guardian.
The trial itself was seen as a watershed moment in the U.K., calling into question Britain's publishing laws and censorship.
The Penguin second edition, published in 1961, contains a publisher's dedication that 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."
Lady Chatterley's Lover is streaming on Netflix now.
Uncommon Knowledge
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