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The news of yesteryear

June 15

The Times Online are doing great things with their archive, which goes right back to 1785 and brings together an incredible wealth of information for interested history buffs. In particular the culture section has dredged up several great articles on bygone literary happenings, including the arrest of Oscar Wilde in April 1895, the ‘scandalous’ publication of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and an early review of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In retrospect these articles are a fascinating read, particularly with regard to Lady Chatterley and Dracula, both of which are regarded as classics.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover
D.H. Lawrence’s novel was banned in the UK for twenty years after it’s original publication in 1928, leading many readers to smuggle illegal copies of the novel into the country throughout the years. The Times covers several of the trials that took place when these copies were found and confiscated for destruction. One article from 1958 neatly captures the opposition to the book at the time and includes this rather entertaining exchange between a Thames’ Court magistrate and lawyer:

The Magistrate: I have read the book and it is absolute rubbish.

Counsel: I am not here to defend its literary merits but I do not know which edition you read – the expurgated or the unexpurgated.

Magistrate: Whichever version, it was still rubbish, but I suppose it must have been the expurgated – I should have chucked the other on the fire.

In 1960 Penguin decided to take advantage of a new clause in the Obscene Publications Act, which permitted books to be printed if they could prove ‘literary merit’, and released the novel in the UK. The company was later charged under the Act, causing several Times readers to write in support. Chairman of Hutchinson Publishing, Mr Robert Lusty (possibly a rather unfortunate name give the circumstances), wrote this eloquent letter to the editor in Penguin’s defence:

‘At this late stage is it possible to appeal for the preservation of perspective and common sense in an approach to this matter? Reputable publishers possessing a sense of responsibility and vocation find themselves in these days in a situation almost intolerable. Most of us find ourselves from time to time declining novels obviously destined for commercial success, which are in our view contrary to public interest but on which no subsequent official action seems ever to be contemplated. In view of all this I have recently read for the first time the unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and would like at this juncture to proclaim my conviction that Messrs. Penguin have shown the utmost wisdom in arranging for its publication under their particular and admired imprint at the present time… if action is contemplated against this book we shall be rightly branded as a nation of puritanical ostriches unable to distinguish between honest integrity and the exploitation of human depravities’.

Review of Dracula
Dracula cannot be described as a domestic novel, nor its annals as those of a quiet life. The circumstances described are from the first peculiar. So begins an early review of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897. The reviewer clearly thought that the novel was a good yarn, though perhaps somewhat reliant on cheap thrills and violence:

[The solicitor] finds himself shut up in a half ruined castle with a host who is only seen at night and three beautiful females who have the misfortune to be vampires. Their intentions, which can hardly be described as honourable, are to suck his blood, in order to sustain their own vitality.

Count Dracula (the host) is also a vampire, but has grown tired of his compatriots, however young and beautiful, and has a great desire for what may literally be called fresh blood. He has therefore sent for the solicitor that through his means he may be introduced to London society.

Without understanding the Count's views, Mr Harker has good reason for having suspicions of his client. Wolves come at his command, and also fogs; he is also too clever by half at climbing… nobody can complain that it is deficient in dramatic situations… We would not, however, recommend it to nervous persons for evening reading’.

JA

Chatterley385 182673a


 

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