Défense de Lady Chatterley

Lawrence had privately arranged for the first unexpurgated edition of his novel to be printed in Florence in 1928. The book immediately encountered censorship and customs seizures; its clandestine circulation also led to a proliferation of pirated editions. But Lawrence was above all exasperated by the fundamental misunderstanding surrounding his book: he had meant to write against pornography, only to be accused of having written a pornographic book. His Defense responds to this paradox. Lawrence had deliberately used, in his novel, English words considered unspeakable in respectable literature, arguing that words become obscene only because they have been made obscene. The provocation of Lady Chatterley thus also lies in its attempt to restore innocence to words that society had defiled.

André Malraux, who wrote the preface to the French edition of L’Amant de Lady Chatterley, published a few months earlier, clearly identified Lawrence’s intentions: “Sex is a contact we are afraid of. We are only half-conscious, half-knowing. We must become alive and knowing. Thus, far from being obscene or pornographic, L’Amant de Lady Chatterley is a refreshing and healthy book that thinks about sexual matters honestly and cleanly.”

A very fine copy.