Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds (Banned Books) [Hardcover]

Dawn B. Sova (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0816033056 | ISBN-13: 978-0816033058 | Publication Date: May 1998 | Edition: First edition.

When Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata was banned from distribution through the mail (except for first class) in 1890, New York street vendors began selling it from pushcarts carrying large signs reading "Suppressed!" In 1961, the United States Supreme Court pondered whether D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover was lewd or literary. In 1969, the novel was required reading in many college literature courses. Changing sexual mores have moved many formerly forbidden books out of locked cabinets and into libraries and classrooms.

Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds, Third Edition examines the issues underlying the suppression of more than 120 works deemed sexually obscene.

New and revised entries include:

-America: The Book (Jon Stewart)
-An American Tragedy (Theodore Dreiser)
-The Arabian Nights (Sir Richard Burton, trans.)
-The Art of Love (Ovid)
-Forever (Judy Blume)
-Gossip Girl series (Cecily von Ziegesar)
-How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Julia Alvarez)
-Lady Chatterly's Lover (D.H. Lawrence)
-Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
-Rabbit Run (John Updike)
-Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
-Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison)
-This Boy's Life (Tobias Wolff)
-Ulysses (James Joyce)
-and more.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The aim of this four-volume set is to spotlight some 400 works that have been censored, banned, or condemned because of their political, social, religious, or sexual content. The entries, which include a summary, censorship history, and brief bibliography, range widely from Aristotle through Galileo and on up to Adolf Hitler and Judy Blume. Such well-known prohibited works as de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, the Communist Manifesto, and Huckleberry Finn are included here, but so are many other works that are now less controversial, e.g., Milton's Areopagitica and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Some of the censorship histories are several pages long, but others are very short; Born on the Fourth of July gets only 50 words. Though most of the works are worth notice, too many describe fairly vapid objections: Fail-Safe was challenged by a school librarian who thought the book would undermine "America's confidence in their defense system." But as one might expect, many of the entries, such as the one for The Satanic Verses, are harrowing. Prepared by well-qualified scholars who have written and lectured extensively on censorship, the set is a very readable gathering of much useful information. It provides more depth and is more current than either Anne L. Haight's Banned Books (1978. 4th ed.) or ALA's Banned Books Resource Guide (1995). (Index not seen.)APeter A. Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., Mt. Pleasant, MI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Previously published in 1989, these four volumes provide a survey of more than 400 titles that have been subjected to censorship by school boards, governments, religious institutions, and other bodies. Within each volume, titles are arranged alphabetically, and entries include brief publishing information, a summary of the book's content, a censorship history, and a short list of further reading. Some 50 entries are new. The political volume has added 10 entries, among them Ha Jin's 1999 novel Waiting , denounced in China for portraying Chinese people as backward; the Chinese publication was canceled. The volume on religious grounds now has entries for five Harry Potter books. Fourteen entries, including one for Sari Says , an advice book for teens, have been added to the sexual grounds volume. Another 14 entries have been added to the social grounds volume, among them Marion Dane Bauer's Am I Blue? and Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-Bop . Each volume in the set concludes with short author profiles, a bibliography, and a list of books discussed in the other volumes. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: Facts on File; First edition. edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816033056
• ISBN-13: 978-0816033058
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,578,477 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

DAWN SOVA is a strong opponent of censorship in its many forms and has authored Banned Plays, Forbidden Films, Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds, and Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds. Third editions of the latter two books are in progress. She has felt honored to speak on the topic to both library associations and private groups.

She was born in northern New Jersey in 1949 to first-generation Americans of Eastern European descent whose parents came through Ellis Island with great hopes and dreams for the future. Economic disadvantage limited her parents' access to education, but they empowered their daughter to strive and to earn several advanced academic degrees. She taught writing, journalism, and literature for over two decades at both the high school and university level.

More important, their influence propelled her to dream beyond the boundaries of their working class neighborhood. She is the author of 23 books. In 2002, she won the Mystery Writers of America Award for Best Non-fiction Work for her 20th book Edgar Allan Poe A-to-Z. She was nominated by the MWA in the same category several years earlier for her work on Agatha Christie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must read, September 21, 2000

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Solana (Usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Literature Suppressed on Sexual Grounds (Banned Books) (Hardcover)

I had to read this for government, it is worth the time. It goes in depth about books banned; art of love, casndide, dubliners, the handmaid's tale, judge the obscure, lolita, madame bovary, and women in love. The sad fact is that there are millions of book lost by the surpression of a few, with it went our first amendment rights!