The Trial

The novel was banned in Britain for thirty years. When Penguin Books published it in 1960, the prosecution asked the jury a question that immediately became infamous: "Is it a book that you would wish your wife or servants to read?" This single question revealed the class prejudice the novel had been critiquing all along.

The jury acquitted Penguin after a six-day trial, and 200,000 copies sold on the first day of legal publication. The verdict effectively ended literary censorship in Britain and opened the door for the frank treatment of sexuality in English-language fiction.