Fiction has always found a way to ‘cross the line’ and cause uproar amongst some of its more conservative readers. But how far does a book have to go before it’s banned for being too offensive? Here are eight books that caused outrage when they were first released.
1. Satanic Verses – Salman Rushdie
This book, along with its author, is still banned in India. It starts with a terrorist attack on a plane that goes wrong. After the plane crash the main characters turn into prophet Gabreel (Angel Gabriel) and his newly found religion, Submission (the translation for Islam) and Saladin the Goat Man (Satan). It wasn’t only in India that the book was badly received. The Supreme Leader of Iran issued a fatwa demanding the execution of Rushdie. Both the Japanese and Italian translators were killed in 1991, and the Turkish translator was the target for the Sivas massacre in 1993 in which 37 people died. William Nygaard, the Norwegian publisher, barely survived an assassination attempt in 1993.
2. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
This book was banned in England and France for being borderline pornography. The editor of the Sunday Express called it ‘the filthiest book I have ever read’. You want to read it now don’t you? Funnily enough, the US didn’t even hesitate before publishing it.
3. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
This is one of my all-time favourite books and everyone should read it, unless you’re from Malaysia. It tells a brutally honest truth about the real effects of colonisation in Africa, and its harrowing narrative about Okonkwo and his tribe is enough to make anyone hate Imperialism. And that’s exactly why it was banned in Malaysia.
4. A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
The film adaptation had a pretty big hand in causing the hatred for A Clockwork Orange, and led to the book and film being banned in various states in the US. Its violence, rape culture, and strong language still doesn’t sit well with many people.
5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chobsky (1999)
Here’s another cheeky book. It was pulled from American shelves for its raunchy content, mainly the homosexual parts. The brilliant film adaptation doesn’t hold back either.
6. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
This book was the most censored in schools and libraries in America from 1961-1982. It’s still an interesting one though. It was found in the hands of the murderers and stalkers of JFK, John Lennon, Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King, and loads of others. John Lennon’s killer had actually asked Lennon to sign the book earlier that day. Once he’d killed the musician, he sat down and read a chapter of his favourite book until the authorities arrested him.
7. Lady Chatterly’s Lover – D.H Lawrence
Penguin actually went on trial over the right to publish the explicit story of this love affair, but won in 1959, 31 years after the book was first published. Penguin sold 200,000 copies of it in the first day.
8. Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling
I know, what would we do without Harry Potter? Ask America! The first four in the series are in the top ten most banned books in the USA. It was accused of promoting witchcraft and occult behaviour. To be fair, who hasn’t sat in their room with a stick and tried to find out their patronus animal?
Edited by India-Jayne Trainor
Sources:
bannedbooks-group.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.shortlist.com/shortlists/10-banned-books
http://morcanbooksandfilms.com/2014/04/25/the-catcher-in-the-rye-enigma/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9900733/Top-20-books-they-tried-to-ban.html