Overview
Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds discusses writings that have been banned over the centuries because they offended or merely ignored official truths; challenged widely held assumptions; or contained ideas or language unacceptable to a state, religious institution, or private moral watchdog.Works covered Include:
-- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
-- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
-- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
-- As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
-- Black Boy, Richard Wright
-- Camille, Alexandre Dumas, fits
-- The Color Purple, Alice Walker
-- Deliverance, James Dickey
-- East of Eden, John Steinbeck
-- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
-- Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-- Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais
-- Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg
-- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
-- J'Accuse, Emile Zola
-- Junky, William Burroughs
-- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
-- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-- Strange Fruit, Lillian Smith
-- Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Synopsis
Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds discusses writings that have been banned over the centuries because they offended or merely ignored official truths; challenged widely held assumptions; or contained ideas or language unacceptable to a state, religious institution, or private moral watchdog.
Works covered Include:
-- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
-- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
-- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
-- As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
-- Black Boy, Richard Wright
-- Camille, Alexandre Dumas, fits
-- The Color Purple, Alice Walker
-- Deliverance, James Dickey
-- East of Eden, John Steinbeck
-- Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
-- Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
-- Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais
-- Howl and Other Poems, Allen Ginsberg
-- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou
-- J'Accuse, Emile Zola
-- Junky, William Burroughs
-- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
-- One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-- Strange Fruit, Lillian Smith
-- Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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.)Peter A. Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., Mt. Pleasant, MI