Too sexy
The Proof of the Honey - Salwa al-Neimi
Europa Editions
The book has been banned in Oman and other Arab states for its account of an Arab woman’s sexual encounters and her philosophy of love. It presents a view of the world and Arab womanhood very different from the silent, veiled stereotype.
Fiction, Translation
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Pocket Books
Charlie, our narrator, describes scenes from his life in a series of letters to an anonymous person. This book was banned in the USA for reasons of: homosexuality, sexually explicit, anti-family, offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, drugs and suicide. Gosh.
Fiction, Teen fiction
The Dark - John McGahern
Faber
Set in the rural north west of Ireland, The Dark concerns itself with themes of adolescence and guilty sexuality. It was banned in Ireland for its alleged pornographic content and suggestions of sexual abuse by the clergy, and The Dark also led to McGahern being dismissed from his job as a teacher.
Fiction, Modern classic
An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser
Signet Classics
Dreiser's best work looks at the dark side of American life and the the failings of the American dream. Our protagonist, Clyde Griffiths, tries to escape his destiny, but ultimately sacrifices everything in his desperate quest for success. Banned in Boston in 1927, and burned by the Nazis in Germany in 1933 for "dealing with low love affairs."
Fiction
Angus, thongs and full frontal snogging - Louise Rennison
Point
"Her dad's got the mentality of a Teletubby (only not so developed). Her cat, Angus, is trying to eat the poodle next door. And her best friend thinks she looks like an alien -- just because she accidentally shaved off her eyebrows. Ergghhhlack. Still, add a little boy-stalking, teacher-baiting, and full-frontal snogging with a Sex God, and Georgia's year just might turn out to be the most fabbitty fab fab ever!" The first in the hugely popular Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series, its frank discussion of boys, and references to lesbianism, pornography and erections have made Angus... a target for censorship in US schools.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
Vintage
As I Lay Dying is regularly cited as being one of the great works of 20th century American fiction. The book is narrated by 15 different characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest to honour her wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson. It has been banned and challenged by numerous schools in Kentucky and Maryland for reference to masturbation and abortion and questioning the existence of god.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
Vintage
This seminal work of early feminism centers around Edna Pontellier and her struggle to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the social attitudes of the southern US states in the 1900s. It faced challenges from the moment of its release in the US, due in part to its treatment of gender roles, but also for its depiction of female sexuality.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille
Borstal Boy - Brendan Behan
Arena Books
It is believed that the Irish Censorship of Publications Board banned the novel in 1958 due to adolescent sexuality, questionable language, and critiques of Irish republicanism, social attitudes and the Catholic Church. The censorship board was never asked to explain its decision.
Non-fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille
Candide - Francois Voltaire
Penguin
Voltaire satirizes various religious and philosophical viewpoints in his 1759 novel, Candide. It was banned shortly after its publication by the Grand Council of Geneva and the administrators of Paris. In 1762 it was listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Roman Catholic Church's list of prohibited books. Despite this - or because of it? - it became a best seller. Bannings of the book lasted into the 20th century.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Talking book
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
Penguin
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales (mostly in verse, although some are in prose) are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. It has attracted controversy due to its religious commentary, and was prohibited for sale in the United States due to sexual situations and swearing. It continues to be abridged for content and language across the United States.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Penguin
The story of the frustrated and confused Holden Caulfield has been banned by many schools and libraries since its publication in 1951. The censorship primarily stems from the book's profanity and sexual references. It's also commonly under fire for its perceived immorality. Throughout the novel, the protagonist drinks, smokes and engages in many other forms of questionable behaviour. Naughty boy.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
The Chocolate War - Robert Cormier
Puffin
Considered to be one of the best ever young adult novels, it comes fourth in America’s list of banned books 1990-2000. Dealing with high school gang culture, the main challenges were on the grounds of sexual content, violence and bad language. One school board noted the instances of causes for concern: “For Christ’s sake, bastard (24), Jesus (numerous), Christ (numerous), goddamn (10), hell (numerous), son of a bitch (4), shit/bullshit (5), queer, homo, fairy, etc.”. While arguing the book should not be in the library, the school accepted it could be easily bought in any local book shop, which might have suggested that banning the book was pointless.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
Phoenix
The Colour Purple received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but that hasn't stopped it being a target for censors. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. It was banned in a Californian School for its troubling ideas about race relations, God and sexuality, and its violent content.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print
The Dark - John McGahern
Faber
Set in the rural north west of Ireland, The Dark concerns itself with themes of adolescence and guilty sexuality. It was banned for its alleged pornographic content and suggestions of sexual abuse by the clergy.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Talking book
Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - John Cleland
Wordsworth Classics
Fanny Hill has been frequently banned and prosecuted for its obscene content. This classic of erotic literature tells the saucy story of Fanny Hill and her adventures as a prostitute in 18th century London.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Talking book
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemmingway
Vintage
This semi-autobiographical novel, Hemingway's bleakest, depicts events of the Italian campaigns in the First World War. The author's linguistic and sexual frankness caused it to be banned in Boston in its first serialization in Scribner's Magazine.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Scholastic
This much lauded trilogy, full of references to and inspired by a range of literary classics, has been criticised mostly in the USA for its apparent attack on the church and religion in general, and Pullman does admit the books are about “the killing of God”. To add to the books’ controversial nature, passages alluding to the sexual awakening of its main female character, Lyra, have been removed in some editions.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
Black Swan
Allende's debut novel was an instant best-seller on its publication in 1982. It tells the story of the Trueba family spanning four generations, and traces the post-colonial social and political upheavals of the Latin American country in which they live. Although it has been used in the curriculum of schools around the world since its publication, it has nevertheless been banned in several US schools for its frank treatment of sexual themes.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Howl - Allen Ginsberg
Penguin
Howl is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation. However, copies of the first edition were seized by San Francisco Customs for obscenity in March 1957. Obscenity charges were dismissed after trial.
Poetry
Also available in the following formats: Talking book
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Penguin
In Cold Blood is regarded by critics as a pioneering work of the true crime genre. On hearing of a horrific quadruple murder in Kansas in 1959, Truman Capote and his friend and fellow writer Harper Lee, set out to interview local residents and investigators. Banned from a Georgia school in 2000 due to a parent's complaints of sex, violence, and profanity.
Non-fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury
This tale of young people growing up through turbulent times in Afghanistan, with its coverage of paedophilia, rape, Nazism and sadism and strong language thrown in for good measure – all taking place in a Muslim country - was bound to create controversy. Its portrayal of characters from particular Afghan ethnic groups caused the film adaptation to be banned on the grounds that racial violence might ensue.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Faber
Despite widespread acclaim and popularity, Lord of the Flies has been banned for a plethora of reasons. Many critics complain about violence, language, sexuality and racism. Others accuse the novel of attacks on religion, the disabled and women.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
Wordsworth Classics
Defoe's 1722 novel of an irrepressible woman leading a desperate life was banned for lewdness and indecency because it's a novel full of adultery and prostitution. What's ironic about this is that Defoe left out the dirtiest of details to make sure he would stay out of jail once Moll Flanders was published.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Penguin
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was challenged and banned by a number of US schools in the 70s and 80s for being pornographic, for glorifying criminal activity, and for promoting 'secular humanism'. This is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy - immortalised on film by Jack Nicholson - the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Talking book
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Penguin
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of a mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Despite winning the Nobel Prize for literature, a number of US schools had it excluded from their curricula.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Rich and Mad - William Nicholson
Egmont Books Ltd
This tale “about first love, first sex, and everything in between” saw the author have his invite to talk to the students at Manchester High School for Girls withdrawn. The Head Teacher considered the book’s themes to be “inappropriate”, although the author believed it was the prospect of dealing with irate parents that had influenced the Head more.
Fiction
Sons and Lovers - DH Lawrence
Vintage
Lawrence tells the tale of Paul Morel and his Oedipal relationship with his mother. Essentially, Sons and Lovers explores the universal themes of family, love and the bonds of relationships.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Modern Library
Banned from some US schools because Tarzan was 'living in sin' with Jane, this is Edgar Rice Burrough's story of the boy raised by apes after the death of his parents. Fantastically successful, the novel spawned two dozen sequels, plus film and comic book adaptations.
Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Talking book
Where Willy Went - Nicholas Allen
Hutchinson
A picture book that shows, albeit in a humorous way (the sperms wear swimming goggles), how human conception takes place. It is ironic that the author is a strong Christian but still found his book challenged. Not everyone objected. One online review read “I learned a lot from this book” – this came from a 22 year-old. Perhaps he should have read a book like this when he was younger.
Non-fiction
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Vintage
A dystopian fictional world where women's only function is to breed. It was no.37 on the American Library Association's 100 most frequently challenged books 1990 - 2000 - challenged because it was claimed to be anti-Christian and pornographic.
Fiction, Science Fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Lady Chatterley's Lover - D. H. Lawrence
Arcturus
Perhaps the most famous of Lawrence's novels, the 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover is no longer distinguished for the once shockingly explicit treatment of its subject matter - the adulterous affair between a sexually unfulfilled upper-class married woman and the gamekeeper who works for the estate owned by her husband. Now that we're used to reading about sex, and seeing it in the movies, it's apparent that the novel is memorable for better reasons: namely, Lawrence's masterful and lyrical writing, and a story that takes us bodily into the world of its characters. When the full unexpurgated edition was published by Penguin Books in Britain in 1960, the trial of Penguin under the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Giant print, Talking book
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
Penguin Classics
Banned in 1857 for its portrayal of adultery, the novel traces the story of Emma Bovary, a provincial doctor's wife, and her unsuccessful affairs. "I love this book, even if Victorian England didn't! I think it's really interesting how Emma's reading of sensational novels is somehow implicated in her downfall!" Rachel, Bexley Libraries
Fiction, Translation, Classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Go Tell It On The Mountain - James Baldwin
Penguin
This semi-autobiographical novel by James Baldwin was published in 1953 and is acknowledged to be a classic of African-American literature. It examines the role of the Christian Church in the lives of African-Americans, both as a source of repression and moral hypocrisy and as a source of inspiration and community. It was censored in the U.S. because of recurring themes of sex, profanity and violence.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Talking book
Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
Harper Perrenial
Tropic of Cancer combines fiction and autobiography as it tells the story of Miller's life as a struggling writer in Paris. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno wrote that Tropic of Cancer is "not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity." It was banned in the UK and the USA for its explicit nature.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Penguin
Narrated by the central character, Humbert Humbert, Lolita tells the story of his obsession and sexual involvement with the 12-year-old daughter of his landlady. This book was turned down by four publishers due to obscenity before it was published in 1955. It was subsequently banned in the UK, copies of it being seized as they arrived in the country. It was also banned in France for two years as well as in Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Herbert Selby
Marion Boyars
Banned in Britain in 1967 due to its depiction of homosexuality, prostitution, drug-taking and sexual perversion, the judge at the trial said that women in particular would be embarrassed to read it! The novel has become a cult classic because of its harsh, uncompromising look at lower class Brooklyn in the 1950s.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Talking book
The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall
Virago
Published by Radclyffe Hall herself in 1928, it was immediately banned in the UK due to its lesbian theme and was allowed in the United States only after a long court battle. The book depicts the story of an upperclass woman, Stephen Gordon, whose homosexuality (or 'inversion' as it was then termed) is apparent from an early age.
Fiction, Classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Talking book
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Dell Publishing
Historically, it has always been controversial and subject to censorship, for its language, sexual and irreligious themes, use of outdated terms now deemed offensive and for its criticism of US forces during WWII. It has been a regular title on the US Most Banned Books list for years and no doubt will continue to be.
Fiction, Comic fiction, Fantasy, Non-fiction, Science Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Ulysses - James Joyce
Wordsworth Classics
Ulysses follows its central character, Leopold Boom, around Dublin during an ordinary day - 16 June 1904. It is one of the most highly regarded English-language novels of the 20th century, and was banned in the UK on obscenity grounds until the 1930s.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Forever - Judy Blume
Macmillan Children's Books
Blume's 1975 novel tackles themes of teenage sexuality head on. One of the most frequently challenged books in the US because of the use of suggestive language, the detailed depiction of sex, and because her teenage character, Katherine, goes on the pill. "This is the first book I read simply because it had been 'banned'!" - Maarya, Newham Libraries.
Fiction, Teen fiction
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print
The Country Girls - Edna O'Brien
Orion Publishing Co.
The Country Girls, published in 1960 by Hutchinson, London, was the first novel by Edna O’Brien and the first of her trilogy of the same title (also including The Lonely Girl, later called Girl with Green Eyes, and Girls in Their Married Bliss). It was banned in her native Ireland for its sexual content. Altogether, six of her novels were banned there, and sometimes burnt. But her work has always had both big sales and critical acclamation for the lyricism and unflinching nature of her writing, especially about women’s lives and loves, as well as her comedy.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Talking book
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
Virago
This is the first book in a six-volume autobiographical series about the life of African-American author and poet, Maya Angelou. It has been banned in some US schools and libraries on grounds of pornography & violence.
Non-fiction, Biography
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Blankets - Craig Thompson
Top Shelf Productions
Temporarily banned from a library in Missouri along with "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel after they were both accused of being pornographic. The original letter of complaint asked the question: "Does this community want our public library to continue to use tax dollars to purchase pornography?" the ban was quickly overturned after The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a rousing statement of support for the two authors and their critically acclaimed books.
Fiction, Modern classic
Also available in the following formats: Braille, Giant print, Talking book
Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic - Alison Bechdel
Mariner Books
Temporarily banned from a library in Missouri along with "Blankets" by Craig Thompson after they were both accused of being pornographic. The original letter of complaint asked the question: "Does this community want our public library to continue to use tax dollars to purchase pornography?" The ban was quickly overturned after The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a rousing statement of support for the two authors and their critically acclaimed books.
Non-fiction, Biography