http://www.feedbooks.com/list/6 For political, religious, or moral reasons, all these books included in this list were banned in some places of the world. Reading some of these books is a great way to understand how censorship works, and evolved in our society. List of banned books ... on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_books ... on Google: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/banned/ Sons and Lovers David Herbert Lawrence http://www.feedbooks.com/book/213 urn:isbn:0375753737 en 1913 Novels Romance Psychology The third published novel of D. H. Lawrence, taken by many to be his earliest masterpiece, tells the story of Paul Morel, a young man and budding artist. Richard Aldington explains the semi-autobiographical nature of his masterpiece: When you have experienced Sons and Lovers you have lived through the agonies of the young Lawrence striving to win free from his old life'. Generally, it is not only considered as an evocative portrayal of working-class life in a mining community, but also an intense study of family, class and early sexual relationships. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/213.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/213.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/213.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/213.mobi The Kama Sutra Vatsyayana http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3622 urn:isbn:0375759247 en 400 Non-Fiction Philosophy Sexuality The Kama Sutra, is an ancient Indian text widely considered to be the standard work on human sexual behavior in Sanskrit literature written by the Indian scholar Vatsyayana. A portion of the work consists of practical advice on sex. Kāma means sensual or sexual pleasure, and sūtra are the guidlines of yoga, the word itself means thread in Sanskrit. The Kama Sutra is the oldest and most notable of a group of texts known generically as Kama Shastra). Traditionally, the first transmission of Kama Shastra or "Discipline of Kama" is attributed to Nandi the sacred bull, Shiva's doorkeeper, who was moved to sacred utterance by overhearing the lovemaking of the god and his wife Parvati and later recorded his utterances for the benefit of mankind. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3622.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3622.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3622.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3622.mobi Women in Love David Herbert Lawrence http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1030 urn:isbn:0486424588 en 1920 Novels Romance Sexuality Women in Love is a novel by British author D. H. Lawrence published in 1920. It is a sequel to his earlier novel The Rainbow (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, an industrialist. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many opinions associated with the author. The emotional relationships thus established are given further depth and tension by an unadmitted homoerotic attraction between Gerald and Rupert. The novel ranges over the whole of British society at the time of the First World War and eventually ends high up in the snows of the Swiss Alps. As with most of Lawrence's works, Women in Love caused controversy over its sexual subject matter. One early reviewer said of it, "I do not claim to be a literary critic, but I know dirt when I smell it, and here is dirt in heaps — festering, putrid heaps which smell to high Heaven." This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1030.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1030.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1030.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1030.mobi Frankenstein Mary Shelley http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91 urn:isbn:0743487583 en 1818 Novels Science Fiction Horror Gothic Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by the British author Mary Shelley. The title of the novel refers to a scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who learns how to create life and creates a being in the likeness of man, but larger than average and more powerful. In popular culture, people have tended to refer to the Creature as "Frankenstein", despite this being the name of the scientist. Frankenstein is a novel infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. It was also a warning against the "over-reaching" of modern man and the Industrial Revolution, alluded to in the novel's subtitle, The Modern Prometheus. The story has had an influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories and films. It is arguably considered the first fully realized science fiction novel. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/91.mobi The Rainbow David Herbert Lawrence http://www.feedbooks.com/book/214 urn:isbn:0375759654 en 1915 Novels Romance Sexuality The Rainbow is a 1915 novel by British author D. H. Lawrence. It follows three generations of the Brangwen family, particularly focusing on the sexual dynamics of, and relations between, the characters. Lawrence's frank treatment of sexual desire and the power plays within relationships as a natural and even spiritual force of life, though perhaps tame by modern standards, caused The Rainbow to be prosecuted in an obscenity trial in late 1915, as a result of which all copies were seized and burnt. After this ban it was unavailable in Britain for 11 years, although editions were available in the USA. The Rainbow was followed by a sequel in 1920, Women in Love. Although Lawrence conceived of the two novels as one, considering the titles The Sisters and The Wedding Ring for the work, they were published as two separate novels at the urging of his publisher. However, after the negative public reception of The Rainbow, Lawrence's publisher opted out of publishing the sequel. This is the cause of the delay in the publishing of the sequel. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/214.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/214.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/214.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/214.mobi Venus in Furs Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190 urn:isbn:1440416869 en 1906 Novels Sexuality Psychology Severin is so infatuated with Wanda that he requests to be treated as her slave and encourages her to treat him in progressively more degrading ways. At first Wanda does not want to, but later embraces the idea; though at the same time, she disdains Severin for allowing her to do so. Severin describes his feelings during these experiences as suprasensuality. Wanda treats him brutally as a servant, and recruits a trio of African women to dominate him. The relationship arrives at a crisis point when Wanda herself meets a man to whom she would like to submit. Severin, humiliated by Wanda's new lover, ceases to desire to submit, stating that men should dominate women until the time when women are equal to men in education and rights. Probably the first book which blatantly addresses the issue of female sexual domination, this is today a classic of the genre and it is the author from whom the word masochism takes its name. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/190.mobi The Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau http://www.feedbooks.com/book/349 urn:isbn:0192822756 en 1768 Non-Fiction Biography In his Confessions Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells the story of his life, from the formative experience of his humble childhood in Geneva, through the achievement of international fame as novelist and philosopher in Paris, to his wanderings as an exile, persecuted by governments and alienated from the world of modern civilization. In trying to explain who he was and how he came to be the object of others' admiration and abuse, Rousseau analyses with unique insight the relationship between an elusive but essential inner self and the variety of social identities he was led to adopt. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/349.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/349.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/349.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/349.mobi The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain http://www.feedbooks.com/book/71 urn:isbn:0520228383 en 1885 Novels Young Readers Adventure Humor/Satire Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (often shortened to Huck Finn) is a novel written by American humorist Mark Twain. It is commonly used and accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. It is also one of the first major American novels written using Local Color Regionalism, or vernacular, told in the first person by the eponymous Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, best friend of Tom Sawyer and hero of three other Mark Twain books. The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River. By satirizing Southern antebellum society that was already a quarter-century in the past by the time of publication, the book is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/71.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/71.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/71.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/71.mobi The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain http://www.feedbooks.com/book/72 urn:isbn:0520235754 en 1876 Novels Adventure The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, is a popular 1876 novel about a young boy growing up in the antebellum South on the Mississippi River in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/72.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/72.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/72.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/72.mobi Sanin Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2177 urn:isbn:0801485592 en 1907 Novels The hero of Artsybashev's novel exhibits a set of new values to be contrasted with the morality of the older Russian intelligentsia. Sanin is an attractive, clever, powerful, life-loving man who is, at the same time, an amoral and carnal animal, bored both by politics and by religion. During the novel he lusts after his own sister, but defends her when she is betrayed by an arrogant officer; he deflowers an innocent-but-willing virgin; and encourages a Jewish friend to end his self-doubts by committing suicide. Sanin's extreme individualism greatly appealed to young people in Russia during the twilight years of the Romanov regime. "Saninism" was marked by sensualism, self-gratification, and self-destruction--and gained in credibility in an atmosphere of moral and spiritual despondency. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2177.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2177.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2177.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2177.mobi The Call of the Wild Jack London http://www.feedbooks.com/book/92 urn:isbn:0753454939 en 1903 Novels Adventure The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the days of the 19th century Klondike Gold Rushes. Published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is one of London's most-read books, and it is generally considered one of his best. Because the protagonist is a dog, it is sometimes classified as a juvenile novel, suitable for children, but it is dark in tone and contains numerous scenes of cruelty and violence. London followed the book in 1906 with White Fang, a companion novel with many similar plot elements and themes as The Call of the Wild, although following a mirror image plot in which a wild wolf becomes civilized by a mining expert from San Francisco named Weedon Scott. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/92.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/92.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/92.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/92.mobi Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure John Cleland http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84 urn:isbn:1840224177 en 1749 Novels Sexuality Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, popularly known as Fanny Hill, is a novel by John Cleland. Written in 1748 while Cleland was in debtor's prison in London, it is considered the first modern "erotic novel" in English, and has become a byword for the battle of censorship of erotica. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/84.mobi Candide Voltaire http://www.feedbooks.com/book/709 urn:isbn:0553211668 en 1759 Novels Philosophy Candide, ou l'Optimisme (1759) is a French satire by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire, English translations of which have been titled Candide: Or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: Or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Or, Optimism (1947). The novella begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply optimism) by his tutor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this existence, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not outright rejecting optimism, advocating an enigmatic precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". http://www.feedbooks.com/book/709.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/709.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/709.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/709.mobi On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Henry David Thoreau http://www.feedbooks.com/book/219 urn:isbn:1604244291 en 1849 Non-Fiction Essay Politics Thoreau wrote his famous essay, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, as a protest against an unjust but popular war and the immoral but popular institution of slave-owning. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/219.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/219.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/219.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/219.mobi Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx Friedrich Engels http://www.feedbooks.com/book/209 urn:isbn:0192834371 en 1848 Non-Fiction Politics Manifesto of the Communist Party (German: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), often referred to as The Communist Manifesto, was first published on February 21, 1848, and is one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League and written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it laid out the League's purposes and program. The Manifesto suggested a course of action for a proletarian (working class) revolution to overthrow the bourgeois social order and to eventually bring about a classless and stateless society, and the abolition of private property. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/209.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/209.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/209.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/209.mobi Lady Chatterley's Lover David Herbert Lawrence http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87 urn:isbn:0553212621 en 1928 Novels Sexuality Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence written in 1928. Printed privately in Florence in 1928, it was not printed in the United Kingdom until 1960 (other than in an underground edition issued by Inky Stephensen's Mandrake Press in 1929). Lawrence considered calling this book Tenderness at one time and made significant alterations to the original manuscript in order to make it palatable to readers. It has been published in three different versions. The publication of the book caused a scandal due to its explicit sex scenes, including previously banned four-letter words, and perhaps because the lovers were a working-class male and an aristocratic female. The story is said to have originated from events in Lawrence's own unhappy domestic life, and he took inspiration for the settings of the book from Ilkeston in Derbyshire where he lived for a while. According to some critics the fling of Lady Ottoline Morrell with "Tiger", a young stonemason who came to carve plinths for her garden statues, also influenced the story. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/87.mobi Ulysses James Joyce http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1232 urn:isbn:0141182806 en 1922 Novels Sexuality Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. It is considered one of the most important works of Modernist literature. Ulysses chronicles the passage through Dublin by its main character, Leopold Bloom, during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to the hero of Homer's Odyssey (Latinised into Ulysses), and there are many parallels, both implicit and explicit, between the two works (e.g., the correspondences between Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus). This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1232.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1232.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1232.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1232.mobi An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith http://www.feedbooks.com/book/210 urn:isbn:0679783369 en 1776 Non-Fiction Science Politics Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism. Written in clear and incisive prose, The Wealth of Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding of contemporary society. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/210.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/210.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/210.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/210.mobi Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15 urn:isbn:0486264645 en 1902 Novels Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Polish-born writer Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski). Before its 1902 publication, it appeared as a three-part series (1899) in Blackwood's Magazine. It is widely regarded as a significant work of English literature and part of the Western canon. This highly symbolic story is actually a story within a story, or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts, from dusk through to late night, his adventure into the Congo to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary. The story details an incident when Marlow, an Englishman, took a foreign assignment as a ferry-boat captain, employed by a Belgian trading company. Although the river is never specifically named, readers may assume it is the Congo River, in the Congo Free State, a private colony of King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver; however, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization in a cover up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/15.mobi Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice James Branch Cabell http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2565 urn:isbn:B001CV8MKG en 1919 Novels Fantasy Sexuality Humor/Satire Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice is a 1919 fantasy book by James Branch Cabell - the eighth among some fifty-two books written by this author - which gained fame (or notoriety, in the view of some) shortly after its publication. The eponymous hero, who considers himself a "monstrous clever fellow", embarks on a journey through ever more fantastic realms, even to hell and heaven. Everywhere he goes, he winds up seducing the local women, even the Devil's wife. This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+50 or in the USA (published before 1923). http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2565.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2565.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2565.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2565.mobi Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll http://www.feedbooks.com/book/22 urn:isbn:0785824464 en 1897 Novels Young Readers Fantasy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) is a novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures. The tale is filled with allusions to Dodgson's friends (and enemies), and to the lessons that British schoolchildren were expected to memorize. The tale plays with logic in ways that have made the story of lasting popularity with adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of literary nonsense, and its narrative course and structure has been enormously influential, mainly in the fantasy genre. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/22.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/22.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/22.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/22.mobi Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2201 urn:isbn:1840224029 en 1852 Novels Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much so in the latter case that the novel intensified the sectional conflict leading to the American Civil War. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2201.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2201.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2201.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2201.mobi The Jungle Upton Sinclair http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3384 en 1906 Novels Politics The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by author and socialist journalist Upton Sinclair. It was written about the corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century. The novel depicts in harsh tones the poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant living and working conditions, and hopelessness prevalent among the "have-nots", which is contrasted with the deeply rooted corruption on the part of the "haves". The sad state of turn-of-the-century labor is placed front and center for the American public to see, suggesting that something needed to be changed to get rid of American "wage slavery". The novel is also an important example of the "muckraking" tradition begun by journalists such as Jacob Riis. Sinclair wanted to persuade his readers that the mainstream American political parties offered little means for progressive change. Upton Sinclair came to Chicago with the intent of writing The Jungle; he had been given a stipend by the socialist newspaper The Appeal to Reason. Upon his arrival in the lobby of the Chicago Transit House, a hotel near the stockyards, he was quoted as saying, "Hello! I'm Upton Sinclair, and I'm here to write the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Labor Movement!" (Arthur, 43). He rented living quarters and immediately immersed himself in the city by walking its streets, talking to its people, and taking pictures. One Sunday afternoon, he worked his way into a group of Asian immigrants getting together for a wedding party – "Behold, there was the opening scene of my story, a gift from the gods". He was welcomed to the festivities and stayed until two o'clock in the morning. The novel was first published in serial form in 1906 by The Appeal to Reason. "After five rejections", its first edition as a novel was published by Doubleday, Page & Company on February 28, 1906, and it became an immediate bestseller. It has been in print ever since. Source: Wikipedia This work was published before 1923 and is in the public domain in the USA only. http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3384.png http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3384.pdf http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3384.epub http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3384.mobi