The Trial of Lady Chatterley

Vintage Penguin First Edition. #S192. The Trial of Lady Chatterley, edited by C.H. Rolph, is a documentary-style account of the 1960 Old Bailey obscenity trial over D.H. Lawrence’s *Lady Chatterley’s Lover*, presented through transcripts, commentary and contextual material. Rolph assembles the prosecution and defence arguments, witness statements from academics, clergy and literary figures, and the judge’s summing-up, allowing the reader to follow the case as it unfolded and to see how questions of morality, literary merit and social change collided in the courtroom. The volume also situates the trial within the broader cultural moment, showing how the verdict helped redefine attitudes toward censorship and modern literature, and in its Penguin edition it offers a clear, engaging record of one of the twentieth century’s most influential legal battles over a book.