Books You Weren't Allowed to Read

Depending on political and other circumstances of the time we live in, books often become targets of social criticism. The reasons for banning the publication and reading of certain books are diverse. Driven by ideological motives or religious dogmas, "authorities" have been known to prohibit the reading of certain books. Often, banned books later became extremely popular - such as "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley or "Madame Bovary". Some of the reasons why certain books were banned can now make us laugh. The book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" was banned in parts of China in 1931 because it depicted animals talking. The authorities were afraid that children would start treating animals like humans. Today, it is one of the most popular books, adapted into several films.

Banned and Awarded

The unjust and baseless nature of book bans is confirmed by numerous awards received by these works, some of which have found a permanent place in the history of world literature. The first bans were recorded in the 1920s, and even today we can encounter bans of this nature. Just a few years ago, in a high school in Virginia, the book "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank was banned due to its sexual explicitness and homosexual themes. The book depicts the survival of a Jewish girl.

Salman Rushdie's controversial book, "The Satanic Verses," caused discomfort worldwide due to its portrayal of Islam. Published in 1988, Rushdie's work was deemed blasphemous and insulting to the Prophet Muhammad by Islamic believers. The book was banned in India, burned in the United Kingdom, and sparked protests across Islamic countries when it was released. In Japan, selling "The Satanic Verses" in English resulted in fines, while in America, some bookstores pulled the book from shelves due to death threats against the author. Rushdie lived in hiding for years, and translators of the book into Turkish were even murdered.

Huxley, Orwell, and Bradbury Under Society's Criticism

Aldous Huxley's work "Brave New World" was banned in Ireland in 1932 due to its promiscuous content, and some American states attempted to ban it because of its so-called negative themes. "Brave New World" became a model for subsequent works that question the benefits of technological advancement and reveal the potential misuse of science. 

George Orwell's brilliant and daring critique of authority in "Animal Farm" caused incredible censorship. In America, the book was banned immediately after its publication in 1945 for criticizing the Soviet Union, and it suffered the same fate in Kenya for addressing the issue of corrupt government. In 2002, the United Arab Emirates banned "Animal Farm" due to its depiction of pigs, which contradicts the Islamic view of those animals. Orwell, in his novel, satirically portrayed the events leading to Stalin's rise to power in Russia and his rule before World War II.

The novel "1984" by the same author, published in 1949, was immediately banned in the USSR. Formed in a dystopian manner, depicting totalitarian states under Stalin's control, the novel was banned in both the US and the UK during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" is an ironic tale of American society in the future, where reading books and critical thinking are prohibited. The title of the novel, published in 1953, alludes to the temperature at which paper ignites. The book was banned in several American states.

While Orwell's "1984" was primarily intended as a critique of communism, "Fahrenheit 451" and "Brave New World" dealt with the criticism of Western democratic societies.

The list of books that were immediately or after a few years banned is too long. It is worth mentioning the novel "Lolita" from 1955, "Madame Bovary" by Flaubert, which was banned in France, and the author himself was persecuted. Henry Miller's autobiographical work "Tropic of Cancer," as well as "The Grapes of Wrath," "Naked Lunch," "The Call of the Wild," James Joyce's "Ulysses," and "Gone with the Wind," which was banned in Russia.

In 2004, Lebanon banned Dan Brown's book "The Da Vinci Code" because Catholic leaders deemed it offensive to Christianity. The book remains banned to this day - as of 2020.