Judge’s wife passed sentence on novel
It was at the bit about the ‘‘sensuality sharp and searing as fire’’ that Lady Dorothy Byrne switched to blue pencil for her annotations. The passage, referring to sex between Lady Chatterley and her gamekeeper lover, presumably had to be brought to the attention of her husband, who was presiding over the obscenity trial between the state and Penguin Books.
The paperback of DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover that the Hon Sir Laurence Byrne used for reference during the landmark 1960 trial has emerged, complete with his own wife’s annotations.
Lady Byrne, tasked by her husband with reading the novel, highlighted sexually explicit passages and morally offensive suggestions such as ‘‘having a child by another man’’. On separate pieces of Central Criminal Court-headed notepaper she gave her opinion on the coarseness of the language and whether the lovemaking was ‘‘vulgar’’ or not.
Its existence has inadvertently answered the infamous question asked by the prosecution: ‘‘Is it a book that you would have lying around in your own house? Is it a book that you would wish your wife or your servants to read?’’
The novel, bought from the estate of the Byrne family by the British-based collectors Stanley Seeger and Christopher Cone, will be sold at Sotheby’s in October, complete with the damask bag that Lady Byrne stitched to ensure her husband would not be seen with the book around the Old Bailey.
‘‘The idea is that he got her to read before the trial so that he would know where the dirty bits were,’’ said Gabriel Heaton, a specialist in books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s. ‘‘It is the least surprising annotation,’’ he added. ‘‘Thousands of copies have been thumbed through with the naughty bits underlined.’’
The acquittal of Penguin, tried under the Obscene Publications Act (1959), is seen as a pivotal moment in modern British history, heralding more sexual discussion in art and entertainment and a more permissive society.
A key question in the trial was whether the publication would deprave, and even if so, whether literary merit would redeem it. This meant, Heaton said, that cultural critics could argue for the first time that material was ‘‘actually serious art’’.
Although the establishment had lined up against Penguin Books, jurors took just three hours to return a not guilty verdict.
Sotheby’s said the judge’s copy was the ‘‘most important’’ to have survived. It will be sold with an upper estimate of £15,000 (NZ$29,500).
‘‘It is amazing that such a quirky object can distil so much about a particular social change,’’ Heaton said. ‘‘It is interesting that the judge was happy to have his wife read it, given the famous question the prosecution asks about whether ‘you would be happy having your wife read it’.
‘‘You have to respect the professionalism. He was a busy man and wanted the reading done in the most efficient way possible. And she fulfils the brief. Very straightforward, simple notes.’’ – The Times