The Trial of Lady Chatterley: Regina v. Penguin Books Ltd. The Transcript of the Trial. With Illustrations by Paul Hogarth and a Selection of Cartoons. To which is added the Report of a Debate in the House of Lords.

Limited first edition. Sm. 8vo. Pp. [vi], 292, [2]. Publisher's dulled green cloth boards, lettered and ruled in gilt to spine. 14 b/w line illustrations and pictorial endleaves by Paul Hogarth; contemporary press cartoons. In the original plain yellow dust-wrapper.

One of 2,000 printed copies numbered and signed to the colophon by Allen Lane, and intended for private distribution. With his presentation slip loosely tipped in, in lieu of a Christmas card. Also published as a Penguin Special on 2 February 1961.

Is this the sort of book you would want your wife, or servants to read? The transcript of the seminal obscenity trial, wittily edited by C.H. Rolph with a Hansard report of a debate in the House of Lords on a motion to ban certain of D.H. Lawrence's works [not included in the regular Penguin trade edition].

Lady Chatterley's Lover was the first novel to be prosecuted under the British Obscene Publications Act of 1959. The trial took place over six days, in No 1 court of the Old Bailey, between 20 October and 2 November 1960 with Mervyn Griffith-Jones prosecuting, Gerald Gardiner counsel for the defence and Laurence Byrne presiding. The jury found for the defendant in a result that ushered in the liberalisation of publishing, and which some saw as the beginning of the permissive society in Britain.