R v Penguin Books Ltd (also known as The Lady Chatterley Trial), was the public prosecution in the United Kingdom of Penguin Books under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 for the publication in November 1960 of DH Lawrence's 1928 novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'. The novel was controversial at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex, use of four-letter words, and depiction of a relationship between an upper-class woman and a working-class man. The trial was a major public event and a test of the new obscenity law.
Prosecuting, Mervyn Griffith-Jones began by urging the jury to decide if the book was obscene under section 2 of the Act and if so whether its literary merit provided for a 'public good' under section 4, and that they must judge the book as a whole. Inviting them to consider as a test of whether it would deprave or corrupt, he asked "Would you approve of your young sons, young daughters—because girls can read as well as boys—reading this book? Is it a book you would have lying around your own house? Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?"
The last question caused much amusement in the court, and is often cited as representing the extent to which the British establishment had fallen out of touch with popular opinion at the time.
Needless to say, he failed to convince the jury, and the publishers were acquitted.
