Banned Books

Then there was the Index (not all so long ago either):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Librorum_Prohibitorum

another interesting list (in the meantime, I'm trying to find a list of Index banned books):

books banned by governments -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_books

An incomplete list of famous names on the Index -
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/indexlibrorum.html

[From http://library.lib.byu.edu/~aldine/51Index.html]
The principle of a list of forbidden books was adopted at the Fifth Lateran Council in 1515, then confirmed by the Council of Trent in 1546. The first edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, dated 1557 was published by Pope Paul IV. The 32nd edition, published in 1948 included 4000 titles. The Index was suppressed in 1966.
[Translated from http://www.union-fin.fr/~bcourcel/LivresInterdits.html]

It has proved to be somewhat difficult to get a complete list of books included on the Index. What follows is at least a partial list, derived from the above French website.

[See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Index of Prohibited Book]

In chronological order of the books, here is a list of French language writers having the honor of being put on the index.
CW = complete works
1948 = was in the edition of 1948

Rabelais (CW)
Montaigne (Essais)
Descartes (Méditations Métaphysiques et 6 autres livres, 1948)
La Fontaine (Contes et Nouvelles)
Pascal (Pensées)
Montesquieu (Lettres Persanes, 1948)
Voltaire (Lettres philosophiques; Histoire des croisades; Cantiques des Cantiques),
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Du Contrat Social; La Nouvelle Héloïse)
Denis Diderot (CW, Encyclopédie)
Helvétius (De l'Esprit; De l'homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles et de son éducation )
Casanova (Mémoires)
Sade (Justine, Juliette)
Mme De Stael (Corinne ou l'Italie)
Stendhal (Le Rouge et le noir, 1948),
Balzac (CW)
Victor Hugo (Notre Dame de Paris; Les misérables jusqu'en 1959)
Gustave Flaubert (Mme Bovary; Salammbô)
Alexandre Dumas (divers romans)
Emile Zola (CW)
Maeterlinck (CW)
Pierre Larousse (Grand Dictionnaire Universel),
Anatole France (prix Nobel en 1921, CW à l'Index en 1922),
Andre Gide (prix Nobel, CW à l'Index en 1952)
Jean Paul Sartre (Prix Nobel (refusé), CW à l'Index en 1959).

"One could ask what did the study of literature look like in religious schools?"

Other Authors Listed

Peter Abelard,
Erasmus
Nicholas. Machiavelli
John Calvin
John Milton
Malebranche
Baruch Spinoza
John. Locke
Bishop Berkeley
David Hume
Condillac
d'Holbach
d'Alembert
La Mettrie
Condorcet
Daniel. Defoe
Jonathan. Swift
Swedenborg
Laurence. Sterne
Emmanuek. Kant
H. Heine
J. S. Mill
G. D'Annunzio
H. Bergson.

There was a child book in the Miami-Dade school library system that was aim at very young children that show life of children in Cuba as happy. This book was not a stand along book but part of a whole serious of books dealing with children in many countries of the world.

The right wing Cuba nuts in my community demanded that this book be removed from the school system libraries and in spite of the school system staff recommendations not to removed this book the school board did so.

The results was at the time when we are laying off teachers and shutting down programs for lack of funds the system needed to come up with a hundred thousands or so dollars to fight in the federal courts for the right to removed this children book!

They won in the end but what a hell of a waste of resources over a few dozens books that was never design to be anything but happy books concerning the world children in the difference lands.

as a mr. b. bragg once sang

well here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it

waiting for the great leap forwards

Is that a recommendation to adopt the Chinese way of life fresco.? After all, if they are banning the Bible we must be on the wrong track.

Thanks osso. A handy list of must reads.

That's the idea of banning books. It gets them read more.

Who would wish to read books that were not banned? Like bound volumes of Ladies Home Journal.

I am happy to recommend all those on your list that I have read.

Apart from La Mettrie if you have no flameproof underwear.

http://januarymagazine.com/labels/banned%20books.html

The index was still kicking when I was in high school and college. I still haven't read Voltaire, got to put him on my wish list; high school being strict catholic, first year of college being less so (smarter nuns). Rest of college was at university (little red school house), thank the lord and pass the ammunition.

School bans Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5, so Vonnegut Library gives copies to students for free
http://tinyurl.com/3vmlg5b

Take that your bastard fascist PTA!

I saw one at a used book store the other day and thought about sending it to them just to be onery

I can't imagine why anyone would want to ban it.

Which is not a reason izz.

Yeah, but I can understand why Tropic of Capricorn was banned, basic prudery. Interestingly not Opus Pistorum.

According to the article, the school board didn't like the F bomb ... saying it was on "every other page" and something about a perceived antichristian theme in the book. Go figure.

Perfect act of civil disobedience!

Opus Pistorum is a very Christian book. Miller was a bit of a prude underneath.