Lady Chatterley's lover

It was one of the most scandalous novels of the first half of the 20th century. It was first published in the late 1920s in Florence and Paris, but was banned from publication in the author's native Britain until the 1960s. So English cultural tourists brought it back secretly from trips to the continent as a savoury souvenir, perhaps adding to its "bad reputation".

By the way, the book was first published in Czech in 1930 - and it did not cause any scandal. Perhaps it was also the fact that Czech readers probably did not experience so strongly the harsh criticism of British society, which could have provoked more violent disapproval among the council of approvers and prohibitionists across the Channel than the alleged obscenity of the book. Because Lady Chatterley's Lover may be an erotic novel, but it is certainly not an obscene one. The flat line between these terms has always been and will always be very fluid.

"Priest of Love D. H. Lawrence sanctified eroticism and sex, elevated it to a sacred ceremony, a pagan ritual linked to the rhythm of the seasons, with the movement of the sun in the sky, with the moon, stars, with all of nature, animate and inanimate. For him, sex was a life-giving, sun-like force that could purify and heal not only interpersonal relationships, but also man's relationship to the entire natural world, to the universe. " This is what Martin Hilský wrote in his study of Lawrence, which was published as a preface to his collection of short stories Shadows of Spring. It is a reading as exciting and inspiring as Lawrence's own texts.

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) did not live to see the success of his book, dying only a year after its first publication. And in fact, he would have to wait many decades before the book became part of the literary canon and college scripts, before it became one of the most filmed books ever, and most importantly, the most read book. The love story of Constance, a young aristocrat who chooses a "common gamekeeper" instead of her noble (and unfortunately invalid) husband, will not cause any scandal today; But it can still reach and move us - and excite us - not only by its extraordinary literary qualities, but above all by the strength of the passion of the two lovers and of the author himself.