We asked faculty and staff of the law school to write to us about their favorite banned book. To give them some ideas we included a list of classic novels that were banned at one time or another: Three members of the faculty have responded, and their remarks are below.
Jeffrey G. Sherman, Professor of Law Emeritus, wrote:
Of the books mentioned on the list, I’d nominate The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but in my opinion the book falls apart when Tom Sawyer enters the story. For a book that does *not* fall apart at the end, I’d pick To Kill a Mockingbird. Obvious choices, I know, but what can you do? I think it’s been years since Madame Bovary was last banned, but it was certainly banned when it was new, and it’s a favorite of mine, too. This last book was mentioned in a movie line whose double meaning seems to have escaped the Hollywood censors. The movie is “Auntie Mame.” There’s a scene where Mame and her amorous ghost writer are working on her memoirs, and she asks the writer how much time they’ll need to complete the book. The writer, in response, reminds her that “Flaubert spent thirty years on Madame Bovary.”
Sarah K. Harding, Associate Professor of Law, wrote:
It is hard to pick a favorite from all these wonderful books. I read most of them a long time ago so that also makes it difficult to choose, but I re-read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle this summer – a marvelously nasty piece of muckraking.
David S. Rudstein, Professor of Law, chose Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita for the author’s “Wonderful use of the English language,” made all the more remarkable because English was not Nabokov’s native language.
