This is the unexpurgated version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, first published in America by The Grove Press. It includes the preface by Archibald MacLeish and the introduction by Mark Schorer, as well as the opinion of Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, upholding the publication of this long controversial work in its complete form.

The nature of the controversy is by now well known to everyone who reads, as is the high distinction of Lawrence’s novel. Lady Chatterley’s Lover is the most complete statement by Lawrence of what Mark Schorer call his “inspired plea that the human being becomes what he already is, that is, human."

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is by now so well established in the canon of modern literary classics that readers may be inclined to overlook its continuing and growing relevance to our own period in history when questions of individuality in conflict with civilization are perhaps more urgent than ever. It is for this reason among others that this unexpurgated version of Lawrence’s novel is welcome at this time.