AN INDECENT BOOK
BOOKSELLER FINED
COMMENTS BY MAGISTRATE
(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)
AUCKLAND, This Day.
Giving ■ a reserved judgment today, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., found that Honore de Balzac's "Droll Stories" is an indecent document, and fined Cecil i George Swallow, a bookseller, £5 Is and costs, for offering it for sale. i .' Mr. Wilson r said that.-the-.book was" indecent, and that certain passages "were quite obscene. The tendency of the tales was to glorify immorality , and licentiousness, and to hold purity and virtue up to ridicule. He thought that the sale and circulation of such a book was calculated to prejudice public morals. He had been asked to dismiss ,the charge as Balzac.had a certain place in French literature,' and it was necessary that the book should be available to students at universities in New Zealand. If it was necessary for students to read all of Balzac's works such comprehensive reading would be of much greater benefit tothe student if it was done from the French. However, he was of the opinion that the 'book was presented in this case for general entertainment and . not as a' standard ; work for students. Its bright cover was evidently intended to awake the curiosity, and the illustrations were of incidents calculated to lure the lascivious mind.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19350207.2.119
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 13
Word Count
213AN INDECENT BOOK Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 32, 7 February 1935, Page 13
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