T H E S I S

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by January 1928 and is now widely known as LGL, with 317 pages -
(Penguin Books edition). This last version restored the ending
of the original story and contains almost all the rejected "for-
bidden" words. It was published for the first time privately in
Florence in 1928. In 1959 it was published again, this time in
New York by Grove Press. In London it was published by Penguin
Books only in I960. The First Ladv Chatterley. unexpurgated,
was published in New York in 19Mf. Between 1928 and 1930 pirated
editions of the third version were published in New York and Paris,
according to Lawrence's own accounts. It was immediately prosecuted
and banned in England but clandestine volumes concealed in
travellers' pockets guaranteed a continuous circulation in Lawrence's
country.
For the sake of clarity I must say that this study is based
on the third version of LGL published by Penguin Books in I960,
which is considered complete and unexpurgated. However, Bernard
Jones, in his essay 5?The Three Ladies Chatterley maintains that
"for the final version, which is the one widely known since
I960, Lawrence resorted to drastic pruning and produced a
book just over fifty pages longer than the first version
with the result that he lost some of the advantages of the
comparative brevity of the original story."(TLC V6)
In any case, through Bernard Jones' article we know that
The First Lady Chatterley has a few more "offending" words, as
he calls the four-letter words.Lawrence's intention (extensively
discussed by the critics and in the London trial) is to
regenerate sex and clean the four-letter words. In LCL he replaces
the novel's conventional "row of asterisks" with the words
they conceal, determined to break; a taboo. There are only eight