Introduction : the joy of censorship -- The sounds of silence : W.M. Thackeray and Preston Sturges -- For sophisticated eyes only : Jane Austen and George Cukor -- Beyond censorship : Charles Dickens and Frank Capra -- The thrill of the fight : Charlotte Brontë and Elia Kazan -- Postscript : Oscar Wilde and Mae West
Summary
This study defendins censorship from the central allegations that are traditionally levelled against it. Taking two genres generally presumed to have been stymied by the censor's knife - the Victorian novel and classical Hollywood film - it reveals the varied ways in which censorship, for all its blustery self-righteousness, can actually be good for sex, politics, feminism, and art. Rather than being ruined by censorship, Victorian novels and Hays Code films were stirred and stimulated by the very forces meant to restrain them
