Shocking, banned and the subject of obscenity trials, Henry Miller's first novel Tropic of Cancer is one of the most scandalous and influential books of the twentieth century
Tropic of Cancer redefined the novel. Set in Paris in the 1930s, it features a starving American writer who lives a bohemian life among prostitutes, pimps, and artists. Banned in the US and the UK for more than thirty years because it was considered pornographic, Tropic of Cancer continued to be distributed in France and smuggled into other countries. When it was first published in the US in 1961, it led to more than 60 obscenity trials until a historic ruling by the Supreme Court defined it as a work of literature. Long hailed as a truly liberating book, daring and uncompromising, Tropic of Cancer is a cornerstone of modern literature that asks us to reconsider everything we know about art, freedom, and morality.
'At last an unprintable book that is fit to read' Ezra Pound
'A momentous event in the history of modern writing' Samuel Beckett
'The book that forever changed the way American literature would be written' Erica Jong
Henry Miller (1891-1980) is one of the most important American writers of the 20th century. His best-known novels include Tropic of Cancer (1934), Tropic of Capricorn (1939), and the Rosy Crucifixion trilogy ( Sexus, 1949, Plexus , 1953, and Nexus , 1959), all published in France and banned in the US and the UK until 1964. He is widely recognised as an irreverent, risk-taking writer who redefined the novel and made the link between the European avant-garde and the American Beat generation.

Henry Miller, Henry Miller

Penguin Books, Limited

Ladybird Books Ltd

Penguin Classics

Grove Press

Penguin UK

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

Penguin modern classics, London, 2015

New York, 1961

July 12, 1993

lg_fict_id_2391614

Miller's groundbreaking first novel, banned in Britain for almost thirty years. A penniless and as yet unpublished writer, Henry Miller arrived in Paris in 1930. Leaving behind a disintegrating marriage and an unhappy career in America, he threw himself into the low-life of bohemian Paris with unwavering gusto. A fictional account of Miller's adventures amongst the prostitutes and pimps, the penniless painters and writers of Montparnasse, Tropic of Cancer is an extravagant and rhapsodic hymn to a world of unrivalled eroticism and freedom. Tropic of Cancer's 1934 publication in France was hailed by Samuel Beckett as 'a momentous event in the history of modern writing'. The novel was subsequently banned in the UK and the USA and not released for publication for a further thirty years

Banned in the US and the UK for more than thirty years because it was considered pornographic, this book features a starving American writer who lives a bohemian life among prostitutes, pimps, and artists.

A stream-of-consciousness story of a poverty-stricken young American, living in Paris

2021-02-11