The surprising books you never knew were banned

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland may have captured our imaginations for many years and been adapted into several films, but the book was banned in China in 1931. It seems the governor of Hunan province ruled that animals should never use human language and that it was disastrous to put animals and humans on the same level. As we readers know, from the moment Alice sees the white rabbit with his pocket watch, her conversations with the fantastical Wonderland animals soon take center stage. 

Dickens’ classic novel about orphan Oliver Twist, who was born in a workhouse and later became part of Fagin's gang of pickpockets was prohibited in Nazi Germany for featuring Jewish characters.

This touching story was banned by South Africa’s apartheid regime at one point simply because it had the words “black” and “beauty” in the title. The tale is narrated from the point of view of Black Beauty the horse and sheds a light on the treatment of horses during the 19th Century.

E. L. James’ raunchy bestseller was removed from shelves in Brevard County, Florida, because it was deemed too pornographic. Though the library system later reversed its decision, due to requests by residents for the book. The final installment in the bestselling series is set for release this year and fans are already excited!

The wizarding world of Harry Potter, which began with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, might seem fairly innocuous, but the series has faced criticism from some. In 2019, a Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee removed Harry Potter books from its library, warning the spells and curses the author describes are real and “risk conjuring evil spirits” when read. 

Published in 2003, Dan Brown's hugely successful novel was banned in Lebanon in 2004 for its perceived offensiveness toward Christianity. Many other countries have banned the novel for certain periods due to the content, which some consider to be blasphemous. Manila, India, and the Vatican are some of the places that have either prohibited or severely rated the Da Vinci Code over the years.

Mary Shelley’s much-celebrated and read classic, which tells the story of a young scientist who creates a sentient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment, was reportedly banned in apartheid South Africa in 1955 for containing "obscene" or "indecent" material.

Considered one of the most important works of modernist literature today, the complete 1945 Spanish-language translation of Ulysses is understood to have been suppressed by the Spanish authorities until 1962.

Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan book series is made up of 24 adventure novels and begins with Tarzan of the Apes which includes many of the plot-points we'd recognize from Tarzan film adaptations. Tarzan was pulled from the shelves of a public library in the aptly named town of Tarzana, California, in 1961. Authorities supposedly thought the story was unsuitable for youngsters. And all because there was no evidence that Tarzan and Jane had married before they started living happily together in the treetops!