How Smut Becomes Art

Reviewing Dirt for Art's Sake: Books on Trial From Madame Bovary to Lolita by Elisabeth Ladenson, the prolific John Sutherland writes: "The condition of pure enlightenment, in which the oppression of moral censorship will be lifted, is a chimera. Looking forward, we can never see censorship's end. But looking backward, we can be amused and instructed by its foolishness. That, at least, is something."