Tropic of Cancer (novel)
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Tropic of Cancer is a sexually explicit novel by Henry Miller, first published in 1934 by Obelisk Press in Paris and still in print (Grove Press 1987 paperback: ISBN 0-8021-3178-6). Its publication in 1961 in the United States by Grove Press led to an obscenity trial that was one of several that tested American laws on pornography in the 1960s. While famous for its frank and often graphic depiction of sex, the book is also widely regarded as an important masterpiece of Twentieth Century literature.
The novel is set in 1930s France, primarily Paris. It is written in the first person as are many of Miller's other novels, and often fluctuates between past and present tense. Some chapters follow a strict narrative and reference Miller's actual friends, colleagues and workplaces; others are written as stream-of-consciousness reflections. There are many passages explicitly describing the narrator's sexual encounters, however, the book does not solely focus on this subject.
In 1964 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein, cited Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day) and overruled state court findings of obscenity.
[edit] Trivia
- The novel included a preface credited to Anaïs Nin (although allegedly penned by Miller himself).
- A copyright infringing "Medusa" edition of the novel was published in New York City in 1940 by Roy Brussel; its title page claimed its place of publication to be Mexico. Brussel was eventually sent to jail for ten years for the edition, a copy of which is in the Library of Congress under call number PS3525.I5454 T7 1940.
- George Orwell called this novel "the most important book of the mid-1930's," and Miller "the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past." [[1]]
- Samuel Beckett hailed it as "a momentous event in the history of modern writing".
- Norman Mailer, in his book on Miller, Genius and Lust, called it "one of the ten or twenty greatest novels of the century".
- The Modern Library named it the 50th greatest book of the 20th century.
- The novel was featured in a 1991 episode of Seinfeld.
