Hosted by Anne O Nomis, featuring international guests.

Ever wanted to be a part of an intimate, interesting and entirely subversive bookclub?

The Passionfruit Forbidden Book Club features 12 books which were once banned due to their erotic or so called ‘obscene’ content. Its publishers and authors were in some cases jailed and prosecuted, and books taken off the shelves and seized by law enforcement.

The Catholic Church had an ‘Index Librorum Prohibitorum’ – Index of Banned Books – which included publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious. (They banned everyone from Gallileo in 1616 – who had dared suggest the earth revolved around the sun, right through to feminist Simone de Beauvoir’s book ‘The Second Sex’ banned in 1956. So it’s unsurprising that much of our literature with erotic themes was also banned by the church.)

Sex historian Anne O Nomis has curated the club and will host it on one Sunday afternoon each month. Ticket includes Book Club Salon Event at Passionfruit, featuring a talk on the history of the banned book, conversation and ‘Sinful Snacks’ with a ‘Decadent Drink’.

Books are available separately. You’ll want to start reading in advance. There are a couple of books where Anne recommends an ‘unexpurgated’ version (an edition which hasn’t cut out all the good sexy stuff!) Or a particular French-to-English translation, as noted.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 – Reading Honore de Balzac ‘Sarassine’ and ‘A Passion in the Desert’ from ‘The Human Comedy’ (1830) in anticipation of Forbidden Book Club Salon Event on Sunday 17 December from 3 – 4.30pm

NB: Anne recommends you read the New York Review Book Classics edition ‘Human Comedy Selected Stories’ with introduction by Peter Brooks, translated by Linda Asher, Carol Cosman and Jordan M. Stump. (ISBN: 9781590176641)