The Attorney-General's opinion of the novel, The Naked and the
Dead, is broadly identical with the view I expressed here a fortnight ago. Answering a question on the subject in the House of Commons on Monday, Sir Hartley Shawcross observed, " Whilst there is much in this most tedious and lengthy book which is foul, lewd and revolting, looking at it as a whole I do not think that its intent is to corrupt or deprave, or that it is likely to lead to any result other than disgust at its contents." On that I would only remark that I hope circulating libraries will consider well how far it is their duty to give currency to volumes containing "much which is foul, lewd and revolting." The Attorney-General was no doubt wise in deciding not to initiate legal proceedings against the publishers of the book. At the same time there is something in the point. made by a correspondent who writes : " It is a curious commentary on this age that though newspapers no longer print, and are not allowed to, the intimate details of libidinous conduct connected with divorce, novelists are permitted a free hand to describe with meticulous care the libidinous sexual activities of their characters."
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