Ready Reference Treatise: Tropic of Cancer

By Raja Sharma

“Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller was first published in 1934. The book was described as notorious for its candid sexuality, and it created a lot of controversy when it was first published.

The free speech which is very common in literature now was first used by Henry Miller and he was heavily criticized for that. The book was published in France, but it was banned in the United States of America.

The American government said that Henry Miller had given highly sexually explicit description in his book and it was sexually immoral. The government of the United States was so angry with Henry Miller that it even banned the following books written by Henry Miller.

Ready Reference Treatise: Tropic of Cancer
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Aug 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311434357

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

Book preview

Ready Reference Treatise: Tropic of Cancer

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: Tropic of Cancer

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2015 Raja Sharma

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved

Chapter One: Introduction

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller was first published in 1934. The book was described as notorious for its candid sexuality, and it created a lot of controversy when it was first published.

The free speech which is very common in literature now was first used by Henry Miller and he was heavily criticized for that. The book was published in France, but it was banned in the United States of America.

The American government said that Henry Miller had given highly sexually explicit description in his book and it was sexually immoral. The government of the United States was so angry with Henry Miller that it even banned the following books written by Henry Miller.

Eventually, the ban was lifted in the year 1961. Elmer Gertz, a lawyer, a close friend of Henry Miller, fought the case and defended the publication of Tropic of Cancer in Illinois. He won the case and the ban was lifted.

Although there was no ban on the publication after the court ruling, there were many people who were against Henry Miller and they tried their best to stop his books. However, the book continued to carry the official label ‘obscene.’

It is said that the police in Chicago even intimidated the book shopkeepers and bookstores who decided the book ‘Tropic of Cancer.’ The publisher, Grove Press, had to fight sixty cases to protect the book during 1961.

Eventually, the Supreme Court passed the verdict and declared that ‘Tropic of Cancer’ was not obscene. After several decades, the book came to be accepted as a classic.

Tropic of Cancer became a unique book because it blurred the lines between prose and essay, ignoring the conventional divisions between fact and fiction and autobiography and invention.

Even today, the book is considered as a very strange and captivating masterpiece of literature. The book still carries its original punch, although it was first published about eight decades before.

The book basically describes Henry Miller’s years that he had spent in Paris.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

At the opening of the novel, Henry Miller happens to be living with his friend Boris at the Villa Borghese. It is his second fall in Paris.

Miller introduces the book by writing that this is not a book; this is a libel, slander, defamation of character.

He says that his novel is a song. He dedicates it to Tania. She happens to be a Jewish woman who has an affair with Miller while she is living with her playwright beau, Sylvester.

Miller introduces some of his friends and companions in Paris. They include Borowski, the Cronstandts, Moldorf, and Lucille. Most of his friends and companions live in Montparnasse. Several American expatriates also olive in the same area of Paris.

Miller declares that writing is the only thing that still interests him. He goes back one year back in his past. He remembers wandering the city with a woman named Mona. She was a friend of Borowski’s.

He recalls being tucked away in the vestibule of a dance hall one night, while Mona and