Banned Book Reinstated After 80 Years

In a move to protect the author Charles Dickens from scandal, author Carl Roberts' "This Side Idolatry" was removed from the public library in Portsmouth, the birthplace of Dickens. Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. The book was a novel but painted Dickens in a bad light, describing Dickens as a hypocrite, philanderer, selfish, an egoist, vulgar, morose, and avaricious, caricaturing his friends in his books behind their backs. So, in 1928, Portsmouth Central Library banned the book out of sensitivity to the legacy of its famous author.

Of the reinstatement, Dom Kippin, literature officer believes that Dickens would agree that it is time to put the novel back on the shelf.