5 books censored during the Franco dictatorship

Throughout history, many books have been censored for multiple reasons: the Church did not tolerate Darwin's theory of species, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran asked for the head of Salman Rushdie when The Satanic Verses was published, and in Thailand The The Hunger Games was considered an anti-family saga. However, dictatorships are still the biggest cultural filters that exist, and the Franco regime that reigned in Spain for almost fifty years was no exception. These 5 books censored during the Franco dictatorship they confirm it well.

La Regenta, by Leopoldo Alas Clarín

After the Republic was proclaimed, many existing books were discontinued from libraries and burned in piles for various reasons: opposing ideologies, criticisms of a conservative society or an excessive eroticism that the Church did not tolerate, La Regenta being one of the books that gathered all the ballots, especially when it was a love triangle corrupted by a Machiavellian Master . The novel, already controversial after its publication in 1884, was classified as "almost heresy" and censored in Spain until 1962.

1984, by George Orwell

Published in 1949, Orwell's magnum opus is an allusion to authoritarian politics that came at a time when the world was licking its wounds caused by the most bloody war of its time. In Spain, the book tried to be published a year later, and although the idea of ​​the story seduced the Franco regime (after all it was a good control weapon), the novel was censored in Spain for "its high sexual content". Still, the edition published in 1952 omitted all eroticism, going on to be published entirely in 1984.

The house of Bernarda Alba, by Federico García Lorca

After the execution of Lorca in 1936, the work of one of the best writers in our country was reduced to just three titles in Spanish territory: Poet in New York, published in 1945 by the Higher Council for Scientific Research, Poems, prefaced by Luciano de Taxonera and published in Madrid by the Alhambra publishing house in 1944, and Complete Works: compilation and notes by Arturo del Hoyo, edition on bible paper and leather binding, expensive and, therefore, almost inaccessible for the majority of Spaniards. The 36 books published during the dictatorship in the Collective Catalog of the Spanish Bibliographic Heritage, including La casa de Bernarda Alba, were published in Argentine or French editions.

The Stranger, by Albert Camus

"If we are not going to publish a book in Spanish, let's do it in its original language, in this way few people, except the most cultured circuits, will buy it." This was the conclusion the censor relied on when La Plague arrived, the first book by Albert Camus published in Spain in 1955 while The Stranger struggled to arrive from Argentina for almost a decade until it was published in 1958. The reasons were obvious, taking into account the apathy of a character like Mr. Meursault unfit in a Spain where existentialism did not matter.

Donkey Skin, by Charles Perrault

That a king marry his daughter was not a premise that the Franco regime liked, which is why the story of the princess who fled her kingdom dressed in donkey skin was censored in our country throughout the dictatorship. No, the censors did not like the "incestuous" morality of the set despite the morals locked in that it remains one of the most popular children's stories in history.

Skin of Ass was not curiously the only children's content rejected by the Franco regime, being the anti-bullfighting short Ferdinando el Toro, from Disney, banned by a Francisco Franco who did not like hippie bulls.

What other books were censored during the Franco dictatorship?