Warning: this article contains mention of suicide.

Since 2021, PEN America has documented over 23,000 cases of books being banned in public schools. This large-scale censorship is mostly being manufactured by conservative and right-wing talking heads and it overwhelmingly targets books that mention race, sexuality, violence against women, or negative views on governmental authority. The top banned book in 2025 was A Clockwork Orange due to its depiction of violence and opposition to authority.

Though censorship is now at a rate that we have never seen before throughout history, it is nothing new. From burning books in Nazi Germany to the Obscenity Trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960, those in power have continuously tried to block the masses from obtaining the ability to think and feel for themselves.

But what about when doctors banned books because they genuinely believed they made people sick or corrupted them morally?

It doesn’t sound like a thing, but I promise it is. It even became a diagnosis, “novel-reading sickness”.

Novel-reading sickness was described as sensation-seeking, morally dissolute, and promiscuous behavior. It was highly contagious, and the only cure was to stop reading. In 1872, one doctor described it as “insanity [that] has increased from excessive indulgence in the reading of the novels, and works of similar character, which have, of late years, swarmed from the presses of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.”

I don’t have to tell you that novel-reading sickness isn’t a real thing. Books cannot cause you to become ill with physical or psychiatric illness (unless it’s an especially bad one). But people really did believe this. Several times throughout history. We even see a form of it today in the banning of books throughout public schools and libraries in America.

The Concept of “Novel-Reading Sickness”

“I find those who first made novel-reading an indispensable branch in forming the minds of young women, have a great deal to answer for. Without this poison instilled, as it were, into the blood, females in life would never have been so much the slaves of vice.“

The New England Quarterly Magazine, Volume 1

Widespread mania arises whenever reading becomes too accessible, too powerful, or too critical of what society deems as acceptable in terms of race, gender, or class hierarchies. We’ve seen it before, we’re even seeing it now. In these times, fiction usually creates an uncomfortable mirror to society’s hypocrisies.

The first time we see this is in the late 18th century. Prior to this time, reading was exclusive and public, usually religious texts and sermons. With the Age of Enlightenment, this practice became more private, offering people an opportunity to have their own opinions and reactions to texts. Moral panic arose in reaction to this as it was seen as a direct challenge to societal norms and the nature of traditional learning. Society was no longer able to control what knowledge people gained and when, and that made those in authority very angry.

Suddenly, people had the knowledge to make their own decisions and no longer rely on a hive-mind mentality to make them for them.

Choice terms of “fever”, “mania”, and “sickness” were actually very deliberate. It turned reading from a social issue into a pseudo-medical diagnosis. People literally, genuinely believed that the consumption of novels, particularly by women, caused symptoms of illness to arise.

The excessive emotional stimulation that came from the drama of novels was thought to “deplete” the nerves, leading to nervous exhaustion, headaches, and fainting (common symptoms of “hysteria”) as well as a tendency to “neglect domestic duties”.

By framing a passion for literature as a medical ailment, those in charge could now market the cure (banning reading for certain populations) without having to defend the loss of intellectual merit that came from reading.

The Sorrows of Young Werther and Emotional Contagion

“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

It would be wrong of me not to mention a very real and very terrifying psychological phenomenon that arises from consuming media that glorifies or over-details the act of suicide and the ensuing reaction to it. It’s known as The Werther Effect and it’s why I felt I needed to put a trigger warning at the beginning of this article. Though separate from the concept of “novel-reading sickness”, its history plays a role in public panic as a response to literature.

The year is 1774, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has just published his epistolary novel (if you don’t know what that is, it’a a letter-based novel and they’re extremely cool) Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (translated to The Sorrows of Young Werther). The protagonist, Werther, falls in love with a young lady named Lotte, who is already married. Unable to have her and unable to reconcile his feelings for her, Werther ultimately commits suicide.

Following this publication, reports started to circulate. Young men, often wearing the signature blue tailcoat and yellow pants worn by Werther in the novel, were dying by suicide. Some were even reported having a copy of the novel open beside them at the scene. They were usually men who could relate to the character of Werther in one way or another- particularly young, educated men who were struggling with the expectations of society.

The cultural panic that ensued after these reports started to arise was the first concrete “evidence” of “novel-reading sickness”. It affirmed the worst fears of the public: that fiction could directly compel this destructive behavior and destabilize society.

In the end, the novel was banned across several countries in Europe, therefore solidifying the novel as dangerous. It is, however, able to be read today, if you’re curious. Just know what you’re getting into, please.

Although some historians wonder whether the original reports of the Werther suicides were exaggerated or not, The Werther Effect does, in fact, have merit as a psychological phenomenon. Having been coined exactly two centuries after the original suicides by psychologist David Phillips, The Werther Effect refers to a pattern in which a highly publicized suicide, whether fiction or not, is followed by an increase in the suicide rate of the related population.

This is a form of copycat behavior where the event itself acts as a form of inspiration, making suicide seem like a reasonable reaction to distress. It’s why you’ll rarely see news outlets or other forms of media make detailed reports of suicides.

A popular, more modern example of this came in the year 2019. A hit new television show was making its way onto the screens of highly impressionable teenagers. In this television show, there is a graphic scene of a young girl dying by suicide. The act itself, and the following narrative of revenge against those who had wronged her, became a dangerous cocktail that led teens to believe that suicide was a justifiable act to punish others.

The show: Thirteen Reasons Why. Following its release, numerous health organizations reported an increase in youth suicides, leading to Netflix taking the explicit scene out of the show entirely.

Though Werther and Hannah Baker were written into existence over two centuries apart, they still provide a connection to a very delicate question: Does art about suicide romanticize the act? I’ll leave that to you to form an opinion on.

“Penny Dreadfuls” and the Rise of Mass-Market Sensationalism

Advances in the printing industry- most namely the steam-powered printing press- began to make literature financially available to a wide range of people. The “Penny Dreadful” (or “Penny Blood”) was just one example of the large-scale of fiction that was introduced to the market.

As suggested in the name, Penny Dreadfuls were sold for a just a penny a piece. They were stories told in pamphlets that were published weekly, keeping people coming back for more. The pricing here, now accessible to the working class, was what broke the elite’s long-held monopoly on literature. This meant that the middle class now had the ability to consume literature and liberate themselves from illiteracy, thus creating a massive market for non-religious, sensational fiction that anyone could access.

Penny Dreadfuls often created storylines that directly challenged the literature endorsed and consumed by the Victorian upper class. They focused on crime, gothic horror, mystery, and the supernatural. The protagonists were often what we’d refer to today as anti-heroes. And this did not bode well for authority.

The moral panic that ensued over this form of “novel-reading sickness” was loud, large, and lasted quite a long time.

There was a deep-seated fear of a rise in crime due to “criminal instructions” within the stories, there began to be an erosion of class boundaries because now everyone had access to the knowledge and entertainment that came with reading, and there was a fear that the stories would “distract” the working class from their duties to keep society running.

It’s safe to say that the condemnation of these stories focused less on their content and more about maintaining control of a working class in a newly literate society. The working class was no longer silent and uneducated, and the popularity of these stories proved just that.

The Great Book Scare

“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.”

-Henry Steele Commager

Unlike the Werther suicides and the Penny Dreadfuls, the Great Book Scare (that we see even today) is rooted in a deep fear of ideological contamination. Books are targeted for discussing themes such as sexuality or gender, race, history, profanity, and violence. The underlying anxiety here is that these books expose children to “complex” realities of adults before they are ready, undermining the morals that are established at home or in church.

The Great Book Scare often operates through formal challenges to institutions such as public schools and libraries. Organized groups, most notoriously Moms for Liberty, argue their objection (often religious or moral based) to certain books represents the community at large, when in fact, they are attempting to impose a minority viewpoint on public education resources.

The challenges on these books often ignore their literary merit and instead focus on specific quotes and passages that are taken out of context. For example, in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, the rape of the protagonist, Pecula, by her father, was presented as evidence of “pornographic material” to school boards and libraries in an effort to get the book banned. In doing this, they ignored the true meaning of the book and that scene as a direct metaphor of the systems of oppression in America.

In current times, The Great Book Scare is bigger than ever due to the rise of digital propaganda and deep political polarization. Social media allows local book bans to become called out and recognized nationally, spreading the ideals and widening the cultural divide. Movements that advocate for the banning of certain books are able to be mobilized across the country by spreading the message online.

Teachers and librarians have become some of the biggest scapegoats of The Great Book Scare. Instead of being seen as educators, the hysteria surrounding these books seeks to deem them “emotional contagions” that intentionally try to corrupt youth by providing access to “forbidden” ideas.

Whether the book is The Sorrows of Young Werther or The Bluest Eye, the context remains the same: a fear that an uncontrolled exposure to different narratives will lead to the development of behaviors and ideals that challenge the status-quo.

To access PEN America’s list of the most frequently banned/challenged books in 2025, you can click here.

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