[HarryT]

Societies throughout history have censored books and other forms of literature. Plays in Shakespeare's time, for example, had to be officially approved by the censor before they were permitted to be performed.

Many current English publications of French classics that were translated in Victorian times still most commonly use expurgated texts. In this case, not because of official censorship but because of self-censorship by translators and publishers to remove material that wouldn't have been acceptable to Victorian England's moral standards. A good example is Alexander Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo", by far the most commonly published translation of which is a heavily censored translation commissioned by the publishers Chapman and Hall in 1846. Fortunately there are now modern, unexpurgated translations available.