Never judge a book by its contents

Apparently the National Insane Society is campaigning to ensure that books which may have disturbing content bear a warning on the cover in case some readers may be upset. I immediately thought that this would confine to the top shelf of bookshops and libraries titles like 'The Old Curiosity Shop' (childhood death), 'Jude the Obscure' (childhood suicide, deathbed scenes), 'Slaughterhouse 5' (mass immolation), 'Anna Karenina' (at least two people in front of trains), 'Accidental Death of An Anarchist' (use of word 'death' in title) and more or less all the plays of Shakespeare, given that even in the comedies one is occasionally exposed to mild teasing and even incidences of ridicule.

But according to Radio 4 the campaign was initiated by university English students, so unless 'The Little Prince' and Kahlil Gibran's 'The Prophet' are a bit tastier than I thought, I apologise for having been a little quick off the blocks on this occasion.