“The Gulag Archipelago”, the Bible, “A Thousand and One Nights”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, “Woe from Wit”, “The Little Humpbacked Horse”... At first glance, these books have nothing in common. However, they have a common fate - to be banned. The history of world literature knows many examples of taboo works recognized for one reason or another as “dangerous to society.” It is sad that even in the 21st century this problem continues to be relevant. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, sentenced to death by Iran's spiritual leader in 1989, is still not published in most countries, and the author is forced to hide from persecution in Britain. As long as there is intolerance for free expression, censorship will continue to destroy masterpieces of literary art. This collection contains stories of 100 books banned or censored for political, religious, sexual or social reasons. The fate of each such book is truly tragic. They were not allowed to be printed, they were abridged, they were cursed in churches, they were burned, and they were removed from library shelves and store shelves. The authors were sued, expelled from the country, they were insulted, humiliated, and oppressed. Many of them were executed. At various times, the greatest literary works were banned. Among them: “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Goethe, “Doctor Zhivago” by Pasternak, “The Flowers of Evil” by Baudelaire, “Ulysses” by Joyce, “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert, “The Demon” by Lermontov and others. It is known that Russian literature suffered mainly from political censorship, which operated successfully both during the times of Tsarist Russia and during the Soviet Union. The stories of banned books clearly show that freedom of speech still exists only on paper, and not in the minds, and a person still has a long way to go to learn to respect the opinions and thoughts of other people.