Description
The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family is a lesser-known adult book written by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) and published in 1939. Unlike his popular children’s books, this work is an illustrated, humorous tale for adults and was one of Seuss’s rare ventures into adult fiction.
The story is a playful retelling of the Lady Godiva legend. Instead of focusing on the famous ride of a single Lady Godiva, it presents a family of seven sisters, all named Godiva, who are determined to avoid marriage until they discover important truths about horses. The book contains Seuss's distinct, whimsical drawings, though they are geared towards an adult audience with nudity and risqué humor.
The first edition of The Seven Lady Godivas was published by Random House and did not sell well initially, making it a rare and valuable item for collectors today. In fact, because the book performed poorly upon release, it was not widely reprinted, and Dr. Seuss later referred to it as a "failure" commercially.