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The Well of Loneliness

The Classic of Lesbian Fiction

Author Radclyffe Hall
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Paperback
$17.00 US
Knopf | Anchor
5.22"W x 7.91"H x 1.06"D  
On sale Oct 18, 1990 | 448 Pages | 9780385416092
Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
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Originally published in 1928, Radclyffe Hall’'s The Well of Loneliness is the thinly disguised story of the author’s own life-the struggle of a lesbian couple to be accepted by polite society. Shockingly candid for its time, it was the first book to condemn society for its harsh treatment of gays and lesbians and was banned upon publication. It was again written off-this time by feminists in the late 1970s and early 1980s for its portrayal of lesbians in stereotypical “butch” and “femme” roles. Still controversial after 60 years, the novel is a landmark work and a timeless story.
Radclyffe Hall, the pen name of Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall, was born in Bournemouth on August 12, 1880. She was educated at King's College, London, and later undertook further studies in Germany. Hall was renowned for her open homosexuality, a subject dealt with in her best-known novel, The Well of Loneliness (1928), a semi-autobiographical work and the only one of her eight novels to deal with overt lesbian themes. Her open treatment of lesbianism in The Well of Loneliness occasioned a trial for obscenity; it was banned and an appeal refused, which resulted in all copies in Britain being destroyed. The United States allowed its publication after a long court battle. She also published several volumes of verse including Twixt Earth and Stars: Poems (1906) and Songs of Three Counties and Other Poems (1913). Adam's Breed (1926), a sensitive novel about the life of a restaurant keeper, won the Prix Femina and the 1927 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. Hall died in 1943 at the age of sixty-eight from cancer. View titles by Radclyffe Hall

About

Originally published in 1928, Radclyffe Hall’'s The Well of Loneliness is the thinly disguised story of the author’s own life-the struggle of a lesbian couple to be accepted by polite society. Shockingly candid for its time, it was the first book to condemn society for its harsh treatment of gays and lesbians and was banned upon publication. It was again written off-this time by feminists in the late 1970s and early 1980s for its portrayal of lesbians in stereotypical “butch” and “femme” roles. Still controversial after 60 years, the novel is a landmark work and a timeless story.

Author

Radclyffe Hall, the pen name of Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall, was born in Bournemouth on August 12, 1880. She was educated at King's College, London, and later undertook further studies in Germany. Hall was renowned for her open homosexuality, a subject dealt with in her best-known novel, The Well of Loneliness (1928), a semi-autobiographical work and the only one of her eight novels to deal with overt lesbian themes. Her open treatment of lesbianism in The Well of Loneliness occasioned a trial for obscenity; it was banned and an appeal refused, which resulted in all copies in Britain being destroyed. The United States allowed its publication after a long court battle. She also published several volumes of verse including Twixt Earth and Stars: Poems (1906) and Songs of Three Counties and Other Poems (1913). Adam's Breed (1926), a sensitive novel about the life of a restaurant keeper, won the Prix Femina and the 1927 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. Hall died in 1943 at the age of sixty-eight from cancer. View titles by Radclyffe Hall

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