Author: Radclyffe HallPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Censorship
Languages : en
Pages : 524
Book Description
Tells the story of Stephen Gordon, a girl born at the turn of century, and her struggle for acceptance as a lesbian.
Palatable Poison
Author: Laura L. DoanPublisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231118750
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 436
Book Description
The Well of Loneliness was released in Britain in 1928 and was immediately controversial. This text gathers together classic essays on the book to provide an understanding of how views have changed.
Author: Lovat DicksonMiss Ogilvy Finds Herself
Author: Radclyffe HallPublisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 152876529X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 174
Book Description
This early work by Radclyffe Hall was originally published in 1926 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself' is a novel about a woman who struggles to find her identity after the conclusion of the First World War. Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born on 12th August 1880, in Bournemouth, England. Hall's first novel The Unlit Lamp (1924) was a lengthy and grim tale that proved hard to sell. It was only published following the success of the much lighter social comedy The Forge (1924), which made the best-seller list of John O'London's Weekly. Hall is a key figure in lesbian literature for her novel The Well of Loneliness (1928). This is her only work with overt lesbian themes and tells the story of the life of a masculine lesbian named Stephen Gordon.
The End of Loneliness
Author: Benedict WellsPublisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525505784
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
From internationally bestselling author Benedict Wells, a sweeping novel of love and loss, and of the lives we never get to live “[D]azzling storytelling...The End of Loneliness is both affecting and accomplished -- and eternal.” —John Irving "An exquisitely wrought and utterly absorbing meditation upon life, loss and love." —Ian McEwan Jules Moreau’s childhood is shattered after the sudden death of his parents. Enrolled in boarding school where he and his siblings, Marty and Liz, are forced to live apart, the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats inward, preferring to live within his memories – until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief. Fifteen years pass and the siblings remain strangers to one another, bound by tragedy and struggling to recover the family they once were. Jules, still adrift, is anchored only by his desires to be a writer and to reunite with Alva, who turned her back on their friendship on the precipice of it becoming more. But, just as it seems they can make amends for time wasted, invisible forces – whether fate or chance – intervene. A kaleidoscopic family saga told through the fractured lives of the three Moreau siblings, alongside a faltering, recovering love story, The End of Loneliness is a stunning meditation on the power of our memories, of what can be lost and what can never be let go. With inimitable compassion and luminous, affecting prose, Benedict Wells contends with what it means to find a way through life, while never giving up hope you will find someone to go with you.
The Well of Loneliness
Author: Radclyffe HallPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192647180
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 577
Book Description
'If our love is a sin, then heaven must be full of such tender and selfless sinning as ours.' The Well of Loneliness is among the most famous banned books in history. A pioneering work of literature, Radclyffe Hall's novel charts the development of a 'female sexual invert', Stephen Gordon, who from childhood feels an innate sense of masculinity and desire for women. After relocating from Malvern to London and then to Paris, Stephen encounters fellow queer characters from all walks of life, from the sapphic salon hostess Valérie Seymour to the 'miserable army' of outcasts that frequents the 'merciless, drug-dealing, death-dealing' bars of Montmartre. Although Stephen and her acquaintances, allies, and antagonists are of their time, Hall's novel has offered support and solidarity to generations of LGBTQ+ readers, and it continues to shape debates about gender and sexuality today. This edition highlights previously overlooked points of influence, inspiration, and connections with other texts as well as situating the novel in historical contexts. In addition, the editors provide vital insights into Hall's engagement with religion, sexology, literary history, and popular culture.
The Well of Loneliness
Author: Radclyffe HallPublisher: Standard Ebooks
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 579
Book Description
Confident of a son, Sir Philip and Lady Anna Gordon plan to name their first child Stephen. Instead they receive a daughter—but they decide to keep the name anyway. Young Stephen Gordon continues to surprise her parents with her boisterous play, demands for shorter hair, and insistence on riding her horse astride. After a childhood crush on a housemaid, Stephen begins to realize for herself that she is different than the world expects. As Stephen grows into adulthood and leaves her home and then England, her life is continually shaped by her love and affection for other women. Radclyffe Hall, like her protagonist, had a number of romantic relationships with other women, and identified herself as an “invert” following the theory of sexual inversion that was developing at the time. Hall wrote the novel partly to promote the theory and directly references some of its advocates within the book. The novel caused a sensation when it was published, leading to parodies, imitators, and even a theatrical adaptation. Pressure on the publisher to censor the novel led them to stop printing it in England, only to quickly import copies from France to meet demand. Today it remains a touchstone of queer fiction. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.
Reflecting on The Well of Loneliness
Author: Rebecca O'RourkePublisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000653137
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
‘Noble, accomplished, wealthy, self-sacrificing, and honourable, Stephen Gordon is the perfect hero,’ says Rebecca O’Rourke. But Stephen is a woman, and a lesbian. Here is an indication of the tantalizing complexity of The Well of Loneliness. Banned for obscenity when first published in 1928, The Well is now a bestseller, translated into numerous languages, but it must rank as one of the best known and least understood novels of the twentieth century. It combines the life and times of Stephen Gordon, the novel’s female protagonist, with a plea, directed to God and society, for tolerance towards homosexuality. Stephen Gordon has embodied what it means to be a lesbian for generations of women readers. But, as the perfect hero, she makes for an awkward heroine. Originally published in 1989, herself a novelist, critic, and lesbian, Rebecca O’Rourke examines what makes the figure of Stephen Gordon both infuriating and inspiring to lesbian and non-lesbian readers alike. She details the novel’s fascinating publishing history through an analysis of the motives and preoccupations of previous critics and biographers, many of whom mistakenly saw in The Well of Loneliness a fictional account of Radclyffe Hall’s own life. The novel’s status as the ‘bible of lesbianism’ has been a mixed blessing, often confirming the worst stereotypes of lesbianism, while at the same time ensuring its visibility. Rebecca O’Rourke includes a fascinating survey of reader’s reactions to the book which was still, at the time, so many years after its first publication, the first ‘lesbian’ novel many women picked up.
The Well of Loneliness & Carmilla
Author: Radclyffe HallPublisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 521
Book Description
The anthology featuring Radclyffe Hall's 'The Well of Loneliness' and Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla' presents a groundbreaking exploration of queer themes through two distinct literary approaches: Hall's poignant social realism and Le Fanu's gothic horror. These masterpieces, despite their differing styles and historical contexts, converge on the exploration of the periphery of social acceptance and the nuanced representation of desire that transcends the conventional. The inclusion of both works in a single collection invites an enriching dialogue on the evolution of LGBTQ+ narratives in literature, underscoring the persistent relevance of these themes across time and genre. The authors, Radclyffe Hall and Sheridan Le Fanu, hail from disparate epochs of the literary spectrum, yet their works collectively provide a compelling examination of queerness that transcends the temporal and stylistic boundaries that typically segregate literary works. Hall, a trailblazer for lesbian visibility in the 20th century, and Le Fanu, a 19th-century master of supernatural fiction, inadvertently collaborate in this collection to illuminate the complexities of queer existence, contributing significantly to their respective genres. In synthesizing the historic and cultural impacts of both authors oeuvres, this anthology not only pays homage to their legacies but also situates them within the broader discourse of LGBTQ+ representation in literature. Readers seeking a rich, diversified encounter with literary depictions of otherness and desire will find this collection a valuable and enlightening addition to their exploration of the theme. The anthologys unique juxtaposition of Halls and Le Fanus works offers a profound opportunity for comparative analysis, inviting engagement with the texts not solely for their historic significance but also for the continued conversation they spark about identity, acceptance, and the human condition.
The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935
Author: Laura L. BehlingPublisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252026270
Category : Lesbianism
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
Focuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century American society, where, the author says, "the beginnings of modern sexuality and psychology intersect with the foundations of modern womanhood...." Suffragettes demanding social and political independence were often transformed by literature and the popular press into "masculine women" and female sexual "inverts." While Judith Halberstam's Female Masculinities (1998), say, focused on contemporary society and the idea of male masculinity, Behling (English, Gustavus Adolphus College) exclusively addresses an earlier time when sartorial and political masculinity in relation to the female body was often interpreted as a medical as well as political condition. Behling's documents include Gertrude Stein's early novel Fernhurst, Henry James' Bostonians, Dr. William Lee Howard's novel The Perverts, newspaper accounts, Hellen Hull's "Fire," Sherwood Anderson's Poor White, and the artwork that accompanied Djuna Barnes's satiric Ladies Almanack. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR
