The Well of Loneliness

Author: Radclyffe Hall
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473374081
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Book Description
This early work by Radclyffe Hall was originally published in 1928 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Well of Loneliness' is a novel that follows an upper-class Englishwoman who falls in love with another woman while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I. 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.

Palatable Poison

Author: Laura L. Doan
Publisher: 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.

Radclyffe Hall at The Well of Loneliness

Author: Lovat Dickson
Publisher: Collins Publishers San Francisco
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Book Description

The Opposite of Loneliness

Author: Marina Keegan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476753628
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
The instant New York Times bestseller and publishing phenomenon: Marina Keegan’s posthumous collection of award-winning essays and stories “sparkles with talent, humanity, and youth” (O, The Oprah Magazine). Marina Keegan’s star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at The New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash. Marina left behind a rich, deeply expansive trove of writing that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation. Her short story “Cold Pastoral” was published on NewYorker.com. Her essay “Even Artichokes Have Doubts” was excerpted in the Financial Times, and her book was the focus of a Nicholas Kristof column in The New York Times. Millions of her contemporaries have responded to her work on social media. As Marina wrote: “We can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over…We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.” The Opposite of Loneliness is an unforgettable collection of Marina’s essays and stories that articulates the universal struggle all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to impact the world. “How do you mourn the loss of a fiery talent that was barely a tendril before it was snuffed out? Answer: Read this book. A clear-eyed observer of human nature, Keegan could take a clever idea...and make it something beautiful” (People).

The Well of Loneliness

Author: Radclyffe Hall
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
ISBN: 9781840224559
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 556

Book Description
The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel.

The Well of Loneliness

Author: Radclyffe Hall
Publisher: 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'Rourke
Publisher: 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 Hall
Publisher: 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 Well of Loneliness

Author: Radclyffe Hall
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0804154082
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Book Description
First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright upon publication and almost ruined her literary career.

The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935

Author: Laura L. Behling
Publisher: 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