The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
As everyone knows, in recent decades there has been a dramatic shift in public attitudes toward gay people, starting roughly in the 1960's. There is now a considerable body of novels and stories with gay themes, and it is not considered shocking to offer a favorable picture of gay life. The situation was very different in the early 20th century. E. M. Forster, a gay man himself, wrote Maurice in 1913-14, but did not publish it; he thought it important that the book have a happy ending but felt that a happy ending for a gay couple would be considered unacceptable. Consequently, Maurice was not published until 1971, after Forster's death.
Radclyffe Hall was more daring. She published The Well of Loneliness, with its sympathetic depiction of lesbian love and its passionate plea for toleration and acceptance of gay people, in 1928. Forster was proven right; The Well of Loneliness was banned in England in 1928 (though it nevertheless sold twenty thousand copies immediately, thus becoming one of the year's best sellers), and it provoked a court battle in the United States.
Reading The Well of Loneliness today it is hard to imagine that it could be considered shocking or immoral. However the book is much more than a mere reminder of how public attitudes have changed. It is an extremely good novel. It tells the story of Stephen Gordon, the daughter and only child of a prosperous English couple. She is marked as "different" from the outset. Her father comes to understands her "difference" before she does herself; he is supportive, but reluctant to discuss the subject with Stephen or her mother and he dies without having shared his insight. After her father's death, Stephen becomes briefly infatuated with a married women, leaves the family home as a result, lives for a time in London where she writes a successful novel, moves to Paris, serves as an ambulance driver in WWI, and meets Mary, with whom she falls in love. They have a period of happiness, but the disapproval of their relationship by friends and family and society becomes a heavy burden in the end.
The Well of Loneliness is an excellent book. The writing is very fine, and the characters, both the sympathetic and the not so sympathetic, are convincingly presented. I have read that Radcliffe Hall based the book in part on her own life, though I do not know exactly which parts are autobiographical. But it doesn't matter; I highly recommend The Well of Loneliness.
Radclyffe Hall was more daring. She published The Well of Loneliness, with its sympathetic depiction of lesbian love and its passionate plea for toleration and acceptance of gay people, in 1928. Forster was proven right; The Well of Loneliness was banned in England in 1928 (though it nevertheless sold twenty thousand copies immediately, thus becoming one of the year's best sellers), and it provoked a court battle in the United States.
Reading The Well of Loneliness today it is hard to imagine that it could be considered shocking or immoral. However the book is much more than a mere reminder of how public attitudes have changed. It is an extremely good novel. It tells the story of Stephen Gordon, the daughter and only child of a prosperous English couple. She is marked as "different" from the outset. Her father comes to understands her "difference" before she does herself; he is supportive, but reluctant to discuss the subject with Stephen or her mother and he dies without having shared his insight. After her father's death, Stephen becomes briefly infatuated with a married women, leaves the family home as a result, lives for a time in London where she writes a successful novel, moves to Paris, serves as an ambulance driver in WWI, and meets Mary, with whom she falls in love. They have a period of happiness, but the disapproval of their relationship by friends and family and society becomes a heavy burden in the end.
The Well of Loneliness is an excellent book. The writing is very fine, and the characters, both the sympathetic and the not so sympathetic, are convincingly presented. I have read that Radcliffe Hall based the book in part on her own life, though I do not know exactly which parts are autobiographical. But it doesn't matter; I highly recommend The Well of Loneliness.