Back بئر العزلة (رواية) Arabic بير الوحده ARZ The Well of Loneliness AST দ্য ওয়েল অব লোনলিনেস Bengali/Bangla Studna osamění Czech Quell der Einsamkeit German El pozo de la soledad Spanish کنج عزلت FA Yksinäisyyden kaivo Finnish Le Puits de solitude French
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Radclyffe Hall |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Published | 1928 |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
The Well of Loneliness is a lesbian novel by British author Radclyffe Hall that was first published in 1928 by Jonathan Cape.[a] It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver during the First World War, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection, which Hall depicts as the typical sufferings of "inverts", with predictably debilitating effects. The novel portrays "inversion" as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: "Give us also the right to our existence".[2]
Shortly after the book's publication, it became the target of a campaign by James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express. Douglas wrote that "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel." A British court judged it obscene because it defended "unnatural practices between women";[3] not until 1949, twenty years later, was it again published in England.[4][5][6] In the United States, the book survived legal challenges in New York state and in Customs Court.[7]
Publicity over The Well of Loneliness's legal battles increased the visibility of lesbians in British and American culture.[8] For decades it was the best-known lesbian novel in English, and often the first source of information about lesbianism that young people could find.[9] Some readers have valued it, while others have criticised it for Stephen's expressions of self-hatred, and viewed it as inspiring shame.[10] The novel was subject to great criticism in its time (some of which may have been motivated by prejudice) but has come to be recognised as a classic of queer literature.[11]
The book entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.[12]
- ^ Gilmore 1994, p. 603.
- ^ Hall 1981, p. 437; Doan & Prosser 2001, p. 213.
- ^ Quotation from Hall 1981, p. 313. For accounts of the British trial and the events leading up to it, see Souhami 1999, pp. 192–241, and Cline 1998, pp. 225–267. For a detailed examination of controversies over The Well of Loneliness in the 1920s, see chapter 1 of Doan 2001, Fashioning Sapphism. An overview can be found in the introduction to Doan & Prosser 2001, Palatable Poison, which also reprints the full text of several contemporary reviews and reactions, including the Sunday Express editorial and Chief Magistrate Sir Chartres Biron's legal judgement.
- ^ Baker 1985, p. 353.
- ^ Hall 1949.
- ^ Gilmore 1994, p. 603, writes that "in 1928, Radclyffe Hall's lesbian bildungsroman The Well of Loneliness was banned in England and not published there again until 1959", but the latter date is incorrect.
- ^ A detailed discussion of the US trials can be found in Taylor 2001, "I Made Up My Mind".
- ^ See Doan 2001, Fashioning Sapphism, chapter 5.
- ^ Cook 1979, pp. 718–719, 731.
- ^ O'Rourke's Reflections on the Well of Loneliness (O'Rourke 1989) contains a reader response survey. See also Love 2000, "Hard Times and Heartaches".
- ^ For an overview of critical responses and controversies, see the introduction to Doan & Prosser 2001, Palatable Poison.
- ^ "Public Domain Day 2024 | Duke University School of Law". web.law.duke.edu.
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