What's your review of Radcylffe Hall's banned lesbian novel the Well of Loneliness? #RadclyffeHall #WellofLoneliness #TheWellofLoneliness
Have you read the banned novel Radclyffe Hall's the Well of Loneliness? Does society hate lesbians? Perversion? I don't think so. Explicit? Don't be daft. Apparently James Douglas of the Sunday Express newspaper thought that the rest of the country should follow his own ant-lesbian views and campaign for Radclyffe Halls' fifth novel THE WELL OF LONELINESS to be banned.
Thankfully, most media was actually okay with it, and didn't see the harm (what harm?!) - notable figures such as Virginia Woolf actually campaigned for it to remain within public consumption - but court overruled, and so the novel was banned in the United Kingdom shortly after its publication by Jonathan Cape in 1928 until after Hall's death in 1943.
Okay, so things were different back then. I dare say we still have a long way to go until lesbianism and homosexuality in general is accepted without any passing comment at all. However, it's still outrageous that one's artwork - which has been so beautifully penned to express the conflicted yet honest emotions of Stephen from her childhood to adulthood as she grows to discover her love for the same sex - could ever be considered anything other than worthy of merit.
Still, it was available in Paris still, where the novel is partly set; if nothing else, that simply highlights just how behind the UK was with its out look in the middle of the twentieth century. Have things improved since then? I don't know.
Whether you're interested in lesbian fiction, keen to delve into works of literary and historical note, or just wish for an enjoyable read, then THE WELL OF LONELINESS is one for which to reach.