Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

Rebecca Jennings (Macquarie University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1928

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Well of Loneliness

, first published in 1928, was the fifth novel by Radclyffe Hall. Her first two novels,

The Forge

(1924) and

The Unlit Lamp

(1924), both explored the issue of relationships between women, but

The Well of Loneliness

was the first to explicitly address the concept of female sexual inversion. The novel was intended to be a plea for social toleration on behalf of sexual inverts and Radclyffe Hall informed her publisher: “I am proud indeed to have taken up my pen in defence of those who are utterly defenceless, who being from birth a people set apart in accordance with some hidden scheme of Nature, need all the help that society can give them” (Souhami, 167-8). At the time of the novel’s publication, Hall was a successful middlebrow author and had won the Prix…

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2837 words

Citation: Jennings, Rebecca. "The Well of Loneliness". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 June 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8122, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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