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Sep 25, 2011

mark rated it:

what could have been a fascinating chronicle of a tough butch interloper challenging mainstream society becomes the drippy tale of a woman who just wants to be loved, and the cruel little bitch who leads her on. oh what a deep well! the writing's pretty swell though, that can't be denied. tres elegante. i was reminded of e.m. forster's equally drippy, equally beautiful (but rather more enjoyable) Maurice. plus i actually preferred the wish fulfillment of Maurice, sad to say. guess i'm not such a More...

9 comments like (16 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2008

Jardley rated it:

I read The Well of Loneliness because of was very interested in reading novels on homosexuality. I needed something to relate to. The book centers around a girl whose father desperately wanted a boy and so named her Stephen. Throughout her childhood Stephen is shown as a girl unlike others. The way she carries herself, the way she acts and the fantasies she has about seeing herself as "Nelson", stress the fact Stephen sexuality is in question. As she grow, Stephen begins to find love i More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2008

Nickie rated it:

Yerk. This is/was obviously a very important book, so it feels a shame to give it such a low grade but jaysus it was a bit painful after the novelty of the first 200 pages had worn off. The fact that it deals with lesbianism/gender issues in such a forthright way, especially for the time in which it was written ('20s)is v impressive. Orlando came out in the same year, but it doesn't deal with it as explicitly. No more than something like Twelfth Night did. Anyway, in the case of The Well... - im More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 29, 2007

Lori rated it:

I remember checking this book out of the public library near my house and hiding it from my parents, so I must have been about 12 the first time I read it. It lived under my mattress for about three days while I read it. I think I checked out "One in Ten" along with it, heh.

The first time I read this book, I thought it was amazing. A queer love story from what seemed like forever ago! Wow! At the time, I felt alone and isolated, and it spoke to me. My second reading in coll More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2008

Maureen rated it:

A friend recommended this book to me, and since he told me it had been banned, I expected it to be amazing. Unfortunately, it is the subject matter, homosexuality, that got it banned, not the vivid language I was hoping for. I identified with the main character, Stephen, in that my father also expected me to be a boy, and treated me like one through much of my life, taking me fishing, teaching how to fix broken machines, etc. I can't really recommend this book on much of any level: I found it More...

2 comments like

Aug 02, 2011

Alun added it

I've known of this book for many years, but, as a vaguely heterosexual male, had avoided reading it. What a treat I had been missing. This is a marvellously complex and disturbing book, which will provoke strong reactions in almost anyone who reads it today - it will be an equally uncomfortable read whatever your attitude towards homosexual relationships. This book is far more than a significant milestone in gay and lesbian literature. It is a milestone in the literature of love - love for home, More...

0 comments like

Oct 10, 2011

Jenny rated it:

This novel brought the topic of female inversion (the era's term for a butch lesbian) into the limelite. It demonstrated that silence about female inversion was cowardly. It is about a female invert, Stephen, who is raised with a strong trust in martyrdom. She was raised to be a strong, independent woman by a father and a tutor who loved her, but their silence crippled her.

The book shows time and again how hiding the truth created pity and self-hated. Stephen's father never discussed More...

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Dec 15, 2010

Jesse rated it:

Recently in these parts I declared that this novel was so dull that today it is essentially unreadable, and that its lasting importance has everything to do with history and not a thing to do with art. And I still generally stand behind these sentiments.

BUT.

I read it. And I kind of enjoyed it, at least in parts. I had based the above judgements on reading the first 60 pages or so (in retrospect the weakest section of the entire novel) and upon my decision to incorporate More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 09, 2009

Jamie rated it:

it should be MANDATORY that everyone reads this book. everyone. there isn't anything too astounding about her writing style, and nothing too "deep" about it either. anyone could pick up this book and see clearly everything she's very clearly alluding to, so there isn't much mystery, but instead, a whole lot of straightforward honesty about an aspect of the world most overlook without even realizing.

what broke back mountain failed miserably in doing, ratcliffe did with ease. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2009

Lisa rated it:

The Well of Loneliness was first published in 1928, and because it was the first book of its kind to deal with the subject of same-sex relationships, Radclyffe Hall had to invent a new type of narrative.

I found this book full of insight into human motivations and how easily people's actions can be misunderstood. Radclyffe Hall was very perceptive.

It was a very sad story and showed what life was like for those who had to hide who they were and who they loved, and how they More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2010

Shawn rated it:

I would have given this book four stars had Hall ended the book after part 3. The first half of the book was a great story, the author thoroughly connecting the characters to the reader. Unfortunately, Hall continued Stephan's story, allowing the rest of the book to become tiresome to read. An important note about reading the book: The reader must put his/herself in the time period, otherwise one might consider Hall and her characters to seem rather pathetic in the way they respond to the sit More...

0 comments like

Apr 25, 2009

Lauren rated it:

A mostly martyred and sadistic treatment of "inversion" circa 1928 Britain, which alternates between passionate cries for equality and recognition as natural on one hand and on the other abased self-denial and reaffirmation of "the perfect thing" that is heteronormative love, raising children, and a sense of belonging to society. In tone, too, it varies wildly from prosaic to embarrassingly romantic and pagan to brutally intense (the last chapter is, while sort of ridiculous More...

0 comments like

Oct 24, 2009

El rated it:

I love reading books that have at some point been a source of controversy, the books that have been banned and censored, questioned and attacked. The Well of Loneliness is one of those books, and by looking at the cover of the edition I read there's a clue right there as to the reasoning for the controversy: "A 1920s Classic of Lesbian Fiction".

Steven Gordon is a wealthy English woman who is clearly not like other women, even from a young age. Her father had hoped for a b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2011

Reetta rated it:

1920-luvun lopulla koeteltiin yhteiskunnan sietokykyä Radclyffe Hallin "ensimmäisen lesboromaanin" julkaisemisella. Lainausmerkit siksi, että lesbisiä elementtejä sisältäviä mitä-tahansa-kirjallisuuksia oli ollut olemassa vuosikymmeniä jos ei -satoja, mutta tässä "inversio" otettiin romaanin keskusaiheeksi ja siitä puhuttiin suorasanaisesti. Kirjasota syntyi, roviot paloivat ainakin kuvainnollisesti.

Hallin romaani on julkaistu modernismin aikakaudella, mutta se pitäytyy reali More...

0 comments like

Sep 14, 2011

Vida rated it:

I have a worn, hard backed, cloth covered edition of this from my grandfather's library. I loved the book. It was written with true anxiety without being overly dramatic. Or more so, the drama was in tune with the characters, not created from outside of them. Reading this I felt as though I knew the main character, Stephen, even as she was getting to know herself.

This is a true coming of age, coming of identity story - and unfortunately, due to the content - brushed aside unlike that More...

0 comments like

Mar 03, 2011

Engl added it

Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe-Hall was born August 12th, 1880 in Bournemouth, Hampshire. Her parents, Radclyffe Radclyffe-Hall and Mary Jane Sager were divorced by the time she was three years old (Glasgow). She essentially had no relationship with her father and a very strained relationship with her mother. At the age of 21 she claimed her inheritance and became very independent from her mother and her life (Simkin). At this time, she wanted people to call her Radclyffe or John. She fell in love More...

1 comment like

Dec 26, 2009

Jeff rated it:

Astounding "lesbian novel" from 1928 that is easily one of the best books about homosexuality (from the inside out) I've ever read. While Hall's prose is certainly of her time (occasionally mawkish, certainly melodramatic; neither of those a bad thing in my opinion, LOL) protagonist Stephen Gordon's dilemma--the reality that she is a lesbian, and born that way--is beautifully written. Particularly moving are the moments in which Stephen is betrayed by her beloved parents: her father More...

0 comments like

Apr 29, 2010

Karen rated it:

I found this book fascinating, but I questioned whether I appreciated it more as literature or as an artifact. I think the author does a pretty good job of illustrating her message rather than hitting us over the head with it (though in the end she gives in and adds a rather sudden and implausible twist just to make sure her point we understand how much society will make Stephen suffer). Given that the book seems intended to be a polemic, I was impressed that the author created a fleshed-out c More...

0 comments like

Apr 17, 2011

Jane rated it:

This book was first published in 1928 and a lot has been said about it's significance. But for me it was overwhelmingly a very sad tale of a woman who just wanted to love and be loved. The book raised a lot of if only's for me; if only everyone had been able to be honest with themselves and each other; if only Steven's father had been honest, if only her mother had been honest, if only Puddle had been honest, if only Steven had been honest, if she had only opened up to Mary and been honest with More...

3 comments like

Aug 02, 2010

Carrie rated it:

The first time I read this heart wrenching book, I realized how deeply troubled our world is regarding anyone who loves differently. Considering the time this book was written, 1928, Britain banned it, considering it obscene because of its lesbian theme. Only after a long court battle did this beautiful book become available in the United States. Radclyffe Hall had amazing courage and heart. To expose oneself like this leaves us completely vulnerable to hatred and ridicule. This book was truly a More...

0 comments like

Sep 07, 2009

Laura rated it:

This is possibly the most beautiful book I have ever read. The prose is simply exquisite. Hall proves that imagery does not have to be tedious and overwraught. I felt a hundred times while reading this novel that I had never heard such a sentiment expressed so perfectly. In fact, sometimes the prose was so beautiful that the context almost faded away entirely, and I was simply left with a breath-taking sentence, paragraph or more...

Sadly, this book is still relevant 90 years afte More...

0 comments like

Jun 08, 2011

Ab rated it:

This book was amazing. Just amazing. I was a little concerned from all the poor reviews, but I guess it just didn't resonate or something with others? I really like the, what I call, Austen-esque writing style, thought this one is written much later, in the 1920s. The exploration of queer life and gender-bending in this time period is just fascinating. And this just shows that a book can be well-written, full of interesting plot, emotionally gripping, and epic AND be a lesbian novel. Who'd have More...

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2012

Isobel rated it:

A very moving account of the life of a woman who from an early age realised she was 'different' in her sexual orientation. The book is semi-autobiographical with some passsages, such a description of the author's experience of ambulance driving in the north of France during WW1 which was apparently composed from first hand accounts.
it seems a very honest book, with no pretensions. There is no explicit sex, only the famous line 'that night they were not divided' to note the first lesbian lo More...

0 comments like

Jul 24, 2011

Nikki rated it:

I don't know what to think of The Well of Loneliness. I read it because it's a lesbian classic, and someone said that it was one of the first novels where horrible things don't have to happen to its lesbian protagonists. I can't actually imagine anything more agonising than what the protagonist, Stephen, does -- voluntarily giving up her lover to a male close friend to give her safety and security, acting as a martyr for her... And Barbara and Jamie: both of them die because of the life they lea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2010

Ariana rated it:

The Well Of Loneliness is the melancholy story of the life of Miss Stephen Gordon. Radclyffe Hall leads us through Stephen’s pampered childhood well into her adult life where she suffers heartbreak from others’ intolerance, as well as many losses of lives and love. Honest and timeless—often I had to stop reading because this story hit so close to home, made me cry. More often than not I wanted to reach through the pages and grab Stephen by the shoulder and shake her. Tell her, “There is nothi More...

0 comments like

Jun 07, 2010

Sath rated it:

So, Stephen.. She's born sometime in the late 18-somethings to well off parents, they call her Stephen because her parents have wanted and somewhat expected a boy child for about 10 years, and her father wants to stick with the name they chose. As it turns out, they did pretty much get a boy. As a child stephen likes to pretend she's Nelson, fancies herself in love with the housemaid, throws her dolls away, wears trousers and rides astride her horse like a boy.
Her father is very supporti More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Jamie rated it:

So I read this for a Lesbian Literatures course, and I have to state from the outset that I am well aware of the *significance* of the novel in such a course, and such a subset of lesbian history. Certainly it was landmark, insofar as the book was one of the (perhaps THE?) first to openly deal with homosexual or inverted desire. Moreover, the trial that banned the book brought the novel, Radclyffe Hall, and the 'lesbian identity' into the public eye in a rather big way. All very well and good More...

0 comments like

Sep 15, 2008

Lauren rated it:

Though some readers have dismissed this work due to Stephen's almost homophobic self-loathing and shame in relation to her 'inversion' I found this to be a fascinating character study. As a lesbian she may be a little cliched, mannish and reclusive, but I think that by reading Stephen as a transsexual character (which to me she seems to be described as perfectly, even if the notion itself wasn't in existence for the author to articulate) then her character becomes much more sympathetic, and her More...

0 comments like

Jul 11, 2008

Traci rated it:

This was one of those books that sat on my 'to read' list forever. As a Gender Studies major with a focus in sexuality it was sort of an obligation I knew I would somehow have to fulfill but when I finally picked it up off a dusty used bookstore shelf in St. Augustine I was surprised at what a pleasure it was. Sure some parts were slow and some seemed a little cliche (the roots of her coming out, her childhood memories of being a tomboy), which being one of the pioneers really can't be blamed More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2007

Tory rated it:

The reason I bought this book is because on the back it says that it had been banned. And of course, a banned book is immediately more interesting than the never controversial book beside it.

The thing is though, so much of it just seemed like a bunch of angsty, emo rubbish. On and on about this poor adolescent that nobody understood. How alone she felt. How sad she was. Maybe I would have been more able to relate were I a lesbian... but I'm not sure that that was the problem. B More...

0 comments like