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The Well of Loneliness.

by HALL, Radclyffe [pseud. for Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe-Hall.]

$1,196 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

1928. London: Jonathan Cape. 1928. 8vo. Publisher's black cloth lettered in gilt to spine, typographic dust-jacket, priced 15s to front flap, top-edge black; pp. 511, [1]; jacket rubbed, with numerous nicks, chips and tears to edges, diagonal tear (c. 90mm) to front panel, a handful of shallow horizontal tears to the spine, vertical crease the length of the spine obscuring a couple of the printed letters, minor loss to head and foot of spine; cloth a little rubbed with light surface marking, spine tips softened, lower edge with six short closed tears, with some loss to cloth; about very good, in a good, still quite bright, jacket; purple bookseller's stamp for Nina Bellhouse of Queen Elm Parade to rear pastedown.Radclyffe Hall's seminal lesbian novel, suppressed as obscene in 1928. This copy, from the second and final printing before the ban, retains the scarce original dust jacket.In his prefatory appreciation, Havelock Ellis describes The Well of Loneliness as 'the first English novel which presents, in a completely faithful and uncompromising form, one particular aspect of sexual life as it exists amongst us to-day' (p. 7). Hall, already the author of four novels and at the height of her literary success, sought to break the public silence surrounding homosexuality, advocating greater tolerance and awareness of the difficulties imposed by a hostile society. Her protagonist, Stephen Gordon, dresses as a man, adopts a male name, and identifies as a 'sexual invert' - reflecti

  • Year: 1928
  • Edition: First Edition
  • Binding: hardcover

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