The Well Of Loneliness

A powerful novel of love between women, THE WELL OF LONELINESS brought about the most famous legal trial for obscenity in the history of British law. Banned on publication in 1928, it then went on to become a classic bestseller.

Stephen Gordon (named by a father desperate for a son) is not like other girls: she hunts, she fences, she reads books, wears trousers and longs to cut her hair.

As she grows up amidst the stifling grandeur of Morton Hall, the locals begin to draw away from her, aware of some indefinable thing that sets her apart. And when Stephen Gordon reaches maturity, she falls passionately in love - with another woman.

“'The archetypal lesbian novel, the one whose title, at least, is familiar to everyone' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT”

Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall (1883-1943) was born in Hampshire and educated at King's College Cambridge. She published five volumes of poetry and seven novels. THE WELL OF LONELINESS, describing the lesbian 'invert' Stephen, was banned on publication in 1928. Two years later she received the Eichelbergher Humane Award.

A powerful novel of love between women, THE WELL OF LONELINESS brought about the most famous legal trial for obscenity in the history of British law. Banned on publication in 1928, it then went on to become a classic bestseller.Stephen Gordon (named by a father desperate for a son) is not like other girls: she hunts, she fences, she reads books, wears trousers and longs to cut her hair.As she grows up amidst the stifling grandeur of Morton Hall, the locals begin to draw away from her, aware of some indefinable thing that sets her apart. And when Stephen Gordon reaches maturity, she falls passionately in love - with another woman.

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