The Well of Loneliness -
Radclyffe Hall
1928 - Jonathan Cape, London - First Edition
A finely bound first edition of this groundbreaking and for that reason, controversial novel, which follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. She finds love with Mary Llewellyn, whom she meets while serving as an ambulance driver during the First World War, but their happiness together is marred by social isolation and rejection, which Hall depicts as the typical sufferings of "inverts", with predictably debilitating effects. The novel portrays "inversion" as a natural, God-given state and makes an explicit plea: "Give us also the right to our existence".
Shortly after the book's publication, it became the target of a campaign by James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express. Douglas wrote that "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel." A British court judged it obscene because it defended "unnatural practices between women"; it was not published again in England until 1949. First edition, with no later impression statement to the title page, page 50, line 13 with ‘Whip’ (corrected to ‘Whips’ in the second impression).
Large octavo (binding size 22x16.2cm), pp. [2] 512 [2]. Elegantly bound in quarter green calf over matching marbled boards, spine with raised bands and twin burgundy morocco labels lettered and decorated in gilt. Condition: Fine, but for toning to upper edges close to spine, in fine binding. Ref: 112670 Price: HK$ 5,000
Shortly after the book's publication, it became the target of a campaign by James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express. Douglas wrote that "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel." A British court judged it obscene because it defended "unnatural practices between women"; it was not published again in England until 1949. First edition, with no later impression statement to the title page, page 50, line 13 with ‘Whip’ (corrected to ‘Whips’ in the second impression).
Large octavo (binding size 22x16.2cm), pp. [2] 512 [2]. Elegantly bound in quarter green calf over matching marbled boards, spine with raised bands and twin burgundy morocco labels lettered and decorated in gilt. Condition: Fine, but for toning to upper edges close to spine, in fine binding. Ref: 112670 Price: HK$ 5,000