{"title":"Books by Radclyffe Hall","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141191836","title":"The Penguin Modern Classics the Well of Loneliness","description":"\u003cb\u003eNew to Penguin Modern Classics, the seminal work of gay literature that sparked an infamous legal trial for obscenity and went on to become a bestseller.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness \u003c\/i\u003etells the story of tomboyish Stephen, who hunts, wears trousers and cuts her hair short - and who gradually comes to realise that she is attracted to women. Charting her romantic and professional adventures during the First World War and beyond, the novel provoked a furore on first publication in 1928 for its lesbian heroine and led to a notorious legal trial for obscenity. Hall herself, however, saw the book as a pioneer work and today it is recognised as a landmark work of gay fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis Penguin edition includes a new introduction by Maureen Duffy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The archetypal lesbian novel' - \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of the first and most influential contributions of gay and lesbian literature' - \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRadclyffe Hall was born in 1880. After an unhappy childhood, she inherited her father's estate and from then on was free to travel and live as she chose. She fell in love and lived with an older woman before settling down with Una Troubridge, a married sculptor. Hall wrote many books but is best known for \u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e, first published in 1928. She died in 1943 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMaureen Duffy was born in 1933 and educated at Kings College London. She became a full-time writer in the 1960s, and has since written numerous screenplays, poetry and novels. A lifelong campaigner for gay rights and animal rights, Duffy is also president of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201451917490,"sku":"9780141191836","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141191836_f43e6227-f164-48c6-b009-800521d9f360.jpg?v=1786011703"},{"product_id":"9780192894458","title":"The Well of Loneliness","description":"'If our love is a sin, then heaven must be full of such tender and selfless sinning as ours.'The Well of Loneliness is among the most famous banned books in history. A pioneering work of literature, Radclyffe Hall's novel charts the development of a 'female sexual invert', Stephen Gordon, who from childhood feels an innate sense of masculinity and desire for women. After relocating from Malvern to London and then to Paris, Stephen encounters fellow queer characters from all walks of life, from the sapphic salon hostess Valérie Seymour to the 'miserable army' of outcasts that frequents the 'merciless, drug-dealing, death-dealing' bars of Montmartre. Although Stephen and her acquaintances, allies, and antagonists are of their time, Hall's novel has offered support and solidarity to generations of LGBTQ+ readers, and it continues to shape debates about gender and sexuality today.This edition highlights previously overlooked points of influence, inspiration, and connections with other texts as well as situating the novel in historical contexts. In addition, the editors provide vital insights into Hall's engagement with religion, sexology, literary history, and popular culture.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44583333396658,"sku":"9780192894458","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780192894458_3525a15d-108a-456d-b95d-64ed2522042c.jpg?v=1786011437"},{"product_id":"9780645751970","title":"The Lover of Things","description":"\u003cp\u003eHenry Dobbs is born into ugliness and squalor in the Kensington slums in London. He is a strange boy in many ways; he cares a great deal for well-made and rare things and the beauty that he sees in them, but people are a different matter. They seem relatively unimportant to him, really only there for his convenience.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs he grows up, despite a savage and loveless relationship with his harridan mother, Henry begins to flower. His one-eyed attention to lovely things is translated slowly into knowledge, which eventually earns him a job with Riley's, an up and coming firm of removalists. As his career blossoms, he reaches the position of foreman of what the company hopes will be the finest team in the land, the one to get them the best contracts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne day it seems as if their hopes have been fulfilled. Sir Isaac Epstein hires Riley's to transport his priceless collection to his new home in the country. Henry comes face to face with items he has dreamed about, and which bring out in him a strange new sense. Is it that he wants to protect them? Or is it something more mixed and concerning that secretly comes out in his beauty-loving soul? The extraordinary effect of the beautiful pieces of the Epstein collection precipitates an action that will change Henry's life...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Lover of Things \u003c\/em\u003ewas first published in 1934. Radclyffe Hall's insightful and careful delineation of a character who would now be seen as neurodiverse (on the autism spectrum) was way ahead of its time, and confirmed her reputation for exploring challenging and less usual territory.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56293973918069,"sku":"9780645751970","price":17.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780645751970.jpg?v=1791212935"},{"product_id":"9781784870324","title":"The Well of Loneliness","description":"\u003cb\u003eA ground-breaking and moving lesbian novel that was banned in the UK on first publication\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e     Stephen Gordon was a little girl who always felt different. A talent for sport, a hatred of dresses and a preference for horses and solitude was not considered appropriate for a young lady of the Victorian upper-classes. But when Stephen grows up and falls passionately in love with a woman, her standing in the county and her place at the home she loves become untenable. Stephen must set off to discover whether there is anywhere in the world that will have her.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305277632885,"sku":"9781784870324","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784870324_b558e0a3-e6dc-463e-809b-2bb1cdc9e09a.jpg?v=1786025350"},{"product_id":"9781804470282","title":"Adam's Breed","description":"\u003cp\u003eGian-Luca has a rocky start in life, his mother dying in childbirth, his father unknown, and he is sent to grow up with his grandparents amongst an Italian immigrant community on Old Compton Street. He becomes a waiter, where he learns the value of hard work, and soon lands a promotion to head waiter in a fine-dining restaurant. He excels in this position, and it is not long before he meets Maddelena, to whom he gets married. It seems he has found a happy ending.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, despite his marriage to Maddelena and his achievements in his work, he finds he is not happy, after all. Life loses its joy, and he comes to despise those he serves in the restaurant, seeing in the diners the ugly side of society. Disconsolate, he sets out to seek a more fulfilling life, and becomes a hermit, trying to reconnect with nature, and hoping to find peace outside of society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDespite winning awards upon its publication, \u003cem\u003eAdam's Breed\u003c\/em\u003e sank into obscurity following the censorship of Hall's later novel \u003cem\u003eThe Well of Loneliness\u003c\/em\u003e. An early example of immigrant narratives, yet still relevant today, it is time Gian-Luca's stirring tale found its way back to the canon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307089408373,"sku":"9781804470282","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781804470282_5a1a3cd4-a096-49d8-a1bd-255a54c8bbaf.jpg?v=1786026850"},{"product_id":"9798888975930","title":"The Well of Loneliness","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1928, there were three lesbian novels published in England: Viriginia Woolf’s \u003ci\u003eOrlando: A Biography\u003c\/i\u003e, Compton Mackenzie’s \u003ci\u003eExtraordinary Women\u003c\/i\u003e, and Radclyffe Hall’s \u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e. Between them, each book offered then-revolutionary ideas about love, sexuality, and gender; but only one has been banned, welcomed praise, and garnered controversy for almost a century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStephen Gordon has always been different. Firstly, she was born a girl against her parent’s wishes. Secondly, she is raised to be boyish—the son her father always wanted—much to her mother’s disdain. However, the most damning thing of all is Stephen’s love for other women, something society isn’t quite ready to accept. While Stephen lives a \u003ci\u003egood\u003c\/i\u003e life—that is, having wealth and opportunity by virtue of being born into an upper-class aristocratic family—it is far from an easy one. For Stephen, life is a frustrating existence where she does not know the meaning of herself or where she belongs in the world…that is until she meets Angela Crossby, and comes to know romantic love for the very first time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAutobiographical in nature, Radclyffe Hall’s \u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e is an intensely emotional novel about what it means to be queer in the early twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince our inception in 2020, \u003cb\u003eMint Editions\u003c\/b\u003e has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311417143669,"sku":"9798888975930","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9798888975930_3365504a-ec5a-4580-a08d-3b4e097652af.jpg?v=1786032761"},{"product_id":"9781840224559","title":"The Well of Loneliness","description":"\u003cp\u003e‘As a man loved a woman, that was how I loved…It was good, good, good…’\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents – a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions. \u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness\u003c\/i\u003e was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313033163125,"sku":"9781840224559","price":4.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781840224559_28ec9d26-b18d-4290-8184-324127c4c604.jpg?v=1786028280"},{"product_id":"the-well-of-loneliness","title":"The Well of Loneliness","description":"A daring, emotionally charged novel that shattered taboos in 1928, this groundbreaking work follows Stephen Gordon, a woman born into privilege but condemned to social exile for her love of other women.   The Well of Loneliness faced fierce censorship and legal battles soon after its initial publication when it was charged with obscenity, making it a beacon of resilience and defiance. More than a story, it's a rallying cry for visibility, dignity, and authenticity: \"Give us also the right to our existence.\" Rediscover this groundbreaking work that shaped queer history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481673179509,"sku":"9780486856384","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780486856384.jpg?v=1786089960"},{"product_id":"well-of-loneliness","title":"The Well of Loneliness","description":"\u003cp\u003eThough originally banned in the United Kingdom for obscenity, \u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness \u003c\/i\u003eis now a classic bestseller. The story follows Stephen, a lesbian navigating life and love in the stifling high society of 20th century London. Hall's vulnerability shines through and takes readers on a heartfelt, emotional journey through self-acceptance, love and sacrifice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis delightful hardback edition is presented with a striking contemporary cover design, illustrated endpapers and printed edges.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503715328373,"sku":"9781398872653","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781398872653.jpg?v=1786867425"},{"product_id":"well-of-loneliness-1","title":"Well of Loneliness","description":"\u003cb\u003eA landmark early 20th-century queer classic, reissued in a striking collector's edition with printed edges.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough originally banned in the United Kingdom for obscenity, \u003ci\u003eThe Well of Loneliness \u003c\/i\u003eis now a classic bestseller. The story follows Stephen, a lesbian navigating life and love in the stifling high society of 20th century London. Hall's vulnerability shines through and takes readers on a heartfelt, emotional journey through self-acceptance, love and sacrifice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis delightful hardback edition is presented with a striking contemporary cover design, illustrated endpapers and printed edges.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503738921333,"sku":"9781398873773","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781398873773.jpg?v=1786867449"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-radclyffe-hall.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}