The Well of Loneliness

What It's About

The novel follows Stephen Gordon, a woman born into an upper-class English family who, from early childhood, feels herself fundamentally different from other girls. As she grows into adulthood, she comes to understand herself through the language of her era as an "invert" — what would later be understood in terms of tomboyishness and sexual orientation. The story follows her relationships with women, her service as an ambulance driver during the First World War, and her ongoing struggle for acceptance and self-understanding in a society unwilling to recognise who she is.

Key Concepts

The book is built around the contemporary medical and social concept of "sexual inversion," and the toll taken by family rejection, social ostracism, and legal and religious condemnation on those who don't conform to expected gender roles. It also touches on the shifting opportunities available to women during and after the First World War.

About the Author

Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) was an English poet and novelist born in Bournemouth. She spent much of her adult life in long-term relationships with women, most notably the sculptor and translator Una Troubridge, and was known to friends by the name John, reflecting a masculine self-presentation unusual for a woman of her time.