The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

 One of my book clubs introduced me to this book, which I really enjoyed. I listened to the Audible audiobook.

Source: Wikipedia

The Well of Loneliness is a lesbian novel by British author Radclyffe Hall. It follows the life of Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman from an upper-class family whose "sexual inversion" (homosexuality) is apparent from an early age. It was published in 1928.

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.

Publicity over The Well of Loneliness's legal battles increased the visibility of lesbians in British and American culture. For decades it was the best-known lesbian novel in English, and often the first source of information about lesbianism that young people could find.

The novel was subject to great criticism in its time but has come to be recognized as a classic of queer literature.

The author, circa 1930

Interesting resources:

The Well of Loneliness: The book that could corrupt a nation - BBC (great images!)

Why Was The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall Put on Trial? - super interesting, including how Ernest Hemingway, TS Eliot, EM Forster, Virginia Woolf and others protested against suppressing the book and spoke in her defense (great photos!)

I haven't been exposed to queer literature and the history of lesbianism, let alone from that era, so there was a lot for me to learn with this book. I recommend it.