Reflecting on The Well of Loneliness

<p>‘Noble accomplished wealthy self-sacrificing and honourable Stephen Gordon is the perfect hero’ says Rebecca O’Rourke. But Stephen is a woman and a lesbian. Here is an indication of the tantalizing complexity of <i>The Well of Loneliness</i>. Banned for obscenity when first published in 1928 <i>The Well</i> is now a bestseller translated into numerous languages but it must rank as one of the best known and least understood novels of the twentieth century. It combines the life and times of Stephen Gordon the novel’s female protagonist with a plea directed to God and society for tolerance towards homosexuality. Stephen Gordon has embodied what it means to be a lesbian for generations of women readers. But as the perfect hero she makes for an awkward heroine. </p><p>Originally published in 1989 herself a novelist critic and lesbian Rebecca O’Rourke examines what makes the figure of Stephen Gordon both infuriating and inspiring to lesbian and non-lesbian readers alike. She details the novel’s fascinating publishing history through an analysis of the motives and preoccupations of previous critics and biographers many of whom mistakenly saw in <i>The Well of Loneliness</i> a fictional account of Radclyffe Hall’s own life. The novel’s status as the ‘bible of lesbianism’ has been a mixed blessing often confirming the worst stereotypes of lesbianism while at the same time ensuring its visibility. Rebecca O’Rourke includes a fascinating survey of reader’s reactions to the book which was still at the time so many years after its first publication the first ‘lesbian’ novel many women picked up.</p>