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Book reviews for "Hall,_Radclyffe" sorted by average review score:

Your John: The Love Letters of Radclyffe Hall
Published in Paperback by New York University Press (June, 1999)
Author: Joanne Glasgow
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Battle between love and devotion
This book gave much insight into the life of Radclyffe Hall, and how her mind worked. A battle between her love for Souline, a nurse, and her love for her partner of many years, Una, is very apparent in Radclyffe's letters to Souline. She refused to leave Una, who had been faithful and supportive of her for years, but loved Souline and wanted to spend more time with her. She loved Souline dearly, but was very controlling in doing so, controlling Souline financially and emotionally, sending the two on an emotional roller-coaster that in the end left them both separated.

A wonderful book, with very useful footnotes and background information.


The Trials of Radclyffe Hall
Published in Hardcover by Doubleday (15 June, 1999)
Author: Diana Souhami
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Marguerite, John, and Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall was not a major literary figure-- but she was an immensely fascinating one. She's not less fascinating because there were so many things to dislike (depressing love affairs, callousness about pets, and a definite preference for fascism).

What Souhami manages to do is to paint a picture that owns the negative without playing down the brave and even important side to Hall's life. For the students of history and sexual politics, the trials surrounding the Well of Loneliness make fascinating reading and we see them through this book in a totally different light than I've seen them before.

Great biography.

Move over men, the women are stepping out!

I recommend reading Diana Souhami's biography of the writer Marguerite "John" (Twonnie) Radclyffe Hall. The author's prose is lucid. The book contains documentation and photographs of this rather extraordinary "sexual invert," as Radclyffe Hall insisted upon labeling herself and others like her. Extraordinary in large part because of the hoopla and trial that unfolded around Radclyffe Hall's novel The Well of Loneliness (1928). Souhami's biography presents a full account of Radclyffe Hall's: troubled childhood; poetry and fiction publications; beloveds; animals and birds (cherished, but quickly abandoned when they did not "obey" her); law suits (she was perpetually willing and financially able to sue anyone at anytime); and writing and editing processes. This is an interesting biography of an interesting woman.

a stunning biography
There is no shortage of Radclyffe Hall biographies, so it was with something approaching ennui that I made a start on this book. The effect is something like a bucket of cold water over the head! The warts-and-all biography is alive and kicking! Diana Souhami has written a book that is both fresh and thoroughly researched which forces us to do the best thing a biography can make us do - view the subject with fresh eyes. Absolutely no punches are pulled and we experience the vividness of Radclyffe Hall's life, the horrible childhood, the pointless spiritual dabbling, the suffocating upper-class lesbian coteries, we practically live her relationships with Mabel Batten, Una Troubridge, Eugenia Souline.There is a lot to dislike in this subject who in many ways behaved like a spoiled child, sacking servants and disposing of pets without a moment's thought. But there is also a shining flame of fierce courage, and we see here the huge cost of coming out as a lesbian in those early days. Three cheers for Diana Souhami!I urge you to read this book!


The Well of Loneliness
Published in Library Binding by Buccaneer Books ()
Author: Radclyffe Hall
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an important but flawed piece of fiction
i just translated the book into chinese so i guess i did some pretty close reading :). while the novel is undoubtedly a milestone in the history of english literature, lesbian culture, and the battle against censorship, its literary merits leave something to be desired. radclyffe hall's prose is ornate and even over-dramatizing at times, and i find the frequent insertion of french phrases and sentences redundant and affected. the situations and emotions are relevant, poignant, and often depicted with insight, but because the mood and the tone of the narrative is so persistently intensive it does tend to get tedious after a while--which can be well before one finishes the book.

it seems quite obvious that stephen gordon, the heroine (or should i say hero?) of the book, would never have questioned the moral conventions and gender roles of her times, had she not been born to be what she was--in short, a male soul trapped inside a female body (though hall, true to her style, never just says so). for she totally identified herself with a (upper-class) society of so-called respectability, honor, refinement, etc., which constitutes a mentality not really, uh, let's say "progressive". while crying out against the outrage against and persecution of lesbians and gays, stephen remained disconcertingly vague in her attitude toward effeminate males (such as the character jonathan brockett), feeling much more at ease with and indeed seeking the acceptance of straight (and presumably manly) men. i'm not exactly saying that it's "reactionary" to long for the very "secure and happy" life of "the normal", but how she--and i wonder if also the author--repeatedly projected heterosexual marriage to be is way too idealized and dangerously so, not pausing for even one moment to reflect on what outrage and persecution that sort of marriage could also and did often turn out to be for perfectly "normal" women. one can't help feeling that she thought everything would've been just so fine, if only and only if she had been a man!

so, while trying not to be anachronistic in my judgment of the novel and the characters in it, i suggest that it be carefully read *in context*, historically and ideologically.

Beautiful and heart-rending
This novel in to be recommnded not only to lesbians and "inverts." It is to be recommended to all sensitive souls and lovers of beauty and artists and all who feel themselves terribly rejected by mainstream culture. The prose in itself is beautifully written in a manner that few books of any sort are today. If this lovely style is "long-winded," as one reviewer dubbed it, then today's literary culture would do well to open the door and let some air in, regardless of the season! The book that comes closest, oddly, to the style of Hall's masterpiece is the contemporary "straight" Bildungsroman of Thomas Wolfe-Look Homeward, Angel. Hall is more effective, though, in bringing home "the pain of all beauty," and I found myself having to put the bok down several times to clear the salty blur from my eyes, such is its poignancy. Oddly again, the storyline of Hall's book and the plight of Stephen Gordon remind me of nothing so much as Rousseau in his Confessions.-Then again, none of this should really be surprising. All three were sensitiive geniuses who suffered through much of their lives. This book will strike a chord of love in you, if you, like Hall and her protagonist, have ever felt "...like a soul that wakes up to find itself wandering, unwanted, between the spheres."

Engaging, if melodramatic
"The Well of Loneliness" may use dated prose, may seem unlike our day and age, and may suffer from being all but overwrought with its message, but at its core it is a beautiful, insightful novel. The central theme - alienation - has the capacity to appeal to, and attract, nearly anybody. One need not be a lesbian (as I am not) to understand the message the story conveys.

If the book has a single, major failing, it is that Hall dwells on reminding the reader as often as possible that Stephen, the protagonist, is "different"; indeed, the word "queer" turns up more times than some of the sensitive sorts may find tolerable. There is also more than sufficient melodrama, which will surely be a turn-off for some--the focus of the novel, rather than the execution, is its true strength.

Nevertheless, the sincerity behind every delivery, no matter how drawn-out, makes this book a worthy addition to any collection. Hall lived this woe--survived the bitterness, anxieties, and, of course, loneliness--that, above all, is what makes this novel outstanding, and a personal favorite of mine.


Unlit Lamp
Published in Paperback by Doubleday (February, 1981)
Author: Radclyffe Hall
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Unutterably sad, but how very real
In my own recent coming out experience, I've been soaking up lesbian literature. This book is helping me move from married to divorced. The story brings the reader painfully, achingly along with the protagonist, as all of her potential (vibrant physical health, powerful intellect, passion) is slowly killed off. Lacking any socially-approved way to leave her stultifying life, she slowly withers, while the reader witnesses it. Painful, yes, but inspirational as well. I do not want to wither on the vine.

Hall's greatest work
The Unlit Lamp has long remained hidden while Hall's lesser work, The Well of Loneliness, has gained a cult fame in lesbian circles. What a shame that this book should be so under-read. It's an excruciating story, in many ways, but told with such an intensely controlled fury that one is left in no doubt as to Hall's own rage over the huge personal losses incurred by prejudice.


Adam's Breed (Virago Modern Classics)
Published in Paperback by Penguin USA (Paper) (April, 1986)
Author: Radclyffe Hall
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Man's relationship to life through FOOD and SERVICE and RACE
Set in an italian neighborhood in England with WWII as a backdrop, a child is born, fatherless and instantly motherless, into a family who can not love him. He is not one of them, and his grandmother and grandfather see him as the murderer of her child, thier daughter...but they raise him out of obligation, teach him to work in their deli, send him to good schools, and fulfill their obligations to him. Gian Luca does well, forges his way very well in everything he does, but a time comes when he can no longer offer himself to his own success...he begins to see himself, and others in a way that challenges his sense of place in life.. A beautiful book for those who appreciate the culture of food, the myth of neighborhood, the dynamic and extraordinary constitution of family, and how all of these things tie to each other and lead back to the individual man's relationship with living. This is a strange, and engaging book, so well written, and very unique. I wish there were a way to get this book back IN print! I buy this book as a gift often. A book you want to share with others.

A wonderful look at male identity in WWI England
This book sheds light on male identity, bi-racial attitudes and connection to place and time. Hall does an amazing job discussing how a man finds his identity when he is a bastard child. It is obvious she imparts her own feelings of attatchment and isolation into the main character - GianLuca. I thouroughly enjoyed this work and was amazed at some of the issues Hall addresses.


Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John
Published in Paperback by Overlook Press (October, 1999)
Author: Sally Cline
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the deconstruction of radclyffe hall
the major players in this book were so thougoughly unlikeable that it flavored [negatively] nearly every page. Author goes into exhaustive detail about the minutea of these womens' lives. The greater part of the book was taken up with Hall's youth, Una Lady troubridge and a russian nurse; , of whom she was embarrasingly enamoured. If prospective readers enjoy tortured prose,a woman of some talent but a larger ego,and a great deal of egomaniacal self justification you are going to love this book!


Beyond the Well of Loneliness: The Fiction of Radclyffe Hall
Published in Textbook Binding by Prometheus Books (April, 1983)
Author: Claudia Franks
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The Life of Radclyffe Hall (Homosexuality)
Published in Hardcover by Ayer Co Pub (June, 1975)
Authors: Una Elena Taylor, Lady. Troubridge and Una Vincenzo Troubridge
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Noel Coward & Radclyffe Hall: Kindred Spirits
Published in Paperback by Columbia University Press (June, 1996)
Author: Terry Castle
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Our three selves : the life of Radclyffe Hall
Published in Hardcover by H. Hamilton (1985)
Author: Michael Baker
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