Scan barcode
A review by 11corvus11
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
3.0
This important relic of queer history has sat in print on my shelf forever as I intended to eventually read it because of that significance. However, I don't much go for period pieces about the troubles of wealthy people nor do I much like romance (though this is mostly the misery of love more than romance.) I saw the audio available and figured I'm never going to get around to it and might as well listen.
It's very well written for what it is. But, it's clearly (white people) dated in terms of race in ways that I don't know enough what to say can be blamed on the time period. There is one scene with two Black performers that the authors descriptions of made me literally wanna crawl out of my skin and I felt bad for the narrator who had to read them out loud. It's also a miserable novel about the social suffering of an otherwise privileged butch lesbian and/or trans man depending on how you read it (the protagonist is referred to as she/her but expresses over and over from childhood that s/he IS a boy, does not feel like a girl/woman, IS NOT a girl/woman, etc which could apply to both given the understanding of gender then and now so...)
It's tough because I wonder if it's based on the authors life and I've certainly had some similar experiences with cis women who are into cis dudes and lifestyle that comes with them vs with not cishet pairings. I don't wanna take away from how frustrating and hurtful that could be decades before I was even alive and the rage hit home especially with her first lover. But, every bisexual (or lesbian turned bi/straight) woman in this ends up choosing men like as soon as a slightly ok one shows up, it's every negative bisexual stereotype you can imagine, women in general are the worst offenders of any and all suffering in the book, women who tend to be stronger are all servants of some sort, etc. I guess it lives up to it's title. If I was a young person reading this when it came out though it would certainly not make me want to seek out love.
I guess I can say I read it now 🤷
It's very well written for what it is. But, it's clearly (white people) dated in terms of race in ways that I don't know enough what to say can be blamed on the time period. There is one scene with two Black performers that the authors descriptions of made me literally wanna crawl out of my skin and I felt bad for the narrator who had to read them out loud. It's also a miserable novel about the social suffering of an otherwise privileged butch lesbian and/or trans man depending on how you read it (the protagonist is referred to as she/her but expresses over and over from childhood that s/he IS a boy, does not feel like a girl/woman, IS NOT a girl/woman, etc which could apply to both given the understanding of gender then and now so...)
It's tough because I wonder if it's based on the authors life and I've certainly had some similar experiences with cis women who are into cis dudes and lifestyle that comes with them vs with not cishet pairings. I don't wanna take away from how frustrating and hurtful that could be decades before I was even alive and the rage hit home especially with her first lover. But, every bisexual (or lesbian turned bi/straight) woman in this ends up choosing men like as soon as a slightly ok one shows up, it's every negative bisexual stereotype you can imagine, women in general are the worst offenders of any and all suffering in the book, women who tend to be stronger are all servants of some sort, etc. I guess it lives up to it's title. If I was a young person reading this when it came out though it would certainly not make me want to seek out love.
I guess I can say I read it now 🤷