author
Radclyffe Hall
1886–1943
Best known for The Well of Loneliness, this English writer helped create one of the most discussed and enduring novels in lesbian literary history. Her work brought questions of identity, love, and social judgment into public view at a time when doing so carried real risk.
5 Audiobooks
The well of loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall
'Twixt Earth and Stars: Poems
by Radclyffe Hall
The unlit lamp
by Radclyffe Hall
A Sheaf of Verses: Poems
by Radclyffe Hall
Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems
by Radclyffe Hall
About the author
Born Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe-Hall in Bournemouth in 1880, she published as Radclyffe Hall and became known as a poet and novelist. She studied at King's College London and also attended school in Germany, then built a literary career that moved from poetry into fiction.
Her most famous book, The Well of Loneliness (1928), caused a major scandal and was banned for a time in Britain because of its treatment of lesbian life. Even so, the novel became her defining work and remains central to discussions of early LGBTQ+ literature.
Hall lived relatively openly for her era, and that public visibility has made her an important historical figure as well as a literary one. She died in London in 1943, but her writing continues to be read both for its cultural impact and for the place it holds in the history of queer literature.