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Radclyffe Hall

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Author

The Resume

    (August 12, 1880-October 7, 1943)
    Born in Bournemouth, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Marguerite Radclyffe Hall
    Best known for the novel 'The Well of Loneliness' (1928)
    Also wrote 'The Forge' (1924), 'The Unlit Lamp' (1924), 'A Saturday Night' (1925), 'Adam's Breed' (1926), 'The Master of the House' (1932) and 'The Sixth Beatitude' (1936)

Why she might be annoying:

    She preferred to be called 'John.'
    She held seances to receive advice from a dead lover.
    'The Well of Loneliness' was ruled obscene and banned in Britain because its main character is a lesbian.
    The editor of the Sunday Express declared, 'I would sooner give a healthy boy or healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel. Poison kills the body, but moral poison kills the soul.'
    In her will, she left her property and copyrights to one lover, Una Troubridge, while asking her to make provisions for another lover, Eugenie Souline, 'as in her absolute discretion she may consider right.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster offered to testify on her behalf during the obscenity trial.
    'The Well of Loneliness' sold over a million copies in America after being ruled not obscene in a US trial.
    The uproar now seems quaint for a novel that never gets racier than 'She kissed her full on the lips like a lover.'
    By 1974, 'Well' was tame enough that it was read to the public as part of BBC4's 'Book at Bedtime' series.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 57 Votes: 49.12% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 21 Votes: 61.90% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 32 Votes: 59.38% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 31 Votes: 77.42% Annoying