18 h 48 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 18 h 48 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the love that makes you feel most alive is the love your world refuses to accept?
Stephen Gordon grows up at Morton Hall, an English country estate, with wealth and a painful sense of being different. Her father, Sir Philip, wants to protect her. Her mother, Lady Anna, cannot offer the warmth she needs. As Stephen's feelings for women deepen, the distance between belonging and being honest grows.
In The Well of Loneliness, Radclyffe Hall follows Stephen through love, writing, war work, and the search for a place to live without shame. Mary Llewellyn offers the hope of lasting affection, while Paris seems to promise freedom. Yet social pressure and Stephen's own fears put that hope under strain.
What you’ll discover
- A childhood without belonging Enter Stephen's early world, where comfort and privilege cannot quiet her sense of difference.
- Love under pressure Follow her longing for women in a society that makes honesty carry a painful cost.
- Loyalty through hard years Meet Puddle, the wise governess whose steady care offers Stephen a rare source of warmth.
- The promise of Paris Explore a city of artists, writers, and exiles where a less restricted life seems possible.
- A plea for understanding Consider Hall's earnest argument for acceptance in a novel tried for obscenity in England.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy a story of one life told with deep feeling, if you care about love, belonging and courage, and if you like Paris studios and wartime France.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A longed-for son arrives as a daughter
- Stephen's first love is a housemaid called Collins
- Her father sees the truth and keeps silent
- Puddle teaches her mind to stand on its own
- Martin Hallam offers friendship and then love
- Angela Crossby brings joy and then deep hurt
- A mother's judgment forces Stephen out of Morton
- Paris and the war give her a place and a person
- Two women make a home and meet the world
- The book speaks for a whole outcast people
- Voice, symbols and a friend who comes back
Who’s who
- Stephen GordonBorn to a longed-for son's name, she loves deeply, writes, fights in the war and seeks a place in a world that turns away from her.
- Sir Philip GordonHer gentle, scholarly father understands her better than anyone, yet cannot bring himself to tell his wife or daughter what he believes.
- Lady Anna GordonHer beautiful Irish mother loves her husband completely but feels a cold, ashamed distance from her own daughter.
- PuddleMiss Puddleton, her small, firm governess, becomes her lifelong friend and guardian, carrying her own quiet sorrow.
- Angela CrossbyA charming American neighbour who accepts Stephen's love and gifts, but fears her husband more than she values loyalty.
- Martin HallamA kind young man from British Columbia who loves forests and offers Stephen friendship, then something she cannot return.
- Mary LlewellynA young Welsh ambulance driver whose openness and courage draw Stephen, and who wants only a life beside her.
- Jonathan BrockettA witty playwright who guides Stephen through Paris, sees more than he says and feeds his art on other people's lives.
Formats and delivery
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The Well of Loneliness
by Radclyffe Hall · 1928
A baby girl named for a son grows up at Morton, sure she is a boy and loved most by her father.
Challenging10–20 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
What happens when the child a whole house expects to be a son arrives as a daughter? The girl grows up at Morton, wishing to be Nelson and loving with a force nobody can name.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A longed-for son arrives as a daughter
Sir Philip Gordon and his wife Anna have waited ten years for a child. He is so certain of a boy that he names the baby Stephen long before she is born. Anna listens, and little by little she believes him too.
On Christmas Eve the baby arrives, and she is a girl. Sir Philip hides his disappointment and keeps the name. As she grows, she looks more and more like him, with his auburn hair and the cleft in his chin. Anna sees this and feels a strange coldness toward her own child.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1928
- Language
- Deutsch
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-well-of-loneliness.
Hall, R. (2026). The well of loneliness. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-well-of-loneliness (Original work published 1928)
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-well-of-loneliness.
@book{hall2026well,
author = {Hall, Radclyffe},
title = {The Well of Loneliness},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-well-of-loneliness},
note = {First published 1928}
}
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What is The Well of Loneliness about?
It follows Stephen Gordon, an English landowner's daughter who feels like a boy from childhood. She loves women, becomes a writer, serves in the First World War and seeks acceptance in a world that gives her little.
Why is The Well of Loneliness a famous book?
It is one of the first English novels to treat a woman who loves women with sympathy and seriousness. It was published in 1928 and caused public argument, and it remains widely read.
Who is Puddle in The Well of Loneliness?
Puddle is the nickname of Miss Puddleton, Stephen's governess. She teaches her Greek, Latin and literary appreciation, becomes a lasting friend, and understands Stephen's nature long before Stephen can name it.
The author
Radclyffe Hall
1880–1943 · English novelist and poet
Radclyffe Hall was an English poet and novelist whose The Well of Loneliness became the most famous lesbian novel of its century — banned in Britain after an obscenity trial and defended by writers from Virginia Woolf to E. M. Forster.
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