IT was a story with a kiss that sent shock waves across the nation.
A newspaper editor even said he would rather give “a healthy child prussic acid to drink than read such an obnoxious book”.
But if the pronoun author Radclyffe Hall had used had been “him” and not “her” the publication of The Well of Loneliness would hardly have caused a ripple Instead, the Bournemouth-born author wrote the line: “Then Stephen took Angela into her arms and she kissed her full on the lips.”
That was in 1928 and triggered an obscenity trial... because her novel was the first to deal openly with a lesbian relationship.
Now Radclyffe Hall’s relationship with Lady Una Troubridge features in a new book by Katie Roiphe called Uncom-mon Arrangements: Seven Marriages in Literary London 1910-1939.
Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall was born of well-to-do parents at Sunny Lawn in Durley Road, Bournemouth (now the Durley Grange Hotel) in 1880.
Her mother, Mary Jane Seger, had married Radclyffe Radclyffe Hall – yes, two Radclyffes – but their marriage was a disaster. Her father was said to be “cavorting in the bed of a maid” at the moment of her birth.
Her sister had died when Marguerite was just three weeks old and her parents divorced when she was three.
Her mother, who had no time for her, was given custody and, consequently, Marguerite was mainly looked after by a nurse. With no friends, she invented an imaginary one called Daisy, which led to her mother beating her.
Her childhood, thus, was lonely and she was educated by governesses and then at day schools from the age of eight, in London.
Her mother eventually remarried an Italian singing master but by the time she was 21, Marguerite inherited money of her own and left her unhappy home.
By the age of 26, she published her first book of poetry and travelled, later meeting a singer called Mabel Batten, known as Ladye, who was married to an elderly husband.
And Marguerite, who began to call herself John, entered her first lesbian love affair with the beauty who was 23 years her senior.
Their relationship would last for eight years but in 1915, when aged 35, Radclyffe Hall met one of Mabel’s cousins at a tea party, 28-year-old Una Troubridge, the artist wife of a much older admiral.
And when Mabel died of a cerebral haemorrhage not long after, she and Una’s relationship developed.
It was in many ways similar to a conventional marriage. Despite her mannish clothes and smoking, “John”, a devout Catholic, was a patriot and old-fashioned in her opinions. She carried on with her writing and won acclaim for her early novels such as the Unlit Lamp and Adam’s Breed.
But, despite once having successfully sued when accused of “gross immorality”, she and Una were tired of living a deceit. She wanted “inverted” relationships to be accepted... and her subsequent novel about a lesbian relationship, The Well of Loneliness, proved a bombshell.
Jonathan Cape agreed to publish it in 1928 and at first the critics praised it. But then came that damning editorial in the Sunday Express.
In spite of its tame content (the most explicit line was: “And that night they were not divided”), the Home Secretary declared it “inherently obscene” because of its lesbian theme and it was banned.
It was a brave book but not sensationalist. Virginia Woolf said of it: “The dullness of the book is such that any indecency may lurk there – one simply can’t keep one’s eyes on the page.”
But the banning spurred its sale for it was published in Paris and secretly shipped back to Britain in great numbers.
It led to the rich but outcast Radclyffe Hall and Una fleeing to Paris to live, frequenting lesbian bars where they could dance together. But, being politically conservative, she felt drained and disappointed that some lesbian friends had been silent.
Even so, she carried on writing, with Una looking after the home, until a third woman entered the scene.
Evguenia Souline, a Russian nurse, arrived to look after Una when she had a stomach disorder. Radclyffe Hall became besotted and an affair developed.
The story of the intense relationship between Radclyffe Hall and Evguenia and the hostility between the latter and the deeply hurt Una is the subject of an intriguing chapter in Kate Roiphe’s Uncommon Arrangements book (Virago, £9.99).
Eventually the war came and Una and her “John” moved to a hotel at Lynton, Devon, with Evguenia nursing in a neighbouring town.
In March 1943, Radclyffe Hall’s health declined. She had cancer of the colon and, on October 7 of that year, she died.
She left all her estate and property (£118,000 excluding book royalties) to Una... who destroyed her letters from Evguenia and an unfinished manuscript.
Low mass and then a Requiem were said at Westminster Abbey for Radclyffe Hall, who was laid to rest next to Ladye at Highgate cemetery.
Evguenia eventually married a Russian man, dying in 1958. Una became the acolyte of an opera singer in Florence.
And, today, The Well of Loneliness (Virago £9.99) remains a landmark publication because of its originality and the bigotry and scandal it prompted.
