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Souhami, Diana : The Trials of Radclyffe Hall

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1998

Fine copy in fine dust jacket, 8vo, 418 pp.

1st

Souhami, Diana : The Trials of Radclyffe Hall

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1998

418pp. B&W Illustrations Biography of a famous lesbian novelist who wrote The Well of Loneliness, 8vo, Fine in Fine DJ

1st Edition

SOUHAMI, DIANA: : The Trials of Radclyffe Hall

LONDON.WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON,1998.

ISBN 9780297818250.

UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/NFINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj - absence of publisher's price.These are generally believed to be export copies/ editions,and as such, precede the trade edition issues and distribution,in the country of their origin. Bright,crisp,clean,glossy,subject's contemporary b/w portrait photographic illustrated dw/dj panels,with capitalised white-lettered author's name,and white-lettered title,grey spine/ backstrip with similarly coloured+lettered author name and title as front panel and publisher's colophon to foot of same,rear panel with subject's smaller contemporary b/w portrait photograph and subject's name in vertical calligraphic white lettering alongside the rear-facing gutter's fold/ crease.Negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners - no major nicks,tears or splits present - head of spine/backstrip with minimal bumping and reciprocal creasing.Top+fore-edges clean without foxing/spotting; contents bright,tight,clean, solid and sound - pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corner tips,appears unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,unblemished,sharp-cornered, original plain red cloth boards with bright, crisp,blocked gilt lettered spine/backstrip,and immaculate cream endpapers with Hall's facsimile handwritten,blue ink notes for a lecture on the trial of The Well of Loneliness,given to Southend Young Socialists,25 January 1929. UK, 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,vii-xiiipp+3-418pp [paginated] includes separate contents+ illustrations lists/tables,Private Matters,10 sections comprising 5, 4, 3, 4, 2, 7, 3, 5, 5, and 2 chapters respectively,16pp contemporary b/w subject's,familial and other biographical portrait photographs in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece, between pp178/79 and pp242/43 respectively, Books and Notes and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and a dedication page with a note by the author to its reverse.       Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional,and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book of its age. It really is an exceptional,exemplary copy for its cleanliness and brightness.              Biography of Marguerite Radclyffe Hall (1880- 1943),one of England's great eccentrics is best known as the author of the banned novel 'The Well of Loneliness.'                         About 'congenital inverts' - lesbian love' - it caused a furore when she wrote it in 1928.The Home Secretary of the day called it 'inherently obscene','supportive of depraved practice' and 'gravely detrimental to the public interest'.In an extraordinary trial it was banned under the Obscene Publications Act and 'consigned to the king's furnace'. In effect it was the nation's attitude to sex which was on trial rather than the obscentiy of her novel.She sent the government,the judiciary and the literary establishment into turmoil.Her candour embarrassed them all.She was spurned by the Bloomsbury set,including Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf,both of whom had lesbian relationships. Radclyffe Hall was born in 1880 in Bournemouth in a house of horrors called "Sunny Lawn". Her mother drank gin in the bath in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy.Her parents separated when she was a few weeks old.She was dyslexic, isolated and at the mercy of a violent mother and sexually abusive step-father. Life changed when at the age of 18 she inherited her father's estate of £100,000.She leased a house in Kensington,dressed in chappish clothes,called herself John, travelled,pursued women and wrote her first collection of verse. A complex,extravagant figure,she was a political reactionary yet sexually subversive,a Catholic convert yeat a member of the Society of Psychical Research.Fussy about food,dictatorial to the servants,she got her pipes from Dunhill's,wore brocade smoking jackets and diamond cufflinks,had her hair cropped,and was a pivotal figure in the London lesbian scene of the 1920s.Her life was a series of legal and emotional trials.Sexually chauvinistic,she expected absolute loyalty from her partners while she herself had passionate affairs.Her first love,Mabel Batten, known as Ladye,was a mistress of Edward VII's.While living with Ladye,Radclyffe Hall started an affair with Una Trouridge,Ladye's cousin and the wife of an admiral.When Ladye died Radclyffe Hall refused to have sex again with Una until given permission by Ladye's ghost.After 18 years of marriage to Una,Radclyffe Hall then fell in love with Evguenia Souline,'my royal chinkie pig', the daughter of a Cossack general.She did not leave Una and a triangle of dark Strindbergian passions and dramas lasted until her death and beyond. In this brilliantly written,witty and satirical biography Diana Souhami,author of the recent bestseller (then 1998) 'Mrs Keppel and her Daughter',brings a fresh and irreverant eye to the life of this remarkable and troubled figure. 'The Trials of Radclyffe Hall' will stand for decades as the definitive life of one of the 20thC's most intriguing characters.              Please contact seller,because of the weight of this item - just under 1Kg unpackaged,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!                                      ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,the stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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