The Well of Loneliness-the Radclyffe Hall novel at times referred to as "the bible of lesbianism"-was released in Britain in 1928 and was immediately controversial. Pronounced obscene following a sensational trial, the book has become a cultural icon as well as a source of considerable debate, especially among feminists, lesbians, and transgendered persons.

Palatable Poison gathers together classic essays on Radclyffe Hall's book-beginning with Havelock Ellis and early reviews-as well as pieces by such contemporary critics as Esther Newton, Judith Halberstam, Teresa de Lauretis, and Terry Castle. Providing an understanding of how views of the book have changed over time and covering such topics as race, the nation at war, and melancholy, the collection presents new and provocative ideas about the immense cultural impact of The Well of Loneliness and its unique place in the literature of sexual nonconformity.

Palatable Poison gathers together classic essays on Radclyffe Hall's book-beginning with Havelock Ellis and early reviews-as well as new pieces by such contemporary critics as Esther Newton, Judith Halberstam, Teresa de Lauretis, and Terry Castle. Providing an understanding of how views of the book have changed over time and covering such topics as fetishism, inversion, and melancholy, the collection presents new and provocative ideas about the immense cultural impact of The Well of Loneliness and its unique place in the literature of sexual nonconformity.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, by Laura Doan and Jay Prosser Part 1 Perspectives Past 1. Commentary (1928), by Havelock Ellis The First Wave 2. "A Book That Must Be Suppressed" (1928), by James Douglas 3. Judgment (1928), by Sir Chartres Biron 4. A Selection of Early Reviews The Second Wave 5. "Radclyffe Hall" (1975), by Jane Rule 6. "The Mythic Mannish Lesbian: Radclyffe Hall and the New Woman" (1989), by Esther Newton 7. "Perverse Desire: The Lure of the Mannish Lesbian" (1991), by Teresa de Lauretis Part 2 Perspectives Present New Sexual Inversions 8. "Some Primitive Thing Conceived in a Turbulent Age of Transition": The Transsexual Emerging from The Well, by Jay Prosser 9. "A Writer of Misfits": "John" Radclyffe Hall and the Discourse of Inversion, by Judith Halberstam 10. "The Outcast of One Age Is the Hero of Another": Radclyffe Hall, Edward Carpenter and the Intermediate Sex, by Laura Doan 11. "All My Life I've Been Waiting for Something...": Theorizing Femme Narrative in The Well of Loneliness, by Clare Hemmings The Well's Wounds 12. The Well of Shame, by Sally R. Munt 13. The Well of Lonelinessas War Novel, by Susan Kingsley Kent 14. War Wounds: The Nation, Shell Shock, and Psychoanalysis in The Well of Loneliness, by Jodie Medd 15. Of Trees and Polities, Wars and Wounds, by Trevor Hope On Location 16. "I Want to Cross Over into Camp Ground": Race and Inversion in The Well of Loneliness, by Jean Walton 17. "Something Primitive and Age-Old as Nature Herself": Lesbian Sexuality and the Permission of the Exotic, by Sarah E. Chinn 18. Once More unto the Breach: The Well of Loneliness and the Spaces of Inversion, by Victoria Rosner 19. Great Cities: Radclyffe Hall at the Chicago School, by Julie Abraham 20. Well Meaning: Pragmatism, Lesbianism, and the U.S. Obscenity Trial, by Kim Emery 21. Writing by the Light of The Well: Radclyffe Hall and the Lesbian Modernists, by Joanne Winning Afterword: It Was Good, Good, Good, by Terry Castle Suggested Readings Contributors Index