Sally Cline creates an incredibly dynamic portrait of Radclyffe Hall in her biography and her depictions of turn of the 20th century lesbian life are just thrilling. Radclyffe Hall was attractive, wealthy, adventurous and talented, and Sally Cline faithfully shows her successes, as well as her weaknesses, and manages to bring together a sense of what this literary upper class world was like.
This book traces Radclyffe Hall's life as she grew from party girl into a prolific author, later writing her magnum opus, "The Well of Loneliness" and shows the inevitable obscenity trials that followed. Radclyffe was a tremendously successful author at the time of the books publication, and though she knew this book would destroy her career, she was driven to write the novel that would open the eyes of middle class heterosexual readers to the realites and difficulties of lesbian life. The book was ordered destroyed in England and the ban has never been lifted.
Sally Cline does a great job of portraying the bohemian literary and art world at the turn of the 20th century Europe this time when England was just shaking the strictures of the Victorian era, women were coming into their own and demanding representation in government, and the role of women were changing in the home and in society, while the shadow of war and economic uncertainty loomed. The book makes you realize that as revolutionary as her life was, Radclyffe was always just being true to herself.
