The Island - A Love Story

Royde-Smith, Naomi

Published by Constable, London, 1930

About this Item

(London: Constable and Co Ltd 1930). First UK Edition. Publisher's green boards with black lettering to the front board and spine. Foxing (chiefly to the fore-edge) which has crept into the text block in places otherwise a VG+ copy in A VG dustwrapper with shallow surface loss and fraying at the head of the spine and a touch of loss to the corners. The final volume of a trilogy of which the earlier volumes were "Children in the Wood" and "Summer Holiday". "The Island (sub-titled A Love Story) is an inter-war lesbian novel whose protagonist is the orphaned Myfanwy Hughes, known as Goosey. Living with her aunt and uncle on a farm in North Wales, she falls in love with pretty, sophisticated and rather amoral Flossie Priestman, known as Almond, This book was written at the end of 1929 and published in 1930, and it reads rather like a response to, and repudiation of, Radclyffe Hall s Well of Loneliness. In its way, it is as frank as Hall s book; if you are thinking that the Well is not particularly explicit. However, while The Island accepts notions of lesbian identity, and interestingly explores the way these are constructed by mainstream society, the conclusion of the book is the antithesis of the Well. The only thing worse than being a lesbian in most interwar novels on this theme is being bisexual: Almond sits alongside Angela Crossby from the Well as a classic fictional bisexual stereotype, manipulative, duplicitous and self-interested. She retreats into heterosexual respectability while poor Goosey retreats into madness" (The Lesbian Literature Bibliography). Rare. Photographs/scans available upon request. Seller Inventory # 355490721482

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Island - A Love Story

Publisher: Constable, London

Publication Date: 1930

Binding: Hard Cover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket

Edition: First Edition.