The Island
A Love Story
Naomi Royde-Smith
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 you are probably right, but reading dozens of interwar books about lesbianism has warped my perspective. 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. Stephen Gordon prays to her God for a right to live in her own way; Goosey sets herself against her God among the forces of the damned. 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.
A lot of this book is really quite silly – apparently, you can become a lesbian through being snubbed by a man riding a horse across a marsh – and the narrative’s attitude to its characters is often ambivalent. Goosey is both pitied and blamed for her fate. Like Radclyffe Hall’s novel, it’s also terribly earnest; although there are elements of the arch comedy that I enjoyed in The Tortoiseshell Cat, these sit awkwardly with the tragedy of Goosey’s life. The writing is also quite variable in quality. However, it is also interesting, mostly because it looks at Goosey and Almond’s relationship in its context, showing the reactions of those around them, Compared to other similar characters, Goosey and Almond are rooted in ordinary life, working, marrying, raising children; they are not rich, cultured or creative. Royde-Smith also opens up the question of how much we should try to help the bewildered and lost when we meet them, of whether there is a wider responsibility for Goosey’s despair. ~ Tanya Izzard
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Details
Genre | Romance; Grier Rated |
Publication Date | 1930 |
Publisher | Harper |
Language | English |
Rating | Great |
BookID | 6111 |