The Master of the House

The Master of the House is a novel written by Radclyffe Hall and published in 1932 — her first published work after her 1928 The Well of Loneliness.[1] It depicts the life of carpenter Christophe Benedit, as well as of the other inhabitants of the small French town of St-Loup-sur-Mer.

Cover of the first edition

Una Troubridge — Hall's partner — described the novel as being about a "modern Christ figure";[2] the University of London has noted speculation that Hall wrote it as "expiation" for having inspired Beresford Egan's "blasphemous" cartoon of Hall being crucified.[3]

This Beresford Egan cartoon, depicting Hall's crucifixion, is speculated to have inspired Hall to write The Master of the House.

The Spectator considered that it was "a solid, full story", with "a high seriousness of purpose", but faulted Hall's use of symbolism, claiming that this makes the story "totter dangerously".[4]

Hall's biographers have been divided over the novel's quality, with Sally Cline (in her 1997 Radclyffe Hall: A Woman Called John) describing it as Hall's "greatest novel",[5] and Richard Dellamora (in his 2011 Radclyffe Hall: A Life in the Writing) stating that it "disappoint(ed ...) nearly everyone" and "diminished both Hall's reputation and the size of her [readership]"[6]

It was republished in 2013 by Wylie Press (ISBN 978-1473311886).

References
  1. Hall, Radclyffe. 'The world' and other unpublished works of Radclyffe Hall. Funke, Jana, 1982-. Manchester, UK. ISBN 0719088283. OCLC 930758560.
  2. A Martyr to Sex and Literature, by Thomas Mallon, in the New York Times; published September 8, 1985; retrieved May 29, 2018
  3. Publishing Queer in the Twentieth Century: Master of the House, at Senate House Library, University of London; retrieved May 29, 2018
  4. FICTION, in The Spectator, published March 5, 1932; retrieved May 29, 2018
  5. The literary lesbian, in The Daily Telegraph; published June 28, 1997; retrieved May 29, 2018
  6. Radclyffe Hall: A Life in the Writing, by Richard Dellamora, published May 31 2011 by University of Pennsylvania Press
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