*Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini (Persephone Books, 2018, originally published in 1918 by C. W. Daniel).
A fascinating book about homosexuality and pacifism, two dangerous subjects that caused the book to be banned, with all remaining copies destroyed, when it was first published in 1918.
The book begins in the summer of 1914, with the threat of war with Germany looming. The first part of the book is set at a country hotel where several genteel families are spending their summer holiday. We're introduced to the Blackwoods, a family with three sons and one daughter. Antoinette De Courcey, a young woman with French parents who was born and is living in England, has joined another family, the Fayne's, as a guest of their daughter. Antoinette's beauty and high spirits attract the attention of everyone, but she has eyes only for Hester Cawthorn, a mysteriously beguiling woman in her 30s who is staying at the hotel by herself and holds herself apart from all the other guests. Dennis, the Blackwood's oldest child, is "sensitive" and "artistic" -- he's a composer and arrives at the hotel for a weekend visit while on a walking tour with his friend Crispin (who is also sensitive and artistic). Dennis detects Antoinette's fascination with Hester, and immediately identifies her as a fellow traveler. He invites her out for a long moonlit walk in the countryside, and alludes to their shared "abnormality," which Antoinette neither denies or confirms. Dennis wants to tell her the truth about himself, but cannot bring himself to, despite their mutual interest in and sympathy for one another.
Dennis, who can't imagine a life for himself as a homosexual, decides that he and Antoinette should marry one another and spends most of the book trying to convince her that it is a good idea. Antoinette is not sure, but after she is rejected by Hester -- whose social aloofness is not a reflection of lesbianism as Antoinette assumed, but a screen to obscure her love affair with a married man -- reconsiders and thinks that perhaps she does love Dennis enough to marry him. But by that time Dennis has met a beautiful and charming young man named Alan, and fallen completely and hopelessly in love.
There is an almost farcical nature to these various overlapping love stories, and ultimately Dennis, who is open about his pacifism, is jailed for it, although he is despised and rejected for both his homosexuality and pacifism. What was most interesting about this book -- which is competently but indifferently written -- is the different ways that Dennis and Antoinette regard their sexuality: Dennis is frightened and ashamed, and despondent, while Antoinette feels that her attraction to women is perfectly natural and delightful -- she pursues Hester openly and honestly. I wonder if this is somewhat indicative of the difference between how society perceived male versus female homosexuality in the early 20th century.