327. Orlando

Orlando
Virginia Woolf
1928
Around 335 pages

Let the gay parade march on! Unfortunately, this coincides with Virginia Woolf's writing style moving away from the everyday reflections to something much more surreal. I find it dizzying, to say the least.

In the 1500s, Orlando serves as a page at the Elizabethan court and falls in love with a slightly deranged princess. He channels his heartbreak into writing a long poem, The Oak Tree, and serves as an ambassador in Constantinople. He falls asleep for several days, and wakes up to find himself a herself.

Obviously, this is a strange novel. For one thing, the main character is about 300 years old. And doesn't seem particularly perturbed to find himself transformed into a woman. Orlando realizes the power of the female sex when she flashes her ankle at a sailor and he nearly falls to death in his arousal. A totally relatable experience.

The historical set pieces in this novel were excellent. Her description of the Frost Fair held on the Thames during the Great Frost of 1608 was particularly memorable. But when your character is a shapeshifting immortal, it's a little hard to relate to. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Nigel Nicolson, Sackville-West's son, wrote that this was the most charming love letter in literature.

Commercial and critical success.

UP NEXT: Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille

326. Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley's Lover
D.H. Lawrence
1928
Around 375 pages

Now that we have been shocked and appalled by lesbian sex, it's time to be shocked and appalled by heterosexual sex. This was actually the first "sexy" novel I ever read when I was in ninth grade. Yeah, I had a bit of a wild streak. 

Lady Chatterley's husband is paralyzed from the waist down, due to an injury from World War I. The lack of physical and emotional fulfillment with the relationship causes her to end up in the arms of the caretaker, Oliver Mellors. I would have enjoyed this experience more if I had been picturing Robb Stark in the role. This illuminating new perspective might necessitate another reread.

I loved this novel. Once again, Lawrence offers a perspective that we maybe don't need, this time on female sexuality. But hey, he's acknowledging that women have sex drives, which is huge (the bar is low people). I found this to be a really quotable novel, I think I quoted it in English class. Better close the door on that memory before I succumb to cringe.

We've reached the Lawrence's final novel. He's like a boyfriend you know wasn't the one for you, but you still look back on your time together fondly. Here's my official Lawrence ranking:

1. Lady Chatterley's Lover
2. The Fox
3. Women in Love
4. Sons and Lovers
5. The Rainbow
6. Aaron's Rod
7. The Plumed Serpent

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Banned for obscenity in India, Japan, Australia, the United States, and Canada.

Published two years after Lawrence's death.

Robb Stark is hot.

UP NEXT: Orlando by Virginia Woolf. 

325. The Well of Loneliness

The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall
1928
Around 415 pages

One of the reasons I love doing the List in chronological order is that you get to spot trends that might not stick out as much if you jump around. I would have never noticed that there were a cluster of iconic queer novels in 1928. It's also difficult to determine what is considered shocking if you don't have the context of what came before. To modern readers, the most offensive element of this novel is Radclyffe Hall's obvious self-loathing.

Sir Phillip and Lady Anna have a child, who they just assumed would be a boy, for reasons best known to themselves. Stephen is born female, but I guess they really liked the name. It's okay for the parents to subvert gender roles with their nomenclature, but that's pretty much the extent of their open-mindedness. Stephen is deemed an invert, which is Victorian for a woman who wears pants. She falls in love with women, with varying levels of success.

James Douglas, editor of the Sunday Express, said, "I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl a phial of prussic acid than this novel." I wonder if he actually read it, I can't see a deranged cis man reading 400+ pages written by a lesbian.

As I said, modern audiences will be desensitized to scandalous plot, but it makes you appreciate how far we've come with discussions about gender. Hall seemed to be viewing lesbianism as though your gayness is determined by the amount of "male spirit" in your soul. How about lesbianism has nothing to do with men and their parts? Can we wrap our brains around that concept? Stop butting in.

But it was certainly gutsier than Proust's foray into gayness. Worth reading if you are binging on lesbian fiction, but Hall is no Woolf.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

The book was defended by Morris Ernst in the censorship trial in the US, and statements in defense of the novel were given by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and other prominent writers of the era. 

Hall's lawyer first tried to argue that the relationships in the book were platonic, but Hall threatened to tell the magistrate the truth. Her lawyer then switched to a defense arguing for the novel's literary merit.

UP NEXT: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

324. Parade's End

Parade's End
Ford Madox Ford
1924-1928
Around 830 pages

Jean Rhys has blown the whistle on how creepy FMF was, but if I let that ruin my fun, I wouldn't be able to enjoy 75% of the novels on this List. And I would be deprived of seeing Benedict Cumberbatch's above haircut. 

Christopher Tietjens is a government statistician from a wealthy English family. He serves as an officer in World War I, and is married to Sylvia, who is the type of woman that male authors always seem to come up with. The shallow socialite who gives her husband hell and makes all his infidelities excusable. Speaking of which, he has a relationship with Valentine, a passionate woman's suffragist. 

At the very least, Ford always produces rich characters, and Christopher was a good representation of the generation wiped out during the First World War. Sylvia was also portrayed sympathetically, her actions could largely be explained by the sexual repression of the time. 

But he's wordy, and I find his way of drifting in and out of his characters' heads hard to follow.  Jean Rhys can do better than him.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Admired by Dorothy Parker. 

Graham Greene spoke out about the last volume, calling it an afterthought that Ford did not mean to make. Ouch.

UP NEXT: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

323. The Childermass

The Childermass
Wyndham Lewis
1928
Around 320 pages

Wyndham Lewis is a tough author to track down, and it's easy to see why. He's not the most memorable guy, and in my opinion is really not deserving of having multiple entries on this List.

The Childermass is the first volume of the unfinished work, The Human Age. Two Englishmen killed in the Great War, Sattersthwaite and Pullman, navigate purgatory, which is predictably crowded by dead babies.

I don't vibe with experimental works, or strange journeys through the afterlife. Unfortunately, Lewis read one too many Joyce novels, so we are saddled with this. Skippable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Lewis wrote 40 novels in his lifetime.

UP NEXT: Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford