Torchlight to Valhalla

by Gale Wilhelm

First published in 1938, a joyous change from the intense loving sadness found in We Too Are Drifting, the story follows the life of Morgen, nursing her dying father, Fritz, while working to develop her writing skills. She is pursued placidly by Royal and seems destined to live an oddly-formed incomplete life until she meets Toni. The growth of their romance is told in that marvelous luminous prose that marks the finer work of Gale Wilhelm.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Lesbian, Queer Lit, Classics, Lesbian Fiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

About the author

Gale Wilhelm was an American writer most noted for two books that featured lesbian themes written in the 1930s: We Too Are Drifting and Torchlight to Valhalla.

Wilhelm published several short stories in 1934 and 1935, her first appearing in Literary America. Her work also appeared in Colliers and the Yale Review.

Reviews

[Connor Stompanato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very quiet novel about a woman discovering her love for women and not men. I think that Wilhelm has a really nice writing style and she included some poetic and sweet moments throughout the book, however the lack of speech marks is something that bothers me personally and takes me out of the story as I'm constantly rethinking whether something is a thought or has been spoken out loud. Other people may not be bothered by this but it's a stylistic choice I am never really a fan of because I just don't see why it is necessary.

The book is only 105 pages and the female lesbian love interest is only introduced on page 80, so the relationship is not explored in any great depth. You do see quickly how much the two women enjoy each other's company though and I could see Morgen becoming happier once Toni entered her life. I did like this book, but it isn't memorable in my opinion.

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lesbians? With a happy ending? In MY 1930s modernist fiction?

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a curio for me; others may enjoy it more. The writing was sparse and often lovely. One of those rare older novels about lesbians with a happy ending. Less a book about two women than a woman trying to figure out why she’s not into a man (the lover appears in the last fourth of the book).

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really lovely little book. The lesbian romance aspect doesn’t begin until over halfway through the book, but it’s so sweet and tender that it’s worth the wait.

[Colleen Heaney-Mead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel, originally published in 1938, is a breath of fresh air from a period of tragic lesbian pulps in which lesbian characters always end up dead, crazy, or both. The writing style leaves a lot to be desired. Written without quotation marks and with abrupt changes in scene without ever telling the reader where we are now, or with whom, this novel is not easy to stay focused on. Nevertheless, the story is so timeless and the characters so relatable that any woman can find herself in Morgen Teutenberg. Morgen is a young woman trying to take care of her ailing father while dealing with a particularly oblivious, unwanted suitor.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Morgen's unfulfilling relationship with Royal is so familiar to so many people who find themselves dating someone without really meaning to. Royal is determined and refuses to accept that Morgen simply does not have feelings for him. I love Wilhelm's treatment of Royal as someone who thinks himself entitled to Morgen simply by being interested. Instead of portraying Morgen as somehow peculiar or unwell for not reciprocating his feelings, Wilhelm leaves the reader wondering why anyone would!

In the last thirty pages of the book, we watch Morgen finally open up to another human being and it seems so much more natural than the forced relationship with Royal. This is an amazing portrayal of love between women for the time. There is no villain trying to keep them apart. There is no self-doubt. When Toni comes back into Morgen's life, the whole world seems to cheer them on. The flowers bloom. The sun shines. Their neighbor joins them in a drink. It is a fairy tale happy ending. When Royal returns and finally understands Morgen's reluctance to marry him, it seems that he simply bows his head and walks away. Though, Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt is often cited as the first lesbian pulp with a positive ending, Torchlight to Valhalla was published fourteen years earlier and treats this lesbian relationship much more favorably. It deserves to be remembered as a revolutionary novel!

[Jes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wilhelm has such an odd and interesting style. Reminds me a little of HD's prose, but not as opaque. I looooved "We Too Are Drifting" but this one was a little slow. Here is a summary of the plot: girl friendzones a dude because she's gay. The guy does not get it for a really long time. Finally he gets it when she takes him aside and says kindly, "hey, I'm gay, and this is my lover." That's it, that's the whole book.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some readers have complained about the way the book was written (no quotation marks, scene transitions are non-existent), but I didn't mind. I found it a delightful read. I was surprised at how long it took to introduce the character of Toni. I wasn't sure how that would play out, but it worked.

[Juniperus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn’t a romance book at all! Nor is it very salacious. It’s not the pulpy lesbian romance I expected, I honestly just think it’s old and too modernist for me. Still, I am amazed that this was published in 1938!

Torchlight to Valhalla was very difficult for me to read for two reasons. Firstly, Wilhelm doesn’t use quotation marks for any of her dialogue, just like in We Too Are Drifting, which is one of my biggest pet peeves. Secondly, the subject matter was intensely relatable and tackled so well that it honestly brought up a bunch of really bad emotions. The story is about a lesbian and a man named Royal who is in love with her… having been in Morgen’s situation I did not enjoy reliving that. I respect Wilhelm for being able to capture such a specific, claustrophobic, uncomfortable situation so aptly though.

Toni, Morgen’s female love interest, only comes in in the last 30 pages, and I wasn’t really sure who she was or where she came from. The book kind of jumps abruptly to those two already having an established relationship, and there’s no build up, which is why I say it’s not an effective romance novel (perhaps it predicted the Uhaul Lesbian stereotype?). The scenes with Toni were certainly very romantic, with beautiful prose, but I wish she had been introduced at the start as a sort of foil to Royal.

This is a weird case where the characters are pretty well developed, but also don’t do much. Morgen is especially passive— she has next to no agency in the story as things just keep happening to her. More than anything, this was Royal’s story, and I honestly wasn’t terribly interested in his side of the tale. It’s also one of those books where everyone is an artist who doesn’t do much but lounge about and moan about their problems: Morgen’s a novelist, her father a painter, and Royal is a pianist. It can be fun and kind of voyeuristic to read about the lives of rich folks, but also kind of exhausting. As with the last Gale Wilhelm book, I learned a lot of new, glamorous words:

calyxes
wanderjahr
chablis
campanile
Karakul

[Briar Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Torchlight to Valhalla is notable for being one of the first lesbian pulp novels, and possibly the first ever with a happy ending. But it's a strange little book. It's written in a Hemingway-esque style, with florid descriptions of scenery and very little in the way of plot. It's not a love story. Most of it is about Morgen's grief after the death of her father, and her uncomfortable relationship with a man she doesn't love. There are no other female characters in the first two thirds of the book; she doesn't meet her love interest Toni until the last thirty pages or so, and the love interest is a barely sketched-in character.

The book is really more about the main character finding herself and figuring out what she wants out of life - more bildungsroman than pulp. Books that treated the interior life of women with the same importance as the interior life of men were pretty thin on the ground in the 30s (Torchlight was published in 1938), so I have to give it props for that.

Surprisingly, everyone in the book responds pretty positively to the revelation that Morgen has fallen in love with a woman - even the jilted guy is nice about it. There's no ostracism or prejudice (although considering she U-hauls with her true love within the first week of knowing her, maybe there just wasn't time?) I admire Wilhelm for creating a book about a subject so ignored at the time, and daring to give it a happy ending and not making her character angst about being a lesbian. Considering her only guide at the time was probably Radclyffe Hall's Well of Loneliness, that's quite the achievement.

There are no dialogue markers in this book, and it tends to jump from scene to scene with little explanation. The purple prose makes it heavy going at times, but it's only 105 pages so it's a quick read. Overall, more a historical curio than a novel you'd pick up for its own sake.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lesbian novel written in 1938? That ends happily for the lesbians??? I can't believe I didn't know this existed. Now I can't even remember how I finally came across it the other week.

This book was short, and I would've liked it to be longer. Firstly, because I enjoyed Gale Wilhelm's writing. Something about it drew me in instantly. Though vague on some details (such as when the scene had changed) it was evocative of... I don't even know. But it made me feel sort of dreamy and nostalgic.

Secondly, I would've preferred if more of the story had been about, well, Morgen and her lady love. Instead it was mostly about the relationship of Morgen and Royal, a fellow I found to be quite annoying. Most of the story was him being convinced that eventually she would stop being emotionally distant and learn to love him. To quote the iconic Leslie Jones tweet: "she gay dude stop it lol".

But while I found Royal to be tiring, I appreciated Morgen and her inner life. She had no words or context to give to her reluctance to be with Royal, which was relatable to me. Getting to see her [re]meet Toni and suddenly blossom into open happiness and love was beautiful. (If only it had been more in-depth. Ah well.)

Also beautiful was the moment when Royal realized she really could never love him back. Hehehehe.

3.5 stars, but rounding up for the writing and the vintage gay happiness.

[Winnipeg Mosquito · Rating 5 out of 5]

So beautiful. Dated in parts, but shows the causal sexism and dismissal of women so well. I only wish the part with Toni had been longer. To have a story from 1938 end with hope for a lesbian couple is impressive. I recommend this one highly!

[Tiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early 20th century (1938) lesbian literature. This was a painfully beautiful novella revolving around a young woman named Morgen Tuetenberg. In the beginning of the story, Morgen is caring for her sick father, the renowned painter, Fritz Tuetenberg. During a walk, she meets a pianist named, Royal St. Gabriel, who falls for her at first sight. The death of Morgen's father leaves her empty, and Royal wishes to fill this emptiness, but Morgen doesn't feel truly complete until Toni enters her life.

This story dragged a little in the beginning, but not for long. This story runs a gauntlet of emotions from love to grief to indifference. With this being so short, you seem to be watching strangers. You don't have much of a chance to get too intimate for the characters. You care for them, but only in that detached way.

I think the strong point in this story was the theme of human emotion and love. I was rooting for Royal. I really liked the guy, but love is capricious and Morgen had to do what made her happy. I think she did start to love Royal, but he still wasn't what she needed to fill that void.

There really isn't too much more that could be said about this book without giving it away, so I'll just stop trying to find the right words to describe it. If you ever get hands on a copy, definitely read it. It's a touching story.