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Despised and Rejected
Despised and Rejected by Rose Allatini (1890–1980) is everything we would like a Persephone book to be: by a forgotten writer who deserves to be revived and with strong themes: opposition to war, acceptance of homosexuality, tolerance of others, awareness that ‘it is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple, one must be woman-manly or man- womanly’ (A Room of One’s Own). And it is a very well written novel, and a page-turner.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1918
22 people are currently reading
2568 people want to read
About the author
Rose Allatini
4 books6 followersRose Allatini (1890-1980) was born in Vienna to an Italian-Jewish businessman/diplomat and an Austro-Polish mother. Brought up in London, she studied music and wrote three well-received romantic novels before her best-known work, Despised and Rejected, was published in May 1918 under the pseudonym A.T. Fitzroy. 800 copies were sold before the book was deemed 'morally unhealthy and most pernicious' and the publisher CW Daniel, a pacifist and Tolstoyan, was put on trial, fined and ordered to surrender the remaining 200.
In 1921 Rose Allatini married the composer Cyril Scott, a fellow Occultist, and for the next few years worked closely with him and had two children in 1923 and 1926. In the 1930s she published short stoires as Mrs Cyril Scott and three novels as Lucian Wainwright.
During World War II she lived with the theosophist and novelist Melanie Mills ('H.K. Challoner') at Beckley near Rye, later moving back to London. She wrote nearly thirty more novels under the name Eunice Buckley.
In 1921 Rose Allatini married the composer Cyril Scott, a fellow Occultist, and for the next few years worked closely with him and had two children in 1923 and 1926. In the 1930s she published short stoires as Mrs Cyril Scott and three novels as Lucian Wainwright.
During World War II she lived with the theosophist and novelist Melanie Mills ('H.K. Challoner') at Beckley near Rye, later moving back to London. She wrote nearly thirty more novels under the name Eunice Buckley.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 89 reviews
May 30, 2025
Shameful-- strange that such a word might ever be applied to love such as his for Alan; love that had grown up in one night of happiness, and that every instinct bade him welcome with glad lips and eyes and heart... love that was so strong that it would not die even under the torture that was in store.
Published in 1918, this is the earliest book I’ve read that portrays gay love with such sympathy and nuance-- except perhaps Maurice, though that wasn’t published until 1971.
It’s no surprise the book was banned; it was astonishingly progressive for so early in the 20th century. In fact, I’m impressed it was published at all. Allatini depicts characters who are not only obviously gay (I read they were "coded" but I disagree; there's nothing coy here), but who are also unapologetic about it-- all whilst being fiercely anti-war and sympathetic to conscientious objectors. In 1918!
The story primarily follows two characters: Dennis, who has long struggled with the knowledge that he is attracted to men, and Antoinette, who is just beginning to understand that her infatuations with women are not considered socially acceptable. These two outsiders form a connection through their shared (and, in their social circle, rare) ability to understand one another.
[he was] tired of having to suppress and thwart desires that were natural to him, but would be classified as vicious and perverted by the world of ordinary people, lacking understanding of his peculiar temperament.
It's a more psychological than plot-driven novel, focused on the internal struggles of its protagonists. Dennis has always been a disappointment to his father, who wanted a stereotypically masculine son. His refusal to be conscripted, and his rejection of the war altogether, puts him in direct opposition to Mr. Blackwood’s values.
Dennis appeals the draft, citing conflicting moral beliefs, and makes an impassioned plea for the futility of war-- predicting, correctly, that it would only lead to future conflicts.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the novel is its depiction of how conscientious objectors were treated: first shunned by family and society, and worse still, subjected to torture in prison-- left in solitary confinement for weeks or strapped into straitjackets for days, struggling to breathe. All of this simply for believing that one should not be forced to kill another human being.
Though primarily introspective, I never found the novel slow.
May 15, 2021
A truly wonderful novel – fascinating, compelling, with richly developed characters and a deep exploration of what it means to feel like an outsider from your society. Just one of the most interesting books I've ever read.
July 9, 2025
Rose Allatini’s stirring exploration of pacifism and queer identity in wartime England first appeared in 1918. But disappeared from circulation soon after. Existing copies were seized, Allatini’s publisher was prosecuted and the novel ultimately banned as seditious: on the grounds it might impede the armed forces’ recruitment, training and discipline of men – even though there was very little in the way of active recruitment at the time. It was also harshly criticised for the sympathetic portrayal of so-called ‘abnormal affections.’ It didn’t resurface until 1988, reissued by the groundbreaking, indie publisher Gay Men’s Press under Allatini’s original pseudonym A. T. Fitzroy. Allatini was a prolific author, sufficiently well-known to warrant a dismissive mention in Virginia Woolf’s diaries. Frequently pigeonholed as a romance writer, socialist Allatini’s actual output ranged from considerations of ‘assisted dying’ to anti-racism to sagas about bourgeois Jewish families – partly drawing on her own background. Similarly, the central relationship in this novel between affluent but suffocated Antoinette de Courcy and budding composer Dennis Blackwood is reputedly inspired by Allatini’s close friendship with actor George Owens.
Antoinette and Dennis are brought together by chance at a hotel, on the eve of WW1. They stay in touch even though Dennis is battling an attraction to Alan, someone he met on a walking tour; and Antoinette’s obsessing over Hester another of the hotel’s guests. As time passes, Dennis and Antoinette realise just how much they have in common from challenging family situations to forbidden desires. However, while Alan is tormented by his love for men, Antoinette has never questioned her feelings about women: perhaps, Allatini suggests, because Alan’s sexuality is officially a crime and openly vilified whereas lesbianism is overlooked to the point of invisibility.
Alan’s subsequent entanglement with Antoinette is represented as his desperate attempt to become ‘suitably’ masculine. But Antoinette’s growing love for Alan is harder to fathom. One possible explanation is that Antoinette’s character reflects Allatini’s interest in the ideas of queer, socialist theorist Edward Carpenter. For Antoinette gender seems not fixed but fluid; she detects a fluidity in Alan that appears to match her own. But I was never entirely convinced by their abortive love affair. Character seemed less important in Allatini’s issue-based narrative than the arguments she’s striving to communicate. Antoinette reads like a proxy for Allatini – her internal conflicts, her political awakening. Dennis’s experiences highlight the plight of British conscientious objectors, their anti-war, anti-imperialist sentiments, the hostility they faced from the public and government authorities. Their refusal to conform sometimes resulting in brutal punishments. Resisting an intense pressure to conform is a key theme here, used to forge a connection between political critiques of capitalism, the machinery of war, and queer sensibilities. Dennis’s involvement with Alan, his own determination to live in accordance with his pacifist beliefs, to go against the grain, enables him to contemplate embracing the other parts of himself that don’t fit his society’s script – for Dennis it’s partly loving men that makes it impossible to imagine slaughtering them on the battlefield.
But Allatini’s focus on political and ethical considerations doesn’t always make for balanced storytelling, and there’s a sense she found it difficult to distance herself from her material. There are numerous awkward shifts between disciplined discussions outlining pacifist outlooks on war clearly designed to appeal to readers’ intellects; and overwrought emotional scenes presumably meant to rouse sympathy for her queer protagonists. But, despite flaws, Allatini manages to construct a vivid portrait of relatively-neglected aspects of wartime England that I found fascinating and illuminating. She’s particularly adept at demonstrating how quickly and how radically a society can change - from a world of genteel parties and nursery teas to one riddled with bloodlust and xenophobia so fervent that even listening to Bach or owning a German piano could be considered highly suspect.
Antoinette and Dennis are brought together by chance at a hotel, on the eve of WW1. They stay in touch even though Dennis is battling an attraction to Alan, someone he met on a walking tour; and Antoinette’s obsessing over Hester another of the hotel’s guests. As time passes, Dennis and Antoinette realise just how much they have in common from challenging family situations to forbidden desires. However, while Alan is tormented by his love for men, Antoinette has never questioned her feelings about women: perhaps, Allatini suggests, because Alan’s sexuality is officially a crime and openly vilified whereas lesbianism is overlooked to the point of invisibility.
Alan’s subsequent entanglement with Antoinette is represented as his desperate attempt to become ‘suitably’ masculine. But Antoinette’s growing love for Alan is harder to fathom. One possible explanation is that Antoinette’s character reflects Allatini’s interest in the ideas of queer, socialist theorist Edward Carpenter. For Antoinette gender seems not fixed but fluid; she detects a fluidity in Alan that appears to match her own. But I was never entirely convinced by their abortive love affair. Character seemed less important in Allatini’s issue-based narrative than the arguments she’s striving to communicate. Antoinette reads like a proxy for Allatini – her internal conflicts, her political awakening. Dennis’s experiences highlight the plight of British conscientious objectors, their anti-war, anti-imperialist sentiments, the hostility they faced from the public and government authorities. Their refusal to conform sometimes resulting in brutal punishments. Resisting an intense pressure to conform is a key theme here, used to forge a connection between political critiques of capitalism, the machinery of war, and queer sensibilities. Dennis’s involvement with Alan, his own determination to live in accordance with his pacifist beliefs, to go against the grain, enables him to contemplate embracing the other parts of himself that don’t fit his society’s script – for Dennis it’s partly loving men that makes it impossible to imagine slaughtering them on the battlefield.
But Allatini’s focus on political and ethical considerations doesn’t always make for balanced storytelling, and there’s a sense she found it difficult to distance herself from her material. There are numerous awkward shifts between disciplined discussions outlining pacifist outlooks on war clearly designed to appeal to readers’ intellects; and overwrought emotional scenes presumably meant to rouse sympathy for her queer protagonists. But, despite flaws, Allatini manages to construct a vivid portrait of relatively-neglected aspects of wartime England that I found fascinating and illuminating. She’s particularly adept at demonstrating how quickly and how radically a society can change - from a world of genteel parties and nursery teas to one riddled with bloodlust and xenophobia so fervent that even listening to Bach or owning a German piano could be considered highly suspect.
July 6, 2025
Originally published in early 1918, Despised and Rejected is staunchly pacifist and very queer. Given the time of its release, it's little wonder the book was banned and heavily fined a few months after publication. Not for being queer though, but instead for endangering recruiting efforts for the war.
I don't think I'll ever get over reading queer books from over 100 years ago. There's something about not just knowing queer people have always existed, but seeing writers defy the law of the time in order to write books with queer themes that feels so powerful, inspiring, and heart-achingly fierce.
Despised and Rejected argues that being queer is inherent, natural, and beautiful, and that being different doesn't have to be something bad. It seems even reviewers at the time were taken aback by the "bold" claim of homosexuality as natural and not a choice, and it's definitely not something I've seen so explicitly stated in the other queer books I've read from the time.
Both Dennis and Antoinette, the MCs of the book, are queer, and while society is pushing them to marry, they instead become friends. It's a complicated friendship though, especially for Antoinette who, while lesbian, has found she's developed feelings for a man for the first time when she falls in love with Dennis. Dennis can't and doesn't reciprocate her feelings, and he's instead fallen in love with a man who's among the circle of pacifists him and Antoinette meet up with once the war's broken out to discuss anti-war sentiments, ethics, and how to avoid being called up to serve when conscription is imposed.
The tone of the book goes from a happy vacation tale in summer 1914, to much deeper and sadder themes once the war starts. It's not a happy book but it is an incredibly powerful and impactful one that gives us a unique insight into queer life in 1914-1915 England, as well as an overly patriotic and war-hungry British society. It's a time where being a pacifist was not looked kindly upon, and the punishment for conscientious objectors was harsh both in terms of prison and a stripping of rights, as well as from the pacifist's fellow citizens.
Being a hardcore pacifist AND gay? Almost untenable in terms of living a decent life during this time. The fact that Rose Allatini wrote this book at the time she did is incredible, and I'm very glad to have read it.
I don't think I'll ever get over reading queer books from over 100 years ago. There's something about not just knowing queer people have always existed, but seeing writers defy the law of the time in order to write books with queer themes that feels so powerful, inspiring, and heart-achingly fierce.
Despised and Rejected argues that being queer is inherent, natural, and beautiful, and that being different doesn't have to be something bad. It seems even reviewers at the time were taken aback by the "bold" claim of homosexuality as natural and not a choice, and it's definitely not something I've seen so explicitly stated in the other queer books I've read from the time.
"We want more light, more breathing-space, more tolerance and understanding: not this narrow-minded wholesale condemnation and covering-up; this instinctive shuddering and turning away from a side of nature that, like every other side, has its right to a hearing, its right to open discussion."
Both Dennis and Antoinette, the MCs of the book, are queer, and while society is pushing them to marry, they instead become friends. It's a complicated friendship though, especially for Antoinette who, while lesbian, has found she's developed feelings for a man for the first time when she falls in love with Dennis. Dennis can't and doesn't reciprocate her feelings, and he's instead fallen in love with a man who's among the circle of pacifists him and Antoinette meet up with once the war's broken out to discuss anti-war sentiments, ethics, and how to avoid being called up to serve when conscription is imposed.
The tone of the book goes from a happy vacation tale in summer 1914, to much deeper and sadder themes once the war starts. It's not a happy book but it is an incredibly powerful and impactful one that gives us a unique insight into queer life in 1914-1915 England, as well as an overly patriotic and war-hungry British society. It's a time where being a pacifist was not looked kindly upon, and the punishment for conscientious objectors was harsh both in terms of prison and a stripping of rights, as well as from the pacifist's fellow citizens.
Being a hardcore pacifist AND gay? Almost untenable in terms of living a decent life during this time. The fact that Rose Allatini wrote this book at the time she did is incredible, and I'm very glad to have read it.
"The senselessness of all his repression and self-denial stood revealed to him. Seeing at last with Alan's eyes, and in the light of his own experience, he recognised that herein had lain the real perversion: in the continuous struggle between brain and body, the continuous struggle to suppress his instincts and force them into ways not natural to them. It had not lain in his passion for Alan. That, and that alone, given the peculiarities of his nature, had been right, had been beautiful, because it was truthful."
April 24, 2022
"Why do you persist in regarding it as something vicious and degenerate? For people made as we are it’s natural and beautiful to love as we love, and it’s perversion in the true sense to try and force ourselves to love differently.”
April 8, 2018
I just finished this very moving story. My complete review is on my blog: https://quirkyreader.livejournal.com/...
Make sure you have plenty of tissues on hand and someone to hug after you finish it.
Make sure you have plenty of tissues on hand and someone to hug after you finish it.
January 13, 2022
A solid 4.5 star read. It is no wonder this book was banned and the unsold copies confiscated and destroyed during 1918. It is a virulent manifesto against the war Britain was in the thick of fighting. I have always harbored pacifist sentiments so the arguments against war made me silently cheer.
Dennis is particularly an outcast in the story although almost no one understands the full extent of his true character. He is a gay man in a time that it was illegal so he couldn't let his family or friends know. Then when he decided to resist joining the war as a soldier or even as a non-combatant, he is alienated from many who were close to him. He has one friend he opened up to about his romantic feelings because he saw that she is "abnormal" just as he is. Antoinette is attracted to women as Dennis suspected only it never occurred to her that it is abnormal. And unfortunately, she is also attracted to Dennis. The elements of homosexuality were flagrant enough for 1918 that the reading public would have been scandalized if they hadn't been so focused on the anti-war message. For the modern reader, it is extremely tame but also refreshing that it was published during a time that pretended anything other than heterosexuality didn't exist.
This was worth reading for the well drawn characters and the story that was all too plausible, but I appreciate it most for the strong pacifist message. Until the latter quarter of the 20th century, protesting war was not only unpopular but also criminal. It has always taken a brave man to refuse to fight when all around him everyone claims it is his patriotic duty. And he would be branded a coward or a foreign sympathizer when his true concern is the sanctity of life and the stupidity of war. Maybe England and other western nations will have more compassion the next time we have a war that involves conscription, and we won't criminalize a person who believes war is a moral wrong.
Dennis at all events would not give himself up to become part of the machinery of nations trying to prove which could stand the most blood-letting; machinery that organized the most murder of individuals by individuals who had no personal quarrel with each other.
Dennis is particularly an outcast in the story although almost no one understands the full extent of his true character. He is a gay man in a time that it was illegal so he couldn't let his family or friends know. Then when he decided to resist joining the war as a soldier or even as a non-combatant, he is alienated from many who were close to him. He has one friend he opened up to about his romantic feelings because he saw that she is "abnormal" just as he is. Antoinette is attracted to women as Dennis suspected only it never occurred to her that it is abnormal. And unfortunately, she is also attracted to Dennis. The elements of homosexuality were flagrant enough for 1918 that the reading public would have been scandalized if they hadn't been so focused on the anti-war message. For the modern reader, it is extremely tame but also refreshing that it was published during a time that pretended anything other than heterosexuality didn't exist.
This was worth reading for the well drawn characters and the story that was all too plausible, but I appreciate it most for the strong pacifist message. Until the latter quarter of the 20th century, protesting war was not only unpopular but also criminal. It has always taken a brave man to refuse to fight when all around him everyone claims it is his patriotic duty. And he would be branded a coward or a foreign sympathizer when his true concern is the sanctity of life and the stupidity of war. Maybe England and other western nations will have more compassion the next time we have a war that involves conscription, and we won't criminalize a person who believes war is a moral wrong.
Mr. Blackwood turned purple. "Your views are disgraceful, sir. Why, to hear you, anyone would think you were pro-Hun."
"I'm not pro-Hun any more than I'm pro-British. I'm not pro-anything that's driving millions of innocent people to slaughter and be slaughtered by each other. I'm for the first people who've got the courage to put down their arms and end the whole thing."
June 4, 2023
5 stars for the sheer bravery of it!
Written by Rose Laure Allatini and published under the pseudonym A.T. Fitzroy in 1918 at the height of WW1, this must have caused quite the stir when it was first released.
Well, in fact it did. It was almost immediately banned, and not reprinted again until 1988.
In a nutshell, it is about the persecution of conscientious objectors during WWI, and the two main characters also just happen to be gay. A lesbian and a gay man. (Sort of. Or rather, probably just about as gay as they could be in 1918!)
It must be said, it isn’t necessarily the greatest literary achievement in terms of its prose. (That might be a bit harsh. It certainly isn’t trash.) However, I think the subject matter deserves that readers look past that, as it is a fascinating and complicated novel, particularly when judged from our modern perspective.
It must have been deeply shocking for ‘middle England’ in 1918 (pearl clutching a’plenty I’m sure). However from our modern point of view, really the most shocking thing is what isn’t in it. The most physical contact two gay male characters ever have is a tight (passionate I’m sure) squeeze on the arm! And the central lesbian and gay male character find themselves in a very heteronormative situation.
But I think this is just about as gay as it could’ve been to even be considered for publishing back in 1918. (Remember, although written somewhere around 1913/14, ‘Maurice’ wasn’t actually published until 1971.)
And as for the Conscientious Objectors, well bloody bravo Rose! That must’ve taken some balls to write all this at the height of WW1!
The hypocrisy of society towards the C.O.s (as they are referred to in the book), is nothing new by our modern standards sadly, but in 1918 you can imagine it was extremely controversial to call out views like this!
And this was also a time when xenophobia was at its wartime high in the UK, and Rose writes about relations between English/German, English/French, English/Irish.
I certainly think this book, and Rose Allatini, deserve far more recognition than they have so far received.
Written by Rose Laure Allatini and published under the pseudonym A.T. Fitzroy in 1918 at the height of WW1, this must have caused quite the stir when it was first released.
Well, in fact it did. It was almost immediately banned, and not reprinted again until 1988.
In a nutshell, it is about the persecution of conscientious objectors during WWI, and the two main characters also just happen to be gay. A lesbian and a gay man. (Sort of. Or rather, probably just about as gay as they could be in 1918!)
It must be said, it isn’t necessarily the greatest literary achievement in terms of its prose. (That might be a bit harsh. It certainly isn’t trash.) However, I think the subject matter deserves that readers look past that, as it is a fascinating and complicated novel, particularly when judged from our modern perspective.
It must have been deeply shocking for ‘middle England’ in 1918 (pearl clutching a’plenty I’m sure). However from our modern point of view, really the most shocking thing is what isn’t in it. The most physical contact two gay male characters ever have is a tight (passionate I’m sure) squeeze on the arm! And the central lesbian and gay male character find themselves in a very heteronormative situation.
But I think this is just about as gay as it could’ve been to even be considered for publishing back in 1918. (Remember, although written somewhere around 1913/14, ‘Maurice’ wasn’t actually published until 1971.)
And as for the Conscientious Objectors, well bloody bravo Rose! That must’ve taken some balls to write all this at the height of WW1!
The hypocrisy of society towards the C.O.s (as they are referred to in the book), is nothing new by our modern standards sadly, but in 1918 you can imagine it was extremely controversial to call out views like this!
And this was also a time when xenophobia was at its wartime high in the UK, and Rose writes about relations between English/German, English/French, English/Irish.
I certainly think this book, and Rose Allatini, deserve far more recognition than they have so far received.
Want to read
October 13, 2024yes i do in fact want lesbian and gay solidarity alongside the WWI passifist movement thank you
November 7, 2022
"Isn't this worth fighting for?"
Dennis smiled as he answered the question: "It's worth more than that; it's worth—not fighting for!"
This book was (and in many ways still is, sadly) a priceless message/manifesto.
We want more light, more breathing-space, more tolerance and understanding: not this narrow-minded wholesale condemnation and covering-up; this instinctive shuddering and turning away from a side of nature that, like every other side, has its right to a hearing, its right to open discussion."
Reading today, in XXI century it was poignant and eye-opening because I didn't know the history of the pacifism in the times of IWW at all. And what I know now... No wonder that (in May 1918) the book was banned, officially, because of the pacifism.
However magnificently England may think to figure in the world's history after the war, the gross stupidity and cruelty of the way she has treated the genuine pacifists should stand as an eternal blot upon her honour."
Reading it when it was first published had to be mind-blowing.
They don't know the ghastliness of having to pretend to be as normal as they, and all the while to be stifling and suppressing the most vital side of yourself - the love-side.
It is a gem. Must-read (not only) for every fighter of human rights. It was about respect for otherness (homosexual and other levels of Kinsey scale, Jews, working class, Irish, women, nations other than your own) and about pacifism.
Being in the minority doesn't imply being in the wrong.
I could quote many fragments. The novel was full of great, wise and moving speeches. But don't think they made the book boring - no way. I admit I had a little trouble at the beginning. It didn't grip me from the first site, but after the first scenes, I was a slave of the book.
There's such a lot to be done 'some day', isn't there?
If I didn't convince you to read it that means I wrote my review badly. Forgive me and despite it, read the book.
"but I maintain that anything that puts itself outside the general rule and diverges too widely from the ordinary type, is an undesirable element, and should be barred out."
"That means that you'd bar out genius too, and lots of other fine qualities that only exist in the brains of people who are exceptions to the rule"
June 1, 2025
When Despised and Rejected was published in 1918 during WWI, it was very quickly banned. The publisher was put on trial and fined, and the unsold copies were destroyed. It was a pacifist, queer novel, and authorities were worried that it would discourage civilians from enlisting. It remained out of print for the longest time until Gay Men's Press reprinted it in the 1980s, but eventually they closed down. Thankfully, now in the 21st century, you can get a copy from Persephone Books.
Despised and Rejected starts out as your average novel of manners. Our heroine Antoinette is a young, strong-willed, unmarried woman (to her family's disappointment) with a giant crush on an older woman she meets at a hotel. At the same party, she meets and befriends Dennis Blackwood, the black sheep among his brothers, as he's a sensitive, unathletic musician. They get along really well and begin a love affair -- with everyone believing that they will eventually become engaged -- but it fizzles out. Antoinette isn't attracted to him, as she's still obsessed with her older woman. However, when she learns that the older woman is having an affair with a married man, she loses all interest and falls for Dennis instead... only for him to suddenly reject her. Dennis confesses that he is gay and he was drawn to Antoinette because he knew they were similar (her crush on the other woman was Not Subtle). There is this awkward push and pull between them; Antoinette is still madly in love with him, but now he's extra unattainable as he's fallen for a younger man. Everyone else thinks their courtship is ongoing successfully. And then WWI hits, and all the men enlist except for Dennis. He's a strong pacifist who joins the pacifist movement despite the social rejection, despite his family's disappointment, and despite the danger of being imprisoned. Antoinette is drawn into the same social circle and learns about the movement as well.
Despite being published over 100 years ago, it's tragic how relevant the novel remains. Its anti-war and queer liberation messages still feel fresh in 2025. The war machine of 1918 is still here in 2025... In Palestine, Ukraine, Pakistan, Afghanistan... Dennis compares the injustice of war to colonialism, to antisemitism, to homophobia and misogyny. I know a lot of people criticize the novel for sounding like a pamphlet at times... and that is true... but I think it's an important read when you consider the historical context. I also really enjoyed the characters. Antoinette and Dennis are very loveable. Their friendship is peak MLM and WLW solidarity.
Most people would probably be drawn to Dennis and his gay lover Alan, but personally Antoinette was the one I was most invested in. I think it's because I felt so bad for her -- and I genuinely wished she had more closure by the end. Most call her a lesbian but I'd rather call her a sapphic woman -- perhaps a bisexual with an extreme preference for women. Regardless, at the end of the book, Dennis could love Alan, and he could freely fight for his pacifist ideology even if it meant going to jail. Meanwhile, Antoinette remains stagnant; the only thing that's changed is that she is aware of her own queerness. Her only victory is that she can remain a single, unmarried woman, despite all her family's criticisms that she is getting older. But I genuinely wished that she could find happiness and end up with someone, whether that's with another woman or a man! I also wished that she at least had some greater goal or drive. Even though she accepts the pacifist ideology, it isn't exactly hers; it's not something she would advocate for. So that's what bothered me by the end--her lack of closure. It doesn't help that the novel was published before WWI was over, so even the characters don't know when the war will end.
The author Rose Allatini had published other romantic novels before this, but Despised and Rejected was initially released under a male pseudonym and under a different publisher, one that specifically advocated for pacifist works. She married a man and had two children, but they separated during WWII. Allatini then spent the rest of her life with a female partner. It is difficult not to read Antoinette's situation as similar to Allatini's. I tend to read into the authors' biographies when reading early queer classics. Perhaps when Despised and Rejected was written, Allatini hadn't fully come to terms with her own sexuality yet. Or perhaps she could only give Dennis his happiness in love as a form of fantasy, because she couldn't imagine a world where gay couples could live openly, freely, without suffering. Regardless, it is a fascinating time capsule, and highly recommended if you are interested in queer classic literature.
Despised and Rejected starts out as your average novel of manners. Our heroine Antoinette is a young, strong-willed, unmarried woman (to her family's disappointment) with a giant crush on an older woman she meets at a hotel. At the same party, she meets and befriends Dennis Blackwood, the black sheep among his brothers, as he's a sensitive, unathletic musician. They get along really well and begin a love affair -- with everyone believing that they will eventually become engaged -- but it fizzles out. Antoinette isn't attracted to him, as she's still obsessed with her older woman. However, when she learns that the older woman is having an affair with a married man, she loses all interest and falls for Dennis instead... only for him to suddenly reject her. Dennis confesses that he is gay and he was drawn to Antoinette because he knew they were similar (her crush on the other woman was Not Subtle). There is this awkward push and pull between them; Antoinette is still madly in love with him, but now he's extra unattainable as he's fallen for a younger man. Everyone else thinks their courtship is ongoing successfully. And then WWI hits, and all the men enlist except for Dennis. He's a strong pacifist who joins the pacifist movement despite the social rejection, despite his family's disappointment, and despite the danger of being imprisoned. Antoinette is drawn into the same social circle and learns about the movement as well.
Despite being published over 100 years ago, it's tragic how relevant the novel remains. Its anti-war and queer liberation messages still feel fresh in 2025. The war machine of 1918 is still here in 2025... In Palestine, Ukraine, Pakistan, Afghanistan... Dennis compares the injustice of war to colonialism, to antisemitism, to homophobia and misogyny. I know a lot of people criticize the novel for sounding like a pamphlet at times... and that is true... but I think it's an important read when you consider the historical context. I also really enjoyed the characters. Antoinette and Dennis are very loveable. Their friendship is peak MLM and WLW solidarity.
Most people would probably be drawn to Dennis and his gay lover Alan, but personally Antoinette was the one I was most invested in. I think it's because I felt so bad for her -- and I genuinely wished she had more closure by the end. Most call her a lesbian but I'd rather call her a sapphic woman -- perhaps a bisexual with an extreme preference for women. Regardless, at the end of the book, Dennis could love Alan, and he could freely fight for his pacifist ideology even if it meant going to jail. Meanwhile, Antoinette remains stagnant; the only thing that's changed is that she is aware of her own queerness. Her only victory is that she can remain a single, unmarried woman, despite all her family's criticisms that she is getting older. But I genuinely wished that she could find happiness and end up with someone, whether that's with another woman or a man! I also wished that she at least had some greater goal or drive. Even though she accepts the pacifist ideology, it isn't exactly hers; it's not something she would advocate for. So that's what bothered me by the end--her lack of closure. It doesn't help that the novel was published before WWI was over, so even the characters don't know when the war will end.
The author Rose Allatini had published other romantic novels before this, but Despised and Rejected was initially released under a male pseudonym and under a different publisher, one that specifically advocated for pacifist works. She married a man and had two children, but they separated during WWII. Allatini then spent the rest of her life with a female partner. It is difficult not to read Antoinette's situation as similar to Allatini's. I tend to read into the authors' biographies when reading early queer classics. Perhaps when Despised and Rejected was written, Allatini hadn't fully come to terms with her own sexuality yet. Or perhaps she could only give Dennis his happiness in love as a form of fantasy, because she couldn't imagine a world where gay couples could live openly, freely, without suffering. Regardless, it is a fascinating time capsule, and highly recommended if you are interested in queer classic literature.
May 11, 2018
Rose Allatini's 1918 novel, Despised and Rejected, is one of Persephone's new titles for Spring 2018. Allatini was an highly prolific author, publishing books under several pseudonyms; Despised and Rejected was first released under the name of A.T. Fitzroy. Rereleased in Persephone's distinctive dove grey covers a century after its original publication, Despised and Rejected is set during the First World War, and is described as a 'gay pacifist novel'. Persephone have highlighted its importance, calling it 'one of the pioneering gay novels of the twentieth century.'
Despised and Rejected takes two characters as its focus: 'a gay conscientious objector and his relationship with a young woman who (as he realises but she does not) is a lesbian.' Composer Dennis Blackwood is the former of these, and Antoinette de Courcy, a young woman of French descent, the latter.
Of course, to the queasy and old-fashioned men of yesteryear, Despised and Rejected was deemed scandalous, although for its anti-war stance rather than its depictions of homosexuality. Upon its publication, the novel sold eight hundred copies before it was deemed 'morally unhealthy and most pernicious'. The publisher, C.W. Daniel, was put on trial, fined, and ordered to surrender the remaining print run of two hundred copies.
The novel is constructed using a three-part structure; the first of these takes place just before the war, and the second and third during it. Despised and Rejected opens in the Amberhurst Private Hotel in an undisclosed location; here, the Blackwood family are holidaying, and their son Dennis meets Antoinette. The two are drawn together almost immediately, although Antoinette's focus is firmly placed upon a secretive woman also staying at the hotel named Hester. Like Dennis, Hester realises that Antoinette is sexually attracted to women, but Antoinette herself is naive in this respect. Antoinette is just twenty-one. As with Dennis, we are given hints and clues that she is attracted to her own sex, but she is unaware that there is a reason for her gravitation toward them, and the lack of feeling which kissing men inspires within her.
From the beginning, Allatini demonstrates that Dennis' relationship with his father is fractious: 'Dennis said nothing and set his lips tightly, as was his way when Mr Blackwood jarred upon his nerves more exquisitely than usual. He disliked his father, disliked the whole coarse overbearing masculinity of the man. There was between them an antagonism that was fundamental, and quite apart from the present source of grievance'. His mother sets out to protect him at all times, but their relationship too is, in ways, problematic. Dennis, she writes, 'was always on the defensive, even with his mother. Perhaps with his mother most of all, because he felt that she was most akin to him, and might at any moment come to touch the fringe of that secret world of his... a world that must remain secret even from the mother who loved him as perhaps no other woman on earth would ever love him.' This is the first hint given in the novel about Dennis' homosexuality, something which is continually aware of within himself, but which he has never articulated to anyone around him. Allatini shows that Mrs Blackwood realises there is something a little different about Dennis, but cannot quite connect the dots: 'Perhaps he had nothing to tell. Perhaps she only imagined that he wasn't happy. Artists were sometimes peculiar - she clutched at that - and her boy was an artist: perhaps that accounted for it. Her reason, working in a peculiarly narrow circle, round and round, round and round, accepted this as the solution, and was at peace. But her instinct, less narrow, more subtle, blindingly groping, refused to be thus pacified. There must be - something. But what? What...?'
Dennis is revealed in the fragments of letters which he writes to Antoinette; this use of his own voice adds more depth to the novel. He is frightfully ashamed of his own difference, and of his desires. Allatini writes, 'He must be for ever an outcast amongst men, shunned by them, despised and mocked by them. He was maddened by fear and horror and loathing of himself.' This element of the novel, which deals with Dennis' feelings, is achingly human, as are his convictions when it comes to refusing to fight in the First World War. With regard to this, 'The thought of war inspired in him none of those feelings with which convention decreed that ever true Briton should be inspired... The whole thing was damnable, and stupid, and cruel... pretended that it was a noble thing, a glorious game, a game which every Englishman should be proud to be playing.'
Allatini's descriptions are both vivid and charming. Of a small, unnamed village in which Dennis and his friend Crispin stay whilst travelling through Devonshire, she writes: '... it has an old-world triangular village green, planted with giant oak trees, and enclosed on two sides by dear little thatched cottages with trim little gardens; and it has an ivy-clad church and the usual combination of Post Office and all-sorts shop, in which you may revel in the complex odour of boots, cheese, liquorice, soap, sawdust, biscuits, Fry's chocolate and warm humanity.' In one of his letters, Dennis writes to Antoinette, 'We're zig-zagging about the country in the most amazing style. And I wish I could collected all the things I've loved most and bring them back to you.'
Despised and Rejected is a highly immersive novel, and an incredibly moving one at that. Allatini's writing is intelligent, stylish, and heartfelt. She writes with clarity and sensitivity, in a way which which feels marvellously balanced. She has such a deep understanding of her characters, and the problems which their true selves cause for them. Allatini presents an incredibly strong, measured, and rousing argument for pacifism, discussing the horrors and futility which war brings, and the way in which they often create more problems when they solve.
Despite being published a century ago, Despised and Rejected feels like a novel of our time; it, above all, demonstrates the need for equality and understanding, as well as peace, both within the world and individually. It is a book which we can learn an awful lot from.
Despised and Rejected takes two characters as its focus: 'a gay conscientious objector and his relationship with a young woman who (as he realises but she does not) is a lesbian.' Composer Dennis Blackwood is the former of these, and Antoinette de Courcy, a young woman of French descent, the latter.
Of course, to the queasy and old-fashioned men of yesteryear, Despised and Rejected was deemed scandalous, although for its anti-war stance rather than its depictions of homosexuality. Upon its publication, the novel sold eight hundred copies before it was deemed 'morally unhealthy and most pernicious'. The publisher, C.W. Daniel, was put on trial, fined, and ordered to surrender the remaining print run of two hundred copies.
The novel is constructed using a three-part structure; the first of these takes place just before the war, and the second and third during it. Despised and Rejected opens in the Amberhurst Private Hotel in an undisclosed location; here, the Blackwood family are holidaying, and their son Dennis meets Antoinette. The two are drawn together almost immediately, although Antoinette's focus is firmly placed upon a secretive woman also staying at the hotel named Hester. Like Dennis, Hester realises that Antoinette is sexually attracted to women, but Antoinette herself is naive in this respect. Antoinette is just twenty-one. As with Dennis, we are given hints and clues that she is attracted to her own sex, but she is unaware that there is a reason for her gravitation toward them, and the lack of feeling which kissing men inspires within her.
From the beginning, Allatini demonstrates that Dennis' relationship with his father is fractious: 'Dennis said nothing and set his lips tightly, as was his way when Mr Blackwood jarred upon his nerves more exquisitely than usual. He disliked his father, disliked the whole coarse overbearing masculinity of the man. There was between them an antagonism that was fundamental, and quite apart from the present source of grievance'. His mother sets out to protect him at all times, but their relationship too is, in ways, problematic. Dennis, she writes, 'was always on the defensive, even with his mother. Perhaps with his mother most of all, because he felt that she was most akin to him, and might at any moment come to touch the fringe of that secret world of his... a world that must remain secret even from the mother who loved him as perhaps no other woman on earth would ever love him.' This is the first hint given in the novel about Dennis' homosexuality, something which is continually aware of within himself, but which he has never articulated to anyone around him. Allatini shows that Mrs Blackwood realises there is something a little different about Dennis, but cannot quite connect the dots: 'Perhaps he had nothing to tell. Perhaps she only imagined that he wasn't happy. Artists were sometimes peculiar - she clutched at that - and her boy was an artist: perhaps that accounted for it. Her reason, working in a peculiarly narrow circle, round and round, round and round, accepted this as the solution, and was at peace. But her instinct, less narrow, more subtle, blindingly groping, refused to be thus pacified. There must be - something. But what? What...?'
Dennis is revealed in the fragments of letters which he writes to Antoinette; this use of his own voice adds more depth to the novel. He is frightfully ashamed of his own difference, and of his desires. Allatini writes, 'He must be for ever an outcast amongst men, shunned by them, despised and mocked by them. He was maddened by fear and horror and loathing of himself.' This element of the novel, which deals with Dennis' feelings, is achingly human, as are his convictions when it comes to refusing to fight in the First World War. With regard to this, 'The thought of war inspired in him none of those feelings with which convention decreed that ever true Briton should be inspired... The whole thing was damnable, and stupid, and cruel... pretended that it was a noble thing, a glorious game, a game which every Englishman should be proud to be playing.'
Allatini's descriptions are both vivid and charming. Of a small, unnamed village in which Dennis and his friend Crispin stay whilst travelling through Devonshire, she writes: '... it has an old-world triangular village green, planted with giant oak trees, and enclosed on two sides by dear little thatched cottages with trim little gardens; and it has an ivy-clad church and the usual combination of Post Office and all-sorts shop, in which you may revel in the complex odour of boots, cheese, liquorice, soap, sawdust, biscuits, Fry's chocolate and warm humanity.' In one of his letters, Dennis writes to Antoinette, 'We're zig-zagging about the country in the most amazing style. And I wish I could collected all the things I've loved most and bring them back to you.'
Despised and Rejected is a highly immersive novel, and an incredibly moving one at that. Allatini's writing is intelligent, stylish, and heartfelt. She writes with clarity and sensitivity, in a way which which feels marvellously balanced. She has such a deep understanding of her characters, and the problems which their true selves cause for them. Allatini presents an incredibly strong, measured, and rousing argument for pacifism, discussing the horrors and futility which war brings, and the way in which they often create more problems when they solve.
Despite being published a century ago, Despised and Rejected feels like a novel of our time; it, above all, demonstrates the need for equality and understanding, as well as peace, both within the world and individually. It is a book which we can learn an awful lot from.
August 28, 2025
Rose Allatini was very brave to write this when she did.
August 17, 2023
It was a shame that he should have to suffer so horribly from the consciousness of his abnormality while her own had never caused her the slightest uneasiness.
This is two books with two messages that were very much ahead of their time. Rose Allatini's book was pulled from the shelves and her publisher taken to court before it had even sold its first 800 copies. Despite being well received from a written point of view the characters within were way too much for the moral police of 1918 and the book was stricken from the shelves and its publisher fined.
So what got audiences back then so flustered?
Minor spoilers below. If you prefer to know nothing about the broad topics of the book (no details), skip the spoiler'd paragraph.
Both of these, especially for their time (1918! I still can't get over it), are pretty heavy topics. And yet the book is eminently readable. As with most books these days I went into this forgetting why I had bought it. It starts off as a very witty romance, much more dry and funny than Austen to draw the obvious parallel. But even in the first chapter there is an off-key little undertone and you know.. something is different here. I didn't dare hope how far the writer took these themes. There is so much to explore about the inner journey and how one treats those around one as they seek to cope.
My one big criticism is that of the two protagonists, one seems to just fizzle away - her journey uncertain. The afterword claims this is because the protagonist parallels the author and she had also not figured out her path at that point. But I'm not sure.
The other thing I wasn't a huge fan of is that the second half of the book starts to read like a manifesto after a while, it got repetitive.
Overall, this is a splendid book and a fascinating snapshot into a very recent history. Only a little over 100 years have passed since this was published. I wonder what Rose would have made of how those themes she explores have evolved now.
4.5 stars rounded down.
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February 13, 2024
What an extraordinary book! Written over a century ago with an openness and honesty, an acceptance and love, that still isn't common even today.
August 7, 2021
spent half of this book thinking it deserved five stars and half of it thinking it deserved two so i’ve settled on 3.5. in many ways this was such an insightful and well written account of the experiences of the conscientious objectors, and an incredibly forward thinking exploration of wlw and mlm friendships considering when it was written, but certain aspects of it bothered me. the plot seemed to lose itself a little about one third in, but picked back up by the end. it was then also frustrating to have to read what had started as wonderful sapphic representation dissolve into, of course, still somehow being obsessed with a (gay) man, while the mlm relationships were honoured and taken seriously throughout. also not sure about the tone of the final message in the book. made me a bit uncomfy. BUT still incredible that a book like this was written at the time. gave me lots and lots to think ab and for that reason i’d definitely still recommend to anyone interested in queer literature in particular:))
February 6, 2014
Quite an astonishing novel for its day. First publishing (and quickly banned) in 1918, it's the story of a gay composer who tries to repress his instincts by dating a lesbian who is equally confused about her sexuality and place in society. It turns into an anti-war novel as they join a loose group of pacifists who congregate in London tea-shop. The group slowly falls apart as conscientious objectors are imprisoned or give in and join up. Great piece of historical and cultural writing, and not bad character development.
June 6, 2018
Wow. I loved this so much. Beautiful, honest and still relevant today.
August 10, 2018
I'm amazed this exists
May 14, 2022
“When I was at school, I was terrified of my musical gift; I hated it, and did my utmost to suppress it, because I thought it was that which made me different from the other boys. I loathed being ‘different’; it made me feel so alone, so I played hard games with the others, and tried to make friends with the others, and tried to forget that there was something inside my brain that turned everything I felt and experienced into music, which clamoured to be released, and which I refused to release, because I knew that if I did so, it would widen still more the gulf between me and the others . . . I resented having this thing to hide, and envied my brother Clive and the other boys, for not having to wage this perpetual war against part of their own selves. There were times when I did long so badly just to give in.... And if I did that, I could never again keep up the pretence of being like the others. Somehow, that pretence seemed the all-important thing: there was safety in it.”
“And yet she could never quite rid herself of the hope that they must one day stumble upon the thing which would dispel, as if by magic, the mental fog that had descended between them. Some quite little thing... something equivalent to a mere click or switching-on of machinery that would be in perfect working order, if only one knew how to set it in motion. The hope that one day it would be set in motion sprang up afresh whenever she was not with him, but it died down inevitably at their next meeting, died under his queer silences and evasions, and under his kisses....” Darling, that’s compulsory heterosexuality!
“‘But, my dear boy,’ the doctor protested with some heat, ‘now that we—now that all the nations—have sacrificed so much, we can’t go back. Think of the utter futility of the whole thing ending in a draw!’
‘I still maintain that that’s better than fighting till one side (whichever it is) is beaten to its knees, and the other in the position to dictate terms of bondage; and free to go on, through the years, preparing for wars more terrible even than this one.’
‘Well: and if it’s a draw?’
‘If the so-called fruits of victory are withheld from them all alike, there’s some chance that the people of each nation, seeing the true nature of the war-machine by which they’ve been driven, will clamour to have it broken up; will protest against the maintenance of great armies and navies for their mutual destruction. There’ll be some chance of an era of real peace—not the sham peace of the lull before the storm, which will exist if the powers can be definitely divided into conquerors and conquered, with the conquered merely biding their time to reverse those titles, and the conquerors ever on the watch to see that they shan’t do so. A lasting peace can never be achieved by war, because war only breeds war.’”
“If one had convictions, one had at least something in one’s life that would stand rock-firm; something by which to steer; one was not helplessly buffeted about upon shoreless seas of emotion.”
“The militarists’ hatred of us is much more bloodthirsty than their hatred of the Germans; we are the cowards and the traitors who are deliberately delaying victory . . . The war all over again—that’s exactly what they will have if they do win their complete military victory. When the “knock-out blow” has been dealt, they’ll have to go on keeping big armies and building big ships, to consolidate their position as top-dog. And as long as we have big armies and navies, we shall always have wars. The pretty toys have to be used—they can’t be kept for show.”
“And yet she could never quite rid herself of the hope that they must one day stumble upon the thing which would dispel, as if by magic, the mental fog that had descended between them. Some quite little thing... something equivalent to a mere click or switching-on of machinery that would be in perfect working order, if only one knew how to set it in motion. The hope that one day it would be set in motion sprang up afresh whenever she was not with him, but it died down inevitably at their next meeting, died under his queer silences and evasions, and under his kisses....” Darling, that’s compulsory heterosexuality!
“‘But, my dear boy,’ the doctor protested with some heat, ‘now that we—now that all the nations—have sacrificed so much, we can’t go back. Think of the utter futility of the whole thing ending in a draw!’
‘I still maintain that that’s better than fighting till one side (whichever it is) is beaten to its knees, and the other in the position to dictate terms of bondage; and free to go on, through the years, preparing for wars more terrible even than this one.’
‘Well: and if it’s a draw?’
‘If the so-called fruits of victory are withheld from them all alike, there’s some chance that the people of each nation, seeing the true nature of the war-machine by which they’ve been driven, will clamour to have it broken up; will protest against the maintenance of great armies and navies for their mutual destruction. There’ll be some chance of an era of real peace—not the sham peace of the lull before the storm, which will exist if the powers can be definitely divided into conquerors and conquered, with the conquered merely biding their time to reverse those titles, and the conquerors ever on the watch to see that they shan’t do so. A lasting peace can never be achieved by war, because war only breeds war.’”
“If one had convictions, one had at least something in one’s life that would stand rock-firm; something by which to steer; one was not helplessly buffeted about upon shoreless seas of emotion.”
“The militarists’ hatred of us is much more bloodthirsty than their hatred of the Germans; we are the cowards and the traitors who are deliberately delaying victory . . . The war all over again—that’s exactly what they will have if they do win their complete military victory. When the “knock-out blow” has been dealt, they’ll have to go on keeping big armies and building big ships, to consolidate their position as top-dog. And as long as we have big armies and navies, we shall always have wars. The pretty toys have to be used—they can’t be kept for show.”
October 7, 2020
Wept in public. 4.5 stars (more to come when I recover)
Ok I am back and ready to quote my favourite passages. This will be spoilery because my favourite bits came at the end, so watch out!
"The spectacled, highly strung young man had appeared on socialistic grounds. His speech was both virile and vehement, and he quoted Tolstoy and Wells and Karl Marx and Phillip Gibbs in a breathless Cockney voice that told of self-education and night-school. When he had finished, he still stood tense and rigid, although he had the Board's permission to be seated. And when the blow fell- 'Appeal dismissed. Applicant passed for foreign service'- he crumpled up quite suddenly into his chair in a way that made Antoinette's throat feel tight."
"'Right or wrong, my country'- that's the line for every true Briton to take up." "I am a humanitarian before I am a 'true Briton', then, if either the 'right' or 'wrong' of my country involves the deliberate slaughter of human beings."
"Almost independent of his own volition, they began to build themselves into a great symphonic poem: 'War.' A chaos of conflicting motives bewildered him; he could hear each instrument clamouring at cross-purposes with all the others in the orchestra; clashing rhythms and counter-rhythms battled for supremacy. It seemed at first a labour for giants to bring order into this chaos, to select and reject wisely among the dissonant themes. Then he began to perceive that he must eliminate none, reject none; each must have its place in the scheme, for each stood for one of the innumerable beliefs and reasons, ideals and madnesses that had led the peoples into war...all must be woven in until, in the final solution and climax, he had succeeded in showing their fundamental unity, converting strife and turmoil and the sorrows of all the nations into the transcendent harmony of peace."
"The impersonator of many cardinals had been killed during his first month at the front. Antoinette could not but help wondering in what manner he had died. She was haunted by memory of a languid voice, saying: "This is all- so stupid-..." Haunted by memory of other voices, too; Alan's vigorous speech; the youthful bombast with which Oswald used to mask his terror; the heavy lilt of Pegeen's and Conn's tones. And Conn had been shot down in the streets of Dublin during Easter week, proclaiming with his last breath that Ireland would never bend the knee 'to England's bloody red'"
"But it doesn't seem to strike people that shutting up some of these C.Os in prison is deliberate, wilful murder of brains that were fine, sensitive instruments which might have brought some lasting beauty, some lasting wonder into the world. These men might be rendering far greater service to their country by following their natural bent than by doing navvies' work or performing silly brutalising tasks in prison."
"The tearoom was empty, save for the ghosts that sat grouped at the tables; almost she could have expected them to take place in the conversation... Dennis; Alan; Everard, with his languid drawl; Crispin's stammer; O'Farrell's Irish phrasing; the whole chorus of familiar voices. But the chorus was silent now."
"Benny was radiant and breathless, but he spoke to an audience of ghosts; ghost of Everard, long dead on the field in Flanders; ghost of Harry Hope, drilling drearily on Salisbury Plain; ghosts of the many professionals of all grades who had once frequented Miss Mowbray's, and had been gradually sucked into the army, and who would have overwhelmed him with a flood of questions."
Dulce et Decorum Est and Suicide in the Trenches are fantastic accompaniments to this book.
Ok I am back and ready to quote my favourite passages. This will be spoilery because my favourite bits came at the end, so watch out!
"The spectacled, highly strung young man had appeared on socialistic grounds. His speech was both virile and vehement, and he quoted Tolstoy and Wells and Karl Marx and Phillip Gibbs in a breathless Cockney voice that told of self-education and night-school. When he had finished, he still stood tense and rigid, although he had the Board's permission to be seated. And when the blow fell- 'Appeal dismissed. Applicant passed for foreign service'- he crumpled up quite suddenly into his chair in a way that made Antoinette's throat feel tight."
"'Right or wrong, my country'- that's the line for every true Briton to take up." "I am a humanitarian before I am a 'true Briton', then, if either the 'right' or 'wrong' of my country involves the deliberate slaughter of human beings."
"Almost independent of his own volition, they began to build themselves into a great symphonic poem: 'War.' A chaos of conflicting motives bewildered him; he could hear each instrument clamouring at cross-purposes with all the others in the orchestra; clashing rhythms and counter-rhythms battled for supremacy. It seemed at first a labour for giants to bring order into this chaos, to select and reject wisely among the dissonant themes. Then he began to perceive that he must eliminate none, reject none; each must have its place in the scheme, for each stood for one of the innumerable beliefs and reasons, ideals and madnesses that had led the peoples into war...all must be woven in until, in the final solution and climax, he had succeeded in showing their fundamental unity, converting strife and turmoil and the sorrows of all the nations into the transcendent harmony of peace."
"The impersonator of many cardinals had been killed during his first month at the front. Antoinette could not but help wondering in what manner he had died. She was haunted by memory of a languid voice, saying: "This is all- so stupid-..." Haunted by memory of other voices, too; Alan's vigorous speech; the youthful bombast with which Oswald used to mask his terror; the heavy lilt of Pegeen's and Conn's tones. And Conn had been shot down in the streets of Dublin during Easter week, proclaiming with his last breath that Ireland would never bend the knee 'to England's bloody red'"
"But it doesn't seem to strike people that shutting up some of these C.Os in prison is deliberate, wilful murder of brains that were fine, sensitive instruments which might have brought some lasting beauty, some lasting wonder into the world. These men might be rendering far greater service to their country by following their natural bent than by doing navvies' work or performing silly brutalising tasks in prison."
"The tearoom was empty, save for the ghosts that sat grouped at the tables; almost she could have expected them to take place in the conversation... Dennis; Alan; Everard, with his languid drawl; Crispin's stammer; O'Farrell's Irish phrasing; the whole chorus of familiar voices. But the chorus was silent now."
"Benny was radiant and breathless, but he spoke to an audience of ghosts; ghost of Everard, long dead on the field in Flanders; ghost of Harry Hope, drilling drearily on Salisbury Plain; ghosts of the many professionals of all grades who had once frequented Miss Mowbray's, and had been gradually sucked into the army, and who would have overwhelmed him with a flood of questions."
Dulce et Decorum Est and Suicide in the Trenches are fantastic accompaniments to this book.
January 5, 2025
Absolutely livid that Ao3 is barren, I need an epilogue.
Despised and Rejected is a novel of two worlds. The first part of the story reads like a pre-war society story that could slip into satire at any moment. It follows Antoinette, a queer woman who loves the chase of romantic pursuit those unattainable to her, and Dennis, a queer man who recognises Antoinette's queerness and proceeds to strike up a friendship with her. As the novel progresses, the tone starts to shift. Society wants them to get married - Dennis tries to repress his own sexuality and tries (unsuccessfully) to fall for Antoinette, Antoinette doesn't love men but falls for Dennis's complete unattainability. Dennis tries not to think of Alan, the man he really loves, and Antoinette struggles with her place in society.
The second part of the story is a plea for sympathy and tolerance. The novel reads more like a pamphlet here - Dennis is a pacifist and deals with the shame of not enlisting in a war he does not believe in; Antoinette follows him and is exposed to new ideas. Dennis begins to accept his sexuality and falls in love. With her intense love for Dennis, Antoinette begins to separate herself from the society she's grown up in.
The book was published in 1918 and, because it was finished prior to the end of the war, we don't know the fates of the characters. Hence my need for an epilogue. Allatini certainly didn't know the war would be over within a couple of years and the tone of the novel reflects this.
Due to the blatant anti-war themes and sympathetic view of homosexuality, the book was taken out of print within months of its publication in 1918. It was mostly lost to time and was only recently rediscovered in 2018. Just like Alf by Bruno Vogel, queer stories have always existed. We just need to remember that they weren't widely published (and when they *were* published, publishers were fined, and they were taken out of print).
Despised and Rejected is a novel of two worlds. The first part of the story reads like a pre-war society story that could slip into satire at any moment. It follows Antoinette, a queer woman who loves the chase of romantic pursuit those unattainable to her, and Dennis, a queer man who recognises Antoinette's queerness and proceeds to strike up a friendship with her. As the novel progresses, the tone starts to shift. Society wants them to get married - Dennis tries to repress his own sexuality and tries (unsuccessfully) to fall for Antoinette, Antoinette doesn't love men but falls for Dennis's complete unattainability. Dennis tries not to think of Alan, the man he really loves, and Antoinette struggles with her place in society.
The second part of the story is a plea for sympathy and tolerance. The novel reads more like a pamphlet here - Dennis is a pacifist and deals with the shame of not enlisting in a war he does not believe in; Antoinette follows him and is exposed to new ideas. Dennis begins to accept his sexuality and falls in love. With her intense love for Dennis, Antoinette begins to separate herself from the society she's grown up in.
The book was published in 1918 and, because it was finished prior to the end of the war, we don't know the fates of the characters. Hence my need for an epilogue. Allatini certainly didn't know the war would be over within a couple of years and the tone of the novel reflects this.
Due to the blatant anti-war themes and sympathetic view of homosexuality, the book was taken out of print within months of its publication in 1918. It was mostly lost to time and was only recently rediscovered in 2018. Just like Alf by Bruno Vogel, queer stories have always existed. We just need to remember that they weren't widely published (and when they *were* published, publishers were fined, and they were taken out of print).
August 16, 2018
We learn the most about history by reading the texts that were actually written during the time we are studying. This book covers the period from right before WWI to about two years in, and occupies the lives of individuals in upper middle class England.
It involves LGBTQ topics, pacifism at the time of war, socialism, pro-semitism (is this a word -I mean the opposite of anti-semitism), bohemian lifestyle, suffragette, pro—Irish, etc. all the outcasts and misfits of the time.
One of the most interesting topics covered in this book is - what did it mean to be gay in 1914? The woman in this book initially doesn’t know it is a concept beyond the fact that she is just not attracted to the various male suitors her grandmother sets her up with. The gay man in this book knows that he, himself, is working against social norms and is considered to be “sensitive” and “artistic” by his family.
The argument for socialistic pacifism gets a bit preachy and blah blah boring.
The book is well written. It’s a shame that there is nothing else in print by this author.
It involves LGBTQ topics, pacifism at the time of war, socialism, pro-semitism (is this a word -I mean the opposite of anti-semitism), bohemian lifestyle, suffragette, pro—Irish, etc. all the outcasts and misfits of the time.
One of the most interesting topics covered in this book is - what did it mean to be gay in 1914? The woman in this book initially doesn’t know it is a concept beyond the fact that she is just not attracted to the various male suitors her grandmother sets her up with. The gay man in this book knows that he, himself, is working against social norms and is considered to be “sensitive” and “artistic” by his family.
The argument for socialistic pacifism gets a bit preachy and blah blah boring.
The book is well written. It’s a shame that there is nothing else in print by this author.
January 4, 2024
"You've been brooding too much in secret, Dennis, you've grown morbid. Why will you persist in regarding it as something vicious and degenerate? For people made as we are it's natural and it's beautiful to love as we love, and it's perversion in the true sense to try and force ourselves to love differently,"
"These old men had lived their lives; they would neither be called upon to shed their blood for their country, nor to go to prison if they upheld opposing views; they had probably sent their sons to the war, but of themselves no personal sacrifice would be demanded. They were old - they were safe - and what right had they to send out the young men to kill each other? What right to sit in judgement upon one with all the potentialities of life still before him? To decree whether he was to be allowed to act according to his principles, or faced with the alternative of being forced to violate them or being cast into prison?"
"These old men had lived their lives; they would neither be called upon to shed their blood for their country, nor to go to prison if they upheld opposing views; they had probably sent their sons to the war, but of themselves no personal sacrifice would be demanded. They were old - they were safe - and what right had they to send out the young men to kill each other? What right to sit in judgement upon one with all the potentialities of life still before him? To decree whether he was to be allowed to act according to his principles, or faced with the alternative of being forced to violate them or being cast into prison?"
July 20, 2019
I walked into Persephone Books while on an 18-hour layover in London. The books are beautifully designed with a simple grey cover and a designed inside cover. I was a little overwhelmed with which book I was going to buy and asked the staff for advice.
Despised and Rejected is a 1918 book about a queer man and woman trying to figure out what they don't have words for. The book is a little uneven and you hear about characters who come and go but Dennis and Antoinette make a compelling story, and an important story about finding the people who will love us, whatever that love might look like. I was very fascinated about how Allatini finds words for feelings that were't talked about a hundred years ago. A very important LGBTQ novel.
Despised and Rejected is a 1918 book about a queer man and woman trying to figure out what they don't have words for. The book is a little uneven and you hear about characters who come and go but Dennis and Antoinette make a compelling story, and an important story about finding the people who will love us, whatever that love might look like. I was very fascinated about how Allatini finds words for feelings that were't talked about a hundred years ago. A very important LGBTQ novel.
June 22, 2021
An absolutely brilliant novel, hard to believe that it dates from 1918 because it feels so very modern in many ways. If someone handed it to you and told you it had been written in 2018 you'd have no reason to doubt them. Moving, intellectual and passionate in its pointing out of the persecution and inequalities facing Conscientious Objectors, women, homosexuals, Jews and the Irish, this is a book to make you think and to make you feel. It never however passes into the territory of despising those on the other side of the debate, recognising that we are all a product of our environment and our own individual natures. The last parting line is heartbreakingly brilliant, up there with the last line of 1984 for the perfect conclusion to a novel.
April 14, 2019
Moving and powerful. Thoroughly recommend.
August 2, 2024
Antoinette e Dennis si conoscono durante una breve vacanza, tra loro scatta una certa intesa che li porta a iniziare un'interessante corrispondenza.
Successivamente arrivano anche degli incontri e tra loro sembra nascere qualcosa di importante, ed è anche quello che sperano le rispettive famiglie: che la loro simpatia si trasformi in un matrimonio.
Ma poi inizia la prima guerra mondiale...
Dennis è un musicista che compone opere, ed è omosessuale. Lui non ha mai provato attrazione per le donne, si è sempre sentito diverso, e non ha mai espresso i suoi sentimenti e paure a nessuno.
Un giorno incontra Alan e il suo mondo viene completamente sconvolto...
A complicare ulteriormente i suoi rapporti con gli altri e anche con la sua famiglia c'è la sua ferma convinzione dell'inutilità della guerra, lui è un pacifista.
Antoinette ha avuto delle cotte per altre donne, e proprio durante la breve vacanza in cui conosce Dennis si invaghisce di Hester. Ma lei non ha mai visto queste cotte come qualcosa di anormale.
Antoinette nel corso delle pagine diventa più matura, prende consapevolezza del mondo che la circonda e inizia a riflettere più seriamente a quello che è in realtà.
Il legame tra Dennis e Antoinette attraversa diverse fasi, fino a diventare una relazione di confidenza. Solo con lei Dennis riesce finalmente a esprimere quelle parti di sé che ha sempre tenuto nascoste.
Dennis e Antoinette hanno due modi di affrontare la vita diversi ma li unisce un sentimento forte, e questo è uno dei fili più importanti della storia: due ragazzi che almeno tra loro sono sinceri e riescono ad essere veramente se stessi
È una storia molto profonda attraverso la quale entriamo nella testa e nel cuore dei due protagonisti, leggiamo chiaramente quello che Dennis prova, quello che ha sopportato in passato, tutto quello che non riesce a esprimere a parole ma che riversa nella musica.
Capiamo la sua posizione sulla guerra, su quello che spera vedano anche gli altri, ed anche qui soffriamo con lui perché non viene capito ma spesso solo allontanato per le sue convinzioni.
È un libro che mette in luce sentimenti nascosti, desideri che non possono essere esauditi. Dennis è un personaggio che colpisce per il suo desiderio diessere semplicemente sè stesso, di essere finalmente sincero con il mondo, e il suo desiderio di amare chi vuole senza sentirsi quasi in colpa per i suoi sentimenti.
Ma è anche un inno alla pace e a cercare di capire gli altri senza pregiudizi.
Successivamente arrivano anche degli incontri e tra loro sembra nascere qualcosa di importante, ed è anche quello che sperano le rispettive famiglie: che la loro simpatia si trasformi in un matrimonio.
Ma poi inizia la prima guerra mondiale...
Dennis è un musicista che compone opere, ed è omosessuale. Lui non ha mai provato attrazione per le donne, si è sempre sentito diverso, e non ha mai espresso i suoi sentimenti e paure a nessuno.
Un giorno incontra Alan e il suo mondo viene completamente sconvolto...
A complicare ulteriormente i suoi rapporti con gli altri e anche con la sua famiglia c'è la sua ferma convinzione dell'inutilità della guerra, lui è un pacifista.
Antoinette ha avuto delle cotte per altre donne, e proprio durante la breve vacanza in cui conosce Dennis si invaghisce di Hester. Ma lei non ha mai visto queste cotte come qualcosa di anormale.
Antoinette nel corso delle pagine diventa più matura, prende consapevolezza del mondo che la circonda e inizia a riflettere più seriamente a quello che è in realtà.
Il legame tra Dennis e Antoinette attraversa diverse fasi, fino a diventare una relazione di confidenza. Solo con lei Dennis riesce finalmente a esprimere quelle parti di sé che ha sempre tenuto nascoste.
Dennis e Antoinette hanno due modi di affrontare la vita diversi ma li unisce un sentimento forte, e questo è uno dei fili più importanti della storia: due ragazzi che almeno tra loro sono sinceri e riescono ad essere veramente se stessi
È una storia molto profonda attraverso la quale entriamo nella testa e nel cuore dei due protagonisti, leggiamo chiaramente quello che Dennis prova, quello che ha sopportato in passato, tutto quello che non riesce a esprimere a parole ma che riversa nella musica.
Capiamo la sua posizione sulla guerra, su quello che spera vedano anche gli altri, ed anche qui soffriamo con lui perché non viene capito ma spesso solo allontanato per le sue convinzioni.
È un libro che mette in luce sentimenti nascosti, desideri che non possono essere esauditi. Dennis è un personaggio che colpisce per il suo desiderio diessere semplicemente sè stesso, di essere finalmente sincero con il mondo, e il suo desiderio di amare chi vuole senza sentirsi quasi in colpa per i suoi sentimenti.
Ma è anche un inno alla pace e a cercare di capire gli altri senza pregiudizi.
April 7, 2020
A remarkable book for its day (1918) in that it is quite open about love between two men. Dennis Blackwood stands out in his family as the musical one who is closer to his mother than any of the others - and then, as war approaches, he becomes generally "despised and rejected" by society for his pacifist views. But he finds friends among the conscientious objectors in London, while he tries to go against his nature by forming a relationship with a young woman.
This book was published, but then prosecuted and banned - not for obscenity, although it probably could have been, but for its anti-war stance. It's an interesting and courageous book, fluently written if a little overblown at times - Rose Allatini was mainly a romantic novelist.
This book was published, but then prosecuted and banned - not for obscenity, although it probably could have been, but for its anti-war stance. It's an interesting and courageous book, fluently written if a little overblown at times - Rose Allatini was mainly a romantic novelist.
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