(I really ought to read The Well of Loneliness at some point but everything I read about it suggests that it is indeed lugubrious, and ugh.)

You want a side of racism to go with that? It was what tripped me up the most, and it's something that's largely missing from critical discussions of the novel. Especially didn't like finding out that the concert scene in Paris was based on a real event organised by Hall and Troubridge for their white circle of friends, featuring Emmanuel Taylor Gordon and John Rosamond Johnson (a couple of renowned black singers) singing at Hall's home in Chelsea.