ABSTRACT
A1 Allatini, Rose (pseudonym A.T.Fitzroy) Despised and Rejected, London: C.W.Daniel, 1918. Reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1975.
Centres on the story of Dennis Blackwood, musician, homosexual and pacifist, a conscientious objector, despite the vigorous opposition of his more conservative family. A parallel plot concerns Antoinette, a lesbian, whose suffering, in this militaristic context, is comparatively slight. Dennis falls in love with Alan, an Oxford-educated mine-owner’s son, and a socialist, who regularly meets a crowd of ‘outsiders’ in a basement café. Much of the substance of the novel is taken up with ‘speeches’ articulating the various standpoints of the individuals, marginalised for their sexuality, their politics, their disability or their race. The homosexuality is explained as one of the ‘poor little deformities’ in an evolutionary process, which is heading towards ‘the human soul complete in itself, perfectly balanced’ (349). Ultimately, the Christ image prevails: ‘They’re despised and rejected of their fellow men today. What they suffer in a world not yet ready to admit their right to existence, their right to love, no normal person can realise’ (348).
