What a terrible thing could be freedom. Trees were free when they were uprooted by the wind; ships were free when they were torn from their moorings; men were free when they were cast out of their homes—free to starve, free to perish of cold and hunger.

Advance sales were strong and the book made #1 on the Observer's bestseller list but it received poor reviews in several key periodicals and sales soon dropped off. The book's mystical themes have been compared to Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. Benson.

Radclyffe Hall (born Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall on 12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943) was an English poet and author best known for the lesbian classic The Well of Loneliness.