R. Allatini


Rose Laure Allatini was an Austrian-British novelist who wrote under the pseudonyms R. Allatini, A.T. Fitzroy, Mrs Cyril Scott, Lucian Wainwright, and Eunice Buckley. She is best known for her 1918 novel Despised and Rejected, which was banned under the Defence of the Realm Act as it combines themes of pacifism and homosexuality which were thought "likely to prejudice the recruiting of persons to serve on His Majesty's Forces". Despised and Rejected was published by C. W. Daniel and was taken up by the Bloomsbury Group. The novel has been described by Angela K. Smith as drawing a connection between the persecution of homosexuals and the rhetoric of imperialism. It tells the story of a young woman's complex relationship with a homosexual composer who is conscripted for military service; his refusal leads to trial and imprisonment.

Family

Rose Laure Allatini was born in Vienna, into a large and prosperous Jewish family. Her father, Roberto Allatini, was born in Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire on 17 December 1856, to Moïse Allatini and Rosa Mortera ; her mother, Bronislawa Rapoport von Porada was born in Krakow, Poland on 17 December 1869, to Arnold Rapoport, Edler von Porada and Laura Rapoport Edlen von Porada. By 1911, Rose Laure Allatini, her sister Flore and their parents, Roberto and Bronislawa, were living at 18 Holland Park, London, and Robert Allatini was listed in the census as a retired merchant. In 1946, her mother renounced her Italian citizenship upon becoming a naturalized British citizen.
In May 1921, Allatini married the composer Cyril Scott, like her an enthusiast for Theosophy. They had two children, Vivien Mary born 1923 and Desmond Cyril, but separated in 1939, after the outbreak of WWII. Her son's memoir says that "Except for the war years 1939–45, which she spent with Melanie (J. M. A.) Mills ... in Beckley, a small village in Sussex, she lived in London, but every year for health reasons she went to Switzerland and Melanie accompanied her." Both Project Orlando and the Brighton Gay and Lesbian website Brighton Our Story, however, claim that she spent the remainder of her life living with Mills in Rye. In the summer of 1980 Rose Allatini moved from her home in London to a retirement home in the country near the home of her friend Melanie Mills.
She died on 23 November 1980 in Rye, Sussex and was buried in Hastings.

Writing career

From 1914 to 1978, Allatini is known to have written nearly forty novels, as well as writing short stories.
Allatini's favourite themes included illness and healing, music, early death, Jewish issues, and the occult.

''Despised and Rejected''

Her novel Despised and Rejected published in 1918 is set among pacifists during World War I. The sexuality of many of the characters in the book is represented as unstable, in a way unusual for the period. Antoinette, the main female character, at first has a passionate crush on an older woman, and then falls for Dennis, a homosexual who had previously courted her, partly as a disguise for his actual sexuality, and partly in the hope that she might 'cure' him. Dennis is a conscientious objector as well as a homosexual, and the combined themes of pacifism and sexual unorthodoxy made the book one that was bound to cause serious controversy in 1918. Rose Allatini submitted the manuscript to the firm of Allen & Unwin. Stanley Unwin rejected it because of its potential to cause scandal, but suggested that she send it to C.W. Daniel, a committed pacifist who had published several books highly critical of the war. It was decided to issue the book under the pseudonym of A.T. Fitzroy. When the book was published, it received unenthusiastic reviews, and some, like Allan Monkhouse, the critic of the Manchester Guardian, expressed a strong distaste for it:
But pacifism is not the main theme. The hero, Dennis Blackwood, walks and talks through a considerable portion of the book before a war breaks out and exhibits himself as a hopeless victim of neurasthenia. He is an abnormal young man, held up for pity as such, but also for admiration. Charity can go no further than look on him as an unhappy invalid. We have no intention of disclosing in what constitutes his abnormality. Those who read his story may regard his malady as ridiculous, others as something worse. A good laugh at Mr Fitzroy’s lack of humour where Dennis is concerned will disperse the rather unwholesome vapours. But what about a pacifist apostle who is so on the ground of abnormality? His whole case is given away.

A campaign to prosecute the book was instigated by journalist James Douglas, who previously incited the prosecution for indecency of The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence. He wrote in the magazine London Opinion:
A thoroughly poisonous book, every copy of which ought to be put on the fire forthwith, is Despised and Rejected, by A.T. Fitzroy – probably a pen-name. Of its hideous immoralities the less said the better; but concerning its sympathetic presentation, in the mouths of its ‛hero’ and of other characters of pacifism and conscientious objection, and of sneering at the English as compared with the Hun, this needs to be asked: What is the use of our spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on propaganda, and tens of thousands more on Censorship, while pestiferous filth like this remains unsuppressed? The book is published by C.W. Daniel, Ltd., of Graham House, Tudor Street; and I imagine that it will not be long, after the authorities have examined this literary fungus, before he is a Daniel brought to judgment.

The book was tried at the City of London court at the Mansion House on 10 October 1918 and Daniel was fined £420 with £40 costs. After the trial, Daniel published a pamphlet defending himself against charges of immorality, and claiming that he had not realised the sexual implications of Allatini's book.
I was assured by the author that the love between the hero and his friend was analogous to that between David and Jonathan. I did not see what has since been pointed out – that certain passages are open to an immoral interpretation.
Personally, I would rather that any book were burnt than that I should be party to lending support to depravity of either the homo-sexual or the contra-sexual types.

Publications

As R. Allatini

Happy Ever After Mills and Boon, 1914 Payment, Andrew Melrose, 1915 Root and Branch, George Allen and Unwin, 1917 Requiem, Martin Secker, 1919. When I was a Queen in Babylon Mills and Boon, 1921

As A. T. Fitzroy

  • Despised and Rejected, C.W.Daniel, 1918.

As Mrs Cyril Scott

  • White Fire 1933

As Lucian Wainwright

Waters Meet, Martin Secker 1935 Girl of Good Family, Martin Secker 1935 Oracle Methuen 1937

As Eunice Buckley

Family from Vienna, Andrew Dakers, 1941 Destination Unknown, Andrew Dakers, 1942 Blue Danube, Andrew Dakers, 1943 Rhapsody for Strings, Andrew Dakers, 1945 Music in the Woods, Andrew Dakers, 1952 Arranged for Small Orchestra, Andrew Dakers, 1953Dark Rainbow, Hodder and Stoughton, 1955 Shadow of a God, Hodder and Stoughton, 1956Instead of a Rocking-Horse, Hodder and Stoughton, 1957Gift from Heaven, Hodder and Stoughton, 1959. For Benefits Received, Robert Hale, 1960. Fiorina, Robert Hale, 1961 The Consuming Fire, Robert Hale, 1962 Conjuring Trick, Robert Hale, 1963 Lay the Ghosts, Robert Hale, 1964 They Walk on Earth, Robert Hale, 1966 The Man on the Rope, Robert Hale, 1967. )Diamonds in the Family, Theosophical Publishing, 1968. If Wishes were Horses, Robert Hale, 1969The Flaming Sword, Robert Hale, 1969 You've Got to Have Gold, Robert Hale, 1972 Just Was My Lot, Robert Hale, 1972
  • The Face of the Tempter, Robert Hale, 1973
  • To Walk without Fear, Robert Hale, 1974
  • Wonder-Worker, Robert Hale, 1975
  • The Half of My Kingdom, Robert Hale, 1976
  • Prisoners of Hate, Robert Hale, 1977
  • Work of Art, Robert Hale, 1978
  • Young Man of Great Promise, Robert Hale, 1978