Gay love stories in history
From Sappho to Stonewall, and beyond: how fiction tells LGBTQ+ history
Fiction tells us so much about the time we live in – and LGBTQ+ writers own been writing since the in advance days of literature. Their stories have often, but not always, been marginalised, but they include always said something about the era in which they were first told or published. Here, we take a look at the evolution of queer fiction across the ages – for brevity’s sake, focusing on the Western world – and what it reflects about that moment in history, from Sappho, to Stonewall, and beyond.
Queer stories in antiquity
Madeline Miller’s hit The Noun of Achillesis a moving queer retelling of The Iliad from the perspective of young prince Patroclus that simultaneously reflects pride in same-sex relationships (Achilles remains adamant throughout that he and Patroclus be seen together) and modern anxieties about romantic relationships and masculinity – how men can be gentle, how to manage family expectations.
But being queer wasn’t always coded as different, and many myths don’t require retel
For Pride Month we are sharing a series of extracts from our books which look at the history and experiences of LGBT people in Britain. This extract from Rory Muir&#;s Love and Marriage in the Age of JaneAustenlooks at the experiences of gay men in Regency England.
Extract from Chapter 8. Spinsters and Bachelors: The Alternative to Marriage from Love and Marriage in the Age of Jane Austen by Rory Muir
Men who wanted to have casual sex with other men had many opportunities to do so in Regency London, either by picking up male prostitutes (who were reputedly often soldiers in the Guards, earning extra money) at recognised venues such as the city’s parks, or at ‘molly houses’, which catered specifically to their tastes. Such molly houses had been a discreet feature of the capital throughout the eighteenth century, and their patrons ranged across the social classes, while their activities included organising mock weddings. There were fewer opportunities outside London, although we know of a group of men from across the north west of England who met regularly at the village
Gay love stories in historical fiction
What was it like to be a gay man in Paris in ? While researching my novel The Beasts of Paris, I couldn’t find much in 19th-century writing about homosexual treasure, and even later there are strangely few literary, queer, period-set love stories (shout outs to Sarah Waters and Mary Renault), so I’m pushing the boundaries of both ‘love story’ and ‘historical’ here. All I start in 19th-century accounts is an occasional minor character – e.g. in Zola’s Nana – or documentary reports of police raids, or porn (thank you, Jack Saul). I delved into novels, paintings and photographs as successfully as history. And if my historical period stretches from Ancient Greece to the early s – well, you take what you can get.
—
Maurice by E.M. Forster
The daddy of all gay love stories. Although written in , Forster’s book was not published until after his death, in He was inspired to write it after meeting the writer and activist Edward Carpenter and his long-term partner George Merrill. It’s a deeply kind picture of a man who experiences intense pass
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- Grey Dawn by Nyri A. Bakkalian (/) &#; T
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- The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan (, Singapore)
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- All the Painted Stars by Emma Denny ()
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- Regency Menage by Nicola Davidson (Amz)
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- The Anonymous Letters of C de Forestier by Felicia Davin
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- The Scandalous Letters of V and J by Felicia Davin
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- The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q by Felicia Davin
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