Customer Reviews

Hellenism and Homosexuality in Victorian Oxford

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The ABSOLUTE must read for all in the LGBT community. Presents to artistic/political struggle between the creative world and the world of family values. It lights the way from the French Revolution to Stonewall.

I can't agree with a word of Mr. Hightower's review of this book. Dowling's subject matter might bear importance in many indirect ways to the 21st century, but as far as I can tell, it remains a very specialized topic. I cannot imagine the average LGBT person finding it all that relevant. As well, I have no clue how someone could describe this book as about a struggle between "the creative world and the world of family values"... without entirely missing the point. (Which isn't that difficult to imagine, given Dowling's tendency to verge on PoMo gobbledygook.) Lastly, other than the fact that "Victorian" occurs after the French Revolution and before Stonewall, I'm hard-pressed to see how Oxford Hellenism lights the way between them.

Aside from that unhelpful review, I'd offer a few warnings. Namely that this book might be difficult for the casual reader. It's academic writing which, despite the richness of its subject and its handful of brilliantly illuminating moments, may become tedious - especially if you are more interested in an informal, anecdotal history. (That stuff is exiled to the footnotes, which are sometimes so long and digressive that it's tough to get back on track.) Her writing alternates between lucid and murky. Run on sentences abound, etc. She also demands a lot of knowledge from her readers. I have an interest in Wilde and Aestheticism and I'm familiar with most of the primary and many of the peripheral persons of the era. A reader who is not may be lost or overwhelmed with names.

I'd mostly recommend the book to dedicated students of Aestheticism, or those interested in the history of Oxford University.