Customer Reviews

Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century

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This is a terrific piece of social history, wide-ranging, smart, fair-minded and thoroughly entertaining. Too much gay history is two parts theory to one part story, but Graham Robb has distilled the past thirty years of research by various historians into a wonderful concentrate of stories. (Yet, he's an incredibly generous reader other people. He corrects and improves on Michael Foucault and others without ever trashing them.)

The book is full of great characters: Anne Lister, Magnus Hirshfeld, Karl Ulrichs, and the anonymous man who wrote to the author of an early gay menace-type study to thank him for letting him know he was not alone, even if he did use the word "repulsive" a few too many times. This is a witty book, whether it's dealing with the medical claim that gay men have corkscrew-shaped penises ("for reasons easy to imagine") or John Maynard Keynes's personal list of sex partners from 1906 ("the chemist's boy of Paris; the clergyman; David Erskine, MP") or offering Sherlock Holmes as a gay hero.

Robb does a terrific job of establishing continuities with our age as well as identifying differences. He never condescends to the past, and he doesn't trivialize the present. The book clears away the half-baked theories that have gathered around the subject like cobwebs in recent years, but, more important, it's a joy to read.

Graham Robb's study of homosexual love in the nineteenth century, 'Strangers,' is a singularly ambitious work. Over the space of some 270 pages, the author explores themes as varied as the horrible legal oppression suffered by homosexuals in 19th century Europe to the blossoming of gay letters encoded in characters like Sherlock Holmes and Poe's amateur detective, Auguste Dupin.

Robb maps territory that has been kept locked away too long in the special archives of prudish university libraries. Touching on all facets of the 19th century homosexual's life, Robb has successfully uncovered a world thought not to exist. The book's central thesis attempts to refute the Foucaltian claim that 'homosexuality' as an identity, is a modern construction dating from the turn of the 20th century. Robb claims that 'inverts'and 'uranians' not only had a pretty strong idea about being different from the majority but lived out that difference in a vigorous, if underground, community. Not only did public parks and toilets provide necessary meeting places, but bars, clubs and even theaters catered to this undergound community. Not that homosexual life was all that hidden either. Robb gives the example of French aristocrat, Astolphe Custine, who after a traumatic outing, lived quite openly with his friend and lover. Even in the mid-nineteeth century, homosexual partnerships were not only known about but also tolerated to some extent as well.

Robb makes the claim that the 19th century was not the dismal age of despair for the 'uranian' as we might suspect. Rather, Robb states that the 20th century was far darker for those who professed the love that dare not speaketh its name. With the fin de siecle advances made in psychology and psychiatry, Robb argues that science strove either to 'treat' and/or eradicate this deviation from the Victorian world. As a result, ghastly and inhumane attempts to 'cure' the homosexual---electroshock, hormone therapy---increased as did prison sentences for 'indecent behavior between men.'

Thought provoking though it is, I had trouble accepting Robb's nostalgia for the gay 1800's. His first chapter is all about the sad and horrible oppression--i.e. death penalty--that homosexuals in England suffered during the first half of the 19th century. Being sent to the gallows for the 'crime' of anal intercourse with another man should be seen as barbaric by any sensitive human irregardless of century, and should especially be seen as incomprehensible to those who've passed the threshold of the 21st. How therefore the 19th century homosexual can be seen as 'better off' than his 20th century brothers and sisters would seem rather difficult to prove. In defending his thesis, Robb downplays the importance of Wilde and his trial. According to the author, it was not an historical act of publically embracing homosexual identity, but rather an exaggerated show. An Irishman publically shamed for taking pot shots at Albion. Referring to the trial, Robb writes, 'The melodramatic approach fashions a weapon of sexual oppression out of a jumble of laws that were often casually enacted, sporadically applied and aimed primarily at acts of violence.' Were not such laws themselves, 'acts of violence' par excellence?

If one can suspend their initial disbelief as to Robb's central thesis, 'Strangers' can be an enjoyable read. And a tiring one at that. From public and private outings, to Hirschfeld's and Ulrich's pioneering attempts to create a gay community, 'Strangers' provides an almost encyclopedic plethora of facts and anecdotes about the 19th homosexual. The problem is that you get too much stuff and too little satisfying analysis. The author jumps from fact to example to anecdote to exegesis and then adroitly moves on. Not only did my head spin a lot while reading 'Strangers,' but I started to question the validity of many of its claims. Nowhere is this weakness more noticeable than in the chapter dealing with the Victorian homosexual's attempt to find a place within Christianity. A rich and fascinating topic, it alone could and should warrant a book unto itself. Some tantalizing hot potatoes like Matthew 19 and analysis of the real sin of the 'Sodomites' are raised only to be dropped two sentences later. A pity.

Furthermore, despite its all-inclusive subtitle, 'Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century,' 'Strangers' makes some rather egregious exclusions. Coverage of 19th century America is less than thorough and Europe for Robb seems to end abruptly at Vienna, only to continue with Moscow and St. Petersburg. For those of us gay denizens in Central and Eastern Europe, our forefathers appear to be such strangers that they fail to warrant even the slightest mention. Sad and hurtful when you think that the Hungarian polymath, Kertbény Károly, was the first to actually pen the term 'homosexual.' His appearance in 'Strangers' is sadly minimal and underscored.

Despite its shortcomings, grievous though they are, 'Strangers' deserves our respect. Considering the overwhelming quantity of material he had to deal with and the still-existent taboos that surround anything remotely related to 'gay studies,' Graham Robb has given us a truly pioneering work. A work that not only enriches our collective past, but strengthens our present as well. Kudos!

STRANGERS: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century as written with consummate skill and wit by Graham Robb is a fascinating insight about the history of homosexuality through the ages. Though particularly addressing the 19th Century, uncovering letters, notes, books, and facts vs. fiction by some of the more luminous writers and thinkers of that time, Robb takes multiple asides to Greece, the Middle Ages, and the centuries before his chosen example, allowing us to realize that Gay Rights Movements did NOT start in 1969 with Stonewall. His exploration of pan-sexuality includes the Church and spirituality in general, Medicine, Psychology, the fraternities and sororities, the balls and brothels, and private lives of Henry James, da Vinci, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Gide, Alexander the Great, Marcel Proust, Walt Whitman, Lord Byron, Shelley, Oscar Wilde et al, Michelangelo etc without ever becoming just a book of gossip. Quite the contrary, this is serious literature, albeit written in an often hilarious tongue-in-cheek mode. Robb's main purpose seems to establish the fact that `homosexuality' has been around and popular for far longer than the historians, sociologists and physicians believe would have us believe: it is not a discovery dating to Kraft-Ebbing, Freud, or Hirschfield. Read it for history, read it for stories about people you venerate, read it for historical information, read it as elegant prose, but by all means read this immensely successful book!

Graham Robb has probably written one of the most comprehensive, authoritative and commanding accounts of homosexual love ever. Academic, inclusive, and wide-ranging, Strangers, is at once, entertaining, but also incredibly enlightening, as Robb effectively succeeds in dispelling many of the myths associated with Victorian sexual mores. His findings on gay love in the nineteenth century are quite surprising. Victorian attitudes towards homosexuality were in many respects relatively enlightened, especially in comparison to the early twentieth century. Also, the gay community found ways to thrive, and in many European cities, truly blossom and flourish. Homosexuals, or "inverts," "sodomites," "uranians," and "pederasts" as they were called, not only had thriving meeting places, but also were able to develop whole networks and communities through the subtle bourgeoning of art, music and the written word.

Robb tackles the obstacles gay love encountered and the societies it created by talking about the criminal statistics of the period. He explains the laws that existed against sodomy in various countries, and the efforts of the police force, particularly in England to stamp out any "unnatural lewdness, and "immoral acts." Robb then juxtaposes the nineteenth century with the twentieth century and the eventual "medicalization" of homosexuality. Homosexuality didn't become such a vitriolic and contentious an issue until the beginning of the twentieth century when medical and psychological views of it began to became fashionable. In the twentieth century, homosexuality began to be studied as a condition, something to be treated and perhaps cured, therefore certain diagnostic, analytical and investigative processes were attached to it.

Much of the book debunks the myths surrounding homosexual society during this century. There was, in actuality, a highly politicized sense of sexual rights, a calendar of events and anniversaries, social clubs with international links, cafes and brothels and well-established cruising grounds with organized patrols. This well organized network allowed gays to communicate with one another almost throughout the whole of Europe. There's also an interesting chapter on homosexuality in literature, where Robb analyses many of the works of some of the most famously known gay writers. He also examines the hidden gay meaning behind some of the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen, who is described as "humiliated, effeminate youth."

Throughout he narrative, Robb talks of Karl Heinrich Ulrich, the only known gay man to actually "come out" in the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde, and his subsequent prosecution for indecency, and the German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld, who thought he could tell a homosexual by the direction a thread will swing when tied around the right index finger. Homosexuals known to be "out" are also mentioned, such as the Ladies of Llangollen, Sarah Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler - two lesbians living in recluse in Wales, Anne Lister - a famous society lesbian of Shibden Hall, and Frederick "Fanny" Park and Ernest "Stella Boulton, two much loved effeminate music hall artists.

The reader will also find fascinating the comprehensive appendices, which give some interesting criminal statistics on indictments for sodomy and related offences in England, Wales and the United States. There's also a riotous questionnaire based on an original by Magnus Hirschfeld, which was supposed to help readers decide whether or not they were homosexual. Strangers, is not an easy read - Robb does at times, bombard the reader with a few too many names, dates and citations, which some readers may find a little overwhelming. Generally, though, Strangers is a fascinating social history of a little known world that once thrived and was, in its own way, immensely prosperous and successful. Mike Leonard June 04.

An interesting and worthwhile study, this book didn't really tell me what I wanted to know, but perhaps that's an inevitable result of the nature of the available historical sources.

Robb focuses heavily on elite writing and art for his evidence --these apparently being the most readily available sources -- and because of that, the reader looks in vain for a clear picture of how an average homosexual person in the 19th century might have experienced life. I was hoping the book would help me build the mentality of a character who lives in 1876 Galveston, but in vain. Perhaps it is not possible to get such a clear picture from the available evidence.

It may also be worth pointing out that the sources used by Robb are heavily weighted toward the end of the 19th century, the turn of the century and the early 20th century, and tend to focus on Europe.

Having said that the book didn't give me what I was hoping for, I still found it interesting and worth reading. Robb adequately proves his main thesis, which is that a significant body of thought portraying same-sex relations as healthy, normal and praiseworthy was available to at least some individuals in the late 19th century.

This book is an eye-opener, and it is a rich, well-written, masterful piece of cultural history. It also clears up a lot of misconceptions, both about gay history and about the Victorian era. Robb does not write boringly or dully, does not get bogged down in minutiae, does not accept received wisdom at face value, does not pander to constituencies or trends, and most of all, does not make the frequent error of succumbing to anachronistic condescension toward the period he is writing about. I finished the book with a new appreciation of a period of time in which the conventional thinking leads us to believe that, other than the tragic figure of Oscar Wilde (who does not escape Robb's cliche-busting), nothing and nobody of significance that would later fit into the rubric of "gay" existed -- or mattered (or if they did, they were pathetic, unhappy, and suicidal). Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, for instance, usually merits only a footnote in most historical accounts. Here he is full-blooded and well-drawn.

While the twentieth century is the basis for our living experiences about homosexuality and the twenty-first century has already witnessed a faster-moving pace of its development, Graham Robb rightly places the emphasis on where we should look for guidance.... the nineteenth century. What a job the author has done!

Robb points out at the onset that the Victorian Age, prudish and mannered as it is remembered, was not necessarily all that it appeared. These hundred years witnessed an explosive exposé of gay life, especially through literature and "science". It is new to me that the word "homosexual" first appeared in 1870....before that there was no real definition of a person who was attracted to people of the same sex. Far from being an age where untold horrors befell homosexuals in a variety of ways (and they did) Robb points out that this was a time of degrees of acceptance, depending of course on where you lived.

Two chapters are worth noting in this book. The first is "Country of the Blind", in which the author relates how the nascent medical profession dealt with homosexuality. This chapter is hilarious on its face but poignant between the lines.... poignant in that many homosexuals for the first time sought help from their ill-equipped doctors with wildly mixed results. The second chapter is "Fairy Tales", a chapter dealing with writers and how they maneuvered in and around sexuality through use of characters in their books.

Though there are references to far too many nineteenth century publishings throughout "Strangers" (often without more than a wisp of an example) and while the book lacks an overall cohesion, I would highly recommend it. Graham Robb has given the reader new ways to look at homosexuality, and in doing so, has added more color than ever before to this rich area of human life.

Everything Graham Robb writes is inciteful and sheds new light the subject at hand. I felt like I had reconnected with a lost past after reading this book. Check out his other books, The Discovery of France is excellent. Things you never knew and probably would never have read anywhere else are found in this book.

First, let me say that I'm not familiar with most historical theories of sexual orientation and identity. I'm much more familiar with current social psychology than anything in the past. As such, I'm not well-qualified to judge Robb's criticisms of Foucaultian theory. I'm just vaguely interested in the subject since I'm both queer and a passionate fan of 19th-century British literature.

However: this book is fun. The author takes what could be an unendurably dry subject and infuses it with warm, fond wit. Too often, queer writing gets a pass from the GLBTQ community--I call it the Lesbian Movie Syndrome, where objectively terrible films like Better Than Chocolate get wildly inflated ratings despite having nothing recognizably plot-like or any realistic character development. In this case, the sheer frequency of laugh-out-loud sentences (often couched in pleasantly Byzantine terms, so it takes a moment to realize you've just read something hysterically funny) made this book a new favorite. The direct quotes from source material are brilliantly chosen. There's a sense of freshness, a new take that's eminently intuitive and yet rarely gets put forth.

It's true that this isn't writing for everyone. It takes a slightly higher than average level of comfort with reading to really appreciate the construction of the sentences. But if you're comfortable reading at, say, a college level, this is well worth the time. (If you're used to academic research papers, the lack of in-text citations may drive you crazy. Take heart. There are appendices with the references, even if not everything you'd like to see a reference for has one.) My only regret is that this wasn't about a hundred pages longer, with more detail about certain topics the author takes for granted I'm familiar with (green carnations, etc.).

Before I even finished this book, I ordered two more copies for my friends who are also interested in queer identity. Having finished it, I would happily order them again.

I had a difficult time finding information on nineteenth century gay Americans for a paper I chose to write. I purchased this book in hopes that it would help, and it sure did! Not only did it provide me with more than enough information, it was very interesting and well-written.