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Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
"A brilliant work of social archaeology....A major historical contribution."—Adam Goodheart, The New York Times Book Review The nineteenth century was a golden age for those people known variously as sodomites, Uranians, monosexuals, and homosexuals. Long before Stonewall and Gay Pride, there was such a thing as gay culture, and it was recognized throughout Europe and America. Graham Robb, brilliant biographer of Balzac, Hugo, and Rimbaud, examines how homosexuals were treated by society and finds a tale of surprising tolerance. He describes the lives of gay men and women: how they discovered their sexuality and accepted or disguised it; how they came out; how they made contact with like-minded people. He also includes a fascinating investigation of the encrypted homosexuality of such famous nineteenth-century sleuths as Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes himself (with glances forward in time to Batman and J. Edgar Hoover). Finally, Strangers addresses crucial questions of gay culture, including the riddle of its relationship to religion: Why were homosexuals created with feelings that the Creator supposedly condemns? This is a landmark work, full of tolerant wisdom, fresh research, and surprises. 31 illustrations.
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| Full of Thought |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Robb, Graham, "Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century", W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
Full of Thought
Amos Lassen
Graham Robb gives us a brilliant social history b his look at homosexuality in the nineteenth century. He goes against the idea that because it was not categorized, homosexuals (men and women) were not persecuted and uses the case of Oscar Wilde as the prime example of this. People knew about Wilde and this was in some way a degree of acceptance. Robb looks at literature to show that gays were tolerated.
This is a wonderful example of social history. Robb looks at recent research and then brings us some interesting stories and some fascinating characters. This is social history and Robb did heavy research to come with this ambitious book. He manages to get to information that has been locked up for years and touches on all facets of 19th century gay life and he gives us a world that many thought did not exist. His thesis refutes existential philosopher Michel Foucault who claimed that as an identity homosexuality is a modern construction that began with the 20th century. Robb says that homosexuals (referred to as "inverts", "sodomites" and "uranians") had both a strong feeling about being different from mainstream society and they lived out their differences in their own communities. They also maintained their own places to gather. The 19th century was not as dark for us as many maintain and that, in reality, the 20th century, was much darker. Science made strove to eliminate or treat homosexuals in the 20th century and prison sentences for "crime against nature" came into being.
Robb also debunks myths that came about regarding 19th century gays. There was a sense of sexual rights and there were social clubs and a network came into being so that gays could communicate with each other all over Europe. There is also an investigation of literature of the period which includes some of the better known gay writers.
There are several names that appear throughout the book--Kari; Heinrich Ulrich, Magnus Herschfeld and of course Oscar Wilde. Women are not ignored and Robb also writes about lesbians.
This is a wonderful reference book for us and the documentation is welcomed. There are also comprehensive appendices with interesting statistics on incidents of sodomy and other related "offenses". The book surely opened my eyes especially since Foucault has been a hero of mine.
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| Ambitious and pioneering! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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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!
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| Strangers |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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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.
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| Interesting and informative |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I found this book a very enjoyable and enlightening read. It corrected assumptions I'd made in the past in reading about Victorian England. Statistics in the early chapter were a little dry but necessary, and tempered by excerpts from old letters and diaries, which were touching and added a poignant humanity. I also wanted to mention that I enjoyed Mr. Robb's newspaper article in the Houston Chronicle recently. I wrote a letter to the editor about the article but I don't believe my letter was published in the paper, so I wanted to say here that it was an excellent article and I'm glad Mr. Robb took the time to bring the ideas in his excellent book to a wider audience. I hope it increased his book sales and I hope we will see more articles like it in the future.
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| a history book for the gay community |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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i want to start off with what i like about this book. i like the fact that this book serves as a notice or a reference material for the gay community. there are far to many people who do not understand the history of homosexuality through the ages. this book really covers topics that exist in all parts of the world. the book really delves into the past and unearths some great information about what the gay forefathers and mothers went through in the nineteenth century. robbs throws a lot of names around in order to show the reader that homosexuality is not just relegated to ordinary people but to famous ones as well. this is a great book that can educate people both gay and straight about the trials and triumphs of the gay community....
what i did not like about this book is the way it was written. although i find the book interesting i often use it to help me fall asleep. it reads like a textbook. i almost thought i was reading a book for a history class. that is the hitch to this book, i liked it but i could also put it down. i feel that this book could have been broken up more into chapters rather than page after page after page of the same chapter. personally i need a stopping point and there are not many in this book. perhaps if the chapters had been more succinct the book would read a little faster and not so much like a text book.
i really think that this book has a lot to offer and i dont think that my personal pickiness shoud discourage anyone from reading sucha ground-breaking book.
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