Historical fiction with gay characters
When you hear the statement “queer history,” how far back does your intellect go? For many, there’s a sense that LGBTQIA+ history is fairly recent, starting with Marsha P. Johnson or maybe Oscar Wilde. Beyond that, we start to get into murky territory: stories of “lifelong bachelors” and “happy spinsters” and “historically very good friends.”
But LGBTQIA+ people didn’t spring up out of nowhere in the last years, even if that’s when many history books start the story.
When I started writing Let the Dead Bury the Dead, I was inspired by the popular uprisings that regularly swept through Russia before the Russian Revolution of It’s a topic that’s always fascinated me, and one I think is essential to understand our world today. At the same moment, I knew I wanted the characters navigating this turbulent time to be unapologetically queer. Not to be anachronistic or edgy, but because LGBTQIA+ people have always been here, in every time and under every regime—even if discriminatory laws and biased sources and book bans try to write over us.
The eight books in this list aren’t just gripping historical page-turners, although they’re definitely that. They’re also reminders that every cor
Christopher Rice Recommends 9 LGBTQ Historical Fiction Titles
As Self-acceptance Month arrives, I&#;d love to thank Book Trib for asking me to present a list of my favorite works of historical fiction in which queer men are the central characters. While I&#;ve been openly gay since publishing my first novel 20 years ago, it wasn&#;t until recently that I launched a passion series, the Sapphire Cove novels, in which lgbtq+ male characters — their lives, their loves, their desires — were the sole focus.
After years of being pressured to convert my gay men into either a heroine&#;s brother or best acquaintance, Sapphire Cove became a place to tell the stories I&#;d always wanted to tell about the men I&#;ve loved. But if you sort through my Kindle or the books on my nightstand on any given nighttime you&#;re likely to detect titles about the often erased or overlooked contributions queer men have made throughout history. The pickings are more plentiful than they were a quick while ago; these past few years have been a boon for fiction that explores these once lost and hidden lives. To be honest, I&#;ve had some trouble keeping up.
So I&#;ve decided to offer up a list that isn&#;t confined to my usua
Queer historical fiction where nothing terrible happens
April 19, AM Subscribe
I just finished White Houses (Love story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok) by Amy Bloom and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoy Sarah Waters. I want to read more books with queer characters set in not-the-present-day where nothing particularly terrible happens to them because of their gender or sexual orientation, but where I am able to improve understand what being gay/lesbian/queer/loving people of your have gender looked like in this time period.
I don't care what the time period is or the exact establish that the not-straight-ness takes as long a) it's not now, b) nothing too terrible happens e.g. no sexual violence directed at the characters, c) the writing is lovely good, d) the historical context matters to the story and life experiences of the characters.
Whaddya got for me!
My other blog, Onomastics Outside the Box
I&#;m always gobsmacked when I encounter a supposed historical novel, TV show, or film with a gay or dyke character who casually outs him or herself, or whose secret is discovered due to a total lack of secrecy and discretion, with absolutely zero negative reactions from anyone. It&#;s like people under a certain age hold for granted that they live in a nature without the restrictions, taboos, stigmas, and prejudices of yore, and can&#;t conceive of any other type of society.
With that in mind, what are some of the important things to keep in consciousness when writing a woman-loving woman or gay character in a historical novel?
1. Greenwich Village in NYC, San Francisco, Paris, Weimar Berlin, and Provincetown, Rhode Island are obviously among the best-known places with a large, well-connected community pre-Stonewall, but you&#;re not obligated to set your story there just because your characters are gay or lesbian! Plenty of other cities had vibrant underground scenes and networks too, even if they weren&#;t as large or well-known. You also need to keep in mindif it really makes sensefor your characters to pack up their entire established reside
Titles are approximately chronological within time periods. Note: This list includes Historical Fantasy but not Historical Intimacy or YA.
For Historical Passion novels, click here.
For Historical YA, click here.
Female Protagonists
Antiquity
- Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
- The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis
- Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
- The Aven Cycle by Cass Morris
Medieval/Middle Ages
Pre-Columbian
16th Century
17th Century
18th Century
19th Century
- The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (, Jamaica and London)
- Patience & Sarah by Isabel Miller (, NE US)
- Bittersweetby Nevada Barr (US)
- Devotion by Hannah Kent (, Prussia)
- The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore (, Fresh Hampshire)
- The Prophetsby Robert Jones, Jr. (pre-Civil War, Profound US South)
- Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis (, Paris)
- Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (, San Francisco)
- Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens (, Midwest US)
- The Best BadThings and Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco (, Washington Territory)
- Clio Rising by Paula Martinac (, NYC)
- The Liar&#;s Dictionary by Eley Williams (, London)
20th Century
- Phoenix Crownby Kate Quinn and Janie C