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Return to Lesbos
This treasure from the golden age of lesbian pulp fiction picks up where Stranger on Lesbos left off. Deserted by her butch lover, Frances struggles to re-integrate into conventional married life. But no amount of resolve can keep her away from a new lover, the boyish Erika who lures her back into the melodrama of lesbian life.
Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the Bedelia ; Bunny Lake Is Missing ; By Cecile ; The G-String Murders ; The Girls in 3-B ; Laura ; The Man Who Loved His Wife ; Mother Finds a Body ; Now, Voyager ; Return to Lesbos ; Skyscraper ; Stranger on Lesbos ; Stella Dallas ; Women's Barracks .
Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the Bedelia ; Bunny Lake Is Missing ; By Cecile ; The G-String Murders ; The Girls in 3-B ; Laura ; The Man Who Loved His Wife ; Mother Finds a Body ; Now, Voyager ; Return to Lesbos ; Skyscraper ; Stranger on Lesbos ; Stella Dallas ; Women's Barracks .
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
About the author
Valerie Taylor
21 books23 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Valerie Taylor is the pen name of Velma Young (1913–1997), author of the lesbian pulp classics Whisper Their Love (1957), The Girls in 3-B (1959), World Without Men (1963), Journey to Fulfillment (1964), and Ripening (1988). With the $500 proceeds of her first novel, Hired Girl (1953), Taylor bought a pair of shoes, two dresses, and hired a divorce lawyer. After leaving her husband, she kicked off a prolific career as the author of pulp fiction novels, poetry (under the name Nacella Young), and romances (under the name Francine Davenport). A longtime activist for gay and lesbian rights, she was a co-founder of Mattachine Midwest and the Lesbian Writers Conference in Chicago. (source)
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Valerie Taylor is the pen name of Velma Young (1913–1997), author of the lesbian pulp classics Whisper Their Love (1957), The Girls in 3-B (1959), World Without Men (1963), Journey to Fulfillment (1964), and Ripening (1988). With the $500 proceeds of her first novel, Hired Girl (1953), Taylor bought a pair of shoes, two dresses, and hired a divorce lawyer. After leaving her husband, she kicked off a prolific career as the author of pulp fiction novels, poetry (under the name Nacella Young), and romances (under the name Francine Davenport). A longtime activist for gay and lesbian rights, she was a co-founder of Mattachine Midwest and the Lesbian Writers Conference in Chicago. (source)
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 6, 2020
Return to Lesbos is Valerie Taylor's sequel to her Stranger on Lesbos. Stranger left protagonist Frances Ollenfield, who had left her husband Bill, for a lesbian relationship, back with her husband. She had received a beating from a woman she'd picked up. In Return, Frances has been living with Bill for a year since her previous experiences and Bill is moving them to a small town outside Chicago due a promotion.
Frances goes with him but lives a loveless life with Bill. She knows she is a lesbian but had promised herself to give her marriage one more try. In this town she discovers a book store run by homosexual, Vince, who immediately takes to Frances. She also briefly meets Erika Frohmann, a young woman who Vince has taken under his wing. Erika had been involved with Kate but that relationship ended tragically.
So there is your story. Will Frances make the difficult decision either to stay with her husband or will she pursue Erika, who has immediately attracted her? I guess in some ways it's a simple story but Taylor tells it caringly and gently. The tension between Bill and Frances is palpable. Frances is more independent now than in the first story but even with her strong feelings towards Erika, she still has to make a difficult decision; stay or go.
Vince was a highlight for me, a wonderful, sensitive character, looking after Erika but wanting her and Frances to be happy. The priest that Frances meets was also a pleasant surprise. It's a very short story, but told delicately and lovingly. (4 stars)
Frances goes with him but lives a loveless life with Bill. She knows she is a lesbian but had promised herself to give her marriage one more try. In this town she discovers a book store run by homosexual, Vince, who immediately takes to Frances. She also briefly meets Erika Frohmann, a young woman who Vince has taken under his wing. Erika had been involved with Kate but that relationship ended tragically.
So there is your story. Will Frances make the difficult decision either to stay with her husband or will she pursue Erika, who has immediately attracted her? I guess in some ways it's a simple story but Taylor tells it caringly and gently. The tension between Bill and Frances is palpable. Frances is more independent now than in the first story but even with her strong feelings towards Erika, she still has to make a difficult decision; stay or go.
Vince was a highlight for me, a wonderful, sensitive character, looking after Erika but wanting her and Frances to be happy. The priest that Frances meets was also a pleasant surprise. It's a very short story, but told delicately and lovingly. (4 stars)
October 21, 2014
Return To Lesbos by Valerie Taylor, though a sequel to Stranger To Lesbos, is a completely different read. I didn't particularly like the main character, Frances, in the first book and I don't particularly like her in the beginning of the second. She doesn't seem to be seeking love out so much as a place where she'll find people like herself. At first her desperation reeks of "anyone will do." That, however, soon turns out (thankfully!) not to be the case.
Though I still don't much care for Frances when Stranger begins, I understand what she is going through. She has tried so hard not to be gay, but she is...that's just who she is. She's not happy in her marriage at all and she desperately wants to meet someone like she is. Her friend Kay tells her there is always someone for anyone who wants to fall in love, but that's often such a lie.
It turns out she DOES meet someone, in a bookstore of all places. She likes Erika almost immediately, but Erika has been hurt badly. Having lost her girlfriend to a car accident and been exposed to horrific war crimes, her life experiences have pretty much shut her down, made her immune to trying again with love.
Some people may wonder: why is lesbian pulp fiction being reprinted these days? It's a given it wouldn't make any sense to homophobic people, but I'm not sure even other gay people would understand.
"It's 2013," they'd say. "Why do you need to read books over fifty years old that speak to women who lived (or thought out) their lives in secret? You can be out and open now."
Those who live in small communities and/or with very, very conservative families, might as well be living 50 years ago. It's not the modern day woman loves woman romances that speak to someone lost and alone, but the books where "the love that dares not speak its name" is suppressed like nothing's ever been suppressed before.
And when you have almost half the country and certainly a significantly higher part of the world still believing homosexuality is a sin, with respected people like Dr. Ben Carson comparing gay people to people who engage in bestiality, the alienated gay or lesbian might need those books even more.
There are so many parts in the sequel that are touching and vulnerable, that make Frances a human, not a stock figure: "Back in bed she folded the sheet tightly across her chest to give herself a feeling of being held." Frances _really_ has tried to make her marriage work, but she's just going through the motions and it's more than she can bear.
When I finished reading Return To Lesbos it was very late at night, a time when things can hit you harder or seem bigger than they really are, but I still don't think that's why this book got to me so much. I can't believe it has a happy ending (minus Frances' husband hitting her when she tells him she can no longer be married to him) and how sweet it is. Erika is just precious (the good kind of precious) and I love how her inability to trust others brings out a kind, very protective side to Frances, that will redeem her in the eyes of anyone who read the first book and had trouble connecting with her.
Frances changes from it being all about her to being someone who loves someone else without thought for herself. It makes the love scenes touching and sincere and pokes a huge bubble in the so-called luridness of most pulp fiction covers back then.
What I also like a lot about yesterday's lesbian pulps (that is seriously lacking in today's modern lesfic) is discretion. Less is more is always sexier in a love scene and lends an air of privacy to what is a private act. Add that discretion to a happy ending (or at least what would have been a happy ending back then) and you get a book that still deserves to be read today.
June 7, 2007
This Author, Valerie Taylor also wrote "Prism," a popular lesbian novel from the mid eighties, and several other books in the Lesbian Pulp Fiction genre. I read them before time began.
She had been married with children until she came out, and had one son, possibly two. When I first knew her, she was a dear woman, just past sixty years of age. Her life partner of many years, lesbian Lawyer Pearl Heart, had died just before we met. I was proud to call her my dear friend for years. We visited, chatted and exchanged letters for many years.
She published a book of Poetry with another lesbian poet, Jeannette Foster, author Of Sex Variant Women in Literature, a mighty overview of lesbians in literature.
She was involved in, and Keynote Speaker at two Lesbian Writer's Conferences in Chicago, organized by Marie Kuda and other lesbian Writers in the Chicago Area.
When she retired from her long time job at a clipping service and from her daytime editor job, she moved, First to Margaretville, New York, where she lived in the small town of her dreams. Making a fresh start in life in her early sixties. She had a brief but passionate affair with a widowed straight woman, who broke her heart. She spoke of this woman but once to me, when she later quipped, "These mixed marriages never work out."
She had a very bad fall on the ice that winter, and broke some bones. When she recovered, her son helped her move across the country to relocate someplace with no ice. She always had pain where she had broken bones,
Tucson, Arizona was the place she chose to rebuild her life from scratch yet another time; this time permanently. She became Mother Goddess to a whole new group of young lesbians, who loved her and lovingly cared for as she aged. A couple or three women moved in to care for her for several years, until she was unable to live at home.
Then she moved into a nursing home, where her friends raised money to pay for the cost of her care, and checked on her daily until her quiet death. She died surrounded by her friends, and was mourned Nationally in Lesbian and Gay Media. I, too, mourned her, and took comfort in the fact that she had a productive, full life and was beloved by all who knew her.
She had been married with children until she came out, and had one son, possibly two. When I first knew her, she was a dear woman, just past sixty years of age. Her life partner of many years, lesbian Lawyer Pearl Heart, had died just before we met. I was proud to call her my dear friend for years. We visited, chatted and exchanged letters for many years.
She published a book of Poetry with another lesbian poet, Jeannette Foster, author Of Sex Variant Women in Literature, a mighty overview of lesbians in literature.
She was involved in, and Keynote Speaker at two Lesbian Writer's Conferences in Chicago, organized by Marie Kuda and other lesbian Writers in the Chicago Area.
When she retired from her long time job at a clipping service and from her daytime editor job, she moved, First to Margaretville, New York, where she lived in the small town of her dreams. Making a fresh start in life in her early sixties. She had a brief but passionate affair with a widowed straight woman, who broke her heart. She spoke of this woman but once to me, when she later quipped, "These mixed marriages never work out."
She had a very bad fall on the ice that winter, and broke some bones. When she recovered, her son helped her move across the country to relocate someplace with no ice. She always had pain where she had broken bones,
Tucson, Arizona was the place she chose to rebuild her life from scratch yet another time; this time permanently. She became Mother Goddess to a whole new group of young lesbians, who loved her and lovingly cared for as she aged. A couple or three women moved in to care for her for several years, until she was unable to live at home.
Then she moved into a nursing home, where her friends raised money to pay for the cost of her care, and checked on her daily until her quiet death. She died surrounded by her friends, and was mourned Nationally in Lesbian and Gay Media. I, too, mourned her, and took comfort in the fact that she had a productive, full life and was beloved by all who knew her.
June 20, 2024
Shout out to Queer Liberation Library for getting me access to lesbian pulp novels! This was a cool little glimpse into 60s queer culture, though the romance was too insta-love and "I can fix her" for my taste. Then again, if I was a lesbian housewife in the 60s desperate for intimacy, I would also probably fall in love with the first gay woman I ran into.
TW for scattered references to domestic violence and rape
TW for scattered references to domestic violence and rape
December 19, 2018
Yay for 60’s lesbian pulp written by a woman!!!
July 17, 2026
5 stars
Return to Lesbos is everything that I wanted Stranger on Lesbos to be. It's introspective, packed full of phenomenal writing, sweet and sensual moments, and an arc of growth for Frankie. Frankie's pursuit of Erika is full of longing, wanting, and desire to break free from the confines of heteronormativity and her marriage, which has devolved into masking and continuous rapes. It's a story of change, growth, and coming into your identity as a lesbian in a world that rejects you. It's hopeful, and the friendship she has with Vince is so heartwarming. I loved how he wanted Erika and Frankie to make it work despite Erika's fears. I also loved the conversation with the pastor, who was queer-affirming and gave advice antithetical to the time this book was written. Erika's trauma with her past love dying, as well as being a survivor of a concentration camp during the Holocaust, added a layer of complexity and depth to the story that was so needed compared to Bake's dry-ass from the first book.
Frankie embraces Erika and fully pursues her in a way that is so opposite of the constricted, stifled, and timid woman from the first novel. Seeing her growth was so wonderful as a reader. This book is a staple of lesbian pulp fiction. I would champion reading over its predecessor because it's bold and it does not fall into the tropes or conventions that book one forced upon lesbian readership. This book celebrates lesbianism and does not condemn it. No ONE DIES or is raped! This book is unique from what is expected, and it is now an all-time favorite. Who would've thought this tiny little sequel would mean so much to me?
Return to Lesbos is everything that I wanted Stranger on Lesbos to be. It's introspective, packed full of phenomenal writing, sweet and sensual moments, and an arc of growth for Frankie. Frankie's pursuit of Erika is full of longing, wanting, and desire to break free from the confines of heteronormativity and her marriage, which has devolved into masking and continuous rapes. It's a story of change, growth, and coming into your identity as a lesbian in a world that rejects you. It's hopeful, and the friendship she has with Vince is so heartwarming. I loved how he wanted Erika and Frankie to make it work despite Erika's fears. I also loved the conversation with the pastor, who was queer-affirming and gave advice antithetical to the time this book was written. Erika's trauma with her past love dying, as well as being a survivor of a concentration camp during the Holocaust, added a layer of complexity and depth to the story that was so needed compared to Bake's dry-ass from the first book.
Frankie embraces Erika and fully pursues her in a way that is so opposite of the constricted, stifled, and timid woman from the first novel. Seeing her growth was so wonderful as a reader. This book is a staple of lesbian pulp fiction. I would champion reading over its predecessor because it's bold and it does not fall into the tropes or conventions that book one forced upon lesbian readership. This book celebrates lesbianism and does not condemn it. No ONE DIES or is raped! This book is unique from what is expected, and it is now an all-time favorite. Who would've thought this tiny little sequel would mean so much to me?
May 30, 2025
i was shocked this had a happy ending!! it warms my heart to imagine lesbians reading this 60 years ago and getting to see themselves end up happy together. i think by virtue of this being a sequel it avoided a lot of the violence and despair that’s a hallmark of lesbian pulp novels.
i didn’t necessarily buy the romance between these two (at least not from frances’ perspective), i’m not a big fan of instalove. i’m also aware that this is a sequel (although i wasn’t when i started reading), so i might have connected more with frances had i read the first novel.
it was definitely a poignant representation of what it feels like to accept that you’re a lesbian, that this is an intrinsic and unchangeable fact, and that there is nothing wrong with that. lovely to see such strong self-acceptance and challenging of homophobic narratives from 1963. it was also super interesting to see the inner workings of both heterosexual marriage and some queer spaces from this period.
i’ve been wanting to get my hands on some of these novels for ages, so what a blessing that the queer liberation library has so many!!
i didn’t necessarily buy the romance between these two (at least not from frances’ perspective), i’m not a big fan of instalove. i’m also aware that this is a sequel (although i wasn’t when i started reading), so i might have connected more with frances had i read the first novel.
it was definitely a poignant representation of what it feels like to accept that you’re a lesbian, that this is an intrinsic and unchangeable fact, and that there is nothing wrong with that. lovely to see such strong self-acceptance and challenging of homophobic narratives from 1963. it was also super interesting to see the inner workings of both heterosexual marriage and some queer spaces from this period.
i’ve been wanting to get my hands on some of these novels for ages, so what a blessing that the queer liberation library has so many!!
October 27, 2020
I really liked this one. The pacing and the romance are a little uneven, but I like the continuation of Frances’ story and the way this depicts gay life (there’s a homophile meeting! there’s a box of pulps and books about gay stuff! there’s the rotation of lesbians in and out of the gay bars as they try to go go straight! there’s a gay boy who helps all of it work! There’s attempts at cruising!)
The priest who she consults about what to do with her marriage is also a great illustration that even in this period, mainstream figures hold very different views and are heavily influenced by Freud and others. And the century of the self is all over this one—FULFILLMENT.
I also like how much everyone rides the bus in these books.
The priest who she consults about what to do with her marriage is also a great illustration that even in this period, mainstream figures hold very different views and are heavily influenced by Freud and others. And the century of the self is all over this one—FULFILLMENT.
I also like how much everyone rides the bus in these books.
July 5, 2026
Such an interesting book. I love lesbian history. So much in it that made my eyes wide and my eyebrows raise: the marital consensual but unwanted sex, the gender roles, and the characters' histories. Wow. Just to think that would be the type of stories people you met with back then, and how they told their tales so matter of fact.
This book is really of it's time. It was like pure time travel. So beautifully detailed and 1960s. Loved that part too. Although such a different place to now.I'm glad things have changed (for some).
The story itself? I'm glad she left Bill. I think they may be an utterly codependent couple and I think it may end of tears, but can I say I was glad they got together? Stepping back in time, yes, I'm happy for them both.
This book is really of it's time. It was like pure time travel. So beautifully detailed and 1960s. Loved that part too. Although such a different place to now.I'm glad things have changed (for some).
The story itself? I'm glad she left Bill. I think they may be an utterly codependent couple and I think it may end of tears, but can I say I was glad they got together? Stepping back in time, yes, I'm happy for them both.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2024
I just expected more to be honest. The start was such a slow burner, and it really isn’t even a big book. It’s part of a series that I haven’t fully read so maybe I’m also missing details with that. I think I wish there was more detail about their love story rather than just they end up together, a bit more of an insight into their life together after Frances leaves her husband. Maybe there’s another book for that though haha
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2025
Misleading title, this was a return to a METAPHORICAL Lesbos. But, still gay.
May 17, 2014
SPOILER ALERTS FOR "STRANGER ON LESBOS" AND "A WORLD WITHOUT MEN"
After returning to her husband at the end of "Stranger on Lesbos," Frances Ollenfield has been trying to be a good wife for over a year. She's incredibly lonely and restless, however, and she knows that her affair with Bake wasn't an aberration (like her husband believes), but that she's a lesbian. She meets Erika Frohmann in a used bookstore, and Frances is filled with longing for the other woman.
Meanwhile, Erika, the strong concentration camp survivor from "A World Without Men," has been completely crushed by life. Her partner, Kate (also from "A World Without Men"), died unexpectedly in a car accident, and Erika is finding it hard to continue living. She's almost completely withdrawn from life, but Frances is determined to lure her back.
Altogether, I really liked this book. There are some overly dramatic parts, but I love that it's not some "lesbians are depraved sex perverts" book, which is typical of pulp novels from this time period. There are several characters in the book sympathetic to gay people. And I really do like the characters of both Frances and Erika.
After returning to her husband at the end of "Stranger on Lesbos," Frances Ollenfield has been trying to be a good wife for over a year. She's incredibly lonely and restless, however, and she knows that her affair with Bake wasn't an aberration (like her husband believes), but that she's a lesbian. She meets Erika Frohmann in a used bookstore, and Frances is filled with longing for the other woman.
Meanwhile, Erika, the strong concentration camp survivor from "A World Without Men," has been completely crushed by life. Her partner, Kate (also from "A World Without Men"), died unexpectedly in a car accident, and Erika is finding it hard to continue living. She's almost completely withdrawn from life, but Frances is determined to lure her back.
Altogether, I really liked this book. There are some overly dramatic parts, but I love that it's not some "lesbians are depraved sex perverts" book, which is typical of pulp novels from this time period. There are several characters in the book sympathetic to gay people. And I really do like the characters of both Frances and Erika.
October 23, 2011
Laughably bad on many pages, but has a few redeeming moments. It did make me see how far Western society has come these last 50 years. Bravely done.
February 7, 2014
Intriguing for historical reasons.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews