Roman Ivory: A Novel

by Robert Bruegmann

In Victorian England, Joseph Stapleton, 1st Viscount Barringon, has died unexpectedly, leaving his nineteen-year-old son, Robert, to inherit his title, estate, family business, and a curious collection of ancient and contemporary male erotica. Eager to discover more about his father's carefully hidden passion, Robert retraces his travels to London, Paris, and Rome, discovering, first to his dismay and then to his great relief, that he and his father are attracted to men in the same way. But then Robert goes a step too far and uncovers clues that his father - and one of his prize objets d'art - may have been involved in a grisly murder. Worse, Robert's new domineering lover, Fabrizio, may have been the murderer.

321 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2024

Reviews

[Terry Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good story set primarily in Paris and Rome involving 19th century art, upper class men who are interested in phallic works of art and sex between men.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

[Andrew Peters]

A young man undertakes a journey to uncover his dead father’s secret life, and in so doing, comes to terms with his own secrets. Set in mid-nineteenth century England, Italy, and France, the story portrays a dangerous yet surprisingly decadent era for men of certain means who sought love and sex with other men. The style of Bruegmann’s novel is erotic and melodramatic, and themes of mystery and queer desire unfold through clues hidden in the portraiture and sculpture of male youths, from classical Rome and Greece, to religious iconography of the Renaissance era, and forward to neoclassical works.

Read the rest of my review at Out in Print.