The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman and Other Queer Nineteenth-Century Short Stories

by Christopher Looby (Editor)

"Perhaps it is no coincidence that the nineteenth century--the century when, it has been said, sexuality as such (and various taxonomized sexual identities) were invented--is the period when American short stories were invented, and when they were the queerest."--Christopher Looby, from the Introduction

A man in small-town America wears the clothing of his wife and sisters; satisfied at last that he has "a perfect suit of garments appropriate for my sex," he commits suicide, asking only that he be buried dressed as a woman. A country maid has a passionate summer relationship with an heiress, the memory of which sustains her for the next forty years. A girl is carried by a strong wind to a place where she discovers that everything is made of candy, including the "queer people," whom she licks and eats. If these are not the kinds of stories we expect to find in nineteenth-century American literature, it is perhaps because we have been looking in the wrong places.

The stories gathered here are written by a diverse assortment of writers--women and men, obscure and famous: Herman Melville, Willa Cather, and Louisa May Alcott, among others. Exploring the vagaries of gender identity, erotic desire, and affectional attachments that do not map easily onto present categories of sex and gender, they celebrate, mourn, and question the different modes of embodiment and forgotten styles of pleasure of nineteenth-century America.

Genres: Queer, Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, LGBT, Victorian, School

344 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2017

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

racist content, mostly tragic endings, nothing triumphant about queer folks

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hello master's thesis

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some strange stories, some quite good ones. Understanding and coming to terms with the outdated views of gender, sexuality, and race is important when presented with 19th works. I wish there was more discussion of each story.

[Iryna K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Читаючи цю збірку (збірковість якої, попри передмову редактора щодо принципів її укладання, місцями лишилася для мене загадкою), я фінальної усвідомила, що ХІХ століття для мене лишається квірним у всіх своїх проявах, що у кожному творі я звикла бачити якісь підпільні дивноти, у недомовках та метафорах щодо тілесності - сексуальність та притлумлені почуття.
Тому ці розповіді мені видалися на колекцією особливих незвичних і екзотичних творів, а радше типовою репрезентацією літератори тієї доби.
Втім, чи то як екзотику, чи то як пересічність - у збірці багато цікавого (і дивного, ніде правди діти).

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is divided into four sections: queer places, queer genders, queer attachments, and queer things. Most of the stories in the queer things section don't seem to be queer to me (especially the Melville one where the protagonist is obsessed with his chimney and the Hartman story where a little waif girl drowns herself in the sea). Many of these stories are sad and/or violent, but a few of them are happy and hopeful--notably the Walt Whitman and the Mary Wilkins Freeman. The titular story of the book is incredibly fascinating.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally finished this really excellent anthology of exceedingly queer stories! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes literature from this era.

[Luke]

Pub 2017

[Douglas Meeker · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

only read "the man who thought himself a woman" for class and i thoroughly enjoyed it because he is deemed an outcast but then it becomes a deeper meaning because he never felt like a boy

[Kubra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two or three chapters are brilliant. The last one, I felt, stretched the notion of queer a bit too far.

[Alaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is astonishing. The title story most of all, but there were so many here by famous authors that I'd never read.

In a few of the stories I was, and remain, baffled why they are included. The Candy Country by Louisa May Alcott, for example. I could make a case for I and My Chimney, though I don't think it's a strong one. Certainly the man is obsessed with his chimney, even if "love" might be putting it too strongly. Byt The Candy Country, to me, held no whiff of unusual desire for candy or anybody in it.

But most of them are relevant for obvious reasons, and were exciting to discover.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are 19th C stories, so racism abounds and they mostly demonstrate the regulation in process of gender and sexuality norms. Are they interesting for the ways that they trace this process? Sure, but there is nothing groundbreaking here and no positive representation of queer identities to speak of. The title story and Bierce’s “The Haunted Valley” are the strongest imo.

[Kidmin Bellin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly filled with racist, sexist, pedophilic, and transphobic stories. There is certainly value in looking at these works from a critical modern lens, but that doesn't seem to be the intention here. This collection feels oblivious to the problematic nature of these stories.