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Gay Lives
A fascinating portrait of LGBTQ+ figures throughout time whose lives have influenced society at large, as well as today’s varied LGBTQ+ culture. Gay Lives gives a voice to more than eighty people from all over the world and from all walks of life. It is a fascinating portrait of LGBTQ+ people throughout time, whose lives have influenced society at large, as well as today’s varied LGBTQ+ culture. It includes poets and philosophers, rulers and spies, activists and artists. Alongside such celebrated figures as Michelangelo, Frederick the Great, and Harvey Milk are lesser-known but no less surprising individuals: Dong Xian and the Chinese emperor Ai, whose passion flourished in the first century BCE; the unfortunate Robert De Péronne, burned at the stake for sodomy; Katharine Philips, writing protolesbian poetry in seventeenth-century England; and Aimee and Jaguar, whose love defied the death camps of wartime Germany. Often colorful, sometimes tragic, but all in some way extraordinary, these life stories reflect, and have helped shape, contemporary attitudes toward same-sex intimacy. Gay Lives will entertain, give pause for thought, and celebrate the diversity of human history. 20 illustrations
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2012
32 people are currently reading
392 people want to read
About the author
Robert Aldrich
49 books9 followersRobert Aldrich is an Australian historian and writer. Aldrich is a Professor of European History, he teaches and researches modern European and colonial history, including the history of France since the Revolution, the history of the French and British overseas empires, the history of 'sites of memory' and the history of gender and sexuality.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 21, 2012
There's almost 4:1 gay men:lesbian biographies in this collection... sigh.
February 28, 2014
This is a handsome volume, well written and illustrated. It has the ‘feel’ of being specially designed as a kind of coffee-table book, something which a person can flip through every now and then when one has a spare moment or two. It provides potted histories of at least some 80 persons who actually or are reputed to have had erotic dalliances with persons of the same sex. At about 290 text pages, this averages out to about 3.5 pages per person — so the histories are obviously meant to be simply introductory.
The histories generally provide a basic grasp of the lives and times of the individuals selected, but do not burden the reader with too much detail. Some of these stories are well-known, others (unfortunately) less so. Where individuals have been considered significant in the development of Gay sensibilities (on any of a number of levels) that contribution is duly noted. Where the book is interesting is its general selection covering just about every country, culture, and era where same-sex desires have been expressed. Not only is this desire found to be universal, but it also covers many types of individuals and many ways of life. Gays, apparently, have been, are, and presumably will continue to be found everywhere! So too, presumably, is their general condemnation, despite (or perhaps because of?) their universality in human nature… I suspect that one of the purposes of this work is to establish, by its existence in a relatively accessible format, the harmlessness of this aspect of human desire. Even here, however, it is merely scratching the surface.
Aldrich in his introduction refers to ‘gay men and women’ and briefly discusses the simplified terminology he adopts. Increasingly the term ‘gay’ is becoming more and more identified with the male version, and the female version as ‘lesbian’ — but here Aldrich also wishes to incorporate a wider consideration; whether all the persons included in this survey actually can be considered as participating actively in homosexual acts is not always clear (especially in some of the more ancient texts); but same-sex desire is most definitely there. It is present everywhere in some form or another — and presumably can be found even in ‘heterosexual societies’ if only in a kind of sublimated way. One thing can be sure, however: in general, none of this can possibly be interpreted as being dangerous or destructive in and of itself. This is a truth about humanity that needs to be understood, tolerated, and accepted.
While this book will not necessarily wow homosexuals, it is a useful and painless way to introduce non-homosexuals to a better understanding of what some of the bravest homosexuals have had to put up with from an intolerant and (let’s face it) ignorant section of humanity, and how they tried to find their proper place (not always successfully, but always determinedly) in society. If nothing else, they certainly deserve our respect!
The histories generally provide a basic grasp of the lives and times of the individuals selected, but do not burden the reader with too much detail. Some of these stories are well-known, others (unfortunately) less so. Where individuals have been considered significant in the development of Gay sensibilities (on any of a number of levels) that contribution is duly noted. Where the book is interesting is its general selection covering just about every country, culture, and era where same-sex desires have been expressed. Not only is this desire found to be universal, but it also covers many types of individuals and many ways of life. Gays, apparently, have been, are, and presumably will continue to be found everywhere! So too, presumably, is their general condemnation, despite (or perhaps because of?) their universality in human nature… I suspect that one of the purposes of this work is to establish, by its existence in a relatively accessible format, the harmlessness of this aspect of human desire. Even here, however, it is merely scratching the surface.
Aldrich in his introduction refers to ‘gay men and women’ and briefly discusses the simplified terminology he adopts. Increasingly the term ‘gay’ is becoming more and more identified with the male version, and the female version as ‘lesbian’ — but here Aldrich also wishes to incorporate a wider consideration; whether all the persons included in this survey actually can be considered as participating actively in homosexual acts is not always clear (especially in some of the more ancient texts); but same-sex desire is most definitely there. It is present everywhere in some form or another — and presumably can be found even in ‘heterosexual societies’ if only in a kind of sublimated way. One thing can be sure, however: in general, none of this can possibly be interpreted as being dangerous or destructive in and of itself. This is a truth about humanity that needs to be understood, tolerated, and accepted.
While this book will not necessarily wow homosexuals, it is a useful and painless way to introduce non-homosexuals to a better understanding of what some of the bravest homosexuals have had to put up with from an intolerant and (let’s face it) ignorant section of humanity, and how they tried to find their proper place (not always successfully, but always determinedly) in society. If nothing else, they certainly deserve our respect!
June 30, 2023
A great read for Pride month and more generally a great read to know about the Queers throughout history and through mutliple cultural lenses.
May 17, 2012
An Erudite and Immensely Entertaining Book
Robert Aldrich has discovered a way in which to educate the public about the history of same sex relationships and the influence of 'outsiders to society' form Egyptian times to the present. Aldrich, a professor of European History at the University of Sydney, writes not only with elegance but also with a fine tenor of wit that makes reading this exploration of history both equal to the pleasure of enjoying a fine novel as well as a solid well documented history resource. His approach is not one of simply tracing all known homosexual men and women from as far back as we have recorded history: there have been many books that provide that information. Instead Aldrich states in his introduction, 'The figures in this volume illustrate the ways in which those who felt an attraction to those of the same sex lived out their desires across time and around the world. Its purpose is not to offer a compendium of the lives of the 'greatest gays', not to provide an encyclopedic survey of the different sexual types identified by historians, anthropologists and other specialists. It represents, rather, a richly diverse congregation of figures, whose lives point up the different personal and social experiences of homosexuality through the ages. Some individuals are well known, some less well known, and none is still living. A particular effort has been made to embrace lives form outside Europe: an Arabic painter; a Sri Lankan and a Japanese photographer; a South African activist; a Jamaican novelist; a Vietnamese poet. Other figures - a nun, a priest, a military officer, a criminal - were chosen to show homosexual people in a variety of professional callings. Viewed together, their stories uncover the fashions in which sexual diversity has been expressed, and the connections between private lives and public life - between individuals and their specific historical and cultural environments.'
What follows in this very richly produced (Thames & Hudson) is a series of brief mini-biographies accompanied by portraits - photographs when available, painted portraits of those who lived before the invention of the camera - of some fascinating figures form the past and present. Beginning with the Egyptian lovers Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum (2400 BC) and flowing through history, touching on the Biblical David and Jonathan, Socrates, Hadrian and Antinous, through Michelangelo, Michael Sweerts, Frederick the Great, Walt Whitman, EM Forster, André Gide, Christopher Isherwood, Oscar Wilde, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Diaghilev, composer Karol Szymanowski, Anne Lister, Carson McCullers, Federico García Lorca, TE Lawrence, Eugène Jansson, Bhupen Khakhar, Constatine Cavafy, Yukio Mishima, Tamotsu Yato, Cardinal Newman, Yves Saint Laurent, Rosa Bonheur, Harvey Milk, Shi Pei Pu, Reinaldo Arenas and Edmund Backhouse to mention only a few in this range of poets, philosophers, artists, radicals and activists. The accompanying illustrations of these people are in both black and white and in richly produced color.
This is the book that should be included in social studies in classrooms in high schools and colleges, and the timing of this release of the book could not be more auspicious. Highly recommended on every level.
Grady Harp
Robert Aldrich has discovered a way in which to educate the public about the history of same sex relationships and the influence of 'outsiders to society' form Egyptian times to the present. Aldrich, a professor of European History at the University of Sydney, writes not only with elegance but also with a fine tenor of wit that makes reading this exploration of history both equal to the pleasure of enjoying a fine novel as well as a solid well documented history resource. His approach is not one of simply tracing all known homosexual men and women from as far back as we have recorded history: there have been many books that provide that information. Instead Aldrich states in his introduction, 'The figures in this volume illustrate the ways in which those who felt an attraction to those of the same sex lived out their desires across time and around the world. Its purpose is not to offer a compendium of the lives of the 'greatest gays', not to provide an encyclopedic survey of the different sexual types identified by historians, anthropologists and other specialists. It represents, rather, a richly diverse congregation of figures, whose lives point up the different personal and social experiences of homosexuality through the ages. Some individuals are well known, some less well known, and none is still living. A particular effort has been made to embrace lives form outside Europe: an Arabic painter; a Sri Lankan and a Japanese photographer; a South African activist; a Jamaican novelist; a Vietnamese poet. Other figures - a nun, a priest, a military officer, a criminal - were chosen to show homosexual people in a variety of professional callings. Viewed together, their stories uncover the fashions in which sexual diversity has been expressed, and the connections between private lives and public life - between individuals and their specific historical and cultural environments.'
What follows in this very richly produced (Thames & Hudson) is a series of brief mini-biographies accompanied by portraits - photographs when available, painted portraits of those who lived before the invention of the camera - of some fascinating figures form the past and present. Beginning with the Egyptian lovers Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum (2400 BC) and flowing through history, touching on the Biblical David and Jonathan, Socrates, Hadrian and Antinous, through Michelangelo, Michael Sweerts, Frederick the Great, Walt Whitman, EM Forster, André Gide, Christopher Isherwood, Oscar Wilde, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Diaghilev, composer Karol Szymanowski, Anne Lister, Carson McCullers, Federico García Lorca, TE Lawrence, Eugène Jansson, Bhupen Khakhar, Constatine Cavafy, Yukio Mishima, Tamotsu Yato, Cardinal Newman, Yves Saint Laurent, Rosa Bonheur, Harvey Milk, Shi Pei Pu, Reinaldo Arenas and Edmund Backhouse to mention only a few in this range of poets, philosophers, artists, radicals and activists. The accompanying illustrations of these people are in both black and white and in richly produced color.
This is the book that should be included in social studies in classrooms in high schools and colleges, and the timing of this release of the book could not be more auspicious. Highly recommended on every level.
Grady Harp
May 8, 2023
This book felt underwhelming to me. The secrecy of Queer relationships throughout much of history would have made finding stories such as the ones included difficult, but I felt like, at many times, the author was reaching.
August 1, 2018
Robert Aldrich's "Gay Lives" is a fascinating view into the many facets of queer life. Having read similar books before, (Sarah Prager's "Queer, There, and Everywhere" comes to mind), I was stoked to find that the reach of the book was fantastically vast. To begin, the volume spans millennia, representing gay life from 2400 BCE to 2009. Similarly, it represents people from all around the globe and from varying social statuses, genders, and professions (ranging from but by no means limited to a legendary criminal from London to an Indian prince to a female Japanese author). As such, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I knew very few of the people listed in the book, the only ones I knew being widely known anyway, such as Oscar Wilde and Sappho. By knowing little, I was able to become invested in a topic I care for deeply from an entirely new angle, and I welcome that wholeheartedly.
As for the individual entrees, they are as detailed as they can be, including family, personal life, political climate, death, and how their sexuality played into these sections of their lives. The only part of the book that I found odd was the end, which is best described as pleasantly (if not, fittingly) disappointing. This is because there is no "ending," per se, no send-off that one might expect. It lacked the epilogue I had been expecting, and thus seems to almost startle with its finality, but I believe that to be fitting, as the book focuses on the individuals, and not the author's individual thoughts on them. As such, letting the author have the final say would be in contrast to the book's goal.
In conclusion, Aldrich's "Gay Lives" provides a brilliant and perhaps all-encompassing (or at least as close as can be attained) view of homosexuality in human history.
As for the individual entrees, they are as detailed as they can be, including family, personal life, political climate, death, and how their sexuality played into these sections of their lives. The only part of the book that I found odd was the end, which is best described as pleasantly (if not, fittingly) disappointing. This is because there is no "ending," per se, no send-off that one might expect. It lacked the epilogue I had been expecting, and thus seems to almost startle with its finality, but I believe that to be fitting, as the book focuses on the individuals, and not the author's individual thoughts on them. As such, letting the author have the final say would be in contrast to the book's goal.
In conclusion, Aldrich's "Gay Lives" provides a brilliant and perhaps all-encompassing (or at least as close as can be attained) view of homosexuality in human history.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2025
Mimo tego że Gay life stories przedstawia kompendium całkiem różnorodnych figur, które były queer i prowadziły queerowe życie, po lekturze pozostaje niedosyt i wrażenie niepełności. Po pierwsze, postacie zdają się być tendencyjnie wybrane - przeważają wśród nich mężczyźni (poza rozdziałem Women loving women, który został dodany, jakby kobiety nie stanowiły integralną część „gay life stories”, a mogły dać się wcisnąć do jednego rozdziału) zajmujący się zwykle podobnymi rzeczami i pochodzącymi głównie z zachodniego kręgu kulturowego. W dodatku, w książce niejednokrotnie pojawia się opis dorosłych mężczyzn sypiających ze znacznie od siebie młodszymi youths, co tylko raz autor faktycznie nazwał po imieniu, choć i tak zasłaniając się perspektywą innych; jedyna osoba trans przedstawiona w książce została opisana swoim deadnamem i złymi zaimkami aż do momentu przejścia tranzycji cielesnej, co mi wydaje się być dość kontrowersyjnym i przykrym wyborem. Rozdziały są dziwnie pogrupowane - nawet kiedy autor kieruje się czasem życia, jak w ostatnim rozdziale, lata życia niewiele się różnią od 3 poprzednich rozdziałów; w tej kwestii panuje trochę bałagan. Ogółem miałam wrażenie, iż mimo że książka została napisana przez queerowego autora, sporo w niej stronniczości.
August 22, 2025
Boring beyond belief. The tone is stuffy and impersonal in a way that makes me feel like I'm reading research notes, not a discussion/celebration on the beauty of queer lives throughout history.
The middle chapters are truly unbearably dull. Almost every section reads exactly the same, listing a bunch of paintings or books by white men who liked to sleep with underaged boys. If this book was truly somebody's first introduction to gay history/the gay community like some people say it could be, the conclusion I feel most people would take away from the book is that all gay men are sexually attracted to teenagers, because at least 75% of the men in this book are mentioned as having an "ephebe" lover.
I never, ever want to read a book that uses the word "ephebe" even 10% as much as this one, ever again.
The middle chapters are truly unbearably dull. Almost every section reads exactly the same, listing a bunch of paintings or books by white men who liked to sleep with underaged boys. If this book was truly somebody's first introduction to gay history/the gay community like some people say it could be, the conclusion I feel most people would take away from the book is that all gay men are sexually attracted to teenagers, because at least 75% of the men in this book are mentioned as having an "ephebe" lover.
I never, ever want to read a book that uses the word "ephebe" even 10% as much as this one, ever again.
July 5, 2019
This is a wonderful book that gives mini biographies on some famous and not-so-famous homosexuals throughout history. I was delighted to be introduced to some people I had never heard of and hope to explore the art, writing, music, and larger biographies of many of these people. It was fascinating to discover how some of these figures impacted gay life in ways that are still being felt today. I plan to keep this book as a reference but also as a springboard for further discovery. Highly recommended to anyone interested in exploring homosexual history and those who want to know more about some lesser-known but important figures.
December 27, 2022
While sometimes the stories zig and zag around and some stories are questionable with their inclusion, it’s hard not to get wrapped up in these short vignettes of the lives of gays and lesbians over history. I did love how the writer managed to show a sort of influence from one era to the next in the stories.
December 9, 2024
Scholarly, short biographies of woman and men who were or were thought to be LGBTQ+ through history from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome up to 2023CE. When not much biographical information was available on a specific individual, the author provided historical, cultuiral and political context about that person. Recommended.
October 24, 2019
Good bio on some very famous people out there.
I really liked the short synopsis of some famous people who were gay.
It is really sad though how accepting we were as people of the community and as time has gone by we have become more skeptical and discriminating.
I really liked the short synopsis of some famous people who were gay.
It is really sad though how accepting we were as people of the community and as time has gone by we have become more skeptical and discriminating.
December 17, 2024
Wonderful collection of very short biographical sketches of men and women throughout the ages and around the world who were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, or who may be looked upon as a forerunner for their time.
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January 8, 2024Hell yeah
July 10, 2024
2.5
not enough femmes! not enough trans people! no aro or ace people at all! gahhhh!
not enough femmes! not enough trans people! no aro or ace people at all! gahhhh!
May 15, 2016
Informative and enjoyable look at a variety of gay lives throughout the centuries, across cultures, in different professions, and 'out' or 'closeted' to a greater or lesser degree. Very much a lesson in the diversity of humanity generally; if the gay element of this book were removed, one could be reading a random selection from the telephone book (for those of us who remember such a thing). By this statement I mean to say that gays and straights are ... yes! everywhere! And they live all sorts of lives. I wonder, without meaning any political incorrectness or offence, if being gay was legally and socially unnoteworthy, would we have books about it? Impossible to know, of course, how much of the richness of gay culture has arisen from the appalling persecution faced in most, of not all, places by most, if not all, of our brothers and sisters through the ages.
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July 12, 2012Seems incredibly well researched; I'll fill you all in afterwards.
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April 22, 2013306.76609 A3654 2012
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