Gay historical books
10 items
A struggling correspondent and a gentleman team up to rescue a lady from scandal. This novella is put in an English village during the Regency era.
Lush writing, a finely woven plot, and a medieval romance between a wounded viking and a Christian monk make this story a winner in my eyes.
The first in a trilogy about a charming earl and a cross-dressing Shakespearean actor, set in Elizabeth England - one of my favorite historical periods!
A slow burn passion based in Cornwall. Apparently i acquire a thing for eccentric scientists. I'd been waiting for this one a long time and it was successfully worth the wait.
Two men in the French Foreign Legion - one an incorrigible misfit and the other a highly respected commandant - plan a daring prison end in 1930s Algiers.
A rollicking pirate adventure set in the Caribbean during the 19th century. This one appeals to my desire to get lost on a deserted island.
This whirlwind romance spans a few decades in the 20th century. Likable characters and Hollywood scandals make this a great start to a series.
A nice romance between two men of alternative cultural backgrounds, they eventually pursue the Amer
It’s Pride month, which means I get to unapologetically talk up queer booksall month (as if I don’t do that 12 months of the year). For me, Pride has always been about honoring the past as much as celebrating the display . So it’s no surprise that Pride has got me thinking about queer historical fiction. There’s definitely not enough queer historical fiction in the world. You might think, given the general lack of queer characters in historical fiction, that queer people sprang into existence sometime in the late 1960s. Obviously, this is not the case. And while we desperately need more historical fiction staring queer people, there are, happily, some delightful books out there that center queer stories from centuries past. Not all of these books have happy endings, although many of them do. The gender non-conforming characters in them have complete, complicated, sometimes joyful, sometimes heartbreaking lives. In short: they are human. Yes, there is homosexual suffering in many of these books, but there is also queer resilience and joy. These books are a testament to the fact that queer people have been here all along. We might not ever understand their true names and stories, but we do
A King Awakened: Male lover Historical Romance (Noble Pleasures Book 2)
When a king finally indulges his most forbidden desires, after a lifetime of denying his hidden nature, an unstoppable passion ignites. One that can’t be denied…no matter the risk.
When King Arend Tollemach contracted a concubine for a year, he insisted on one thing: he’d never fall in love. Ever. Not with any man, and certainly not his paid lover.Unfortunately, Arend’s heart proves an unruly subject, surrendering posthaste to his bed servant. The only problem? Falling in love just may cost Arend far more than he feared: his throne.
Julian Baribeau spent ten years training air conditioning replacementat a discreet establishment, one known for grooming aristocratic bed slaves. In all that time, he longed for only one thing: love in the arms of a nobleman, one who would ultimately claim him as husband. So, when he’s made King Arend’s concubine, his dream appears near fruition. Until he learns that Arend long ago swore off love, vowing he’d never open his heart again.
Despite his past, Arend finds himself in a dangerous free-fall, making Julian even more determined
Gay love stories in historical fiction
What was it like to be a same-sex attracted man in Paris in 1870? While researching my novel The Beasts of Paris, I couldn’t find much in 19th-century writing about homosexual love, and even later there are strangely rare literary, queer, period-set love stories (shout outs to Sarah Waters and Mary Renault), so I’m pushing the boundaries of both ‘love story’ and ‘historical’ here. All I found in 19th-century accounts is an occasional minor traits – e.g. in Zola’s Nana – or documentary reports of police raids, or porn (thank you, Jack Saul). I delved into novels, paintings and photographs as adequately as history. And if my historical period stretches from Ancient Greece to the early 1950s – well, you take what you can get.
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Maurice by E.M. Forster
The daddy of all homosexual love stories. Although written in 1913, Forster’s book was not published until after his death, in 1971. He was inspired to write it after meeting the penner and activist Edward Carpenter and his long-term partner George Merrill. It’s a deeply sympathetic picture of a male who experiences intense passion, first with his closeted top friend Clive, and then, after Clive’s marriage,