Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century

Robb, Graham, "Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century", W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. Full of Thought Amos Lassen Graham Robb gives us a brilliant social history b his look at homosexuality in the nineteenth century. He goes against the idea that because it was not categorized, homosexuals (men and women) were not persecuted and uses the case of Oscar Wilde as the prime example of this. People knew about Wilde and this was in some way a degree of acceptance. Robb looks at literature to show that gays were tolerated. This is a wonderful example of social history. Robb looks at recent research and then brings us some interesting stories and some fascinating characters. This is social history and Robb did heavy research to come with this ambitious book. He manages to get to information that has been locked up for years and touches on all facets of 19th century gay life and he gives us a world that many thought did not exist. His thesis refutes existential philosopher Michel Foucault who claimed that as an identity homosexuality is a modern construction that began with the 20th century. Robb says that homosexuals (referred to as "inverts", "sodomites" and "uranians") had both a strong feeling about being different from mainstream society and they lived out their differences in their own communities. They also maintained their own places to gather. The 19th century was not as dark for us as many maintain and that, in reality, the 20th century, was much darker. Science made strove to eliminate or treat homosexuals in the 20th century and prison sentences for "crime against nature" came into being. Robb also debunks myths that came about regarding 19th century gays. There was a sense of sexual rights and there were social clubs and a network came into being so that gays could communicate with each other all over Europe. There is also an investigation of literature of the period which includes some of the better known gay writers. There are several names that appear throughout the book--Kari; Heinrich Ulrich, Magnus Herschfeld and of course Oscar Wilde. Women are not ignored and Robb also writes about lesbians. This is a wonderful reference book for us and the documentation is welcomed. There are also comprehensive appendices with interesting statistics on incidents of sodomy and other related "offenses". The book surely opened my eyes especially since Foucault has been a hero of mine.

STRANGERS: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century as written with consummate skill and wit by Graham Robb is a fascinating insight about the history of homosexuality through the ages. Though particularly addressing the 19th Century, uncovering letters, notes, books, and facts vs. fiction by some of the more luminous writers and thinkers of that time, Robb takes multiple asides to Greece, the Middle Ages, and the centuries before his chosen example, allowing us to realize that Gay Rights Movements did NOT start in 1969 with Stonewall. His exploration of pan-sexuality includes the Church and spirituality in general, Medicine, Psychology, the fraternities and sororities, the balls and brothels, and private lives of Henry James, da Vinci, Ludwig II of Bavaria, Gide, Alexander the Great, Marcel Proust, Walt Whitman, Lord Byron, Shelley, Oscar Wilde et al, Michelangelo etc without ever becoming just a book of gossip. Quite the contrary, this is serious literature, albeit written in an often hilarious tongue-in-cheek mode. Robb's main purpose seems to establish the fact that `homosexuality' has been around and popular for far longer than the historians, sociologists and physicians believe would have us believe: it is not a discovery dating to Kraft-Ebbing, Freud, or Hirschfield. Read it for history, read it for stories about people you venerate, read it for historical information, read it as elegant prose, but by all means read this immensely successful book!

Graham Robb has probably written one of the most comprehensive, authoritative and commanding accounts of homosexual love ever. Academic, inclusive, and wide-ranging, Strangers, is at once, entertaining, but also incredibly enlightening, as Robb effectively succeeds in dispelling many of the myths associated with Victorian sexual mores. His findings on gay love in the nineteenth century are quite surprising. Victorian attitudes towards homosexuality were in many respects relatively enlightened, especially in comparison to the early twentieth century. Also, the gay community found ways to thrive, and in many European cities, truly blossom and flourish. Homosexuals, or "inverts," "sodomites," "uranians," and "pederasts" as they were called, not only had thriving meeting places, but also were able to develop whole networks and communities through the subtle bourgeoning of art, music and the written word. Robb tackles the obstacles gay love encountered and the societies it created by talking about the criminal statistics of the period. He explains the laws that existed against sodomy in various countries, and the efforts of the police force, particularly in England to stamp out any "unnatural lewdness, and "immoral acts." Robb then juxtaposes the nineteenth century with the twentieth century and the eventual "medicalization" of homosexuality. Homosexuality didn't become such a vitriolic and contentious an issue until the beginning of the twentieth century when medical and psychological views of it began to became fashionable. In the twentieth century, homosexuality began to be studied as a condition, something to be treated and perhaps cured, therefore certain diagnostic, analytical and investigative processes were attached to it. Much of the book debunks the myths surrounding homosexual society during this century. There was, in actuality, a highly politicized sense of sexual rights, a calendar of events and anniversaries, social clubs with international links, cafes and brothels and well-established cruising grounds with organized patrols. This well organized network allowed gays to communicate with one another almost throughout the whole of Europe. There's also an interesting chapter on homosexuality in literature, where Robb analyses many of the works of some of the most famously known gay writers. He also examines the hidden gay meaning behind some of the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen, who is described as "humiliated, effeminate youth." Throughout he narrative, Robb talks of Karl Heinrich Ulrich, the only known gay man to actually "come out" in the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde, and his subsequent prosecution for indecency, and the German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld, who thought he could tell a homosexual by the direction a thread will swing when tied around the right index finger. Homosexuals known to be "out" are also mentioned, such as the Ladies of Llangollen, Sarah Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler - two lesbians living in recluse in

While the twentieth century is the basis for our living experiences about homosexuality and the twenty-first century has already witnessed a faster-moving pace of its development, Graham Robb rightly places the emphasis on where we should look for guidance.... the nineteenth century. What a job the author has done!Robb points out at the onset that the Victorian Age, prudish and mannered as it is remembered, was not necessarily all that it appeared. These hundred years witnessed an explosive exposé of gay life, especially through literature and "science". It is new to me that the word "homosexual" first appeared in 1870....before that there was no real definition of a person who was attracted to people of the same sex. Far from being an age where untold horrors befell homosexuals in a variety of ways (and they did) Robb points out that this was a time of degrees of acceptance, depending of course on where you lived. Two chapters are worth noting in this book. The first is "Country of the Blind", in which the author relates how the nascent medical profession dealt with homosexuality. This chapter is hilarious on its face but poignant between the lines.... poignant in that many homosexuals for the first time sought help from their ill-equipped doctors with wildly mixed results. The second chapter is "Fairy Tales", a chapter dealing with writers and how they maneuvered in and around sexuality through use of characters in their books.Though there are references to far too many nineteenth century publishings throughout "Strangers" (often without more than a wisp of an example) and while the book lacks an overall cohesion, I would highly recommend it. Graham Robb has given the reader new ways to look at homosexuality, and in doing so, has added more color than ever before to this rich area of human life.

This is a terrific piece of social history, wide-ranging, smart, fair-minded and thoroughly entertaining. Too much gay history is two parts theory to one part story, but Graham Robb has distilled the past thirty years of research by various historians into a wonderful concentrate of stories. (Yet, he's an incredibly generous reader other people. He corrects and improves on Michael Foucault and others without ever trashing them.)The book is full of great characters: Anne Lister, Magnus Hirshfeld, Karl Ulrichs, and the anonymous man who wrote to the author of an early gay menace-type study to thank him for letting him know he was not alone, even if he did use the word "repulsive" a few too many times. This is a witty book, whether it's dealing with the medical claim that gay men have corkscrew-shaped penises ("for reasons easy to imagine") or John Maynard Keynes's personal list of sex partners from 1906 ("the chemist's boy of Paris; the clergyman; David Erskine, MP") or offering Sherlock Holmes as a gay hero.Robb does a terrific job of establishing continuities with our age as well as identifying differences. He never condescends to the past, and he doesn't trivialize the present. The book clears away the half-baked theories that have gathered around the subject like cobwebs in recent years, but, more important, it's a joy to read.