"Heterosexuality, this novel forthrightly claims, is a poor substitute for passionate love between men--and heterosexuality's historical emergence in the nineteenth century is consequently, Cecil Dreeme laments, a grave misfortune."--Christopher Looby, from the Introduction

Freshly returned to New York City from his studies abroad, unmoored by news of the apparent suicide of his accomplished childhood friend Clara Denman, and drawn in spite of himself toward the sinister man-about-town Densdeth, Robert Byng is unsettlingly adrift in the city of his birth. Things take an even...

"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...