Adds to recs for Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunners, Mary Renault's The Charioteer and E,M,Forster's Maurice. Haven't read Frost Fair but Standish (also Erastes) certainly addresses the illegality issue.
Try The Phoenix by Ruth Sims. Late Victorian setting - wanders between England and New York and covers the theatrical world and that of medicine. If you get the first edition there are some irritating Americanisms which I have, I hope, sorted out for her/with her for the second edition.
I agree with probodie about the Pearson books. Yes, they are 'just' romances in the Georgette Heyer style but like Heyer they laugh at themselves and are very readable. The covers, however, are not worksafe
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Eeh, I'm behind, and I rather think you're off jaunting again now - sorry!
I've read The Charioteer and liked it alot, though I'm not tempted by her other historicals just yet... Can't remember for the life of me if I've read Maurice yet, but I rather think it's in a box somewhere, waiting for me... *g*
read treacly schmoop from men and unbearably gritty stuff from womenNow here's a question - have you actually met these authors in person? Can you be sure that they're genuinely the gender that they're claiming to be? Obviously there's a long history of reasons for doing so, in the history of writing, but I do get annoyed when I find out that someone I thought was a man/woman writer turns out not to be, when they claim to be writing from that perspective. If I know someone's writing from a perspective not their own, it doesn't bother me (that's what writing is!) but there is something in the back of my mind that ascibes a sort of... extra accuracy of experience - extra authenticity, I suppose. It's not that I don't believe
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Certain about gender? Well, not all of them because as you say people do masquerade. But some of the women and one man yes, seen 'in the flesh' and others seen in photographs and known quite well via blogs, lists etc.
I expect it's all more of a statistical thing - more men write/read A and more women write/read B.
I have no problem with people writing from the p.o.v. of the opposite gender and don't even feel any great need to know - although knowing something about an author can add to reading pleasure in some indefinable way.
My grandmother used to write a weekly newspaper column entitled 'Speaking as a mere man...' way back in the 20s and 30s. None of her readers ever guessed and the ones who actually knew never criticised!!
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Try The Phoenix by Ruth Sims. Late Victorian setting - wanders between England and New York and covers the theatrical world and that of medicine. If you get the first edition there are some irritating Americanisms which I have, I hope, sorted out for her/with her for the second edition.
I agree with probodie about the Pearson books. Yes, they are 'just' romances in the Georgette Heyer style but like Heyer they laugh at themselves and are very readable. The covers, however, are not worksafe ( ... )
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I've read The Charioteer and liked it alot, though I'm not tempted by her other historicals just yet... Can't remember for the life of me if I've read Maurice yet, but I rather think it's in a box somewhere, waiting for me... *g*
read treacly schmoop from men and unbearably gritty stuff from womenNow here's a question - have you actually met these authors in person? Can you be sure that they're genuinely the gender that they're claiming to be? Obviously there's a long history of reasons for doing so, in the history of writing, but I do get annoyed when I find out that someone I thought was a man/woman writer turns out not to be, when they claim to be writing from that perspective. If I know someone's writing from a perspective not their own, it doesn't bother me (that's what writing is!) but there is something in the back of my mind that ascibes a sort of... extra accuracy of experience - extra authenticity, I suppose. It's not that I don't believe ( ... )
Reply
Certain about gender? Well, not all of them because as you say people do masquerade. But some of the women and one man yes, seen 'in the flesh' and others seen in photographs and known quite well via blogs, lists etc.
I expect it's all more of a statistical thing - more men write/read A and more women write/read B.
I have no problem with people writing from the p.o.v. of the opposite gender and don't even feel any great need to know - although knowing something about an author can add to reading pleasure in some indefinable way.
My grandmother used to write a weekly newspaper column entitled 'Speaking as a mere man...' way back in the 20s and 30s. None of her readers ever guessed and the ones who actually knew never criticised!!
It's an interesting subject!
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