Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania
 | |
| Author | Bayard Taylor |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Gay novel |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
Publication date | 1870 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 361 pp |
| ISBN | NA |
Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania is an 1870 novel by American author Bayard Taylor.[1]
Plot introduction
Young Joseph Aster marries a wealthy woman just as he is discovering an even more powerful love with his new friend Philip Held. Joseph must contend with the revelation of his wife's manipulative nature as well as his increasing feelings for Philip.[2]
Literary significance and criticism
Joseph and His Friend has been deemed the 'first gay novel' in America.[3] It has also been noted for its enigmatic treatment of homosexuality. Roger Austen notes "In the nineteenth century Bayard Taylor had written that the reader who did not feel 'cryptic forces' at play in Joseph and His Friend would hardly be interested in the external movement of his novel."[4]
Noting that the novel "is quite explicit in its adoption of a political stance toward homosexuality", Robert K. Martin explains:
[Joseph] meets Philip Held, with whom he falls in love and who explains to him "the needs" that are often unfulfilled in conventional society. Philip argues for the "rights" of those "who cannot shape themselves according to the common-place pattern of society."[5]
Footnotes
- ↑ Whitcomb, Selden L.; Matthews, Brander (1893). Chronological Outlines of American Literature. Norwood Press. p. 186.
- ↑ Taylor, Bayard, Joseph and his friend: a story of Pennsylvania, New York: G. P. Putnam & sons, 1870
- ↑ Austen, Roger, Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977, p. 9
- ↑ Austen, Roger, Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977, p. 77
- ↑ Martin, Robert K. "American Literature: Nineteenth Century". glbtq.com. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
References
- Austen, Roger (1977). Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America (1st ed.). Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company. ISBN 978-0-672-52287-1.
- Fone, Byrne (1998). The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature: Readings from Western Antiquity to the Present Day (1st ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-09670-6.
- Gifford, James (2006). Glances Backward: An Anthology of American Homosexual Writing, 1830-1920 (1st ed.). Broadview Press. ISBN 978-1-55111-728-7.
- Mitchell, Mark (1998). Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914 (1st ed.). Wilmington, MA: Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0-395-83705-4.
- Nissen, Axel (2003). The Romantic Friendship Reader: Love Stories Between Men in Victorian America (1st ed.). Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 978-1-55553-591-9.
External links
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