Description
Book SynopsisA curious gem of 19th-century gothic fictionCecil Dreeme is one of the queerest American novels of the 19th century. This edition, which includes a new introduction contextualizing the sexual history of the period and queer longings of the book, brings a rare, almost forgotten, sensational gothic novel set in New York's West Village back to light. Published posthumously in 1861, the novel centers on Robert Byng, a young man who moves back to New York after traveling abroad and finds himself unmarried and underemployed, adrift in the heathenish dens of lower Manhattan. When he takes up rooms in Chrysalis Collegea thinly veiled version of the 19th-century New York University building in Washington Squarehe quickly finds himself infatuated with a young painter lodging there, named Cecil Dreeme. As their friendship grows and the novel unfolds against the backdrop of the bohemian West Village, Robert confesses that he loves Cecil with a love passing the love of women. Yet, there are dark fo
Trade ReviewCecil Dreeme defies easy categorization. A mid-19th century queer/trans* novel, it mixes genres and perversities as it delights in combining Whitmanesque rhapsody with gothic dread, Wildean cosmopolitan seductions with very American scenes. This beguiling literary treasure provides us all with material for queer pleasure and pedagogy. -- Lisa Duggan,New York University
A story of treachery and tenderness,Cecil Dreemedescribes the spiritual struggles of an impressionable young American returned from Europe to the all-male haunts of lower Manhattan. This timely reprint of the popular nineteenth-century novel recalls the queer, Gothic past of the U.S. nation-state. Peter Coviellos lively introduction describes the ambiguous pleasures of ardent comradeship in a shifting erotic and political landscape. -- Heather Love,author of Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History
Cecil Dreemeis more than a great New York novel. It is also a key text for anybody interested in the history of gender and queerness in American thoughtnot just thought that has taken place on these shores, but the history of ideas precisely about this nation itself, its values, and its direction in history. * Public Books *
Cecil Dreemeis remarkable, compelling, and completely unclassifiable...This prophetic and rich novel whose very existence must be seen as surprising against the backdrop of 21st century skepticism as to the possibility of 'gay' literature in pre-modern times. It deserves the widest possible readership. * The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review *
