Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-331) and index.

"In Strangers, the biographer of Balzac, Hugo, and Rimbaud has turned his attention to uncovering the real story of male and female homosexuality in the Victorian era. On the basis of archives, diaries, and letters scattered throughout Europe and America, Graham Robb tells a tale that is in part familiar, and in part extremely surprising - a story of oppression and secrecy but also of unexpected tolerance and familiarity." "Contradicting the widely held view that a liberated and proud gay heritage dates back only a few decades, the author uncovers evidence from legislation, literature, medicine, and daily life pointing to a culture of homosexuality that was uniquely well developed, self-aware, and sophisticated. He describes the lives of gay men and women: how they discovered their sexuality and accepted or disguised it; how they came out; how they made contact with like-minded people. He also includes a fascinating investigation of the encrypted homosexuality of such famous nineteenth-century sleuths as Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes himself (with glances forward in time to Batman and J. Edgar Hoover). Finally, Strangers addresses crucial questions of gay culture, including the riddle of its relationship to religion: Why were homosexuals created with feelings that the Creator supposedly condemns?"--Jacket.