Male Love Among The Romantics
• “Hellenism and Homoeroticism in Shelley
and his Circle” was
first published in the Journal of
Homosexuality
(Volume 49, Numbers 3/4 2005) and as a book chapter. It gives a partial
overview of my next book, tentatively titled: Male Love in
the
Shelley-Byron Circle. To read it click
here.
• “Homoeroticism in Epipsychidion” is a
gay reading of
Percy Bysshe Shelley's most problematic poem. It uses footnote
annotation to explicate the beautiful and erotic ending of Epipsychidion
and the highly revealing “Passages of the poem, or connected
therewith”, which were not published with it. To read
“Homoeroticism in Epipsychidion” click here.
• “Shelley's Ashes” recounts male couples
who were
buried together in a common tomb. It argues that ashes of the great
English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, are mixed together with those of
his beloved friend, Edward Ellerker Williams. To read
“Shelley's
Ashes” click here.
• “The Sleeping Venus” — an
excerpt from Thomas Love Peacock's 1831
novel, Crochet
Castle
— is a marvelous specimen of high camp and a vigorous assault
on
sexual prudery. It contains definite homoerotic references. To read
“The Sleeping Venus” click
here.
• Fiona MacCarthy's 2002 biography, Byron: Life
and Legend,
is the best ever written. To read my review click
here.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley's translation of Plato's dialogue on
Love, the Symposium
(or Banquet)
is almost unknown, even among students of English literature
—
yet it is by far the best in English, a masterpiece in its own right.
The 2001 Pagan Press edition is the only one in print, and the only one
for many decades, to publish both Shelley's translation and his
introductory essay, “A Discourse on the Manners of the
Antient
(sic) Greeks Relative to the Subject of Love”. For a
description
and reviews of this and other Pagan Press books click here.
• My recent book, The
Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, has three theses: 1) Frankenstein
is
a great work, which has consistently been underrated and
misinterpreted; 2) the real author of Frankenstein
is
Percy Bysshe Shelley, not his second wife, the former Mary Godwin; and
3) male love is a central theme of Frankenstein.
To
visit the Frankenstein
Pages click here.
• Harriet Shelley.
These pages are devoted to the memory of Harriet Shelley, first wife of
the Poet and mother of his living descendants. A good and lovely woman,
she has been treated cruelly by mainstream biographers. Here are
descriptions of Harriet by those who knew her best, and a brilliant
defence of her character by America's greatest novelist, Mark Twain.
To learn about her click here.
• Percy Bysshe Shelley was influenced by Plato's dialogue, ION,
whose central conceit is that poets and their interpreters are all mad
— or divinely inspired. To read Shelley's translation of ION click here.
• Jeremy Bentham: Essay on Paederasty.
The earliest known plea for reform of England's sodomy statute, written
in the late 18th century but only published in the late 20th century.
Commentary by Louis Crompton and John Lauritsen. There was overlap between the Bentham and the Shelley circle.
Introduction to Bentham's Essay on Paederasty. Click here.
Bentham's essay: “Offenses Against One's Self: Paederasty”. Click here.
• Byron's Boyfriends. My review of Byron and Women (and Men) (2010), edited by Peter Cochran. Click here.