Rating: 
Summary: The colors of homosexuality
Review: While the twentieth century is the basis for our living experiences about homosexuality and the twenty-first century has already witnessed a faster-moving pace of its development, Graham Robb rightly places the emphasis on where we should look for guidance.... the nineteenth century. What a job the author has done!Robb points out at the onset that the Victorian Age, prudish and mannered as it is remembered, was not necessarily all that it appeared. These hundred years witnessed an explosive exposé of gay life, especially through literature and "science". It is new to me that the word "homosexual" first appeared in 1870....before that there was no real definition of a person who was attracted to people of the same sex. Far from being an age where untold horrors befell homosexuals in a variety of ways (and they did) Robb points out that this was a time of degrees of acceptance, depending of course on where you lived. Two chapters are worth noting in this book. The first is "Country of the Blind", in which the author relates how the nascent medical profession dealt with homosexuality. This chapter is hilarious on its face but poignant between the lines.... poignant in that many homosexuals for the first time sought help from their ill-equipped doctors with wildly mixed results. The second chapter is "Fairy Tales", a chapter dealing with writers and how they maneuvered in and around sexuality through use of characters in their books. Though there are references to far too many nineteenth century publishings throughout "Strangers" (often without more than a wisp of an example) and while the book lacks an overall cohesion, I would highly recommend it. Graham Robb has given the reader new ways to look at homosexuality, and in doing so, has added more color than ever before to this rich area of human life.
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