Year in Arcadia: A Shepherd's Calendar

Rating:
Summary: Out and About Sooner than You Thought
Review: Year in Arcadia is a one-of-a-kind book. In it we discover the Duke of a small German principality creating a work of unabashed gay imagination at the very beginning of the 19th century. His set of idylls, one for each month of the year (following the ancient Greek calendar) traces the fortunes of a pair of Arcadian male lovers to a happy conclusion. The introduction, written by Carl Skoggard (who was also the capable translator) suggests the intimate court atmosphere in which Year in Arcadia was probably written, and delivers a vivid portrait of Duke Albert of Saxe-Gotha, the author, drawing on what his contemporaries wrote about him in their letters and memoirs. (Many did!) The gay love interest of this fiction is blended with a series of conventional pairs of lovers, which only adds to the charm. A sly humor (May West avant la lettre) percolates through the stories, but the gay lovers are always treated with tenderness and respect. For those looking for unambiguous traces of the gay sensibility in an earlier age, this makes for quite an interesting read. To enjoy it to the full, you must revel in the elaborate "Greek" trappings as much as its author evidently did.