More Books

So I havent actually read this book myself, but a friend recommended it to me and i figured it seemed appropriate for this class. it's called Misfortune: A Novel by Wesley Stace



The story follows Rose Old, a boy who was abandoned as an infant and then raised as a girl by a rich man whose own daughter had died. The interesting part begins when, as one reviewer puts it:

Inevitably, the young Rose reaches adolescence and suddenly doesn't look or feel ladylike any more. As greedy relatives circle in their attempt to wrest control of the estate from Lord Loveall, Rose discovers his true gender and adoptive status. When he reveals himself as a male to society at large and to his predatory relatives, he causes a scandal that jeopardizes the legitimacy of his inheritance. He does not feel at home in his male body and continues to wear dresses, even while sporting a fine mustache. After Lord Loveall dies, his survivors struggle to keep their claim to the Loveall fortune while Rose sets out to discover his roots... and himself.
-Eileen Rieback

This book seems particularly interesting, both because of the issue of transgendered identities, but also the way the author treats the main character's identity. it is not a historical analysis of transgendered issues in 19th century London, it is a story about one person's adventure. Thus it must treat Rose's gender identity, not flippantly, but as an integral part of her without being a big deal. The concept reminds me a lot of Emma, the hermaphrodite in Fausto-Sterling's The Five Sexes, who appeared "to be quite content and even happy" (Young in Fausto-Sterling 70) during a time when the medical establishment viewed hermaphrodites as being automatically unhealthy and unhappy.

Lets bring this to some vaguely academic close: it is one thing for a journal on the subject of sex, written by someone who has done a lot of research and previous writings on the subject, to put forward the concept of gender loosing it's binary opposites in society. It is another, however, for a novel, written for people who may not have the same academic background as the people who would be reading a journal about gender, to have a main character with such a fluid gender orientation. do you think this is an indication of changing sentiments? an island of change in an otherwise unrelenting sea of tradition? nothing you would ever care about? talk to me.