Two Friends and Other 19th-century American Lesbian Stories: by American Women Writers Paperback – August 1, 1994

For those who have studied 19th Century American Literature, but were not introduced to these women writers, this book is a treasure. Not only does it open up an entire world of women writers and their protagonists resolute and proud to live their lives happily without men, but it also points to an undercurrent of women loving women.Besides presenting these once-well-received but buried stories, Susan Koppelman draws literary links from one woman writer to another, from one group of women writers to another. As I read, I also began to perceive that there was an entire code behind the way(s) women in the USA of the 19th Century formed deep and loving attachments to each other, not stated in the stark and sometimes crass terms of sexual anatomy we grudgingly identify with passion in the 21st Century. As a matter of fact, this collection of short stories, lovingly gathered, beautifully expounded, reveals ways in which women's love for each other both undercuts and transcends the rather minimal and nasty reductions of it that the 21st Century is all too eager to feed us on a regular basis.A revelation. This book is indeed a necessary addition to the library of those who study and teach 19th Century American Literature, and those who teach women's literature and lesbian literature.

I couldn't really get into this book. While their are stories that I would consider lesbian stories like My Visitation by Rose Terry there some like My Lorelei by Alice French aka Octave Thanet that I think Susan Koppelman mistake as a lesbian story.There couple Felipa by Constance Woolson and Two Friends by Mary Wilkins that I personally couldn't get into.

Historical yes, poorly chosen material badly written.