![]() ![]() ![]() The very basic story is this: Laurence, scion of a wealthy and important family of the time, is sent away to school for his childhood and teen years, so that he "might become robust and manly, and haply learn to seem that which I could never be." He had been born an intersexed person (hence the title), then "baptized.with a masculine name" since his parents had decided to "invest" him with "the dignity and insignia of manhood." Throughout his school years, he rarely saw his parents when he did, they were "cold and reserved" so that unlike most kids, he would rather have been at school than at home. Now, having said that, I do think that it's an important book on many levels, considering when it was written and what was going on in the life of the author at the time. As a casual sort of reader, it was really all I could do to stay focused on this book at times, and toward the end it became even more difficult for me, even as it gained in intensity. ![]() Writing about this novel is not an easy thing to do, but I'll start by saying this: story very good, writing felt sloggy past the midpoint, difficult to understand sometimes but overall, very much worth the effort. (note: original is an unpublished manuscript, 1840s) ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |