Historical fiction with trans-women characters?

LuaVerena

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One of the characters in my WIP with a victorian-inspired setting is a trans-woman, so I'm interested in reading other fiction that includes trans-women in a non-modern setting. Does anyone know of any? I haven't been able to find anything so far.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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Try AN UNSUITABLE HEIR by K J Charles. It's the third book in a trilogy so you might want to start with AN UNSEEN ATTRACTION.
 

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Orlando by Virginia Woolf
 

LuaVerena

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Thanks for the recommendations! I've just searched up the Sins of the Cities series, all 3 books in the series sound interesting and like they'd be useful to read.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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Yeah! Charles is a very good writer. I hope you enjoy her books.
 

PNW_Michelle

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Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters might not be EXACTLY what you're looking for - it's a story about a lesbian in Victorian (I think) England who lives for a time as a man, BUT it does give some insight into what the lives of queer and trans people in a historical setting might have been like. Also it's a very, very good book.
 

Emermouse

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I don't know if you're interested in nonfiction, but you might want to look up the story of Jemima Wilkinson. She was a genderfluid Quaker during the 18th century. I admit that 18th Century is decades away from the Victorian Era, but you might find it interesting. Amazon has a book about her called The Public Universal Friend.

If you want a story about a transman, you can read up on Eugene Falleni. Falleni was a transman, not a transfemale, but I thought his story might further help you understand the social mores and stigmas that affected transgender people of the past.
 

Jennie

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:hi:

I hope I am not too late in posting this message. It's just that I'm new, and it takes time to explore the many threads in this forum.
If you read French, you might want to look into the journal called "Clio". In issue n°10/1999, there is an article by a historian, Susan Clayton, about "female-husbands". I found this article very interesting when I was doing some research on the subject. She speaks about James Allen, who was the "female-husband" of a woman called Abigail in 1787-1829. Here is the link: https://journals.openedition.org/clio/254 and you can find a summary in English, with many bibliographical notes. The whole issue is about transgender in various periods of time.