Fridolin's heimliche Ehe
1875
Adolf Wilbrandt
Rosner
German
Novel
223pp
Gay Men, Bisexual, Queer Theory
If we ask the outside world—the sempiternally ignorant world—they answer: Nature made man and woman; nothing more. But I ask again: Then is every man simply a man, and every woman simply a woman? [...] Do you not find singular deviations and exceptions to the normal type?
Summary
Considered the first gay novel in German literature and the first to have a happy ending. Fridolin, an art professor, explains to a student that he will never be married because his soul is half male and half female so his loves are both male and female. When the niece of his housekeeper is kidnapped, Fridolin joins with the girl's brother to find her; the two men fall in love.
More Info
Subtitled nach Erinnerungen und Mittheilungen erzählt.
Translated into English by Clara Bell as Fridolin's Mystical Marriage: A Study of an Original, Founded on Reminiscences of a Friend. This version slightly alters the text. For example, in the second chapter, this line:
Erst nachdem er diese Verse aus der »Iphigenie« mit schönster Betonung gesprochen, ging er auf den ihm entgegentretenden Leopold zu, schloß ihn in die Arme und küßte ihn auf den Mund.
(Only after he pronounced these verses from "Iphigenia" with the most beautiful accent, he went up to Leopold, who was approaching him, took him in his arms and kissed him on the mouth.)
becomes this:
Then, as Leopold came forward to meet him, he clasped him in his arms and kissed him—German fashion.
Also see:
The Intersexes (1910) by Edward Prime-Stevenson. Ch 9, 310-313pp.
The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art and Homosexual Fantasy (2002) by Robert Aldrich
Content & Trigger Warnings
(highlight to reveal)
Editions
New York : William S. Gottsberger (1884) is red at the LoC, brown at Google, and blue by UBC. I don't know the difference; the text and formatting seems to be the same.
Stuttgart: Cotta'schen Buchhandlung Nachfolger (1899) is seen at ngiywa eBooks. Scans of it by them are here.