Have you ever wanted to read classics written by femme, radical, queer, or POC authors but don't because the genre is famously all "old white men"?
Well, you're one of today's lucky 10,000 because I am queer and autistic and a slut for the (actually tasty) classics 🎉
Here is a list of a few of my favorites with facts about the authors that you may or may not have known before 😊
First, my favorite revenge story of literally all time, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
Whether yoy know it or not, you've very likely consumed one or more of his stories. For example, if you've ever seen Disney's Three Musketeers movie, then I have some very fun news for you about who originally wrote The Three Musketeers. 😘
I love all things Dumas and voraciously devoured the full unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo when I was 16 and to this day I still won't eat anything I'm given when I see estranged relatives.
Alexandre Dumas was Black, radical, and a wonderfully prolific writer of adventure stories critiquing his contemporary society, especially in regards to class and race. His critiques are, in fact, so naturally integrated into the text that some scholars refuse to acknowledge them as anything but incidental to his plots, which might hint a bit about his skill in story telling. I loooooove his books, and HIGHLY recommend! (Also, you should try out biographies for some of the folks I mention. I happen to be a bit of a history fan as well, and these biographies can show you that some of these oh-so-famous classics authors were actually people just out there doing the work like you or me today who died in poverty and were recognized for their humanity only posthumously in supposedly more enlightened times (but somehow the messages you read will be eerily prevalent for today because these are some of the feet that helped tread the path so that we could pave it with concrete so that the next generation can put up the rails so that- and that's the magic of Dumas' stories. They are a product of work that continues the work, just like us!)
Next is naturally another favorite with another darker theme: The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
You may never have been told this before, but The Hunchback of Notre Dame is actually quite satirical, making mockery of the atrocities being visited on the poor, unattractive, non-white, or otherwise "undesirable" members of society who were being abused and neglected every day. Victor Hugo was a man who was radicalized as an adult and went on to become a human rights' activist who even went into politics in the effort to abolish slavery.
Besides his identity as a radical politician, the book itself is one of my favorites ever. It has my favorite ending of any classic, and anyone who has a problem with that can fight me. The ending was literally, technically perfect for the story that he told, and I have never been so satisfied with a conclusion in my life. The book is hard to read. It shows you casual, everyday brutality and cruelty and coldly demands that you laugh along with the crowd at it. It is narrated from the perspective of a white, able bodied man who couldn't understand the struggles faced by the other (actual main) characters and that disconnect is where the story lives. I cannot recommend it enough and I hope you have as thrilling a reading experience as I did.
And my last recommendation for the night, Silas Marner by George Eliot.
Every day I have to live my life knowing that almost no one knows that George Eliot was actually a radical, queer, polyamorous woman, whose husband encouraged her to pursue relationships with women alongside their own marriage if it made her happy, and she published this book criticizing the class disparity and Christian morality under a man's name and succeeded. And every day I want to cry about it. I want to start a fan club for this woman.
I need you to understand that not only is George Eliot the fucking coolest, but also this book is fucking adorable??????? And heart wrenching, but we arent talking about that right now, right now we're talking about "Eppie in da toal tuttle" (an actual line written that way to imitate the lisp of a toddler talking to the grumpy old miser who adopted her and rediscovered love and humanity by raising this little baby he found ABANDONED IN THE SNOW.) THIS STORY IS SO PRECIOUS AND EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT.
Obviously this list is very short, just a few of my very favorites, but I want to show you how very much amazing information you can find just by learning a little about the authors of the books you look at. You might find some surprisingly like-minded people with stories that are still wonderful to hear told today. I hope this helps! Happy reading!
Editing to add: a longer rec list but without details for folks to look up on their own if they want.
Maurice by E.M. Forster (if he sounds familiar, it's because he also did A Room with a View but I like this one best, and I enjoyed the film as well)
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley (I'm pretty sure both she and her husband were in some kind of triad with Lord Byron but that's actual history and it is not my business to try to define things that I wasn't involved in.)
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. This is one of my favorites, with themes of classism, religion vs. faith, and the social consequences of both otherness and poverty, but couched in the perspective of a well-bred young woman suddenly falling to a lower social class and navigating her new life. It is beautiful and heartbreaking and life affirming. Idk what to tell you, this is my Pride and Prejudice. Incidentally, I also discovered my favorite actor, Richard Armitage, while watching the BBC adaptation of it where he played Mr. Thornton. He's queer and played the romance that way and by gods it is still one of the most moving portrayals of a love story that I've ever seen.
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This one has nothing to do with the author and everything to do with the story. If you ever seen the queer movie The Half of It on Netflix, that film is actually an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. Many people talk about how thoroughly it explores the bias against people who are visibly different, and that is one of the things I love about it, but what I love more is the actual prose. When I say this play has some of thr most beautiful and moving words of love I've ever heard (besides which, I personally ship all three main characters together, and see them all as complementary soulmates-an OT3, if you will.)
