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Cecil Dreeme: A Novel (Washington Mews Books, 1) Kindle Edition

by Theodore Winthrop (Author), Peter Coviello (Author, Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 21 ratings
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A curious gem of 19th-century gothic fiction

Cecil Dreeme is one of the queerest American novels of the 19th century. This edition, which includes a new introduction contextualizing the sexual history of the period and queer longings of the book, brings a rare, almost forgotten, sensational gothic novel set in New York’s West Village back to light.

Published posthumously in 1861, the novel centers on Robert Byng, a young man who moves back to New York after traveling abroad and finds himself unmarried and underemployed, adrift in the heathenish dens of lower Manhattan. When he takes up rooms in “Chrysalis College”—a thinly veiled version of the 19th-century New York University building in Washington Square—he quickly finds himself infatuated with a young painter lodging there, named Cecil Dreeme. As their friendship grows and the novel unfolds against the backdrop of the bohemian West Village, Robert confesses that he “loves Cecil with a love passing the love of women.” Yet, there are dark forces at work in the form of the sinister and magnetic Densdeth, a charismatic figure of bad intention, who seeks to ensnare Robert for his own. Full of romantic entanglements, mistaken identity, blackmail, and the dramas of temptation and submission, Cecil Dreeme is a gothic novel at its finest. Poetically written—with flashes of Walt Whitman, Charles Dickens, and Oscar Wilde—Cecil Dreeme is an early example of that rare bird, a queer novel from the 19th century.

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  1. Part of series
    Washington Mews
  2. Print length
    303 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    NYU Press
  6. Publication date
    March 14, 2017
  7. File size
    893 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cecil Dreeme defies easy categorization. A mid-19th century queer/trans* novel, it mixes genres and perversities as it delights in combining Whitmanesque rhapsody with gothic dread, Wildean cosmopolitan seductions with very American scenes. This beguiling literary treasure provides us all with material for queer pleasure and pedagogy." -- Lisa Duggan,New York University

"Cecil Dreemeis more than a great New York novel. It is also a key text for anybody interested in the history of gender and queerness in American thoughtnot just thought that has taken place on these shores, but the history of ideas precisely about this nation itself, its values, and its direction in history." ― Public Books

"Cecil Dreemeis remarkable, compelling, and completely unclassifiable...This prophetic and rich novel whose very existence must be seen as surprising against the backdrop of 21st century skepticism as to the possibility of 'gay' literature in pre-modern times. It deserves the widest possible readership." ― The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review

"A story of treachery and tenderness,Cecil Dreemedescribes the spiritual struggles of an impressionable young American returned from Europe to the all-male haunts of lower Manhattan. This timely reprint of the popular nineteenth-century novel recalls the queer, Gothic past of the U.S. nation-state. Peter Coviellos lively introduction describes the ambiguous pleasures of ardent comradeship in a shifting erotic and political landscape." -- Heather Love,author of Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History

About the Author

Peter Coviello is Department Head and Professor of English at the University of Illinois Chicago. He is the author of five books, including Make Yourselves Gods: Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism (UChicago Press, 2019) and Tomorrow’s Parties (NYU, 2013). His work Is There God After Prince? is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press in 2023.

Theodore Winthrop (1828–1861) was a lawyer, writer, and world traveler. Cecil Dreeme is a semi-autobiographical novel, set in Washington Square and at the New York University Building where Winthrop had once been a lodger. He is also the author of the novels John Brent and Edwin Brothertoft and the travel narratives The Canoe and the Saddle and Life in the Open Air.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0198KO49U
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYU Press; Reprint edition (March 14, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 14, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 893 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 21 ratings

About the author

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Christopher Looby

Christopher Looby

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Christopher Looby teaches American literature and culture in the English Department at UCLA, where he directs the Americanist Research Colloquium as well as the summer travel study program, English in Florence: American Writers and Artists Abroad. He lives in Hollywood with his husband Joe and their dog Clover.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
3.7 out of 5
21 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

jessica
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2016
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Professor Looby of Ucla writes an impeccable forward and the book has a smart twist to it; a great read!
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Steve Harris
4.0 out of 5 stars An Important Historical Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2016
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Theodore Winthrop, best known for his pioneering work "Canoe and Saddle," memories of a trek to the Pacific Northwest at a time when few knew of this region, and for being the first officer to die in the Civil War, creates a valuable picture of New York in the late 1850s. It is for the novel's historical importance rather than its literary merit that I give it four stars. To a twenty-first century reader the ploy of mistaken identity (and gender) is not a surprise.
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Donald M. Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars It's interesting from a historical point of view, both ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2016
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It's interesting from a historical point of view, both the picture of gay feelings and life in mid-19th century America and also for its similarity to many novels of the time: Gothic elements, the Romantic hero, comic Dickensian "low" characters, high culture vocabulary, Victorian manners. I'm only halfway through, so thee may be some surprises to come.
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Jim Provenzano
3.0 out of 5 stars Historic and slightly gothic
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2016
What as odd little gem this is. A republished novel from 1861, it tells of Robert Byng and his reentry into American life, specifically lower Manhattan. He sublets a room in the early buildings of a fictional version of NYU, where he meets a near-death painter, Cecil Dreeme, After Byng and his colleagues nurse the artist back to health, they socialize and gather to ruminate frequently about their mutual nemesis, Densdeth. Although accused of being responsible for the death of his young bride, and having swindled her father in business investments, Densdeth's "evil" nature is more often discussed than shown.

Byng's fascination and infatuation for Dreeme is what the new publishers have cited as making it an early "queer" novel. Although there is no outward homosexuality displayed in his affections, Byng does get confused by his attraction to the willowy painter.

There are many colloquialisms and catch phrases of the day that aren't clear, moreso than other novels of the era that I've read. And the eventual resolution is a bit neatly tied up at the end. Despite its flaws, the book serves as an interesting artifact of an historic time.
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Pier
4.0 out of 5 stars Ottima lettura
Reviewed in Italy on July 7, 2021
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Davvero un bel libro da leggere sicuramente in lingua originale così da aiutare il proprio stato della lingua inglese , Tuttavia c'è da dire che il libro originale Non può essere Comparato alla versione digitale
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