this is a long shot but do you know of any 1800s novels with lesbians in it?

boykeats:

not a long shot, actually! perhaps the most well-known and also the most explicit, at least of what i’ve read, is sheridan le fanu’s carmilla, which is 19th century lesbian vampire fiction.

other novels are charlotte bronte’s shirley and villette (charlotte herself was not straight and it Shows), henry james’ the bostonians (there’s a boston marriage between two ladies, and henry wasn’t straight either),
elizabeth gaskell’s the grey woman (less pronounced but it’s got two women living alone together and one of the women poses as the other’s husband), and george moore’s drama in muslin (i haven’t read it yet but it got banned from circulation in libraries right after it was published for being too lesbian).

and if you’re interested at all in short stories at all, you might want to check out the anthology two friends and other nineteenth century american lesbian stories.

happy reading!