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  Male Impersonators/Female Cross Dressing

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February 1999
Compiled by Anne Marquis of Edmonton Public Library, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)

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Fiction

TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE, Avi (juvenile fiction)

FORTUNE IS A WOMAN, Elizabeth Adler

THE MALE IMPERSONATOR, E.F. Benson
Short story/novella set in Tilling.

THE SHELTERING SKY, Paul Bowles
The main character (Kat) dresses as a man for safety purposes. The novel takes place in the Middle East (turn of this century) and after her husband passes away, Kat dresses up as a man for various reasons . .

THE BEACON AT ALEXANDRIA, Gillian Bradshaw
A young Greek woman disguises herself as a man so she can study medicine at Alexandria, and eventually ends up as an army surgeon.

PLAYING THE JACK, Mary Brown

HIGH HEARTS, Rita Mae Brown
Civil war

THE JOURNEY, Anne Cameron

ANY FOUR WOMEN COULD ROB THE BANK OF ITALY, Ann Cornelisen
Four English and American women living in Italy decide to disprove the macho notion prevailing around them that there are certain crimes no woman would commit. They commit a daring robbery dressed as men, but that's just the beginning of the fun in this neat story.

POPE JOAN, Donna N. Cross

CHARLES, REX, Ethel M. Dell

WHITE WOLFE, Susan Edwards
Set in the American west, a young girl is not allowed to join her brothers on a wagon train heading west and masquerades as a boy to do so.

CARAVAN, Dorothy Gilman
Character dressing as a man while in the deserts in Africa.

THE GENTLEMAN OUTLAW AND ME, ELI, Mary Dowling Hahn (Young adult)

POYSON GARDEN, Karen Harper

THE CORINTHIAN, Georgette Heyer
In this regency romance, Pen Creed masquerades as a boy to escape her matchmaking aunt.

THESE OLD SHADES, Georgette Heyer
The heroine Leonie, who has spent much of her life masquerading as a boy on the streets of 18th century Paris, becomes a page to an English duke.

THE MASQUERADERS, Georgette Heyer
A brother and sister switch roles after escaping the failed attempt to reinstate Bonnie Prince Charlie.

FANNY, Erica Jong
Takes place in eighteenth century where the character conceals herself as a man for a large chunk of the book.

THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, Laurie R. King
Character Mary Russell dons a boy's and then a man's outfit to work alongside Sherlock Holmes. (series)

THE WOMAN WARRIOR, Maxine Hong Kingston

CATHERINE, CATHERINE, Ingrid MacDonald
17th century woman cross-dressing to join the army

THE CHANGELING, Alison McLead
Cross-dressing pirate Anne Bonny

BUFFALO GIRLS, Larry McMurtry

A BREACH OF PROMISE, Anne Perry

AN EXCELLENT MYSTERY and ONE CORPSE TOO MANY, Ellis Peters
The author uses this device in at least these two of the Cadfael books.

TWELFTH NIGHT, William Shakespeare
Viola masquerades as Cesario when she is shipwrecked on a foreign shore. Her twin brother Sebastian shows up to complicate matters.

AS YOU LIKE IT, Shakespeare
Rosalind, dressed as a boy, escapes the uncle who has usurped her father's dukedom and flees into the forest of Arden.

ALL TRUE ADVENTURES OF LIDIE NEWTON, Jane Smiley

DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT, E. Thane
The main female character dresses as a young boy/man to be close to her love (w/out his knowing her true gender).

LORD OF THE RINGS, J. R. R. Tolkien
Eowyn, the niece to the king of Rohan goes to war dressed as a young man.

CUE FOR TREASON, Geoffrey Trease
A girl masquerades as a boy and helps to foil a plot against Elizabeth I -- I believe she was acting in Shakespeare's plays, probably doing the girl parts. (juvenile fiction)

JACKAROO, Cynthia Voigt
A woman masquerading as a near-Robinhood type character, set in a late medieval fantasy world.

THE PASSION, Jeanette Winterson

ASHES IN THE WIND, Woodiwiss
I vaguely recall the heroine dressing as a boy/man/slave during the Civil War.

ORLANDO, Virginia Woolf

SEA STAR: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF ANNE BONNY, PIRATE QUEEN, Jekel, Pamela

Folklore

YENTL THE YESHIVA BOY, Isaac Bashevis Singer

MULAN

HANDSOME HEROINES: WOMEN AS MEN IN FOLKLORE, Shahrukh
Retellings of folktales about women dressing and posing as men and engaging in some sort of heroic deeds

Non-fiction

SUITS ME,
A biography about Billy Tipton, a blues/jazz singer who worked, and lived, as a man

SEAFARING WOMEN
Section on Warriors in particular

SEX VARIANT WOMEN IN LITERATURE, Jeanette Foster

AMAZONS AND MILITARY MAIDS: WOMEN WHO DRESSED AS MEN IN THE PURSUIT OF LIFE, LIBERTY, AND HAPPINESS, Julie Wheelwright (1989)

"Women Pirates and Pirate's Women" IN UNDER THE BLACK FLAG: THE ROMANCE & REALITY OF LIFE AMONG THE PIRATES, David Cordingly (1996)

VESTED INTERESTS: CROSS DRESSING AND CULTURAL ANXIETY, Marjorie Garber (1992)

TRANSGENDER WARRIORS : MAKING HISTORY FROM JOAN OF ARC TO RUPAUL Leslie Feinberg (1996)
 
 
      
   
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