Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (Between Men-Between Women – Lesbian and Gay Studies) by Ruth Vanita

What at first glance looks like a product of the inadvertent double booking of a convention hall turns out to be an initial exploration of the significance in English literary texts of the female non-biological ancestor as creator, an erotic aesthetic that celebrates joy not geared to production and reproduction, and the love between female literary and mythological ancestors. Examines the work of Wilde, Carpenter, Shelley, Shakespeare, Michael Field, Virginia Woolf, and others. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.