The Friendships Of Women by William Rounseville Alger

The Friendships Of Women

William Rounseville Alger

First published in 1868. This book is a historical and philosophical examination of female friendships throughout history and across different cultures.

The book does discuss deep emotional bonds and intense friendships between women, including some historical relationships that modern scholars might interpret through a queer lens. However, it’s important to understand that the book was written in the Victorian era when the concept of “lesbian” as we understand it today wasn’t explicitly discussed in mainstream literature.

Alger approaches these relationships through the lens of “romantic friendship” – a concept common in 19th century literature that acknowledged intense emotional bonds between women without necessarily characterizing them as sexual. The book includes discussions of historical female friendships that were deeply passionate, devoted, and intimate, though these are presented within the moralistic framework typical of that era.

The book doesn’t contain explicitly lesbian content by modern definitions, as it was written in a time when such relationships were not openly discussed in those terms. Modern readers might find some passages suggestive of relationships that would now be understood as lesbian or queer, but that wasn’t how they were explicitly framed in the original text.

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