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    Better Angels: A Retelling of Bayard Taylor's "Joseph and His Friend: A Pennsylvania Story
    Better Angels: A Retelling of Bayard Taylor's "Joseph and His Friend: A Pennsylvania Story
    Better Angels: A Retelling of Bayard Taylor's "Joseph and His Friend: A Pennsylvania Story
    Audiobook8 hours

    Better Angels: A Retelling of Bayard Taylor's "Joseph and His Friend: A Pennsylvania Story

    Written by Wayne Goodman

    Narrated by Wayne Goodman

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Joseph Asten, a handsome, 23-year-old farmer living in the Allegheny River Valley shortly after the Civil War, secretly longed for intimacy and love with other men. He devised a misguided plan to marry a woman who knew of his “dual nature” then his life took some unexpected, fateful turns.

    Bayard Taylor’s "Joseph and His Friend: A Pennsylvania Story" is considered the first American Gay novel. Originally published in 1869 as a serial in "The Atlantic," the author could not relate the story openly and had to use suggestive ways to describe his characters’ activities and motivations. In "Better Angels," Goodman retells the tale frankly and candidly, free from antiquated 19th Century cultural restraints. This is the author’s second book revivifying forgotten, historically-significant Queer stories. Previously, in "Vanya Says, 'Go!,'” Goodman updated the first Russian-language Gay novel "Wings," by Silver-Age poet Mikhail Kuzmin.

    LanguageEnglish
    Publisherwaynegoodmanbooks
    Release dateJun 30, 2017
    ISBN9781509486908
    Better Angels: A Retelling of Bayard Taylor's "Joseph and His Friend: A Pennsylvania Story
    Author

    Wayne Goodman

    Wayne Goodman has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area most of his life (with too many cats). He hosts Queer Words Podcast, conversations with queer-identified authors about their works and lives. When not writing, Goodman enjoys playing Gilded Age parlor music on the piano, with an emphasis on women, gay, and Black composers.

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