Recent historical romances featuring cross-dressing heroines (and heroes) show that bodice rippers can be more than prettified, corset-bound wank material.
Cross-dressing is one of my favorite tropes of historical romance. When a historical romance novel features a woman disguised as a man, I am ON IT like pair of buff-colored breeches on a deliciously rounded female bottom. It’s easy to see why authors and readers find cross-dressing appealing. The heroines can punch, cuss, and shoot, learn Latin and math, practice medicine, talk politics, and engage in business, despite the confines of their historical time period.
But because romance novels also look at why we fall in love with the people we fall in love with, and what makes us sexual beings, cross-dressing stories occupy a unique position to question what constitutes masculinity, femininity, and everything in between. So without further ado, here is a roundup of recent pants and petticoats roles in historical romance novels.
The Lady’s Secret by Joanna Chambers:
When a scalp massage from his new valet Georgy leaves Nathan, Lord Harland, sporting a cockstand, the hero of Joanna Chambers’ debut Regency romance issues one of the standard responses of heterosexual heroes of cross-dressing tales: My God, am I a gay? (Authentic Regency vernacular, here, people.) This is quickly followed by a standard denial: “An anonymous pair of hands had brought him pleasure—that was all,” he tells himself.
Except, of course, for the fact that Nathan remains attracted to Georgy long after those gender-neutral fingers have ceased to work on Nathan’s head.
Nathan’s relief when he discovers that Georgy is actually Georgiana, is also standard. He laughs at himself for not noticing Georgy’s soft skin, delicate lips, and peachy rear end. At this point, many authors have the hero tug down his breeches and pound the heroine like a jackhammer. And then they never, ever question his machismo again.
But this where Chamber’s story swerves. Nathan does keep thinking about it; in fact, Chambers makes Nathan’s attempt to develop an understanding for himself of gender roles and sexuality and important part of the story. Nathan is not necessarily a “masculine” man. He is an aesthete who loves beautiful clothing and art, while Georgy is athletic and intrepid. She’s undercover in his household to discover the truth about her parents, and Nathan comes to not only admire her but also question the rigidity of his values. The recognition that the qualities that hero and heroine admire in each other don’t have to be gendered makes Chambers’ work stand out.
Duchess by Night by Eloisa James:
Being a manly man takes its toll on the manly men, too. Jem, Lord Strange, is self-made and recently elevated to his current rank. Jem styles himself as a sort of Lord of Misrule, presiding over a decadent and continuous house party where actors and politicians and scholars rub elbows. The trouble begins with Harriet, the dowager duchess of Berrow, inveigles her way into this frat house dressed as a boy.
Even after she’s discovered by Jem (but not the rest of the household) the masquerade frees Harriet. She gets to discover what she likes (fencing, hot sex) and discard what she doesn’t. It’s a pleasure to watch her grow, and James’ writing is droll and worldly.
But poor Jem finds his roles limiting. At first, he tries to give boy Harriet some instruction on acquiring masculine graces, but Jem is distressed to find himself attracted to the youth. He gets a brief respite after Harriet reveals that she’s a woman—he imagines that she’s the widow of some poor country squire—but when Jem realizes that Harriet is of a much, much higher rank than he is, he acts like Harriet has handed him his balls in a velvet baggie. “I didn’t want to love you,” Jem tells Harriet. “Especially when I thought you were a man. And even more when I knew you were a duchess.”
As long as Harriet is a powerless woman, Jem doesn’t feel threatened. As a powerful one, well, that’s a different story. Will Jem choose this douchey ideal of manliness or will he choose to be happy? And really, Harriet, are you going to put up with this crap?
9 Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean:
Lady Callie Hartwell chooses happiness and the possibilities of life over spinsterhood in Sarah MacLean’s endearing Regency romance. Callie costumes up while crossing items off of a scandalous bucket list: she fences, she goes to a gentlemen’s club (no, not that kind, but it might as well be) where she gambles and drinks. If nothing else, Callie’s list of forbidden activities will help readers develop a new and abiding appreciation for first-wave feminism.
How to Tame Your Duke by Juliana Gray:
Emilie, one of three princesses from an endangered German principality, escapes to England, where she becomes Grimsby, tutor to the son of a noble and scarred duke (the best kind of duke). The setting, at the end of Otto von Bismarck’s push to unite the German states by blood and iron, is unique and Gray spikes her novels liberally with Shakespearean references (her last trilogy was a take on Love’s Labour’s Lost). The trousers component is mainly played for laughs (the son offers to help Emilie/Grimsby gain the Duke’s attention with this speech: “Look here, Pater, have you ever imagined old Grimsby without his whiskers? He’d make a damned prime girl… Make a fine wife, if only he were a she.”) but overall, How to Tame Your Duke is witty and cool when it needs to be, and scorching hot when we need it. The principle reason I mention it, however, is because the trilogy promises two more cross-dressing princesses. I am beside myself.
Marry Me by Jo Goodman:
Runt Abbot is handy with a Winchester rifle and her fists. Until she suffers a miscarriage, most of the townsfolk whom she grew up with in Reidsville, Colorado, believe she’s a boy. Dr. Cole Monroe is a newcomer to their small town who treats her, removes her from her brutal father’s house, and takes her on as a housekeeper.
Set in 1884, Jo Goodman’s Western romance examines with sensitivity Runt’s (now Rhyne’s) struggle with the limits and possibilities she encounters once she starts living as a female. As a woman, Rhyne can’t reside in the boarding house alone. She’s supposed to drink sherry, not whiskey. And of course, there’s all that damned clothing to deal with:
She still struggled with the trimmings of being a woman. The ivory combs that Whitley picked out for her wouldn’t stay in her hair. The corsets were too confining, the heeled shoes barely comfortable. She still wasn’t used to wearing gowns, although she inhabited them handsomely. [Cole] knew that sometimes she wore trousers underneath her petticoats…
What makes this book work is the delicate and insightful depiction of how Rhyne eventually reclaims her sexual desire. Cole and Rhyne’s scenes are by turns tense, and poignant, and frustrating, and hot. When Rhyne tells Cole, “I never much feel like a woman except when you’re holding me. I’ve never made the acquaintance of my own body until you introduced us,” I didn’t know whether to cheer or to cry.
Untamed by Anna Cowan:
Critics and readers generally raved about, or hated this book (a great roundup of the reviews can be found here. Entire academic courses could be taught about this book.
Untamed matches a pig-farming, socially awkward heroine against a bisexual duke who looks great in skirts. Their meet-cute occurs when the heroine, Kit, attempts to warn off the Duke of Darlington, who has been sleeping with Kit’s sister. But the Darlington Kit buttonholes is not the actual duke; instead, his nihilistic minion, who Kit meets during a ball, is the real Darlington. Kit’s bluntness and intensity fascinate Darlington and he follows her to her run-down country estate, posing as a woman—a compelling, sexually attractive woman.
In many romance novels, when a man dresses as a woman, it only serves to underscore his masculinity: in gowns and corsets, the muscle-bound, square-jawed hero usually looks ridiculous. A frocked Darlington is not silly, awkward, or strange. Everyone falls in love with him: the neighbors, Kit’s brother, her mother. Even Kit, knowing his true identity, falls in love. And when the two come together, his dresses form part of the erotic exchange:
She came to her knees, her arms around him as she untied the tapes of his hoops and petticoats, until they fell down around his hips, a profusion of material, and all that remained was his haughty form encased in a rigid corset.
She stood slowly, her lips drawing a shiver from the nape of his neck.
She ran her knuckles down the tight laces of the bodice, and her body seized with a feeling so dark that for a moment she couldn’t continue.
Gulp.
In contrast to Darlington, Kit is rawboned and awkward, even a bit butch. I think that her rawness makes her more real and endearing, especially when she is contrasted with the sophisticated society queens around her (if Henry James had ever taken it in his head to write a steamy gender-bending Regency historical, it would probably come out a lot like this). In the midst of all the dressing and undressing, Darlington and Kit manage to do something very special: they come across as whole and complete people.
Questions for discussion:
Do you have a favorite gender-bending novel/short story/film? What is it?
If you could disguise yourself as anyone in any time period, who would you be?
What are your favorite tropes in romantic fiction and what would Henry James do with them?
Works Referenced:
Joanna Chambers, The Lady’s Secret (Amazon)
Eloisa James, Duchess by Night (Amazon | Indiebound)
Sarah MacLean, 9 Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Amazon | Indiebound)
Juliana Gray, How to Tame Your Duke (Amazon | Indiebound)
Jo Goodman, Marry Me (Amazon | Indiebound)
Anna Cowan, Untamed (Amazon)
Jen Hickman is a comic artist and illustrator with a penchant for drawing luxurious hair, arguments, arguments in the rain, and small spats between minor background characters.
Tags: cross-dressing, jen hickman, Mindy Hung, romance novels
Sarah MacLean shout out! I think it was Bookavore that first put me on to her. BUT OMG. Filthy, filthy stuff. Huge fan. Also of this post.
Sarah MacLean, right? Every now and then, I re-read 9 Rules and get all swoony.
Oh sorry also, my favourite trope in Romantic Fiction is that the witty girl almost always gets the guy, and Henry James can shove that up his ass, really.
This is fantastic. Romance novels are so my jam. I enjoyed Duchess by Night and LOVED 9 Rules. The rest are going on my to-read list immediately.
My favorite historical romance trope is reformed rakes. Love it when a soul weary libertine finds the love of a good (usually smart and sassy) woman, so 9 Rules in one of my favorites. As is Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas. I have no idea what Henry James would do with this.
I loved a Devil in Winter!
Juliana Gray’s A Duke Never Yields has a great rake story–it was a really believable reform. Plus, fail sex!
On it!
I wish I didn’t have actual work to do because I want to spend all day talking about this.
A Devil in Winter is my favorite Lisa Kleypas! St. Vinvent is so awful yet charming and then sweet but still kind of a jerk (in an entertaining way). He’s a delight.
Yes, that is a great summation of why I love him. If you haven’t read the Hathaway series yet, you should because he has a delightful cameo in the first book.
Oh oh oh, don’t forget Almost A Gentleman by Pam Rosenthal!
That is one of the best in the genre, anecdata!
Whoa. I don’t read many romance novels, but I might start with these.
I want to read ALL OF THEM.
Women dressing like men are a pretty big fantasy novel trope too, that’s probably why I’m down.
YES. The books listed here might be everything I want. Whoof. /fans self
Shout out to Jen Hickman for the illustrations! Oh my god, the last one is carbonating my hormones.
The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer is a classic cross-dressing Regency Romance! A brother and sister on the run cunningly disguise themselves as a sister and brother. It does not have ANY hot sex but it does have quite a lot of sword-fighting.
At one point the heroine, dressed as a man, tries to fake knocking back loads of wine by tipping it down her sleeve. I spent some time trying to envision how this could actually work.
Not strictly so much a romance novel as a sort of gender-bending Dickensian gothic coming of age thing, there’s Wesley Stace’s “Miss Fortune.” But it may float your boat if you like dudes in dresses.
I actually recommended that book to Anna Cowan on Twitter a few months ago–there were parts of Untamed that really reminded me of ‘Misfortune”. (“MIss Fortune” is the song!)
Adding to TBR pile!
I have never read any Regency romances BUT I AM STARTING WITH THAT LAST ONE, HOLY SMOKES.
Also, I am dizzied with delight at the phrase ‘sporting a cockstand.’ My life was poorer before I knew those words in that order.
I know this post was about more contemporary titles, but no article on cross-dressing romance heroes/heroines is complete without a mention of Georgette Heyer’s The Masqueraders. There’s so much about this book to love. Starting with TWO cross dressers (heroine dressed as a man, her brother dressed as a woman) so it’s double the fun and intrigue. Plus, I love that the story is set in the Georgian era of the 1740s and not the more common (at least in the romance genre) Regency or Victorian periods. It’s a little more farcical than I usually like my books, but totally works and I highly recommend that y’all give it a try. Heyer has a couple of other titles with cross dressing heroines (These Old Shades and I think The Corinthian?) but I find them a little more problematic from a modern feminist perspective.
I reread These Old Shades a few weeks ago and the creepiness of the Duke of Avon purchasing Leonie and encouraging her to worship him is definitely more noticeable the second time around. The sequel to that book makes it seem as if their marriage was more equitable but… still gross.
wow these sound AMAZING. I’ve read all the Georgette Heyer, time to expand my horizons!!!
THESE ALL SOUND AMAZING and I will read them all. Can anyone recommend cross-dressing books that don’t have a male-female pairing?
yes yes yes yes YEEEES, I am also interested in this.
Tipping the Velvet involves a heap of cross-dressing and is all about the ladies.
Oh! and SPOILER ALERT: Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett is very apropos, though it’s not explicitly about sexytimes.
I’ve heard good things about Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller.
Michelle Martin has written several awesome Regency romances (all of which I recommend). In particular, however, Pembroke Park is a lesbian romance set in the Regency era where one of the protagonists dresses as a man. http://www.amazon.com/Pembroke-Park-Michelle-Mart…
Paisley Smith – Beguiled http://www.amazon.com/Beguiled-Paisley-Smith-eboo…
I really dislike the term “gender-bender” because I find it too cutesy. That said, can anyone recommend other romance works where a man has to convincingly pass for a woman (ie: it is not a gag)?
Painted Faces by L.H. Cosway is a modern-day romance between a heterosexual drag queen and a snarky lady. I had issues with it, but the premise was interesting.
Thanks!
I loved 9 Rules! I also recently read one terrible, terrible Wild West cross-dressing romance because the heroine had my unusual, highly anachronistic name. I wouldn’t recommend that one, though.
My favourite trope is the heroine friend-group (like the Wallflowers or Desperate Duchesses series). Non-competitive, supportive groups are rare in fiction, and it’s nice to consume media that doesn’t assume attractive, accomplished single women are necessarily in competition for men.
I love Heroine Friend Group! The Spindle Cove series by Tessa Dare has it somewhat and I just finished the latest, Any Duchess Will Do. *Fans self* It was amazingly good.
“cross-dressing princesses” SOLD. Actually, all of these are going on my wishlist now, wow.
Thanks!
I am thoroughly disappointed by how few of these my library has.
You gotta go to the good library. man.
Put in a purchase request and/or ask them to do inter-library loan for you! Your library should want to know what you want to read. If you’ve never done these before, look for a link on their website or just go to the desk and ask, “How do I request a book that’s not in the catalog?”
It’s a little iffy on consent (as most of her books are) but Captain Jack’s Woman by Stephanie Laurens features a nobly bred girl who dresses up as a boy in order to lead a smuggling gang.
Adding to TBR pile!
The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner is more fantasy than romance, but it features a Regency-esque setting and one of my favorite cross-dressing heroines.
I bought “Untamed” because of this article, and it was absolutely amazing. So thanks!
For me personally I love a cross-dressing woman, because I can relate to them as I'm not really "girly" and when a guy tries to romance me I feel just like a man would feel …extremely awkward. I also feel the love that develops between the characters is more real as they have to love each other's personalities before they love their bodies.
Beguiled by Paisley Smith – The Civil War has torn Isabelle Holloway’s world apart, and now she has little help to manage her vast Georgia plantation. But when the Union Army leaves a brash Yankee Zouave behind, Isabelle is inexplicably moved to nurse this gravely wounded, startlingly beguiling soldier. Alice O’Malley wants nothing more than to recover from her injuries, don her male attire, and rejoin the Federal Army. But after the alluring Southern Belle discovers her true identity, their clash of wills soon transforms into passion-filled nights in each other’s arms. Alice has been in love with a woman before, and fears risking everything for her enemy lover. As war returns to Isabelle’s doorstep, Alice discovers the wounds of the heart are far more vital to heal than the wounds of the flesh.
Oh, don't forget Sins of a Wicked Duke by Sophia Jordan. The heroine dresses is an orphan and has to deal with a lot of unwanted advances by her employers. She decide to dress up as a man and get a job as a footman at Dominic Hale "aka the Wicked Duke's" household. There are some very hot scenes!
oh my goodness bless you forever for this list. i cannot wait until the semester is over to read every single one of these.
Celeste Bradley’s “The Spy” has a great cross-dresser: Phillipa Atwater becomes Phillip A. Walters in order to secure a job as a tutor, infiltrate a certain household and hide from the people who have already taken her father off to work for Napoleon. My favorite part is when “Flip,” as “he” gets nick-named, attends a ball and saves a girls from being compromised.