Historical Lesbian Fiction
Explore the best historical lesbian fiction books with our curated list. Discover captivating love stories set in the past, featuring strong women and timeless romances.
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Affinity
by Sarah Waters
“Gothic tale, psychological study, puzzle narrative…This is gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and senses.”—The Seattle Times An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own. As in her noteworthy deput, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters brilliantly evokes the sights and smells of a moody and beguiling nineteenth-century London, and proves herself yet again a storyteller, in the words of the New York Times Book Review, of "startling power."
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And Love Came Calling
by Beverly Shearer
The magic of the Old West comes alive in this timeless tale of love between women. When Kenny Smith. (Kendra Smith), the handsome stagecoach driver, saunters down the dusty main street of Jackson, with spurs jangling, all the dance hall girls swoon.
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Bittersweet
by Nevada Barr
Award-winning author Nevada Barr reveals another side to her remarkable storytelling prowess with this heart-wrenching yet tender tale of two women whose boundless devotion to each other is continually challenged in nineteenth century America.
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Brigid's Charge
by Cynthia Lamb
Family history and fiction merge in this account of the origins of the "Jersey Devil."
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Charity
by Paulette Callen
"Unusually satisfying . . . an engrossing mystery, a lovingly etched portrait of a community, and an appreciation for the moral resilience of strong women" ("Kirkus Review"). This beautifully written novel explores unmarried schoolteacher Gustie Roemer's secret friendship with a beautiful young Sioux woman, a murder involving her best friend's husband--and the reaction of the small town of Charity, South Dakota, when faced with surprising truths about the private lives of its citizens.
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The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
Set in the period between the world wars, this novel tells of two sisters, their trials, and their survival.
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Distant Thunder
by Peggy J. Herring
The story of two women forced by circumstance into the outlaw life. For Cordy, robbing banks and trains is the only way she knows how to survive. For Meg, a life of crime is the only resort to feed her family. Then Cordy awakens strange feelings within Meg, feelings she isn't equipped to deal with.
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Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
“Oliver Twist with a twist…Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses. A pulsating story.”—The New York Times Book Review The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith, directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Kim Tae-Ri, is now available. Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.
![Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe : [a novel] Cover](https://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/0804115613.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
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Fried green tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe : [a novel]
by Fannie Flagg
Mrs. Threadgoode's tale of two high-spirited women of the 1930s, Idgie and Ruth, helps Evelyn, a 1980s woman in a sad slump of middle age, to begin to rejuvenate her own life. By the author of Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! Reprint.
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Grassy Flats
by Penny Hayes
In 1930s Idaho, as the sun bakes what's left of the harvest and the bank stands ready to foreclose, the help of good neighbors is the difference between surviving or moving on. Nell and Aggie are on the edge of losing their years of devotion to their farm, and when townsfolk learn the true nature of their relationship, any hope of credit to the next harvest dries up. Just when Nell and Aggie are considering loading their last possessions on a wagon, a married couple on the run from the law offers a solution. No one, not even the town's grim patriarchs, can predict what will happen next.
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The Ladies
by Doris Grumbach
"Grumbach is acutely sensitive to the quiet hum of everyday living and the small acquired habits that bond lovers over long periods. It is especially touching to watch the women age as the pages turn, affecting a kind of time-lapse realism that doesn't diminish the Ladies' passion or love for each other." --Diane Salvatore, Ms.
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The Long Trail
by Penny Hayes
School teacher Blanche Bartholomew and dance hall girl Teresa Stark, living in Texas in 1869, discover a forbidden love and flee together, attempting to cross the Texas prairie in a covered wagon.
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Montana Feathers
by Penny Hayes
High adventure in the old west...romantic and satisfying. An authentic portrait of women finding and loving each other in America's frontier days.
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A Mistress Moderately Fair
by Katherine Sturtevant
Seventeenth-century London is not accustomed to such a woman. Margaret Featherstone, a widow, manages her own household and business affairs. As a playwright, she consistently competes with England's most creative men for the attention of stage directors, benefactors, and even King Charles II. But Margaret Fetherstone hides a secret longing from the rest of her world -- and even from herself. Amy Dudley shares both Margaret's ambition and her longing. With her superb acting ability, Amy could deliver instant acclaim for Margaret's work -- but if her past should come back to life, it could deliver them both to the gallows.
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Patience and Sarah
by Isabel Miller
Early in the 19th century, in a puritanical New England town, two women fell in love with one another. And with nothing and no one to guide or support them, Patience and Sarah tried to follow their hearts. A remarkable story.--Publishers Weekly.
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South of the Line
by Catherine Ennis
A lesbian Civil War story filled with action, romance and high adventure.
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Tahoma
by M. Broughton Boone
In 1883 in the Washington Territory, Agnes Farwell still mourns the recent death of her father. William Tyrell, her new stepfather, seems intent on destroying the family farm, but when he hires Hope Lawson as governess to Agnes' four younger siblings, Agnes is surprised at the feelings she has for the young woman. But even as Agnes finds strength to break free of William's power, he shows he has one more deadly trick up his sleeve.
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Tipping the Velvet
by Sarah Waters
“Erotic and absorbing…Written with startling power.”—The New York Times Book Review Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.
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Tumbleweed Fever
by L. J. Maas
In Oklahoma, Devlin Brown is trying to redeem herself working on a ranch. When a local widow needs help on her ranch, she enlists Devlin to help her.
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Prairie Fire
by L. J. Maas
In this sequel to "Tumbleweed Fever, " the story of Devlin Brown, an ex-outlaw, and Saran Tolliver, the woman of her heart, continues. Sarah and Dev must convince ranchers to destroy their fences to prevent a calamitous prophecy from coming true.
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Yellowthroat
by Penny Hayes
A daring woman bandit terrorizes America's southwest... The time is the gold rush days in New Mexico Territory. Embittered Margarita Sanchez has sworn to avenge the racist lynching of her Anglo husband and the loss of the ranch they had built together. Accompanied by three male companions, she ruthlessly extracts her revenge in a series of stagecoach robberies. Then a gang member is critically wounded during a bank holdup, and Margarita is forced to Julia Blake hostage, bringing her back to the gang's camp. Once more Margarita's life undergoes drastic changes. Because amid a growing emotional attachment to Julia Blake, she has discovered the unthinkable: a sexual attraction to another woman. The author of The Long Trail gives us another fascinating tale filled with authentic and colorful detail of mining towns and gold dust fever and very day western life-- and of how women with independent minds lived in the old west.
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Chloe Plus Olivia
by Lillian Faderman
This landmark work is the most complete compilation of its kind, offering an enlightened view of a diverse and long-neglected genre. Arranged in thematic sections are a generous and wide range of selections--fiction, poetry, and essays from writers past and present, including Emily Dickinson, Carson McCullers, Christina Rossetti, and Rita Mae Brown.