Book List- Hermaphrodites/Transgender/Intersex

I have been slowly putting together a book list that deals with protagonists that are hermaphrodites. This is the list that I have thus far with notes of whether I have read the book or not. As I read books that I have not read, I will come back and link reviews/thoughts.


If anyone knows of any other books and short stories that should be added to this list, just leave a comment and I will edit the main entry.

*****

Memoir/Nonfiction:

{I originally only wanted to deal with fiction, but this text influenced writers like Jeffrey Eugenides and I felt that I needed to include it.}

This memoir, Herculine Barbin (Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth Century French Hermaphrodite), was discovered by Michel Foucault while he was doing research on intersexuality and hermaphroditism for his work The History of Sexuality (which is now in three volumes).


Reading status: I am currently reading this book.

*****

Short Stories:

Robert Heinlein "-All You Zombies-" originally published in 1959 in Fantasy and Science Fiction. Full text of the short story can be found here. The story tells the tale of a young man, who the reader later discovers is a hermaphrodite, and how he travels back in time and impregnates himself.

Reading status: I am currently reading this.

*****

19th century novels:

The Hermaphrodite (Legacies of Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers)

Julia Ward Howe started composing a manuscript about a hermaphrodite around 1846 but did not finish it. The unfinished manuscript was edited and published by Gary Williams in 2004. It is believed that Howe started writing the book when her husband started a relationship with another man. Howe is perhaps best known for penning the lyrics for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and as a suffragist.


Reading status: I am currently reading this book.

*****

Literary Fiction:

Jeffrey Eugenides read Herculine Barbin's memoirs and felt that it did not deal enough with experience, so he wrote Middlesex: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club).

Reading status: I am currently reading this book.

*****

Fantasy and Science Fiction:

The Left Hand of Darkness 

 A science fiction classic that is a must read. I should have a review coming of this one. 

Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble):

The Left Hand of Darkness explores the themes of sexual identity, incest, xenophobia, fidelity, and betrayal in a tale of an Earth ambassador, Genly Ai, who is sent to the planet of Gethen, whose inhabitants are androgynous. Through his relationship with a native, Estraven, Ai gains understanding both of the consequences of his fixed sexual orientation and of Gethenian life. As in many of her works, Le Guin incorporates a social message in her science fiction tale. Scholes feels that "the great power of the book comes from the way it interweaves all its levels and combines all its voices and values into an ordered, balanced, whole."

Reading status: I think I read this book at least 13 years ago. I plan on re-reading it soon. It is a book that is a keeper for me (I recently rebought a paper copy as my old one was missing).




Lilith's Brood This is the omnibus for the Xenogenesis trilogy that was published in the late 1980s (Dawn, Adult Rites, and Imago).


The series focuses on Lilith and her genetically altered offspring and also can be labeled as a post-apocalyptic tale. A portion of the human race is rescued from destruction by the Oankali, an alien species. The Oankali have three sexes--male, female, and ooloi. All three are needed to reproduce and the ooloi give pleasure to the male and female. I have included this series because the ooloi are sort of a bridge between the two sexes because the male and female find it unpleasant to touch one another.

Reading status: I have read the first two books and am currently reading Imago. I highly recommend this series.

Wraeththu

Storm Constantine's Wraeththu Chronicles was first published in the late 1980s and it deals with a hermaphroditic species on a post apocalyptic earth.

Note: The author is publishing most of her backlist through Smashwords and you can also find digital editions of her books at Barnes and Noble.

Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble):

In this powerful and elegant story set in a future Earth very different from our own, a new kind of human has evolved to challenge the dominion of Homo sapiens. This new breed is stronger, smarter, and far more beautiful than their parent race, and are endowed with psychic as well as physical gifts. They are destined to supplant humanity as we know it, but humanity won't die without a struggle.

Here at last in a single volume are all three of Constantine's Wraeththu trilogy:The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, The Bewitchments of Love and Hate, andThe Fulfilments of Fate and Desire.

Reading Status: Book one is currently loaded on my e-reader and it is waiting for me to get to it.





The Herculine Trilogy

The Book of Shadows 

 Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble):

Alone among the young girls taught by nuns at a convent school in nineteenth-century France, orphaned Herculine has neither wealth nor social connections. When she's accused of being a witch, the shy student is locked up with no hope of escape ... until her rescue by a real witch, the beautiful, mysterious Sebastiana. Swept away to the witch's manor, Herculine will enter a fantastic, erotic world to discover her true nature — and her destiny — in this breathtaking, darkly sensual first novel.

The other books are The Book of Spirits and The Witchery (Harper Fiction). I had a hard time classifying this trilogy because while it seems (based my perusal of reviews) to be mostly a 19th century dark historical fiction book...but it has some fantasy elements.

Reading status: The first book is on my TBR list.

Sacred Fate  


I debated for awhile where to put Eresse's book. It is published through a digital pub that produces mostly romance/erotica type stuff. But even with the romantic elements, I feel that Eresse has created a very vivid fantasy/scifi civilization that stands up well with the rest of the books in this category.

Synopsis (from Amazon):

In the dual-gendered realm of Ylandre, the great divide between the high-born True Bloods and the lower-ranked Half Bloods is deemed impassable by most. Rohyr Essendri dared to cross it when he took young Lassen Idana from his provincial town and made him his paramour. Lassen perforce learned how to navigate the intricate byways of life at court. What he never expected, however, was to fall in love with Rohyr, a most inadvisable and impractical thing to do when one’s lover is sovereign ruler of the land. But anything worth having is worth fighting for, both figuratively and, as Lassen discovers, literally speaking.

Reading status: Read and would recommend this book to most readers interested in the topic.

*****

Romantic Erotica/Erotica:

Stephanie Burke's The Coven. 

Synopsis (from the publisher):

What if the most beautiful woman in the world wasn't a woman...or even human?

Cyprus Reid is an enigma who courts the spotlight while carefully maintaining her mystique, intriguing legions of fans with her stylistic lyrics and a voice that brings many to tears. Even more intriguing than her all-male entourage is the fact that people are dying to get to her...literally.

To ex-Navy SEAL turned government intelligence operative Jason Giles, Cyprus is either a victim of an elaborate conspiracy, or the most fiendish killer since Jack the Ripper. Sure, the victims had shady pasts and shared a connection to a strange incident at Mount McKinley some fifty years ago, but that doesn't mean they deserved to die, seemingly drained of life while engaged in acts of wanton carnality.

Jason is sent to discover the truth, but what he finds is more seductive, more intriguing, more enticing than a mere boy in a dress. What Jason finds is the existence of The Coven. And once they discover you, there is no going back.

Reading status: Read

The heroine is an alien hermaphrodite collecting her six mates. Her mates are named one through six in Latin, so when they collect number six, he is renamed Sex. Yeah. I really cannot recommend this book.  The plot is sort of all over the place and some elements are just too cheesy. The physiology of the heroine seems to only exist to titillate. This book was a DNF for me.

Raine: The Lords of Satyr


Synopsis (from Amazon):

In this erotic historical paranormal romance trilogy set in the heart of Tuscany's centuries-old wine country, three half-Satyr brothers receive a letter that sends them in search of three endangered half-Faerie brides.
Handsome, stoic, middle brother RAINE has been wed before to a wife who was repulsed by his carnal needs. Each month at Moonful, these half-Satyrs change physically, becoming more powerfully potent. They're driven by the darker side of their natures to indulge in a nightlong ritual in a sacred gathering place ringed with ancient statues.
Though Raine wants no part of another marriage, he searches out the second half-Faerie, Jordan, in Venice. She turns out to be far different than he could ever have imagined, and she is living a dangerous lie.
Raine's traumatic childhood and a bad marriage have closed him to the idea of giving or receiving love. As the winegrape harvest begins, Jordan slowly reawakens his heart. But he finds himself competing with another nightmarish suitor who has gained an evil hold over this woman he is coming to love.

 Reading status: Read

This is the second book in the series and it can be read on its own. The heroine is a hermaphrodite who must give herself over to the doctor who was there at her birth once a year. The doctor uses Jordan as a show and tell for his colleagues (this does jive with medical history and the whole medical theatre and curios culture that was going on at the time). The book in enjoyable but readers should go into it expecting various erotica elements.

Amaranth and Ash

Synopsis (from Amazon):

In a world where everyone has their place, Amaranth & Ash belong together.


Amaranth is a vasai, born with both male and female characteristics, and a soul that can reach out and touch the souls of others in order to heal them. But a vasai’s services are only for the Elai, and they demand sexual satisfaction as well as healing from their beautiful servants. Frustrated with these constraints, Amaranth wants to use his talent to help those who really need it.


Ash is a chel. Considered devoid of souls, chel are the lowest of the low. Not content with his lot, Ash steals from the middle class pel. One night he’s caught and brutally punished.


A soul in agony calls out to Amaranth from across the city. When he discovers that it belongs to a chel, it only confirms his worst suspicions about the lies of the Elai. Amaranth takes Ash home and heals him, an act of rebellion that could cost both their lives.


Amaranth's compassion for Ash soon turns to passion. Ash treats him like a person, not an instrument of sexual gratification. Neither of them have much experience with mutual pleasure but together they embark on an exploration of intimacy and desire that carries them to the heights of passion and love -- and shakes the very foundation of their world.


Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations some readers may find objectionable: Intersex relationships, violence. 

Reading status: This one was recently published and I only just discovered it, so it has been added to by TBR list.