Sodom on the Thames is an extraordinary achievement: a witty book about a serious subject. With flair and originality, Morris B. Kaplan shows us how sexuality and gender were not only constructed in Wilde's time in the discursive practices of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century England, but also in the dress, streets, and cafés in which people sought to make sense of who they were in their intimate lives. This is a book for any audience and is necessary reading in fields as wide ranging as anthropology, philosophy, political science, and women's studies.

This is a book of stories. One after the other they are presented to the reader: the memoirs of Symonds, the spectacular career of Boulton and Park, the Cleveland Street scandals, the lives and times of William Johnson Cory and Reginald Brett. Morris B. Kaplan has gathered new material from the archives and has consolidated the work of biographers and historians: the result is a compelling, original, and often exhilarating work of historical recovery. Sodom on the Thames is a consistently interesting, often spellbinding, portrait of late-Victorian life.

In four detailed case studies, all based on archival work, Morris B. Kaplan explores a complex network of loyal romantic friends, brazen cross-dressers, upper-class male brothels—and astonishing legal decisions. His analysis of Eton College friendships uncovers a potent mixture of politics and sex among the most powerful men of the late nineteenth century. Kaplan is always sensitive to the ways in which the past is a different country, but also strangely familiar to us. In this very readable book, fresh, unexpected connections reveal the pervasive importance of male erotic friendship in the Victorian period.

Though it has the trappings of a scholarly cult classic, Kaplan's look at the budding world of cross-dressing, transgenderism and male homosexuality that crossed the strict class lines of Victorian London can hook even the most unaware reader. Kaplan... draws on three major episodes involving sex between men (or the strong suspicion of it) to weave an intriguing, amusing, and occasionally disturbing narrative of sexual controversy in staunchly conservative times.... The cases can be subversively funny, especially that of Frederick Park and Ernest Boulton, cross-dressers known as 'Fanny' and 'Stella,' who were brought up on sodomy conspiracy charges in 1871. Famous for their female portrayals and infamous for frequenting clubs in feminine garb to solicit unknowing men, the term 'drag' was first used to refer to the pair and their contemporaries. Kaplan's most impressive achievement is his ability to tell the story without judging; indeed, he shows a great deal of compassion for his real-life characters. This readable, eye-opening book will surely appeal to history buffs looking to learn something a little queer about the Victorian age.