Transgender Fiction Novels
A Listing of General Fiction Novels with TG Themes
Transgender Fiction Novels is published on TGGuide.com with permission of the Author. This article and photographs may not be reprinted without permission of the author.
This is hopefully a complete list of general fiction and literature containing tv/ts themes or at least tv/ts characters. I pulled this together from several different lists floating around, adding some of my own. Ones marked “not verified”, I have not been able to verify either its existence or that it contains tv/ts themes/characters. These are “legitimate” literature. There are many small-press pornographic books published with tv/ts themes.
Any additions or corrections would be greatly appreciated.
Last Update: 2/21/90
[ Thanks to Kristi M, Lori K, Kathy P, and Michelle for numerous additions. ]
*** General Fiction – Pre-20th Century ***
CECIL DREEME – Theodore Winthrop 1861
A novel about a man who falls in love with another man who turns out to be a woman in disguise.
A FLORIDA ENCHANTMENT
An 1891 novel by Archibald Ganter and Fergus Redmond. It was adapted into a play by Ganter in 1896 and was generally received as some of the worst trash ever on stage. A woman finds a magic seed that will transform her into a man and swallows it. A darky maid servant is similarly transformed and some of the so-called men in the play are changed into women.
THE HOLLAND WOLVES – John Breckenridge Ellis 1902
An early novel about female cross-dressing.
L’ASTREE – D’Urfe 1614-1620
Celadon dresses himself as ‘Orithee’ in order to reach his beloved.
MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN – Theophile Gautier 1855
Takes its name from and is based on the 17th century actress who dressed as a man in order to seduce women. It is narrated by the poet D’Albert, who falls in love with “Theodore” (which is the name she is using), and is overwhelmed with self doubts, confusion, etc. This is an extraordinary novel of transvestic fantasy, culminating in sexual reversals of the most radical kind.
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO – Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais
Many of the old comic operas have a lot of crossdressing scenes. This is one of my favorites. In case you don’t already know, Cherabino, a very pretty young page, is asked to cross dress by a Countess and her maid. There is a really nice scene where they try clothes on him. This is a play published under the Penguin Classics label. Interestingly enough, the author is the same Beaumarchais who had the London run-in with our favorite TV, Chevalier D-Eon.
METAMORPHOSES – Ovid
This ancient text recounts the stories of Tieresias and Hermaphroditus.
NANA – Emile Zola 1880
This novel supposedly contains one or two TV related scenes.
POPE JOAN – E.D. Rhoides 1886
An anti-clerical satire which doesn’t stray much from the apocryphal history of the female pope. Pope Joan clearly becomes a fearful figure, a female transvestite who can alter the course of nature through her cross-dressing.
SERAPHITA – Balzac 1836
Seraphita is an ambiguous being who resembles, both in nature and in spirit, the transvestic shamans of earlier times. His sex changes continuously and he wears ‘a formless garment which resembles equally a woman’s robe and a man’s mantle’.
THE SPY – Fenimore Cooper 1821
Central character Harvey Bank dresses up as a washer-woman to escape from capture during the War of American Independence.
THE STORY OF MARQUISE-MARQUIS DE BANNEVILLE – Abbe de Choisy
A novel by de Choisy who himself was a notorious cross-dresser. It recounts the history of a boy, known as “La belle Marianne”, who has been dressed as a girl from earliest infancy and has no idea of his real sex. Clamped in iron bodices, he grows into a model young lady. Marianne eventually falls in love with a handsome young man, dressed in the effiminate style of the period. They make gentle love and soon marry, but the potentially explosive nature of such a relationship is defused when the young man turns out to have been, all the time, a girl in masquerade.
*** General Fiction ***
THE ADVENTURES OF JULIAN ROBINSON – Anonymous
Another Victorian novel. This one is a story of a young man who goes to live with his Aunt and cousins, and through a program of punishment and domination, is forced to live as a girl.
ARCADIO – William Goyen 1983
Arcadio, half man, half woman, half Texan, half Mexican, tells his/her story of growing up in the freak show.
BLIND DATE – Jerry Kozinski
A collection of autobiographical anecdotes and episodes of a man ranging through society and across the world. Look for the chapter where he meets the foxy “lady”.
BLUE ANGEL NIGHTS – Margarete von Falkensee 1986
A decadent novel of Germany in the 1920s. The main character, a womanizer, encounters a beautiful TV and his twin sister.
BOYS & GIRLS TOGETHER – William Goldman 1964
There is one scene in this book where one of the characters, as a boy, is dressed by his mother.
THE BREAST – Philip Roth 1972
A Kafkaesque tale of a man with breast envy who turns into a large breast.
CALIGULA – William Howard 1979
Novelization of Gore Vidal’s screenplay for the Penthouse movie. At one point, Caligula decides he is no longer content to be the god Caligula. He wants to be a goddess too, so he declares he is the incarnation of Venus and starts appearing in public dressed as the goddess. He also has a sex romp, as Venus, with a young boy.
CHANGING PLACES – Susan Smith 1986
A juvenile novel about Josh and his girl friend Jenny who switch bodies and learn that everything is not so easy for the other sex.
CHORUS OF WITCHES – Paul Buckland 1959
A British novel of life backstage among the drag queens. The witches of the title are in fact male members of a so-called “drag” show – one of those odd travelling theatrical shows in which the whole cast consists of males, mostly in female costume. This particular group are known as “The Merrie Belles”, and we see them both in their capacity as performers and as individuals with private lives. The result is a most unusually revealing portrait of a certain small section of life.
CITY OF NIGHT – John Rechy 1963
A novel dealing with homosexual transvestites and drag queens.
DISGUISES – Ian McEwan 1972
In the book First Love, Last Rites. Story of a young boy living with his aunt. She and he dress in all kinds of costumes for fun. Central to this story is his dressing as a pretty blond girl.
DOUBLE TAKE – Vardis Margener 1982
This is about a Marilyn Monroe look-alike. No, the double is not a man, unfortunately. But her sidekick is gay and dresses a lot for fun and pleasure.
ELOCUTION OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN – Steven J. Spears
An Australian play featuring a drag queen as one of the central characters. Published in “Drag Show”, Currency Press 1977.
THE EROTIC WORLD OF FAERY – Maureen Duffy 1972
While not fiction, this book is about fiction; faery tales. Many faery tales have cross-dressing themes, some quite erotic.
THE FAME GAME – Rona Jaffe 1969
About an agent to the stars, who handles many recognizable stereotypical stars. One of the central characters is a top model who is really a guy. This model is VERY good looking. I highly recommend this one for its TV content.
“FRANK” AND I – Anonymous
A Victorian erotica novel about a wealthy young man who meets “Frank” and takes him in only to learn later that “Frank” is really Frances.
FROM A VIEW TO A DEATH – Anthony Powell 1939
An English novel about a group of people, one of whom is a tv.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN – Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway has long been suspected of being obsessed with gender roles. The main couple in this novel play around with gender roles.
GIOVANNI’S ROOM – James Baldwin 1956
Set in the contemporary Paris of American expatriates, liasions, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. Based on the entry in Elysian Fields’ catalog, this has some connection with Barbette, a famous “wire-walker” and trapeze artist who performed his act appearing as a young girl.
GOODBYE CHARLIE – George Axelrod 1959
A play about a womanizer whose reincarnation is both immediate and ironic; he comes back as a comely woman. Basis for movie of the same name starring Debbie Reynolds and television pilot starring Suzanne Somers.
HERMA – MacDonald Harris 1981
A story about an hermaphrodite named Herma.
INFANTE’S INFERNO – G. Cabrera Infante 1979
Translated from the Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine. A semi-autobiographical novel about the sensual education of a young journalist in Havana. He has some experiences with female
impersonators.
I WANT WHAT I WANT – Geoff Brown 1966
A novel told from the viewpoint of Roy/Wendy, a transsexual. Set in England, the story winds up depressingly (I guess they had to in the old days in order to satisfy the Decency Code), but on the way is some of the best TV fiction I’ve ever read. “Brown” has to be a transvestite. The lingering, adoring description of putting on the clothes, fantasizing about them, etc. are so vivid and true, that no outsider could have come up with such stuff. The plot’s well developed, too. In her struggle for identity, then acceptance, Wendy leaves home <tyrant father>, goes to live on her own <when first mail order package arrives …well!!!>, gets along pretty well … the doubts & dangers of passing are beautifully laid out. There is one chapter in which Wendy meets her sister as Wendy for the first time. Initial shock & disapproval fades to acceptance & acknowledgement that Wendy really is very convincing and pretty.
This is the cover blurb:
I told myself that I must stop being ashamed. It was a dishonest
feeling. Really I was glad that I was as I was. It would have been
better to be a woman, but it was better to be a transvestite than
to be a man.
The book was actually produced as a movie, with Anne Heywood playing Roy/ Wendy. It’s a shame that the role wasn’t done by a professional female impersonator. The movie wasn’t much of a commercial success, anyway, and you were always conscious that the “transformed woman” was actually a genetic woman to begin with.
THE LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN – Hubert Selby
A novel about the seamy side of Manhattan.
LITTLE BIG MAN – Arthur Penn
Little Horse, the effiminate Cheyenne brave, was a berdache.
MARSHMALLOW MASQUERADE – Cynthia Blair 1987
One from a young adult series about twins Chris and Susan. In this one prom time is approaching and they get the bright idea to have Chris infiltrate “the enemy camp” and find out what boys really talk about, etc. So while Chris is “out with the flu”, their cousin “Charlie Pratt” comes to visit and attend their school.
THE MASQUERADERS – Georgette Heyer 1979
A wonderful mainstream novel by the historical romance writer. It is about an older sister and her brother who exchange identities. Their father is a rogue. The brother obviously likes his role and does it well, though he is truly a male and attracted to women. It was in both hardback and paperback a few years ago. You’ll enjoy the read. (KP)
MATES – Peter Kenna
An Australian play featuring a drag queen as one of the central characters. Published in “Drag Show”, Currency Press 1977.
M. BUTTERFLY – David Hwang
A play based on the true story about a French diplomat who had a long affair with a Chinese opera star who was actually a transvestite.
MEMOIRS OF AN EX-PROM QUEEN – Alix Kates Shulman 1972
Tv/ts theme not verified.
MISS HIGH-HEELS – Anonymous
A Victorian erotica novel. Dennis Evelyn Beryl, a young English aristocrat, is transformed under the supervision of his step-sister Helen, into a beautiful young woman.
MUCKALUCK – Richard Andersen 1980
An ironic, blackly humorous novel that’s the “Catch-22” of the American Indian wars. The Muckalucks were your everyday, happy-go-lucky band of Indians. They had their fine warriors, their crazy medicine men, and an occasional transvestite or two.
MY DARLING LEA – Clyde Ward 1969
By tracing the relationship between Shawn O’Brien, rugged, masculine and aggressively “normal” and Lee, a famous (or infamous, depending on one’s point of view) “drag queen”, Mr. Ward dramatically sets forth the conflict between normal, socially accepted modes of sexual behaviour and the shadow-world of the homosexual. The back dust-jacket has a photo of the author in drag.
MYRA BRECKENRIDGE – Gore Vidal 1968
A wild, weird foray into the chasm between the genders and between sanity and insanity. Myra is a sex changer out to take over Hollywood.
MYRON – Gore Vidal 1974
A sequel to Myra Breckenridge.
NATURAL SELECTIONS – Gloria Nagy 1985
A principle character is a TS, but the subject matter of the book was not “transsexualism”. About a well to do southern family. Tells the story starting about two generations before the TS child is born. Then finishes with the TS later in life after the surgery. Starting before the TS is born by about two generations is to build the story of the family and how the child’s eventual TS status affects it. The book is excellent.
NIGHT-BOOK – William Kotzwinkle 1974
This is a hodgepodge book of many different modern stories, tied together with Greek women telling stories. TV is featured several times. Among them is the ancient classic of effiminate boys dressing as the women of the city in order to kill their enemys and a tough cop dressing and obviously liking it.
ORLANDO – Virginia Woolf 1928
A fictional biography of a hermaphrodite who lives part of their life as a man and the rest as a woman.
THE PASSION OF NEW EVE – Angela Carter 1977
In this literary novel a group of women transform a man (Evelyn) into a beautiful woman (the Eve of the title).
PASSION PLAY – Jerry Kozinski 1979
Similar to Blind Date, but here the action is at a bar frequented by tvs and television executives.
PRIDE OF THE BIMBOS – John Sayles 1975
Novel about a barnstorming softball team who play in drag.
PUDD’NHEAD WILSON – Mark Twain
The villian in this classic CDs to carry out his nefarious deeds!
THE PUSSYCAT TRANSPLANT – Ted Mark 1968
A beautiful, unmarried, and pregnant young woman goes to an illicit abortionist, but gets more than she bargained for when she awakens in the body of handsome and viral young MAN. (KM)
THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT – Marc Behm 1977
This book centers around the depraved Nazi era before and during World War II. There are some scenes of transvestism at parties.
RANCHO MARIA – Jerry Oster
This one has a fair amount of TV in it, including a town mayor (GG) who likes to have her lovers dress up in female roles and play kinky games with her. Not much description, but VERY amusing. (MP)
THE RICH AND THE BEAUTIFUL – Ruth Harris 1978
One of the Beautiful People schlock books. The heroine has a manservant named Dante who is gay, beautiful and looks just like her. He likes to dress in her clothes and she likes to see him dressed in her clothes. Unfortunately, I’ve just told you almost as much as Ruth Harris tells you. Dante’s character is developed further, but this theme is not.
RUSHES – John Rechy 1979
Another novel of the seedier side of homosexuality, featuring transvestites.
THE SEDUCTION OF PETER S. – Lawrence Sanders 1983
Has a chapter where the hero, a gigolo, has fallen for a beautiful client. However, it’s not to be! This occurs in chapter 49 and is mentioned again in chapter 54.
THE SLING AND THE ARROW – Stuart Engstrand 1947
Leading novel in which homosexuality is blended with transvestism, about a gay fashion designer in a strange marriage. His wife is first encouraged to wear the clothes he’d like to wear himself; then she’s encouraged to take on
the lover he’d like to have – while he watches.
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE TWO – Jay Little 1956
A star female impersonator is involved in hot love affairs with partners ranging from a pianist to a sailor. Much inside information included on being a drag queen.
SPLENDORA – Edward Swift 1978
This novel tells the story of Timothy John Coldridge who leaves a steamy East Texas town, unhappily, at the age of eighteen. Now, at thirty-three, he returns with a dazzling companion, Miss Jessie Gatewood. Draped (and impeccably accessorized) in Victorian finery and drenched in social graces, she takes the town by storm. While it might be said that he arrived with her, it might also be said that he arrived within her, since Timothy John and Jessie Gatewood are the same person. Aided at every delectable turn by a cast of relentless eccentrics, our heroine endures spectacular (and distinctly different) adventures, including genteel romance, high drama, torment, ecstasy, and a technicolor ending.
THE TENANT – Roland Topor
The story of a shy, withdrawn man who’s personality, and later, physical appearance are overcome by the “spirit” of a woman, when he moves into her apartment after she has committed suicide. Made into a film of the same name starring Roman Polanski.
THE THIEF’S JOURNAL – Genet 1949
Deals with homosexual transvestites.
TORCH SONG TRILOGY –Harvey Firestein
A three-act play about the pre-aids gay lifestyle. The basic story is about a drag queen’s search for love and respect in his life.
ULLYSES – James Joyce
This “classic” contains one or two TV related scenes.
WATTS…AFTER? – Ed Wood, Jr.
Sequel to Watts…The Difference.
WATTS…THE DIFFERENCE? – Ed Wood, Jr.
An erotic novel about a tv, from the infamous director (a tv himself) of Glen or Glenda.
THE WILDON AFFAIR – Roland De Forrest 1983
An erotic book, with one chapter dealing with a she-male.
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP – John Irving 1978
An honest, emotional novel of growing up male, and female in a male dominated world. Filmed with Robin Williams as Garp, and John Lithgow, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the transsexual Roberta.
ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE – Les Dean 1981
The book adaptation of the movie. A pivotal scene in the book and movie has the gay Zorro dressed as a beautiful?? woman.
*** Short Stories ***
JUST BOYS – James Farrell 1934
A short story with a feminine young boy who attends a dance as a girl and comes to a very bad end.
THE KING WHO HAD TO BE QUEEN TOO – Jonathan Winters 1988
Very strange, short short story about a king who had no queen and took to wearing women’s clothes. Published in the collection “Winter’s Tales.”
THE MAN WHO BECAME A WOMAN – Sherwood Anderson 1963
Short story about a man who imagines he has become a woman.
TRIPLE ECHO – H.E. Bates 1970
A short novel. The basis for the movie of the same name. An reluctant British soldier is hidden by a sympathetic farm woman, by posing him as his sister. He is reluctant at first but begins to adapt into the
role a little too much.
THE WACHSMUTH SYNDROME – Stefan Heym 1972
A short story about a man who mutates into a woman overnight and becomes a celebrity of sorts. Then others start mutating, eventually all the men in the world mutate into women. Originally published in Playboy, September 1972, also appeared in Heym’s collection “The Queen Against DeFoe”.
*** Adult Novels ***
These are published as “Adult novels” but don’t seem to fall into the true porno area.
ABNORMALS ANONYMOUS – Stella Gray 1964
People with all kinds of kinky desires form a club.
BRAZEN IMAGES – Carl Corley 1967
Novel about a female impersonator.
DIAL “P” FOR PLEASURE – Myron Kosloff 1964
A tv and lesbian novel.
IN DRAG – Len Harrington 1968
Gene was just a normal married man, till he took a job as a model for – of all things – women’s fashions. Then the hidden side of his nature came out.
MR. FANCY-PANTIES – Dick Dale 1968
About a “blond butch stud” who happens to wear lace frilly panties.
THE GAY DOGS – Don Holliday 1967
Another of his “Man From C.A.M.P.” novels.
THE MUSCLE SWAPPERS – Barry Crandall 1968
An explosive twilight novel of drag balls and swap parties among gay lovers.
THE OPERATION – Alexander Goodwell 1967
A very small small-press novel about Chuck, who has “THE” operation.
QUEEN OF CLUBS – Loren Sanderson 1977
About a drag performer.
QUEENS OF THE QUARTER – William Tressner, Jr. 1968
Danny met some real characters in the old French Quarter. Take Daisy Mae. the big blonde stud with a penal record who always wore drag.
RALLY ROUND THE FAG – Don Holliday 1967
A “Man from C.A.M.P.” novel. Agent Jackie Holmes gets in drag to impersonate a liquidated female spy.
THE SATIN PRINCE – Lee White 1966
A tv novel.
THE SON GOES DOWN – Don Holliday 1966
Another of his “Man From C.A.M.P.” novels.
THREE ON A MATCHSTICK – Don Holliday 1967
A tv novel.
TROUBLED LOVERS – Dan Rogers
Seduction by a transvestite leads Dave to tragic circumstances.
UNNATURAL DESIRES – Vin Saxon 1965
A tv novel.
WHISPER OF SILK – Vin Saxon 1966
A tv novel.
This Transgender article is Published on TGGuide.com with express permission of the Author. All rights are reserved by the original author. Any reproduction without permission is prohibited.
TRANSGENDER ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS: TGGuide is seeking writers for articles of interest to the transgender community. We will include information about the author along with links back to your web site. Please submit your articles to webmaster@tgguide.com.