#historical

Rating: Great Read
Genre: Historical, Literary
Representation:
-Trans man protagonist(s)
-Intersex protagonist(s)
Trigger warnings: Murder, state violence, police, execution, graphic injury, surgery (graphic), slavery (not in scene), child abuse, self harm, plague
Note: Not YA; features very graphic sexuality

I gasped in delight when I realized, several pages into Confessions of the Fox, what I was reading.  I had known beforehand that I was picking up a historical fiction story about the infamous 18th century London thief Jack Sheppard reimagined as a transgender man.  What delighted me was the frame story, which is what truly makes the novel something special.

The fictional Dr. Voss is a historian of the 18th century at an unnamed university; he stumbles across an old manuscript at his university library’s book sale, and the student running the sale gives it to him for free.  This manuscript touts itself as an extant narrative about Jack Sheppard, previously undiscovered.  Voss throws himself into the work of transcribing the document, increasingly fascinated as he discovers that this narrative is alone in several claims it makes about Jack and the characters of his life. First, that Jack is transgender and intersex, and second, that his lover, Elizabeth Lyon (Bess) is Southeast Asian, identifying herself as “Lascar” on her father’s side.

The enormity of this manuscript’s discovery is not lost on Voss’s university, who, holding Voss’s job hostage, demand he editorialize the manuscript so that it can be copyrighted and sold via partnership with a pharmaceutical company purporting to sell “organic” Testosterone.  Voss is transgender himself, and while the university doesn’t outright admit that they want his mark on the manuscript for that reason, it is implied.

Thus,Confessions of the Fox becomes two stories in one: the tale of Jack Sheppard and Bess, their jailbreaks, heists, love affair, and run-ins with pirates, mollies, and mutineers; but also the tale told through Dr. Voss’s footnotes on the manuscript, a convincing facsimile of academic commentary. That is, until Voss starts connecting the manuscript to his own life, going “rogue” as he realizes that the manuscript is not what he had first believed it to be (but no spoilers).

The framing, reminiscent of The Princess Bride, is convincing, well-executed, but not so entrenched in research as to be a slog.  In fact, I enjoyed the footnotes more than the Jack Sheppard story.  Voss’s ruminations on the manuscript, on transgender life in the 18th century, on real documents, such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and real historical events, such as the draining of the Fens, make this novel something really special.

The Jack Sheppard story itself, meanwhile, is straightforward, well-written in its own right, but needs the scaffolding of Voss’s footnotes in order to stand.  I was somewhat disappointed by the shape of the plot, which unfolded all at once at the end.  There was little space for Jack or Bess to be more than reactive as the plot happened around them. The main reason for the disruption of the pacing was probably the slow on-ramp; Jack’s transition and how it is accomplished takes up the lion’s share of the beginning of the novel, only then moving into the plot with Jonathan Wild and the mutineers, which by comparison, moves much too quickly.

However, issues of pacing that would have made another novel unpleasant to read were ameliorated by the frame story’s focus on the active discoveries about the text Voss shares with the reader as the novel progresses.  The slow unravelling of Voss’s revelations about the manuscript, and his conflict with the university over it, keep the reader’s interest even while the “manuscript” itself drags or moves too quickly in parts.

I cannot recommend Confessions of the Fox enough, although there are parts that are very graphic, and might ruin someone else’s reading.  Though I wouldn’t necessarily list this as a trigger warning, discerning readers may want to be aware beforehand of the astounding prevalence of urine in the equally prevalent and graphic sexuality of the Jack Sheppard manuscript.  Confessions of the Fox is very squarely adult fiction, with little room to be enjoyed as a crossover with YA audiences.  I would even go so far to say that Confessions of the Fox has toed the line over into erotic fiction, though it has happily managed to secure its seat as a critical darling anyway, perhaps by nature of its literary qualities and truly thoughtful musings on gender, academia, capitalism, the over-policing of marginalized communities, and most of all, questions of who is permitted to author history, and who must be content to editorialize. 

For more from Jordy Rosenberg, visit his website here.

Some historical looks and reckless flirting from Aziraphale.

Historical Hair Fashion Details in Art. Artist

Joseph Karl Steiler

Historical Fashion Details in Art. 18th Century dress details.

Historical Fashion Details in Art.

Historical Fashion Details in Art.

Historical Fashion Details in Art.

Historical Fashion Details in Art. ca.1830

Historical Fashion Details in Art.

Historical Fashion Details in Art.

Historical Fashion Details in art.:

“Forbidden Fruit” (“Le Fruit Defendu”) by Auguste Toulmouche, painted in 1865, illustrating how young women have always rebelled against having their access to knowledge policed.