The Curate's Friend, by E. M. Forster (fantasy short story, 1907)

[lb_lee]

"How I came to see him is a more difficult question. For to see him there is required a certain quality, for which truthfulness is too cold a name and animal spirits too coarse a one, and he alone knows how this quality came to be in me."

Blurb: A young priest meets an invisible faun that nobody else can see, hears the voices of the landscape, and finds a happier life where he's more honest with himself, even if he has to be closeted in his congregation.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a short, sweet story about breaking free of one's repression and building bonds to the natural and otherordinary world. It's in the public domain, so free and easy to read; give it a shot!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, closeting, nonhumans (fauns), intimate relationships, visions

Content Warnings: Closeting, because this is a story about a gay man before World War I.

Accessibility Notes: This short story was omnibused in The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories, which is screenreadable thanks to Project Gutenberg! It's also been omnibused many other times and is available in paperback and hardback. Also has been translated into Dutch as "De vriend van de dominee," collected into De hemelse paardetram en andere verhalen.

Misc. Notes (if any): Forster was gay. This story is a gay story, though it can't outright say so due to the time period. But if you know what he's talking about, it's pretty clear.

Comments

[matsushima]

Keeping this in my pocket for any time someone tries to say queer literature is some newfangled thing.

[lb_lee]

Rogan: Yeah, I had an eye out for this story in particular because back in 1913/4 Forster wrote Maurice, a gay love story with a happy ending that couldn't be published till fifty years later, after his death. I read it way back in college, and it very well may have been the first book I read by a queer man ABOUT a queer man getting a happy ending (rather than a teen coming out story).

So when that big bibliography of queer speculative fiction came into my hands at the sci-fi library, and it mentioned short stories by Forster, including this one, you bet I kept an eye peeled!