REVIEW: Howard Overing Sturgis: "Tim"

Howard Sturgis: Tim(Early Gay Classic; Novel)

"Tim" (1891) is a delicate portrayal of a sensitive boy's devoted affection for an older boy — a very touching story of a tender and self-forgetful character.

Howard Overing Sturgis (1855-1920) was an English writer, the author of only three novels: "All That Was Possible," "Tim," and "Belchamber." He attended Eton College, where some of the scenes in "Tim" take place. He was an intimate friend of Henry James.

"My dearest of all Howards, I long so for news of you that nothing but this act of aggression will serve, and that even though I know (none better!) what a heavy, not to say intolerable overburdening of illness is the request that those even too afflicted to feed themselves shall feed the post with vivid accounts of themselves. But though I don't in the least imagine that you are not feeding yourself (I hope very regularly and daintily,) this is all the same an irresistible surrender to sentiments of which you are the loved object-downright crude affection, fond interest, uncontrollable yearning. Look you, it isn't a request for anything, even though I languish in the vague-it's just a renewed "declaration"-of dispositions long, I trust familiar to you and which my uncertainty itself makes me want, for my relief, to reiterate..." (Henry James to Howard Sturgis, Sept. 2nd, 1913)

(Review by: Mondial)