Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the 19th Century

Homosexuality was at the core of Victorian social and cultural history. Nameless Offences shows how the homosexual ‘closet’ was created and yet was both hidden and rejected by English sources for long periods of the 19th century. It was not just by the operation of the law and increasing police enforcement, but also by the efforts of successive governments, politicians and journalists to marginalize homosexuality in civil society. Prevention of slander and vilification among the ruling classes were potent reasons to marginalize homosexuality and create the ‘closet.’ The Victorian masculine ‘character’ was at issue as the 1880s exposed the gulf between notions of private and public morality.