"In Egypt Ray and Theodora live together publicly as male companions, while indulging secretly in a passionate sexual relationship. Their idyll is brought to a violent end when the two visit an all-male entertainment featuring an erotic dancer, 'a youth of about seventeen' whose 'supple and exquisitely symmetrical form' creates in the audience an 'excitement delirious, intoxicated' (237-8). Inflamed by the performance, Ray kisses Theodora on the lips and her true sex is discovered. The two are threatened with death, but buy their lives by agreeing that Theodora will be passed over to a group of Egyptians for seven days, to be used by them as they wish. She returns from the ordeal broken in spirit, and with her beauty hideously disfigured. Despite Ray's assurances of his continuing devotion, and his attempts to nurse her back to health, she finally kills herself."
- Gail Cunningham's summary of Victoria Cross's 1903 novel, Six Chapters of a Man's Life, as published in her introduction to Anna Lombard.

i gotta read this book. can you imagine how shocking that would've been to read in 1903?