Now, I haven’t read Dark Passions Subdue, but going from the cover artwork, the 1952 publishing date and the earnestly dreary title (shouldn’t it be subdued?), I’d have to guess that this novel belongs in the ‘miserable homosexual’ genre. The type of pre-Stonewall literature that exposed the seedy underworld of the ‘third sex’ and almost always ended in tragedy.
It’s a popular misconception that all gay lit before 1969 belonged in this category. It’s simply not true, though Dark Passions Subdue certainly looks as if it’d support that cliche.
