Peter Tuesday Hughes: Forgotten Pioneer of the Gay Gothic

Abstract

Vincent Virga’s Gaywyck (1980) has enjoyed sustained critical and commercial interest due to the claim that it is the first Gothic novel to depict unambiguous same-sex romance. While enthusiasm for Gaywyck is warranted, there is an earlier ‘gay Gothic’ novel which should be recognized as the first. Peter Tuesday Hughes’s Gay Nights at Maldelangue (1969) is a literary fantasia of same-sex desire and classic gothic storytelling. Published shortly after the Stonewall Uprising, it is also among the first creative interactions with the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s. Although Hughes wrote at least thirty-two novels, was a critical success and top seller for his publisher, he is largely forgotten today – to the extent that we do not know whether he is alive or even if that is his real name.