The Hermaphrodite

The Hermaphrodite is an incomplete novel by Julia Ward Howe about an intersex individual raised as a male in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century, who in adulthood lives sometimes as a female and sometimes as a male. Its date of composition is uncertain, but estimated to be between 1846 and 1847. The term "hermaphrodite" was used until the mid-20th century to identify someone having reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes. Plot introduction Laurence narrates the story. Though Laurence is intersex and as a child displays normative gender characteristics of both sexes, his unsettled father, Paternus, decides to raise Laurence as a male. Sent away college, he excels in his studies, particularly in writing poetry that inflames the passions of an older widow, Emma. Laurence is not attracted to her and displays asexual tendencies. On the night of his graduation, Emma professes her love for him. When informed that Laurence is intersex, she goes into a deep state of shock and soon dies. Laurence reacts with great emotion and returns home to his cold father. Paternus now displays how Laurence's condition repulses him and expresses his regret that Laurence will never father a male heir. He offers Laurence his inheritance in a premature bulk sum, if he will agree to allow Paternus to disown him. Laurence vehemently rejects the offer, instead offering the money to his younger (and gender-neutral) brother, Phil, in the hope that his brother will share the estate with him upon their father's death. At one point Laurence hears two men compare him to the "lovely hermaphrodite" in the sculpture collection of the Villa Borghese, the Sleeping Hermaphroditus.