uc Dau's Sex, Celibacy, and Deviance: The Victorians and the Song of Songs insightfully traces the use of the Song of Songs, a text of Biblical wisdom literature, throughout the Victorian period across various artistic modes: the novel, poetry, stained glass windows, sketches, and even a painted piano. Arguing that the Song of Song's "equivocal reception" allowed "queer authors" to "find purchase" (8) among Victorians in various realms and discourses, Dau builds useful bridges between commonly-read texts and less well-known nineteenth-century work, artfully building a case for the importance of the Song of Songs, a text that tends to be overlooked in scholarship as well as in Victorian religious discourse.
To introduce her argument, Dau uses Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895) to plunge readers into thinking about the place of the Song of Songs in the nineteenth century, primarily as a wellspring of artistic inspiration for creators of varying religious beliefs. Dau explains why celibacy can be read as deviant and demonstrates a strong engagement with relevant scholarship throughout, making clearly stated claims and identifying her monograph's specific scholarly contribution to this discourse. The introduction sets up Dau's premise (tracing the use of the Song of Songs in Victorian literature and art) and provides important context for understanding the broad historical tapestry of Victorian religion. I did feel that this section, while providing a generally strong foundation for the book, could have benefited from additional bolstering from nineteenth-century theological criticism of the Song of Songs.
In Chapter One, Dau pairs Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847) with Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd (1874). Dau argues that the Song of Songs, considered as a lens for Jane Eyre, reveals a divinely-sanctioned equality and mutuality in heterosexual relationships. Dau hears "echoes of the Bible, including the Song of Songs" in Rochester and Jane's love story (31). The wisdom book, Dau argues, is important for how it informs a way of reading. In much the same way that the Song of Songs is often read both as a literal romantic love poem and a metaphorical poem prophetically pointing to the love of Christ for the Church, Dau suggests that "St. John's marriage to Christ" in the novel can be understood as "the typological fulfilment of Jane Eyre's marriage to Rochester" (28). While this part of the argument seems accurate based on Dau's evidence, I did wonder if the language of "echoes" led to overstatements about the Song of Songs, as much literature describing love constellates around similar experiences. However, this part of the chapter insightfully illuminates allusions to, and echoes of, the Song of Songs in Jane Eyre. Working contrapuntally, Dau next argues that Hardy, in Far From the Madding Crowd divests the Song of Songs of its centuries-old religiosity in order to reveal the text as essentially secular, a story of "human relations that makes no mention of God" (23). Dau contends that Hardy's use of Song of Songs is refracted through Higher Criticism, acknowledging Hardy's appreciation for George Eliot's translation of Strauss's The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (1846) as well as his engagement with Essays and Reviews (1860). According to Dau, the Higher Criticism led Hardy to think about literal, earthly meanings while elevating not the spiritual, but the human elements of the Song of Songs (37). Dau's readings of Hardy emphasize the influence of historical criticism on literary allusions to the Song of Songs, giving a tangible example of the way shifting religious criticism permitted authors to engage with the text in more literal and secular ways.
In Chapter Two, Dau compares the use of the Song of Songs in the work of Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and the Steinway grand piano painted by Phoebe Anna Traquair (commissioned 1908). Through strong analysis of Burne-Jones' stained glass window at St. Helen's, Darley Dale, a rendition of the Song of Songs that emphasizes the "nightmarish scene of violence against the Shulamite" (the main character in the Song of Songs), Dau points to — though does not name — "other often-forgotten examples of violence against women in the Bible" (42). While I would have appreciated Dau's referencing of these Biblical assault survivors (Tamar, Dinah, Hagar, etc.) by name, Dau usefully connects Burne-Jones' emphasis on this violent scene from the Song of Songs to the "increasing social and legal attention paid to marital violence in the Victorian era" (42), citing the century's "historical shifts toward greater protection for women and children," (47) such as the Criminal Procedure Act (1853) and the Kelly v. Kelly case of 1870. Dau argues that Burnes with his window uses the Song of Songs to illuminate the bleak, violent reality of some Victorian marriages, a reality that differed greatly from typical Victorian idealizations. Dau's analysis of Burne-Jones' work is insightful, understanding it as "a literal window into the world of gendered and sexual violence, not just in the era but also in the Bible" (53).
In contrast to the violence of Burne-Jones' work, Traquair's piano "depicts joyful reunion and erotic desire after the pain of separation" in a "desire-driven narrative of lovers separated and reunited" (43). Dau reads this piano dually through the lens of Song of Songs, both as an allegory for "the soul's separation and reunion with Christ" and as a sensual artistic experience overlaid with "the eroticism of the Song of Songs," making a case for the piano as "an instrument of sympathetic vibration, flirtation, and courtship" (43). Dau's argument about Traquair's piano is convincing, as she explores the functional materiality of such a work of art, especially as it intersects with nineteenth-century gender norms. By focusing on an artists like Traquair, Dau usefully introduces readers to an artist who may not be well known. However, as a chapter on visual culture, the inclusion of relevant images of the painted piano or stained-glass windows would have improved the argument greatly.
Chapter Three pairs Christina Rossetti with the religious writer, poet and nun Augusta Theodosia Drane (1823-1894), in a discussion of "divine love and the possibility of agency within chastity and sisterhood" (64). Dau's argument about Rossetti and sisterhood starts conventionally, by showing that Rossetti's "Goblin Market" religiously elevates the role of sisterhood as an empowering relationship. Dau then builds interesting connections between the nineteenth-century sexualization, moralizing, and "gendering of sweetness," which associated sugar with girls, and the poem's depictions of sweetness, which Dau compares to nineteenth-century pornographic poetry (81). Dau also traces the Song of Songs in Drane's poetry, demonstrating that it "appears in surprising places in Drane's writings to reinforce ideas of her espousal to Christ" (75). Dau further suggests the Song of Songs enables Drane to cast celibacy as empowering, "heroic" (74), and even manly or warrior-like (81). Dau's reading of the nun as warrior, refracted through the Song of Songs, was insightful and persuasive. Dau's close readings of Drane are compelling, and the chapter's subjects complement each other effectively as Dau discusses the options Tractarianism and Roman Catholicism provided for women as well as the literary affordances women found in the Song of Songs.
Chapter Four examines embodiment, specifically "the relationship between the Song of Songs and the queer body" as it is represented in Simeon Solomon's visual art and John Gray's ekphrastic poetry. The hands become central to this connection, for Dau analyzes them as "communicators of human feeling and cultural meaning in Solomon's homoerotic art" (92). Dau zeroes in on depictions of handholding between two men and Solomon's highlighting of same-sex desire. The inclusion of a Victorian Jewish perspective on the Song of Songs enhances the monograph's general value, though here, as elsewhere, I felt the presentation of this rich material suffered from the lack of images. Dau argues that Solomon "assigns a queer interpretation to the Song of Songs" (96) in a good deal of his work, specifically through renderings of hand-holding. Dau also analyzes John Gray's ekphrastic poetry and use of the waşf poetic forms (inspired by the Song of Songs), arguing "Gray's decadent Catholicism was an aestheticized faith, reconstructed by art" (93). This chapter's pairing of outsider artists, both attracted to men, was compelling, though I found myself wanting more theological discussion about the differences between disparate Jewish and Christian uses of the Song of Songs.
Chapter Five explores the Victorian intersection of love and death, the interplay of these topics in the Song of Songs, and their emergence in the work of Michael Field (pen name of aunt-niece writing couple Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper). Starting with In Memoriam was not only an effective choice but also another strong pairing of a canonical Victorian text with writings less well known, although the language of "echoes" of Song of Songs, for instance, in the connections drawn between the Song of Songs and In Memoriam, occasionally felt tenuous. Where the chapter really shines, however, is in Dau's use of unpublished archival material to show how the Song of Songs actually bridges "Michael Field's pagan and Catholic periods," a "conversion" that "allowed for a continuation of many of their preexisting ideas into a Catholic framework" (122). Dau contends that Field's use of the Song of Songs could both express passion and "argue that love is stronger than death" by addressing the losses of mother (Emma), dog (Whym Chow), and a poetic icon and friend, Robert Browning. (122). Dau's work on Michael Field makes an enlightening contribution, both to analysis and to textual recovery. This chapter illustrates how the Song of Songs could also provide a language for mourning.
In her Coda, Dau usefully and briefly explores the roads not taken as she developed this project, rounding out the corners of her charting of the Song of Songs in the Victorian era.
The book contains strong, fascinating readings of canonical Victorian texts as well as works less commonly read, including unseen archival materials. Dau's marrying of these kinds of texts proved a strength of the book. Throughout, Dau uses sources well, citing appropriate scholars while drawing in new voices of the past and present. Dau's readings were insightful and generally well-argued, if not always groundbreaking. Dau's approach, which traces the use of Song of Songs throughout the Victorian period, makes a unique scholarly contribution that will enhance readers' understandings of the import of the Song of Songs to the Victorians. That said, I would have liked to see a bit more historical textual criticism of Song of Songs throughout.
The book's greatest weakness by far is its complete lack of images. So much of Dau's argument on visual culture (especially in Chapter Two) would have been deepened and improved by well-printed photographs of the works she discusses. Although readers can use an internet search, it took me some time to locate and identify the right artworks, and the omission of images from the book may tempt readers to skip that essential work.
On the other hand, Dau's spotlighting of less well-known, mostly queer writers and artists constitutes a real scholarly contribution. Additionally, Dau's highly engaging prose features delightful wordplay seldom found in academic monographs. For instance, the book concludes with this play on language in the Song of Songs: "I have no doubt that the topic will continue to invite readers to enter its garden and eat its pleasant fruits" (146). Dau's monograph effectively makes such an invitation to readers to consider new ways of tracing Biblical allusion in the nineteenth century. In general, I recommend this book, although readers should approach it with a web browser nearby.
Related Material
- The Higher Criticism
- Pre-Raphaelitism
- Sir Edward Burne-Jones: Religious Themes and Contexts
- Pre-Raphaelite Aestheticism and Pre-Raphaelite Sacramentalism in the Poetry of Christina Rossetti
Bibliography
[Book under review] Dau, Duc. Sex, Celibacy, and Deviance: The Victorians and the Song of Songs. Ohio State Press, 2024. ISBN: 978-0-8142-1503-6. ix + 165 pp.
Created 11 November 2025