Gaywyck

Sensitive, blond, emerald-eyed Robert Whyte is seventeen, living in a small town where his father is schoolmaster and his mother quite mad. When the local parish Father arranges an introduction to Donough Gaylord, the young, gorgeous, sophisticated (and fabulously wealthy) lord of the manor of Gaywyck, a Long Island estate, a deal is struck: Robert will become the librarian and move into Gaywyck forthwith.

Donough’s eye-popping New York digs at Gramercy Park, with displays of Van Goghs, Cézannes and Monets, pales in comparison to the riches found at Gaywyck. Donough’s part-time mentoring leaves Robert much time to explore the estate, its secrets and physicalities (a waterfall, gardens, beaches, riding trails, a cave of paintings, hidden closets), and the dark past shared by the inhabitants. His coming of age is bombarded by sexual desires, lies, betrayal, journals full of secrets everyone reads, suicide and murders, erotic encounters, and the sea, always the sea, tranquil or agitated ….

Robert, smitten from first meeting, yearns for Donough as a lover. The older man, haunted by guilt from childhood secrets, fights his intense, growing passion even as hidden evil rushes to destroy them both. A cherished classic for almost 50 years. This new edition features a foreword by Damon Suede and an afterword by the author.

“Gaywyck is the very definition of classic. Using gothic romance to explore the love that once “dared not speak its name,” Gaywyck proves compelling fiction and love are truly timeless.” – Rick R. Reed

“A fascinating mixture of Wilde, the gothic, and, above all, the souls laid to rest in New York.” – Angus Wilson

“A groundbreaking romance classic by a trailblazing author, Gaywyck blew open the doors of romance, proving what Vincent Virga has said for years: Genre has no gender. Merging the lushness of the best gothics with the big emotions of modern historicals, this is a story that transforms the way you think of the romance novel.” – Sarah MacLean

“As of 2024, Mr. Virga is one of the only surviving members of a pantheon of gay novelists who changed the way queer stories got told, forever. Suckled on pulps, they wrote books that escaped the camp gulag by sheer force of will via humor and hubris, poesy and porn … entire subgenres of pop-culture redefined by brilliant queers writing against the grain.” – Damon Suede

Author Biography

Vincent Virga, born in Greenwich Village in 1942, was raised in a family of seven on Long Island. Vincent was obsessed with movies, and books, and pop music, and dancing, and had been Macy’s Most Beautiful Child – the foundation for a life somewhere over the rainbow.In 1964, he went to Yale’s Graduate School of Drama where he met James McCourt. In 1965, he “came out” in Paris in the shadow of Notre Dame and made an exclusive commitment to McCourt; they celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2025.Vincent Virga has been called “America’s foremost picture editor.” He has researched, edited, and designed picture sections for more than 150 books, including Eyes of the Nation: A Visual History of the United States and Cartographia: Mapping Civilizations. He also spent over two decades working with the curators at the Library of Congress on 29 books.His most celebrated novel, Gaywyck, sparked a revolution as the first gay gothic romance. ReQueered Tales is reissuing it, the sequel Vadriel Vail, and two follow-up novels, completing a Quartet of indescribable delight. A Comfortable Corner, his second published fiction, was also recently reissued. Bestselling author Damon Suede is a full-time romance writer. He has taught writing to students from primary to university level, most recently at a private school for wacky, gifted children in NYC. Beyond romance fiction, Damon has been a full-time writer for print, stage, comics, and screen for three decades.