- "Death in the Dawntime", by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre. From The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives. A detective story set among Australian aborigines, about 35.000 years B.C.E. Interesting.
- "The Return of the Crusader", by Anonymous. From The Penguin Book of French Short Stories. A very short 15th century story about infidelity. Originally an oral tale, the period's equivalent of an urban legend, told to amuse people at court.
- "Parties Unknown by the Jury: Or, the Valour of my Tongue", by P.M. Carlson. From Women on the Case. A historical crime story, partly based on a real lynching case. Interesting voice and well written.
- "The Ruff", by Michael and Mollie Hardwick. From 50 Great Horror Stories. A nasty, haughty girl gets a comeuppance. Historical, Poe-esque and pretty good.
- "Beauty and the Beast". Fairy tale from Best-loved Folktales of the World. This is the longest and most detailed version I have read of this story. Recommended.
This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha. In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man. However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men. Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwove...
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