ABSTRACT
This chapter interrogates the flexibility and the relevance of contemporary theories of gender masquerade in relation to a body of texts against which they have not yet been tested, beginning with a reading of Georgette Heyer's three cross-dressing novels. Romance fiction is, defined by the drama of secrecy and confession encapsulated in the speech act, 'I love you'. This drama gains an additional layer of intrigue when the heroine first attracts the attention of the hero in the guise of a boy. Cross-dressing novels hinge on the representation of a redoubled scene of confession: the revelation of the heroine's true sex and the declaration of love. Cross-dressing novels, from Heyer to today, have used gender disguise to represent the truth in multiple senses of the hero and heroine's love. They insistover and over againt that there is an entirely predictable and indisputable relationship between an individual's sex, their gender, and their sexuality.
