The Danish Girl Study Guide

Born and raised in southern California, David Ebershoff received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his MFA from the University of Chicago. Upon the completion of his master’s degree, Ebershoff moved to New York City where he began an internship at Random House, which turned into a full-time job in the marketing department for one of the publisher’s important imprints. Ebershoff spent the first part of his career as a publishing insider, ultimately becoming an influential editor. As such, he has played a role in the publication of such influential works as David Mitchell’s award-winning Cloud Atlas (2004). Ebershoff’s first novel, The Danish Girl, was published in 2000. He subsequently published The Rose City, a short story collection, in 2001; Pasadena, a turn-of-the-century historical fiction novel; and The 19th Wife, a mystery novel and work of historical fiction about American Mormons, which was published in 2008. The 19th Wife was adapted into a television miniseries in 2010, and The Danish Girl was adapted into a film in 2015; The Danish Girl was nominated for multiple awards and was critically well received. Additionally, Ebershoff received the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction in 2000 for The Danish Girl. In addition to his writing and editing careers, he has taught at New York University, Princeton University, and Columbia University.

Lili Elbe, the transgender woman whose story lies at the heart of The Danish Girl, is a real historical figure, although her actual story deviates from the version depicted in the novel. Lili was born as Einar Wegener in 1882 and married fellow Danish painter Gerda Gottlieb in 1904. The couple later settled in Paris, where Elbe was able to live more openly as a woman. In 1930, Lili underwent a series of surgeries including the removal of her testicles and penis, a vaginoplasty, and the transplantation of ovarian tissue and a uterus. Her body rejected the uterus, and she died in September of 1931 at the age of 48. While elements of her story were preserved in her journals and in her semiautobiographical account Man into Woman, Elbe’s surgical records were lost during the bombing of Berlin in WWII. This has complicated efforts to understand elements of her story, including the possibility that she was born with an intersex condition. Lili completed her medical transition at the very forefront of modern gender affirming care. She was only the second person known to have undergone complete male-to-female genital surgery, the first being Dora Richter, who transitioned between 1921-1931 under the care of pioneering German sexologist Magnus Hirschfield—the same doctor who treated Lili. It wasn’t until the 1950s that surgical techniques for gender affirming surgery began to be standardized. Transplant surgery as a specialty was also in its infancy; although the first successful transplantation (of thyroid tissue) occurred in 1883, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that doctors understood transplant immunity and began to explore ways to treat it. Moreover, while there have been a number of successful uterine transplant surgeries in the 21st century, the viability of transplanting a uterus into a male-to-female transgender person is still theoretical at best. Readers should note that the fictionalized account presented in The Danish Girl diverges from historical fact in key ways, most notably the replacement of the historical Gerda Gottleib with Greta Waud, California heiress and widow. Additionally, the book presents Greta as a cisgender, heterosexual woman while there is evidence that the historical Gerda was herself queer.

The historical Lili Elbe co-authored a book about her life and experiences with her friend Ernst Harthern, which was published shortly after her death in 1931. Called Fra Mand til Kvinde (Man into Woman), it was translated into several languages, including English, during the 1930s and became an influential text in mid-century conversations about human sexuality. Readers interested in a historical survey of transgender experiences in the United States, including the era when gender-affirming surgery was in its experimental infancy, can consult Joanne Meyerowitz’s How Sex Changed (2004). The Danish Girl the Lambda Award for Transgender Literature in 2000. Other recent winners include 2018’s Little Fish by Casey Plett, which follows transgender protagonist Wendy Reimer as she uncovers evidence that her grandfather may have been transgender, too. Zeyn Joukhadar’s 2020 The Thirty Names of Night sees a trans boy finding acceptance and community. Emma Grove’s 2021 memoir, The Third Person, details the author and illustrator’s quest to receive hormone therapy as a trans woman.