I don't know! My reading tends to skew heavily to female authors, so I don't think I have enough male examples to give a balanced assessment.
I do think maybe it's more common in children's books than books aimed at an adult audience, maybe because the demands of the Victorian marriage plot are less pressing? But even in adult books, you have Shirley and Caroline in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley... although I think Shirley & Caroline's discussion about affection vs. passion, which places their friendship firmly in the affection camp (although as an "affection that no passion can ultimately outrival, with which even love itself cannot do more than compete in force and truth"), this is one of the few 19th century possible pairings where there's actual textual evidence that it is definitely just platonic.
Of course, there's Lucy & Ginevra in Villette, but "She's so irritating in every way but GOD she is so pretty" is a very different dynamic.
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I do think maybe it's more common in children's books than books aimed at an adult audience, maybe because the demands of the Victorian marriage plot are less pressing? But even in adult books, you have Shirley and Caroline in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley... although I think Shirley & Caroline's discussion about affection vs. passion, which places their friendship firmly in the affection camp (although as an "affection that no passion can ultimately outrival, with which even love itself cannot do more than compete in force and truth"), this is one of the few 19th century possible pairings where there's actual textual evidence that it is definitely just platonic.
Of course, there's Lucy & Ginevra in Villette, but "She's so irritating in every way but GOD she is so pretty" is a very different dynamic.