Lesbian Images: Essays

by Jane Rule

Jane Rule’s fourth book explores lesbianism as portrayed by authors from Gertrude Stein to Colette, from Vita Sackville-West to May Sarton and Willa Cather

Lesbian Images opens with a disclaimer from the author: “This book is not intended to be a comprehensive literary or cultural history of lesbians.” Rather, as Jane Rule goes on to tell us, her goal is to present her own attitudes and measure them against the images of lesbianism as depicted by other female authors. Thus, chapters titled “Gertrude Stein 1874–1946,” “Willa Cather 1876–1947,” and “Ivy Compton-Burnett 1892–1969,” among many others, reveal how the concept of love between women can be filtered through one’s personal experiences and perceptions.

There are also chapters about lesbian myths and morality; the effect of the women’s movement on lesbianism; the inherent conflicts between lesbianism and feminism; how Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness changed fifteen-year-old Rule’s life; and what it means to be labeled a lesbian writer.

At once astute and nonjudgmental, Lesbian Images is a deeply engaging work that sounds a powerful note of hope for the future.

Genres: Lesbian, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Essays, Feminism

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Jane Vance Rule was a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. American by birth and Canadian by choice, Rule's pioneering work as a writer and activist reached across borders.

Rule was born on March 28, 1931, in Plainfield, New Jersey, and raised in the Midwest and California. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in 1952. In 1954 she joined the faculty of the Concord Academy, a private school in Massachusetts. There Rule met Helen Sonthoff, a fellow faculty member who became her life partner. They settled in Vancouver in 1956. Eventually they both held positions at the University of British Columbia until 1976 when they moved to Galiano Island. Sonthoff died in 2000, at 83. Rule died at the age of 76 on November 28, 2007 at her home on Galiano Island due to complications from liver cancer, refusing any treatment that would take her from the island.

A major literary figure in Canada, she wrote seven novels as well as short stories and nonfiction. But it was for Desert of the Heart that she remained best known. The novel published in 1964, is about a professor of English literature who meets and falls in love with a casino worker in Reno. It was made into a movie by Donna Deitch called Desert Hearts in 1985, which quickly became a lesbian classic.

Rule, who became a Canadian citizen in the 1960s, was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1998 and the Order of Canada in 2007. In 1994, Rule was the subject of a Genie-awarding winning documentary, Fiction and Other Truths; a film about Jane Rule, directed by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman, produced by Rina Fraticelli. She received the Canadian Authors Association best novel and best short story awards, the American Gay Academic Literature Award, the U.S. Fund for Human Dignity Award of Merit, the CNIB's Talking Book of the Year Award and an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of British Columbia. In January of 2007, Rule was awarded the Alice B. Toklas Medal “for her long and storied career as a lesbian novelist.”

Proud Life - Jane Rule: 1931 - 2007 by Marilyn Schuster
Jane Rule 1996 - George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award

Reviews

[EmyNem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Lesbian Images. Although none of the specific authors or their works are going to stick in my memory for long, this reading was helpful for me to get a feel for lesbian literature and perception in the 20th century. Knowing where lesbians were a century ago, filled with misogyny and self hatred, gave me a sense of why lesbians are perceived as they are today.

Something about the author’s writing was like being suspended in honey in a way that made me lose track of the words I read while being soothed. I don’t know, but I’d like to look into some of Jane Rule’s other works because I noticed this book is among her lowest rated.

[ChristiAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

a dated but necessary anthology that references the sociopolitical conditions of homosexual and bisexual women in the late 19th and early 20th century. as someone that doesn’t know too much about queer history, i would say this was an enlightening and enjoyable read. although the self-critical ideas from early gay authors could be hard to stomach at times, their work is still valuable and a reflection of the society that shaped their self-loathing.

[ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

my rating is technically a 3.5. a good collection of essays of lesbian novelists if one is keen on knowing of some obscure authors (i’ve never heard of Ivy Compton-Burnett before).

the essays are riddled with plot summaries though, for the lazy reader. but how else would have Jane Rule discussed the under- and overtones of the plots? i forgive it on that end, but it made for repetitive reading.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a dated look at lesbians in literature - however I found it interesting to learn about some writers who were really ground breaking in their time - writing about lesbian relationships.
one to read for historical info

[ira · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting to read a history of lesbian lit from 1975 when I would think of it as still being in kind of a nascent stage . Learned a lot! Also very bitchy and critical, which was fun

[Rainbowgardener · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Rule is one of my favorite authors and her fiction and some other essay collections (Hot Eyed Moderate) have stood the test of time better. This one, first published in 1975, now reads like history. But it's a history that young people who didn't grow up in those times should be familiar with. She uses the writings of a dozen lesbian authors to illustrate what the cultural norms/prescriptions/ stereotypes of women in homosexual AND heterosexual relationships were, through the late 19th and 20th centuries up to publication

[Freyja Vanadis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obsolete book published in 1975 that describes a bunch of lesbian writers and the novels they wrote, from the late 19th and earth 20th centuries - think Colette, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Natalie Barney, et al. It was depressing to read about them, because they were so full of self-loathing and hatred for the whole lesbian condition. Then she goes on to describe the state of the lesbian world as it currently was in the mid-1970s. All I can say is I am SO glad I was just a little girl then and not able to come out. How depressing.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

reminded me of a college textbook....

[Allison Thurman]

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