Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778 - 1928

by Martha Vicinus

Intimate Friends explores the fascinating history of the erotic friendships of educated English and American women over the 150-year period leading up to the 1928 publication of Radclyffe Hall’s landmark novel, The Well of Loneliness. Distinguished scholar Martha Vicinus explores all-female communities, liaisons between younger and older women, the female rake, and even mother-daughter affection. Women, she reveals, drew upon a rich religious vocabulary to describe elusive and complex erotic feelings.

Drawing upon diaries, letters, and other archival sources, Vicinus brings to life a variety of well-known and historically less recognized women, ranging from the predatory Ann Lister (who documented her sexual activities in code); to Mary Benson (the wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury); to the coterie of wealthy Anglo-American lesbians living in Paris. In vivid and colorful prose, Intimate Friends offers a remarkable picture of women navigating the uncharted territory of same-sex desire.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, 19th Century, Victorian

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Martha Vicinus is an American scholar of English literature and Women's studies. She serves as the Eliza M. Mosher Distinguished University Professor of English, Women's Studies, and History at the University of Michigan.

Reviews

[Jess]

thorough bibliographic studies, not very dense but also just not very engaging writing. keeping marcus’ arguments that vicinus engages in the continuum and minority theses in mind (i read between women before this), i did notice how much vicinus projects modern homosexual vs heterosexual conflict backwards, which may be anachronistic/ahistorical.

[Ava]

A fantastic study of historical sapphics. I loved the way Vicinus broke this up into sections to demonstrate the shifting perceptions and societal roles/expectations while also illustrating them through extremely well-researched biographies.

[Doris Raines]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.

[Abigail Smith]

One of the best books on this subject that I've read. Highly recommend!

[Jacci]

Where can I get my hands on Anne Lister’s diary?

[Drianne]

Not memorable.

[Rebecca]

I enjoyed this book overall because it gave great context about historical lesbians. However she sometimes made arguments and comments about overlapping figures without explaining chronology which I found hard to follow.