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No Modernism Without Lesbians
In the summer of 1945, just after the Nazi occupation, Truman Capote visited Romaine Brooks's abandoned studio in Paris. The portraits there, large and imposing, were of women: Ida Rubinstein, Una Troubridge, Gluck, Elisabeth de Gramont, Renata Borgatti, Bryher. Romaine's lover Natalie Barney said that Paris had been 'the Sapphic Centre of the Western World', and these women defined it. Capote himself called them 'the all-time ultimate gallery of famous dykes'. This book is about that gallery and celebrates the central role they played in the cultural revolution that was Modernism.
Modernism happened in Paris, and these women were Paris. Shocking, free, blatant, they weren't just expats. They'd grouped together to create their own world, far from the restrictions of home. They were talented, often well-off, and lesbian. They answered to no one but themselves. Among them, for example, was Sylvia Beach, the American who set up the legendary Shakespeare & Co in 1919 and published Joyce's Ulysses when nobody else dared to, as well as Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness which was burned in Britain. The shop became the unofficial meeting place of the Modernists. Gertrude Stein, Beach's friend, bought the work of her friends – Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso, Gauguin – when they were young and unknown. Hemingway, Scott Fitzerald, Paul Bowles and others gravitated to the shop and to the world around these women.
Told in the spirit of Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, or Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, this book is as colourful and exuberant as the women themselves.
Modernism happened in Paris, and these women were Paris. Shocking, free, blatant, they weren't just expats. They'd grouped together to create their own world, far from the restrictions of home. They were talented, often well-off, and lesbian. They answered to no one but themselves. Among them, for example, was Sylvia Beach, the American who set up the legendary Shakespeare & Co in 1919 and published Joyce's Ulysses when nobody else dared to, as well as Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness which was burned in Britain. The shop became the unofficial meeting place of the Modernists. Gertrude Stein, Beach's friend, bought the work of her friends – Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso, Gauguin – when they were young and unknown. Hemingway, Scott Fitzerald, Paul Bowles and others gravitated to the shop and to the world around these women.
Told in the spirit of Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, or Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, this book is as colourful and exuberant as the women themselves.
438 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2020
208 people are currently reading
5751 people want to read
About the author
Diana Souhami
21 books74 followersDiana Souhami was brought up in London and studied philosophy at Hull University. She worked in the publications department of the BBC before turning to biography. In 1986 she was approached by Pandora Press and received a commission to write a biography of Hannah Gluckstein. Souhami became a full-time writer publishing biographies which mostly explore the most influential and intriguing of 20th century lesbian and gay lives.
She is the author of 12 critically acclaimed nonfiction and biography books, including Selkirk’s Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Gertrude and Alice, and Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art. She lives in London.
She is the author of 12 critically acclaimed nonfiction and biography books, including Selkirk’s Island (winner of the Whitbread Biography Award), The Trials of Radclyffe Hall (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography), the bestselling Mrs. Keppel and Her Daughter (winner of the Lambda Literary Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Gertrude and Alice, and Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art. She lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
Did not finish
December 9, 2021Hmm, very much not impressed by the introduction where the author discusses why she's using lesbian as a catch-all term for four people, only one of whom referred to herself as a lesbian--particularly as one person had a self-conception "as a boy trapped in the body of a girl." It'd be one thing if these people's behaviour and ways they talked about themselves fit the lesbian label even if they didn't use it. Clearly this is not the case.
The jokes about today's "alphabet" soup felt dismissive and belittling. She writes "I cannot talk about cisgender for Virginia Woolf, call Bryher they or struggle with No Modernism without QUILTBAG+." But she is willing to impose lesbian? What's the difference? If using they or cisgender is anachronistic, then why not use the terms these people used for themselves? (They existed as a gender neutral pronoun way before the early 20th century, so that isn't an excuse). Or if you're going to use a term they didn't use themselves, you better have a better reason than..I'm not sure what her reason is. She likes it? What about sapphic, which is having a comeback? What about changing the structure of the title of your book?
The jokes about today's "alphabet" soup felt dismissive and belittling. She writes "I cannot talk about cisgender for Virginia Woolf, call Bryher they or struggle with No Modernism without QUILTBAG+." But she is willing to impose lesbian? What's the difference? If using they or cisgender is anachronistic, then why not use the terms these people used for themselves? (They existed as a gender neutral pronoun way before the early 20th century, so that isn't an excuse). Or if you're going to use a term they didn't use themselves, you better have a better reason than..I'm not sure what her reason is. She likes it? What about sapphic, which is having a comeback? What about changing the structure of the title of your book?
October 2, 2020
I absolutely adore 1920’s Paris, but I was really disappointed in the author’s handling of Bryher. The author acknowledges that Bryher does not feel they are a cis-gender woman, but proceeds to use female pronouns. The author then uses the term “LGB” which is exclusionary of trans individuals. I just don’t see how there can be a good discussion of the development of modernism and the effect of the lesbian (and by extension, the entire LGBTQIA+) community when the author doesn’t include trans members in that group.
September 5, 2021
I had a few major issues with this book:
1. While the book acknowledges trans identities in a neutral way, Souhami rejects the possibility that Bryher could have been anything other than a "woman," despite including a number of quotes and references that make it clear that Bryher did not consider themselves as such (although they lacked the language to define their identity during their lifetime and I will not attempt to do it for them). There's also a weird comment about gender-neutral pronouns in the introduction to the book - it's not necessarily negative or offensive, it's just weird.
2. Souhami gets much of her information on Renee Vivien's life outside of Natalie Clifford Barney from Colette's The Pure and The Impure, which is...not like the most reputable source? I'm mostly disappointed because I was hoping to learn some new information on Vivien, and instead I got a rehashing of Colette's piece on her.
3. In the NCB section, it just skips from 1940 to 1956???????????? I can't help but assume that this was due in part to NCB and Romaine Brooks (especially Brooks) having had some fascist sympathies during the war but it was a truly bizarre choice for a biography to skip over those years, particularly when the lives during the war of the other figures discussed in the book (Sylvia Beach, Bryher, and Gertrude Stein) are covered in detail.
All that being said - this was a super fun read. Despite my issues with how Souhami talks about Bryher's gender, the first two sections on Sylvia Beach and Bryher were my favourites. I love literary dyke drama, what can I say!
1. While the book acknowledges trans identities in a neutral way, Souhami rejects the possibility that Bryher could have been anything other than a "woman," despite including a number of quotes and references that make it clear that Bryher did not consider themselves as such (although they lacked the language to define their identity during their lifetime and I will not attempt to do it for them). There's also a weird comment about gender-neutral pronouns in the introduction to the book - it's not necessarily negative or offensive, it's just weird.
2. Souhami gets much of her information on Renee Vivien's life outside of Natalie Clifford Barney from Colette's The Pure and The Impure, which is...not like the most reputable source? I'm mostly disappointed because I was hoping to learn some new information on Vivien, and instead I got a rehashing of Colette's piece on her.
3. In the NCB section, it just skips from 1940 to 1956???????????? I can't help but assume that this was due in part to NCB and Romaine Brooks (especially Brooks) having had some fascist sympathies during the war but it was a truly bizarre choice for a biography to skip over those years, particularly when the lives during the war of the other figures discussed in the book (Sylvia Beach, Bryher, and Gertrude Stein) are covered in detail.
All that being said - this was a super fun read. Despite my issues with how Souhami talks about Bryher's gender, the first two sections on Sylvia Beach and Bryher were my favourites. I love literary dyke drama, what can I say!
August 11, 2024
v disappointing, politically irresponsible & just like so cringey + oversimplified…
& the annoying thing is I do~ believe there wouldn’t be modernism without lesbians but this book doesn’t rly convince you of that…. also poor bryher, honestly
[i made a video review of this book here : https://youtu.be/HgqSzPAfBIE ]
& the annoying thing is I do~ believe there wouldn’t be modernism without lesbians but this book doesn’t rly convince you of that…. also poor bryher, honestly
[i made a video review of this book here : https://youtu.be/HgqSzPAfBIE ]
June 1, 2020
"The Paris lesbians had to free themselves from male authority, the controlling hand, the forbidding edict. They escaped the disapproval of fathers and the repression of censors and lawmakers, defined their own terms and shaped their own lives. They did not reject all men – they were intrinsic to furthering the careers of writers, film-makers and artists whose work and ideas they admired. What shifted was the power base, the chain of command."
RATING: 5/5
My gratitude to the excellent people at Head of Zeus for sending this absolutely wonderful book across to me in exchange for an honest review. Needless to say, I loved it immensely.
Diana Souhami has been writing about lesbian lives for more than three decades. She looks at her works as a means of breaking open the history of silence because acceptance can't happen without openness. She remarks, "If you're silent and invisible you're no trouble to anyone. You're so buried you're assumed not to be there. So, historically, we have to dig deep to shed light on 'these practices', rid them of insult, turn the wrongdoing around, name & shame the abusers." Her lively portraits of strong, rebellious women who subverted the norms of their times in order to emerge as independent human beings with full agency over their minds & bodies, able to do whatever they want and love whoever they want, unmindful of censure.
In this group biography, Souhami focuses on the remarkable lives of four visionary women who lived in Paris in between the two world wars and were significantly involved in the emergence of modernism as a literary and cultural movement. Sylvia Beach started the legendary Paris bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. She also published James Joyce's Ulysses, a controversial novel with which no other publisher in the world would even think of being associated at that time. Bryher, the daughter of the richest man in England, used her vast inheritance to fund new writing and film, support struggling artists, writers, and thinkers. Natalie Barney, most wealthy of all, strived to create a new Lesbos, the sapphic centre of the Western world, right in Paris. She embraced her lesbianism, had a plethora of concurrent romantic affairs, and lived like there was no tomorrow. Gertrude Stein was extremely pivotal in advancing the careers of modernist painters and writers, her stamp of approval was sought far and wide. She also broke the limits of what English prose can do and distilled lived realities into her works but her genius was tragically underappreciated.
None of these women, or their friends and companions, were perfect by any means and nor does Souhami depict them as perfect in any way. They were very complex individuals, human beings with their own human failings. They led non-stereotypical contentious lives and managed to free themselves from the chains society placed on them in order to do remarkable things. They refused to let men dictate their lives and threw them over. Nor were they bound by heteronormativity and restrictive gender binaries. All of them were fearless and single-minded, outspoken and unapologetic. They derived their power from their own selves, rather than rely on men to throw them a few morsels now and then. All of them worked towards breaking away from established orthodoxies, and in the words of Truman Capote, established an "international daisy-chain". Written in engagingly uplifting prose, No Modernism Without Lesbians is a ravishing work of non-fiction. Diana Souhami brilliantly records the complex lives of these extraordinary women and they come alive in vivid ways. Her love for them is easily visible. I really want to find out more about them all.
RATING: 5/5
My gratitude to the excellent people at Head of Zeus for sending this absolutely wonderful book across to me in exchange for an honest review. Needless to say, I loved it immensely.
Diana Souhami has been writing about lesbian lives for more than three decades. She looks at her works as a means of breaking open the history of silence because acceptance can't happen without openness. She remarks, "If you're silent and invisible you're no trouble to anyone. You're so buried you're assumed not to be there. So, historically, we have to dig deep to shed light on 'these practices', rid them of insult, turn the wrongdoing around, name & shame the abusers." Her lively portraits of strong, rebellious women who subverted the norms of their times in order to emerge as independent human beings with full agency over their minds & bodies, able to do whatever they want and love whoever they want, unmindful of censure.
In this group biography, Souhami focuses on the remarkable lives of four visionary women who lived in Paris in between the two world wars and were significantly involved in the emergence of modernism as a literary and cultural movement. Sylvia Beach started the legendary Paris bookshop, Shakespeare and Company. She also published James Joyce's Ulysses, a controversial novel with which no other publisher in the world would even think of being associated at that time. Bryher, the daughter of the richest man in England, used her vast inheritance to fund new writing and film, support struggling artists, writers, and thinkers. Natalie Barney, most wealthy of all, strived to create a new Lesbos, the sapphic centre of the Western world, right in Paris. She embraced her lesbianism, had a plethora of concurrent romantic affairs, and lived like there was no tomorrow. Gertrude Stein was extremely pivotal in advancing the careers of modernist painters and writers, her stamp of approval was sought far and wide. She also broke the limits of what English prose can do and distilled lived realities into her works but her genius was tragically underappreciated.
None of these women, or their friends and companions, were perfect by any means and nor does Souhami depict them as perfect in any way. They were very complex individuals, human beings with their own human failings. They led non-stereotypical contentious lives and managed to free themselves from the chains society placed on them in order to do remarkable things. They refused to let men dictate their lives and threw them over. Nor were they bound by heteronormativity and restrictive gender binaries. All of them were fearless and single-minded, outspoken and unapologetic. They derived their power from their own selves, rather than rely on men to throw them a few morsels now and then. All of them worked towards breaking away from established orthodoxies, and in the words of Truman Capote, established an "international daisy-chain". Written in engagingly uplifting prose, No Modernism Without Lesbians is a ravishing work of non-fiction. Diana Souhami brilliantly records the complex lives of these extraordinary women and they come alive in vivid ways. Her love for them is easily visible. I really want to find out more about them all.
Read
July 28, 2022Okay okay so I appreciated the history and the photographs in this. The modernist Sapphics are my literal favorite (I mean hello have you seen my goodreads profile?) but this book definitely fell flat. The author gave me kinda terfy vibes for one—she went on a whole tangent about using she/her pronouns for Bryher because language about nonbinary identities didn’t exist yet but then calls all the people in the books lesbians when most of them didn’t identify that way ??? Also the narrative itself was VERY rambling. She’d go on whole tangents about other people only tangential to the story. So unnecessary.
Anyway, glad I read it and glad I got some further reading from the bibliography even more. Also! Go me for reading nonfiction
Anyway, glad I read it and glad I got some further reading from the bibliography even more. Also! Go me for reading nonfiction
March 2, 2021
Engaging read, but lacks the biographical scrutiny of Souhami's other books, in that ambiguities aren't explored or even mentioned, and instead Souhami makes decisions on what she thinks is most likely and presents them as the truth. Other than that very funky fresh!!!! Though, her refusal to engage with Bryher's gender was extremely frustrating, seeing as it was a big struggle in her life, and there are definitely some terfy undertones which are very yikes.
May 17, 2020
Diana Souhami has a way with words that I cannot do justice here.
These four women were utterly fantastic, so interesting and Diana captured this beautifully with her writing. I had the opportunity to speak to Diana and loved just how much she cares about all of her lesbians.
This is one book I will keep with me, on my shelves, forever.
These four women were utterly fantastic, so interesting and Diana captured this beautifully with her writing. I had the opportunity to speak to Diana and loved just how much she cares about all of her lesbians.
This is one book I will keep with me, on my shelves, forever.
January 11, 2022
Natalie Barney is an icon queen legend
December 30, 2020
An approachable and interesting entry point to the queer world of 1920s Paris and modernism and some of the fascinating figures and connections within that world. However I can’t recommend or talk about this book without some significant disclaimers. Beyond the author’s somewhat messy disclaimer at the beginning, I wish this book had done more to look at gender identity, race, and class in general - and been a little more careful in her conversations and application of labels - especially with regard to Bryher. It’s complicated at any time to apply “modern” terms to the past and I think there is definitely some grey area here - but that shouldn’t be waved off with a few paragraphs in the intro and a few jokes about alphabet soup.
Read
September 20, 2020A wonderful, truly human book in which I found myself beautifully immersed.
Natalie Barney’s chapter is the weakest—largely due to its sanguine quality, jumping from mini biography to mini biography to adequately illustrate (some of her) many lovers.
The Bryher chapter is quite painful to read; a sad life in small ways
But the chapters on Sylvia Beach and Gertrude Stein are glorious, not only because here are the women most engaged with the modernism I love, but because they lived such truthful lives.
A pleasure to read.
Natalie Barney’s chapter is the weakest—largely due to its sanguine quality, jumping from mini biography to mini biography to adequately illustrate (some of her) many lovers.
The Bryher chapter is quite painful to read; a sad life in small ways
But the chapters on Sylvia Beach and Gertrude Stein are glorious, not only because here are the women most engaged with the modernism I love, but because they lived such truthful lives.
A pleasure to read.
February 1, 2024
Sommige delen lazen als een roddelblaadje (which I enjoyed) en andere waren te ingewikkeld, met te veel mensen en hun backstory
Ik snap ook de algemene commentaar op dit boek over voornaamwoorden en hoe er met gender is omgegaan, u bent gewaarschuwd
Ik snap ook de algemene commentaar op dit boek over voornaamwoorden en hoe er met gender is omgegaan, u bent gewaarschuwd
February 18, 2022
Although I enjoyed reading about Sylvia Beach (founder of Shakespeare and Company) and Paris in the 1920, I disliked the way the author kept refering to Bryher as "she" even though they clearly stated that they don't identify as a woman, but rather as "a boy trapped in a girls body"...
At some point the storyline felt all over the place, as the author would jump between different biographies within somebody else's story (very confusing?!)
I appreciate the general idea behind the book, BUT it served me rather as a base for further research than an enjoyable piece of literature...
At some point the storyline felt all over the place, as the author would jump between different biographies within somebody else's story (very confusing?!)
I appreciate the general idea behind the book, BUT it served me rather as a base for further research than an enjoyable piece of literature...
August 1, 2020
A marvellous book which explores the lives of Sylvia Beach, Bryher, Natalie Barney, and Gertrude Stein in rich detail. This is a biography of four people who sparked and fanned the flames of Modernism. It is beautifully written and scrupulously researched. The book’s narrative flows from person to place and back again, making it both profuse in the telling of their unique lives, whilst breathing life into interwar Paris and the world that they called home.
It is an absolute must read.
It is an absolute must read.
November 23, 2024
A poet in my writing group recommended this text because it radicalizes its readers against James Joyce, and they were so right!!! Sylvia Beach was an absolute saint.
I had some qualms with the authorial voice (and other reviewers have remarked on Souhami's oversights in portraying Bryher's identity), but the modernists in themselves are endlessly fascinating and entertaining. Souhami primarily focuses on the lives and artistic activities of Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, Bryher (and H.D.), and Natalie Barney.
Very telling how Stein was instrumental in supporting Picasso and Matisse (and acted as an 'oracle' for Hemingway and Fitzgerald); Bryher funded H.D., Walter Benjamin, WCW, and Edith Sitwell (and early cinema ventures through POOL); and Beach singlehandedly delivered risky Ulysses to readers. Also, I had never heard about Gertrude Stein's radical 1928 Black opera about saints?!?
I found hints at the lives of children of leading modernists interesting—for example, the crisis of Lucia Joyce and H.D.'s daughter, Perdita, grappling with a highly unconventional and international family. In most cases, these creatives seemed more preoccupied with work than kin.
If I could time travel anywhere, it would be to Paris during this era. <3
I had some qualms with the authorial voice (and other reviewers have remarked on Souhami's oversights in portraying Bryher's identity), but the modernists in themselves are endlessly fascinating and entertaining. Souhami primarily focuses on the lives and artistic activities of Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, Bryher (and H.D.), and Natalie Barney.
Very telling how Stein was instrumental in supporting Picasso and Matisse (and acted as an 'oracle' for Hemingway and Fitzgerald); Bryher funded H.D., Walter Benjamin, WCW, and Edith Sitwell (and early cinema ventures through POOL); and Beach singlehandedly delivered risky Ulysses to readers. Also, I had never heard about Gertrude Stein's radical 1928 Black opera about saints?!?
I found hints at the lives of children of leading modernists interesting—for example, the crisis of Lucia Joyce and H.D.'s daughter, Perdita, grappling with a highly unconventional and international family. In most cases, these creatives seemed more preoccupied with work than kin.
If I could time travel anywhere, it would be to Paris during this era. <3
December 6, 2020
I enjoyed reading this capacious biography of 4 important modernists. I mainly read it when I was ill and insomniac and it was a warm bath! Crammed with facts and personalities, and flowing generally smoothly between a lot of different people, places and projects, through the framework of taking each life separately. For me personally it is somewhat limited by the author's lack of interest and engagement with two (and quite overlapping) aspects of these queer modernists- gender/trans studies and aesthetics (the politics of form/content). The effect of this is sometimes an uncomfortable reading AGAINST the evidence and testimony of peoples' lives (I'd feel uncomfortable calling Bryher a lesbian given Bryher's constant disidentification with womanhood) but also just generally a rather uncurious, flat commentary on the aesthetics of modernism in relationship not only to gender but also to race and class. Sometimes it just reads like 'weird art! all made by queer people! weird eh?' which given the complex differences as well as the similarities between these 4 queers, seems to do all of them rather a disservice and leaves the ending on Stein's death just after WW2 a rather sudden and inconclusive one.
February 13, 2021
I am a lesbian historian, and this is one of those books that expanded my knowledge exponentially, and I am grateful for it. It was wonderfully easy to read, with 100-ish page chapters for each of the four lesbians, but with many smaller sections within those chapters.
This is lesbian history, but it is also queer history. It prioritises the lesbian voice and gives us a historical place to live. There is always overlap with lesbian and trans histories, and to celebrate one does not deny the other - in the words of Monique Wittig, after all, lesbians are not women.
This is lesbian history, but it is also queer history. It prioritises the lesbian voice and gives us a historical place to live. There is always overlap with lesbian and trans histories, and to celebrate one does not deny the other - in the words of Monique Wittig, after all, lesbians are not women.
March 14, 2022
Can't believe Natalie Barney literally went down in history for being such a top shagger. What an icon!
February 6, 2025
“lesbians continued to find each other one way or another. there were people who were riper not older, wiser but not meaner, kinder not more cruel.”
anyone who ever has the nerve to tell me reading isn’t political needs to read this book. a history of lesbians using the art to not only find community but support each other, minorities, change political landscapes and leave lifelong impressions that we are still facing today, I learn about femme flagging, political literature censorship and the underground systems developed to work around this, lesbian lovers in long term monogamous relationships, polyamory, lesbian boyfriends, trans men and nonbinary lesbians and how all of these things have existed for hundreds of years. I got to watch my community grow through a lens of historical importance and I for one have never been happier to be a lesbian and find family within some of these beautiful, strong, intelligent people.
(taking off a star for the writing style)
anyone who ever has the nerve to tell me reading isn’t political needs to read this book. a history of lesbians using the art to not only find community but support each other, minorities, change political landscapes and leave lifelong impressions that we are still facing today, I learn about femme flagging, political literature censorship and the underground systems developed to work around this, lesbian lovers in long term monogamous relationships, polyamory, lesbian boyfriends, trans men and nonbinary lesbians and how all of these things have existed for hundreds of years. I got to watch my community grow through a lens of historical importance and I for one have never been happier to be a lesbian and find family within some of these beautiful, strong, intelligent people.
(taking off a star for the writing style)
April 28, 2025
I haven't read all Souhami's books about 1930s lesbians - or have I - I may have done, I've certainly read lots of them.
This is a nice round-up that does what it says on the tin, really, demonstrating the importance of various women, mostly in Paris but not entirely French, in the first forty or so years of the twentieth century. Sylvia Beach, owner of Shakespeare & Co and publisher of Ulysses; Bryher, who sounds trans and autistic to me, and used family money to support any artist who needed supporting; Natalie Barney, whose list of 'significant others' is exhaustingly impressive, and Gertrude Stein with her house full of uninsured Picassos and her writing that has been more influential than popular. There are A Lot of characters in this book, some people crop up repeatedly, basically a roll-call of artists, writers, critics and the upper classes of both the UK and the US who found their way to Paris which was cheap and where no one seemed to care much exactly how queer you were.
This is a nice round-up that does what it says on the tin, really, demonstrating the importance of various women, mostly in Paris but not entirely French, in the first forty or so years of the twentieth century. Sylvia Beach, owner of Shakespeare & Co and publisher of Ulysses; Bryher, who sounds trans and autistic to me, and used family money to support any artist who needed supporting; Natalie Barney, whose list of 'significant others' is exhaustingly impressive, and Gertrude Stein with her house full of uninsured Picassos and her writing that has been more influential than popular. There are A Lot of characters in this book, some people crop up repeatedly, basically a roll-call of artists, writers, critics and the upper classes of both the UK and the US who found their way to Paris which was cheap and where no one seemed to care much exactly how queer you were.
Read
November 5, 2025So uhm. No rating for this because especially at the beginning the author makes some... extremely questionable statements about labels and gender identity. It's at best extreme ignorance, at worst trans exclusionism and it took me a year after buying this book I was SO excited for to get past it.
The actual stories are really really good. They seem well researched (the bibliography is huge), she picked four extremely interesting people from the early to mid twentieth century who shaped the cultural life in Paris (and all knew each other) and tells their life stories very well!
It helps that all of their lives were super interesting.
Weaved into it are also many other queer people of the time, coming up in the individual stories and often reappearing in several of the lifes.
Notable individuals include James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas, Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Sigmund Freud and so many others I'm probably forgetting.
The actual stories are really really good. They seem well researched (the bibliography is huge), she picked four extremely interesting people from the early to mid twentieth century who shaped the cultural life in Paris (and all knew each other) and tells their life stories very well!
It helps that all of their lives were super interesting.
Weaved into it are also many other queer people of the time, coming up in the individual stories and often reappearing in several of the lifes.
Notable individuals include James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas, Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Sigmund Freud and so many others I'm probably forgetting.
May 25, 2024
3.5* Natalie Barney’s biography was by far the most interesting one in the whole book i fear her life story would kill a straight person. not my favourite book ever i don’t really like biographies much prefer auto-biographies. quite jumbled as well there were so many life stories i just got confused.
Read
July 1, 2022Enjoyed this book, and learned a lot. However, I was definitely finding that parts of it read just like lists of facts.
January 15, 2024
I finally settled in and finished the book which has been half read for a year and a half!
It was interesting to read about the women who sacrificed a lot for modernism where they are largely left out of the traditional narrative. In most books written about obfuscated women, the women tend to be actually fairly well known. This isn’t the case where lesbians are concerned - especially when they are scholarly, unattractive to men, or devoid of sexual scandal (although the book does feature this too). It was great - and for what is essentially a 400 page history book - surprisingly gripping.
I liked that it paints a warts and all picture and doesn’t idealise- it is clear about the codependent, unreciprocated and unfaithful relationships as well as the unsavoury political views that floated around these circles. Although that being said, I’ve never heard of most of these women, so I don’t know what was left out.
However, there was also a slightly suspicious sense that the gender of those involved was slightly more important (at least to them!) than this book acknowledges, esp in the case of Bryher.
3 stars not 4 because I don’t care about modernism.
It was interesting to read about the women who sacrificed a lot for modernism where they are largely left out of the traditional narrative. In most books written about obfuscated women, the women tend to be actually fairly well known. This isn’t the case where lesbians are concerned - especially when they are scholarly, unattractive to men, or devoid of sexual scandal (although the book does feature this too). It was great - and for what is essentially a 400 page history book - surprisingly gripping.
I liked that it paints a warts and all picture and doesn’t idealise- it is clear about the codependent, unreciprocated and unfaithful relationships as well as the unsavoury political views that floated around these circles. Although that being said, I’ve never heard of most of these women, so I don’t know what was left out.
However, there was also a slightly suspicious sense that the gender of those involved was slightly more important (at least to them!) than this book acknowledges, esp in the case of Bryher.
3 stars not 4 because I don’t care about modernism.
September 8, 2025
lesbianism is actually the backbone and the forefront of all culture, art, poetry, literature… i want to be 1/10th as courageous and creative as the lessies in the early 1900s!!!!!!
August 25, 2023
dnf //
i don't need to go through another lesbian cringe historic book who doesn't care for acknowledging trans people "she was a boy trapped in a girl's body" "she was a man at heart" how do u write this and kept calling this person a woman/she
i don't need to go through another lesbian cringe historic book who doesn't care for acknowledging trans people "she was a boy trapped in a girl's body" "she was a man at heart" how do u write this and kept calling this person a woman/she
July 7, 2025
there’s so many weirdly negative reviews for this but i loved it? this is a great intro to queer history for those that haven’t had the chance to learn before. i never knew sylvia beach founded shakespeare and co??? my little aesthetic bookshop is a lesbian safe haven god bless
August 31, 2022
God I loved this book. Made a whole era come to life for me 💓
December 3, 2021
Throw over your man, throw him over, and we drink wine in the bathtub together and talk about plants and walk in the moonlight
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November 10, 2023This was a very informative book. Souhami dug deep into archival material, especially correspondence to pull together this historical documentation of the role that women--lesbians in particular--played in the intellectual movement called Modernism. I enjoyed the gossipy tone of the writing. I was inspired by some of the women, especially those who were phianthropic and/or seriously supportive of others art or ability to stay afloat. At times, I was not particularly enamored by the life choices of Souhami's subjects but who am I to judge. They just went in directions or treated situations differently than I would. Definitely a worthwhile read for a more full bodied view of the times.
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