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Anne Lister. Eine erotische Biographie
Wäre sie ein Mann gewesen, müsste man sie Frauenheld nennen, Schwerenöter oder Heiratsschwindler, Lüstling, Wüstling oder einfach nur Schuft: Frauen pflasterten ihren Weg. Anne Lister (1791–1840) betete sie an, begehrte, belog und betrog sie, ging ihnen an die Wäsche und ans Geld. Noch unerhörter als ihr Liebesleben sind ihre Tagebücher: In pornografischer Deutlichkeit schildert die englische Landadlige ihre zahllosen Abenteuer, mal liebeskrank, mal zynisch, so fesselnd wie obszön, so verstörend wie amüsant. Anhand dieser einmaligen Quellen zeichnet Angela Steidele erstmalig das faszinierende Porträt einer schillernden Persönlichkeit, die allen Vorstellungen vom keuschen präviktorianischen Zeitalter widerspricht. Staunenswert, kurios, entwaffnend und hocherotisch.
329 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
July 26, 2019
Please, please do not read this book. Seriously. If you’re actually interested in learning about Anne Lister, this is not the book for you.
This book is judge, jury, and executioner to its subject, which feels like a complete violation of the rules of a biography. You can tell just by the table of contents - her life is divided up not by milestone events but by the women she seduces. Because clearly when someone isn’t straight, the only interesting thing about them is their sex life. Everything else Lister was ever involved or interested in - except her travels - is dismissed with a couple of lines each.
Worse, the biographer is making blatant value judgements along the way, without at any point engaging with the context in which her subject lived. In the last third of the book, she is openly derisive when describing Lister’s activities.
To be clear, it’s not that I need this book to be a hagiography. I’ve read a few books about Lister at this point. I get that she could be an asshole. But she was also an intelligent woman navigating a man’s world in the early 19th century and walking the line of being an ‘out’ (sort of) lesbian when there had never been anyone before her to pattern her behaviour on. Except men. I doubt there would have been half so much judgement had the biographer been recounting the life of a young cad on the hunt for a rich bride.
Context is important. And this biographer has NO grasp of that whatsoever, because she clearly doesn’t understand the context herself. In her final chapter she writes “In what we think of as the prudish pre-Victorian age, there seems to have been no great risk or consequence to women loving women and it was not thought wrong. They simply did not talk about it, and went on to marry apparently unsullied.” Just... WHAT?! How could this biographer have read the works of Jill Liddington and still come out with that kind of clumsy generalization? When Liddington’s work was all about the subtle ways the community found to express its disapproval of Anne Lister and her wife living together. When political rage towards Lister was expressed in the form of homophobic attacks. When she received taunting letters in the post and slurs hurled at her in the street throughout her life?
I reference Liddington’s work here particularly because the biographer wrote this book without ever having read Anne Lister’s diaries for herself. She is entirely reliant upon secondary sources. The book is basically a recap of Helena Whitbread’s and Jill Liddington’s works, with some additional references to Lister’s letters and correspondence thrown in. Plus a LOT of editorializing - in addition to the steaming piles of judgement, the biographer regularly states her own interpretation as though it’s proven fact. And it’s interpretation based often on extremely thin evidence.
So I say again, please don’t read this book. It strips Anne Lister of all depth and complexity. Please, please go read Jill Liddington’s work instead. It has just been released on both Kindle and Kobo, and occasional hard copies can be found at ABE Books.
This book is judge, jury, and executioner to its subject, which feels like a complete violation of the rules of a biography. You can tell just by the table of contents - her life is divided up not by milestone events but by the women she seduces. Because clearly when someone isn’t straight, the only interesting thing about them is their sex life. Everything else Lister was ever involved or interested in - except her travels - is dismissed with a couple of lines each.
Worse, the biographer is making blatant value judgements along the way, without at any point engaging with the context in which her subject lived. In the last third of the book, she is openly derisive when describing Lister’s activities.
To be clear, it’s not that I need this book to be a hagiography. I’ve read a few books about Lister at this point. I get that she could be an asshole. But she was also an intelligent woman navigating a man’s world in the early 19th century and walking the line of being an ‘out’ (sort of) lesbian when there had never been anyone before her to pattern her behaviour on. Except men. I doubt there would have been half so much judgement had the biographer been recounting the life of a young cad on the hunt for a rich bride.
Context is important. And this biographer has NO grasp of that whatsoever, because she clearly doesn’t understand the context herself. In her final chapter she writes “In what we think of as the prudish pre-Victorian age, there seems to have been no great risk or consequence to women loving women and it was not thought wrong. They simply did not talk about it, and went on to marry apparently unsullied.” Just... WHAT?! How could this biographer have read the works of Jill Liddington and still come out with that kind of clumsy generalization? When Liddington’s work was all about the subtle ways the community found to express its disapproval of Anne Lister and her wife living together. When political rage towards Lister was expressed in the form of homophobic attacks. When she received taunting letters in the post and slurs hurled at her in the street throughout her life?
I reference Liddington’s work here particularly because the biographer wrote this book without ever having read Anne Lister’s diaries for herself. She is entirely reliant upon secondary sources. The book is basically a recap of Helena Whitbread’s and Jill Liddington’s works, with some additional references to Lister’s letters and correspondence thrown in. Plus a LOT of editorializing - in addition to the steaming piles of judgement, the biographer regularly states her own interpretation as though it’s proven fact. And it’s interpretation based often on extremely thin evidence.
So I say again, please don’t read this book. It strips Anne Lister of all depth and complexity. Please, please go read Jill Liddington’s work instead. It has just been released on both Kindle and Kobo, and occasional hard copies can be found at ABE Books.
April 23, 2020
If Don Juan had met Anne Lister, he'd habe become depressed. [Prtf]
July 22, 2020
A book that will stay with me for weeks to come I suspect. It leaves much to ponder upon. I’ve no hesitation in recommending it, especially if British history’s your thing, social, cultural, political. An interest in diversity might help too, along with travel. Here you would read how an ambitious and highly charged lesbian on the perimeter of the landed aristocracy sought fulfilment. Old money forced, because of the turn in the economic tide, to mingle with the new.
There is much to admire about Anne Lister, much less to like. Her diary is shocking, not so much in the secrets of the boudoir but in the rather brazen accounts of how she manipulated people to her own advantage - sexually, materially, even politically.
She was totally at ease with her sexuality, certainly free from feelings of guilt, in an age of moral proscription. That ought to make her a ‘gay icon’. But in today’s world where diversity is all important, she is totally out of step. She was an arch reactionary – on the side of the authorities over the Peterloo massacre, opposed to the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 and the sworn enemy of the infant trade unions. As a woman, Anne Lister could not of course vote directly in parliamentary elections. But as a canny operator of power, and the systems at her disposal, she could rely on 20 or so votes from her heavily leaned upon tenants. It is hard to believe that had she lived into the twentieth century she would have had any truck with the suffragettes.
Anne Lister had boundless energy, physical, mental and sexual. She was well read, cultured, a classicist and an inveterate and hardy traveller. She was also keenly interested in scientific discovery, industrial developments, advances in medical science; she studied anatomy and was quite at home with a knife in her hand with which she dissected humans and animals.
She lacked the material resources to fund her lifestyle, hence her alliance and ‘marriage’ with Ann Walker (‘new’ money as opposed to the Listers’ ‘old’). As proprietor of her family estates Anne did what had been done for generations before her - she ‘married’ well.
I feel that her partner Ann Walker deserves a book of her own, however slim: ‘The Wife’s Story’ perhaps? When Anne Lister’s physical health finally failed her during her arduous trek with Ann W in and around Russia, it was the latter who transported her body back to Halifax to be buried in the family vault there. Ann Walker's story is a sad one, she was incarcerated in a mental asylum by her family on her return to England. There she joined Anne Lister’s first lover. The Asylum was a growth industry then – a useful dumping ground for Society in which to incarcerate troublesome individuals - for their own good of course! I can’t help thinking that had Anne Lister lived she might have done the same and for similar reasons.
There is much to admire about Anne Lister, much less to like. Her diary is shocking, not so much in the secrets of the boudoir but in the rather brazen accounts of how she manipulated people to her own advantage - sexually, materially, even politically.
She was totally at ease with her sexuality, certainly free from feelings of guilt, in an age of moral proscription. That ought to make her a ‘gay icon’. But in today’s world where diversity is all important, she is totally out of step. She was an arch reactionary – on the side of the authorities over the Peterloo massacre, opposed to the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 and the sworn enemy of the infant trade unions. As a woman, Anne Lister could not of course vote directly in parliamentary elections. But as a canny operator of power, and the systems at her disposal, she could rely on 20 or so votes from her heavily leaned upon tenants. It is hard to believe that had she lived into the twentieth century she would have had any truck with the suffragettes.
Anne Lister had boundless energy, physical, mental and sexual. She was well read, cultured, a classicist and an inveterate and hardy traveller. She was also keenly interested in scientific discovery, industrial developments, advances in medical science; she studied anatomy and was quite at home with a knife in her hand with which she dissected humans and animals.
She lacked the material resources to fund her lifestyle, hence her alliance and ‘marriage’ with Ann Walker (‘new’ money as opposed to the Listers’ ‘old’). As proprietor of her family estates Anne did what had been done for generations before her - she ‘married’ well.
I feel that her partner Ann Walker deserves a book of her own, however slim: ‘The Wife’s Story’ perhaps? When Anne Lister’s physical health finally failed her during her arduous trek with Ann W in and around Russia, it was the latter who transported her body back to Halifax to be buried in the family vault there. Ann Walker's story is a sad one, she was incarcerated in a mental asylum by her family on her return to England. There she joined Anne Lister’s first lover. The Asylum was a growth industry then – a useful dumping ground for Society in which to incarcerate troublesome individuals - for their own good of course! I can’t help thinking that had Anne Lister lived she might have done the same and for similar reasons.
September 29, 2018
Gentleman Jack is a biography of Anne Lister, Regency Yorkshire landowner known for her relationships with women and explicit diaries partly written in code. Full of quotations from her diaries, it is a good biography for anything looking for an introduction to Lister's life and what she wrote about in her diaries. Likely to be of most interest are her various relationships with women—often surprisingly openly for Regency society—and her interest in travel, scaling mountains and visiting countries across Europe and even Azerbaijan. Steidele also weaves in elements of the act of uncoding Lister's diaries and the reticence of earlier generations to reveal their explicit lesbian sex, which is crucial to thinking about the reception of Anne Lister.
Before the BBC's upcoming drama of the same name, the biography is a good way to learn more about a fascinating historical figure. It is engaging and readable, giving enough explanatory detail that you don't need to know the period well. Without knowing a huge amount about scholarship around Lister, it is difficult to comment on its accuracy and depiction of her, but it certainly is an interesting book.
Before the BBC's upcoming drama of the same name, the biography is a good way to learn more about a fascinating historical figure. It is engaging and readable, giving enough explanatory detail that you don't need to know the period well. Without knowing a huge amount about scholarship around Lister, it is difficult to comment on its accuracy and depiction of her, but it certainly is an interesting book.
April 3, 2019
I initially picked this book up for two reasons. The first is, as I work in a bookshop, keeping up to date with upcoming releases makes my life much easier when talking to customers about the books they were based on. HBO is dramatising Anne Lister's life, more specifically they are basing their interpretation off this particular biography.
The other reason is that as a gay woman, I am always hungry for LGBT history in any form. I wanted desperately to feel some sort of connection, to hook my own longings onto the chain of women before me and not feel so isolated in my experiences.
Alas, rather than find any kind of unity, I found myself hating Anne Lister with every turn of the page.
She was an egomaniac, finding fault in all of her lovers for swathes of reasons, all of them demonstrating more about Anne's personality flaws and inflated pride than damning any of her rejected women. She found some too unintelligent, others weren't rich enough, others too far below her in social standing. She didn't like any woman who had slept with a man, preferring virgins who had not been 'spoiled.' She didn't like her lovers to be assertive, preferring them passive and docile both in the bedroom and in day to day life.
Monogamy was boring for her, but rather than tell her various lovers that, she preferred to lie and quite literally cheat. Frequently many of them, understandably, suffered from break downs and depression which Anne, hilariously, never fathoms that she herself might be the cause.
Two of her lovers ended up in mental asylums - the first and the last - the first, Eliza Raine, Anne encouraged to have incarcerated for life so she would be unable to testify against her in court.
It's not the biographers fault if the subject is repulsive, but I also found Steidele's approach too neutral, and lacking any kind of spark. It was more like reading a chart of a life, rather than steeping myself in the time and world of Anne Lister.
Anyway, if you're going into this looking for any kind of familiarity, I will be greatly concerned if you find any. As a record the history of love between women, it is a great starting off point (there are several names dropped in this book that I want to explore further) but is hardly in depth.
I have no idea how to end this review so uhhhh
Toodles!
The other reason is that as a gay woman, I am always hungry for LGBT history in any form. I wanted desperately to feel some sort of connection, to hook my own longings onto the chain of women before me and not feel so isolated in my experiences.
Alas, rather than find any kind of unity, I found myself hating Anne Lister with every turn of the page.
She was an egomaniac, finding fault in all of her lovers for swathes of reasons, all of them demonstrating more about Anne's personality flaws and inflated pride than damning any of her rejected women. She found some too unintelligent, others weren't rich enough, others too far below her in social standing. She didn't like any woman who had slept with a man, preferring virgins who had not been 'spoiled.' She didn't like her lovers to be assertive, preferring them passive and docile both in the bedroom and in day to day life.
Monogamy was boring for her, but rather than tell her various lovers that, she preferred to lie and quite literally cheat. Frequently many of them, understandably, suffered from break downs and depression which Anne, hilariously, never fathoms that she herself might be the cause.
Two of her lovers ended up in mental asylums - the first and the last - the first, Eliza Raine, Anne encouraged to have incarcerated for life so she would be unable to testify against her in court.
It's not the biographers fault if the subject is repulsive, but I also found Steidele's approach too neutral, and lacking any kind of spark. It was more like reading a chart of a life, rather than steeping myself in the time and world of Anne Lister.
Anyway, if you're going into this looking for any kind of familiarity, I will be greatly concerned if you find any. As a record the history of love between women, it is a great starting off point (there are several names dropped in this book that I want to explore further) but is hardly in depth.
I have no idea how to end this review so uhhhh
Toodles!
May 31, 2019
She's a Tory and a landlord but I love her
December 29, 2020
Full disclosure before I start: my grandma is Helena Whitbread, who initially published the diaries in the 1980s.
Anne Lister was a fascinating woman, both publicly and privately. She was also a colossal narcissist who would have been a nightmare on social media; instead she had her journal.
This book highlights that, although relies incredibly heavily on the transcriptions of Helena and Jill Liddington, with some reference to the notes of Phyllis Ramsden. I was quite frustrated that the author of this book would dismiss parts of the journals as not being transcribed- when they had been (by my grandma and other writers), but not published. It baffles me that, if you were to undertake such an important biography, you would not want to translate yourself.
I think this is a good general introduction to Anne. I would have liked more social context that could explain why she was such a monster and why she behaved the way she did, politically. I also found the attempts to shoehorn the Brontës in a bit odd (I do not think- at all- that Wuthering Heights was inspired by Anne and Ann. I also seriously doubt that Charlotte Brontë based the main character in Shirley on Anne, especially as it is generally accepted that she based the character on Emily Brontë. I do acknowledge that the sisters would probably have been aware of her, though.)
I'm also mindful of readers brought to this book by the brilliant TV series and how they might be disappointed by how Anne really was. I think it's important that we take the diaries as 'warts and all', without the benefit of a brilliant screenwriter cleaning them up and repackaging them as entertainment. My hope is that, after reading this book, readers go out and read Helena and Jill's books to learn more about the context in which this extraordinary (if somewhat repellent) woman lived.
Anne Lister was a fascinating woman, both publicly and privately. She was also a colossal narcissist who would have been a nightmare on social media; instead she had her journal.
This book highlights that, although relies incredibly heavily on the transcriptions of Helena and Jill Liddington, with some reference to the notes of Phyllis Ramsden. I was quite frustrated that the author of this book would dismiss parts of the journals as not being transcribed- when they had been (by my grandma and other writers), but not published. It baffles me that, if you were to undertake such an important biography, you would not want to translate yourself.
I think this is a good general introduction to Anne. I would have liked more social context that could explain why she was such a monster and why she behaved the way she did, politically. I also found the attempts to shoehorn the Brontës in a bit odd (I do not think- at all- that Wuthering Heights was inspired by Anne and Ann. I also seriously doubt that Charlotte Brontë based the main character in Shirley on Anne, especially as it is generally accepted that she based the character on Emily Brontë. I do acknowledge that the sisters would probably have been aware of her, though.)
I'm also mindful of readers brought to this book by the brilliant TV series and how they might be disappointed by how Anne really was. I think it's important that we take the diaries as 'warts and all', without the benefit of a brilliant screenwriter cleaning them up and repackaging them as entertainment. My hope is that, after reading this book, readers go out and read Helena and Jill's books to learn more about the context in which this extraordinary (if somewhat repellent) woman lived.
Want to read
June 30, 2019Okay: I think I need to take a break from this book because it is depressing the hell out of me. The more research I do on Anne Lister, the more it becomes clear that she was....in fact.......a horrible human being? I sort of went from thinking "well, she was a flawed human being like all of us, and it's unfair for me to hold her, as a queer woman, to a higher moral standard than I would hold a man from the same era," to thinking "Jesus Christ, even Byron never did anything THAT fucked up." And I know it shouldn't upset me so much to find out that a random woman who's been dead for hundreds of years was a total monster, but I am....devastated.
So: I might just stop researching her and pretend that Anne as she is in the BBC show and Anne as she was in real life are two completely different, unrelated individuals. After all, as somebody pointed out to me when I was complaining about all this, the moral discrepancy between the characters of Brooklyn 99 and their real-life counterparts hasn't ruined that show for me.
So: I might just stop researching her and pretend that Anne as she is in the BBC show and Anne as she was in real life are two completely different, unrelated individuals. After all, as somebody pointed out to me when I was complaining about all this, the moral discrepancy between the characters of Brooklyn 99 and their real-life counterparts hasn't ruined that show for me.
October 21, 2018
Gentleman Jack was an interesting read on many levels—firstly, as a commentary on the life of a lesbian in the early 19th century, and secondly, as an account of a fascinating woman who did some amazing things in the course of her life. Anne Lister was certainly quite a character, and while I was intrigued by her romantic exploits, it was more her extensive travels that gripped me. This work shines a light on a little-known figure who deserves more recognition. The only reason I give this book four stars rather than five is the fact that, at times, I found the prose style a little tiresome. Although the story captivated me, the writing didn't. However, I certainly recommend this work to readers interested in queer history or those simply looking to learn more about fascinating personalities from the past.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley.
maybe
October 25, 2018
a groundbreaking new biography of Anne Lister, Regency landowner, seducer and proud lesbian during a time when it was difficult simply to be female. With the code to her secret diaries now cracked, we get to know her many lovers ...
September 10, 2019
First things first, this is bad history. The author explains in the very first chapter that she deciphered none of Anne Lister's diaries herself and based her book entirely on secondary sources created by other historians. Go read the books by Jill Liddington and Helena Whitbread instead of this, (or better than that you can now access the diaries themselves and many people around the world are deciphering them as we speak so they will be fully digitized in a few years.)
They have devoted decades of their life to researching Anne Lister, they understand and respect her as a human being. Ethics are a big thing currently in historical research and this biographer didn't use the best ethics in producing this book.
Secondly, Anne Lister herself. Yes she was a Tory and a narcissist, but she was also an exceptionally intelligent woman living in a time of absolute patriarchy. So if you're here from the TV show and are saddened that AL was actually a terrible person; don't despair, go read another book and you'll see how exceptional she was despite her many faults.
They have devoted decades of their life to researching Anne Lister, they understand and respect her as a human being. Ethics are a big thing currently in historical research and this biographer didn't use the best ethics in producing this book.
Secondly, Anne Lister herself. Yes she was a Tory and a narcissist, but she was also an exceptionally intelligent woman living in a time of absolute patriarchy. So if you're here from the TV show and are saddened that AL was actually a terrible person; don't despair, go read another book and you'll see how exceptional she was despite her many faults.
June 21, 2019
This book makes you realise what a huge social snob Miss Lister really was, and also how mercenary. While her lust for life and adventure and determination to live on her own terms was admirable, the fact is that the relationship with Ann Walker was not the love match it is portrayed in the current BBC series. Lister needed money to sink her coal mines, refurbish Shibden Hall and also travel the world. Ann Walker was a pliable pawn who most importantly was wealthy and Lister cynically targeted her for this reason. On one occasion she went to London to meet with High Society friends and refused to introduce them to Ann Walker, which she understandably was very hurt by.
May 12, 2024
Ich bin auf Anne Lister durch meine Lektüre "Frauen im Aufstieg" aufmerksam geworden, da ihre alpinistische Errungenschaften dort vorgestellt wurden und auf ihre 24 gut erhaltenen Tagebuchbänder verwiesen wurde. So bin ich auch zu diesem Buch gekommen.
Angela Steidele legt in dieser Auseinandersetzung mit Annes Tagebücher den Fokus auf ihre Liebesbeziehungen zu Frauen. Die Kaptitel tragen den Namen ihrer Liebschaften und zeichnen somit eine Chronik von Annes Liebesleben. Dadurch ist Steideles Biographie ein Werk, welches einen unfassbaren Einblick in lesbisches Leben im 19. Jahrhundert gibt. Der Großteil des Buches sind Originalzitate aus Annes Tagebüchern, welche immer in kursiv geschriebenen Passagen hervorgehoben wurden. Die Biographie ist spannend, beeindruckend und komplex. Ich finde, im Gegensatz zu anderen Rezensionen nicht, dass Anne Lister unterkomplex dargestellt wird, durch den Fokus auf ihre Beziehung zu Frauen. Ihre Leidenschaften zum Studium von Sprachen, ihre alpinistischen Leistungen und ihr Innenleben werden ausführlich dargestellt und nicht bewertet. Die Kommentare der Autorin sind sehr hilfreich, um Anne als Erzählerin zu verstehen, denn Tagebücher bleiben per Natur eine sehr subjektive Erzählform und Anne ist nicht immer ganz ehrlich mit sich selbst.
Mit der Biographie habe ich viele gemischte Gefühle zu Anne Lister entwickelt. Sie ist eine wahnsinnig fazinierende Frau, die ein Leben geführt hat, welches mir niemals möglich erschien im 19. Jahrhundert. Von Erstbesteigungen, Weltreisen, lesbischem Sex hin zu dem schamfreien Leben mit anderen Frauen. Gleichzeitig erzählen ihre Tagebücher von einer Anne, die kaum selbstzentrierter sein könnte und oft war ich sehr wütend auf sie. Ihre Beziehungen mit anderen Frauen sind eigentlich nie ehrlich und auf Augenhöhe, keine konnte ihr je genug sein. Frauen, die keinen Zweck mehr für sie erfüllten, ließ sie fallen, sie machte falsche Hoffnungen, sie log, betrug, hinterging und wertete ihre Partnerinnen ab. Ihr Mitgefühl für andere Menschen war kaum bis gar nicht vorhanden.
Zu Angela Steidele als Autorin bleibt zu sagen, dass sie ein tolles Werk erschaffen hat. Sie konnte sogar nach Georgien reisen und Annes und Anns Spuren nachgehen. Ich habe Lust mich weiter mit Anne zu beschäftigen und bin wie immer mindblown davon, was Frauen vor mir für bahnbrechende, mutige und aufregende Leben gelebt haben.
Angela Steidele legt in dieser Auseinandersetzung mit Annes Tagebücher den Fokus auf ihre Liebesbeziehungen zu Frauen. Die Kaptitel tragen den Namen ihrer Liebschaften und zeichnen somit eine Chronik von Annes Liebesleben. Dadurch ist Steideles Biographie ein Werk, welches einen unfassbaren Einblick in lesbisches Leben im 19. Jahrhundert gibt. Der Großteil des Buches sind Originalzitate aus Annes Tagebüchern, welche immer in kursiv geschriebenen Passagen hervorgehoben wurden. Die Biographie ist spannend, beeindruckend und komplex. Ich finde, im Gegensatz zu anderen Rezensionen nicht, dass Anne Lister unterkomplex dargestellt wird, durch den Fokus auf ihre Beziehung zu Frauen. Ihre Leidenschaften zum Studium von Sprachen, ihre alpinistischen Leistungen und ihr Innenleben werden ausführlich dargestellt und nicht bewertet. Die Kommentare der Autorin sind sehr hilfreich, um Anne als Erzählerin zu verstehen, denn Tagebücher bleiben per Natur eine sehr subjektive Erzählform und Anne ist nicht immer ganz ehrlich mit sich selbst.
Mit der Biographie habe ich viele gemischte Gefühle zu Anne Lister entwickelt. Sie ist eine wahnsinnig fazinierende Frau, die ein Leben geführt hat, welches mir niemals möglich erschien im 19. Jahrhundert. Von Erstbesteigungen, Weltreisen, lesbischem Sex hin zu dem schamfreien Leben mit anderen Frauen. Gleichzeitig erzählen ihre Tagebücher von einer Anne, die kaum selbstzentrierter sein könnte und oft war ich sehr wütend auf sie. Ihre Beziehungen mit anderen Frauen sind eigentlich nie ehrlich und auf Augenhöhe, keine konnte ihr je genug sein. Frauen, die keinen Zweck mehr für sie erfüllten, ließ sie fallen, sie machte falsche Hoffnungen, sie log, betrug, hinterging und wertete ihre Partnerinnen ab. Ihr Mitgefühl für andere Menschen war kaum bis gar nicht vorhanden.
Zu Angela Steidele als Autorin bleibt zu sagen, dass sie ein tolles Werk erschaffen hat. Sie konnte sogar nach Georgien reisen und Annes und Anns Spuren nachgehen. Ich habe Lust mich weiter mit Anne zu beschäftigen und bin wie immer mindblown davon, was Frauen vor mir für bahnbrechende, mutige und aufregende Leben gelebt haben.
August 23, 2020
I hesitated between this book and the TV series tie-in, and now am not at all sure whether I should have chosen the latter instead. But I wanted more than the love story between Anne and Ann, because (although I loved the love story in the series) I was also intrigued by Lister's business dealings.
I feel a bit like the academic who prudishly consigned Lister's coded sex scenes to oblivion as being "merely personal" and "of no historical interest", i.e. I would have liked less of them--but that's just me. Although I was rather intrigued to learn that Lister, while a supreme middle finger jockey, remained a virgin herself in the technical sense; she clearly thought like a rampantly straight man of the 18th century and did not want to be in a submissive role. Nowadays she would probably realize that she was a man in a woman's body and opt for gender transition. If that sounds too dismissive, I'm sorry--I'm a straight female, if that's any excuse.
Anyway, I did get quite a bit of what interested me, which I could sum up as Lister's drive for adventure. That was what it was all about, really--she couldn't bear the domesticity that was her lot as an 18th-century woman. She wanted the life of a man, and not any man--she wanted to be a Romantic hero, a true Don Juan. Which, of course, involved constant romantic intrigue, generally being a shit to women, spending far too much money (often not hers) and traveling far and wide. Her real drive was for experiences, and by damn she got them.
But I didn't get enough of what I wanted. The sex kind of overbalances the book, and I think I'm going to have to find a better biography of Anne Lister. This one switches from sex to travelogue with all the really interesting bits around the edges of the main action.
I feel a bit like the academic who prudishly consigned Lister's coded sex scenes to oblivion as being "merely personal" and "of no historical interest", i.e. I would have liked less of them--but that's just me. Although I was rather intrigued to learn that Lister, while a supreme middle finger jockey, remained a virgin herself in the technical sense; she clearly thought like a rampantly straight man of the 18th century and did not want to be in a submissive role. Nowadays she would probably realize that she was a man in a woman's body and opt for gender transition. If that sounds too dismissive, I'm sorry--I'm a straight female, if that's any excuse.
Anyway, I did get quite a bit of what interested me, which I could sum up as Lister's drive for adventure. That was what it was all about, really--she couldn't bear the domesticity that was her lot as an 18th-century woman. She wanted the life of a man, and not any man--she wanted to be a Romantic hero, a true Don Juan. Which, of course, involved constant romantic intrigue, generally being a shit to women, spending far too much money (often not hers) and traveling far and wide. Her real drive was for experiences, and by damn she got them.
But I didn't get enough of what I wanted. The sex kind of overbalances the book, and I think I'm going to have to find a better biography of Anne Lister. This one switches from sex to travelogue with all the really interesting bits around the edges of the main action.
September 15, 2023
I find Anne Lister such a fascinating (if unlikeable) figure. I liked this biography for the most part, but splitting up her life by her sexual partners feels... reductive, to say the least.
August 14, 2019
This was a good read but very dry, even considering all the "scandalous" content of Lister's life. I'm not sure how you could make nonfiction like this not dry when you're dealing with thousands of pages of transcribed tedious journal pages, but still this somehow managed it. A worthy read if you're at all interested in lesbian history.
January 4, 2019
Anne Lister was a narcissistic but fascinating person, her life full of polyamorous dyke drama and travels. This biography is also a poetic middle finger (a body part that Anne mentions a lot) to the romanticed tales of female "friendships".
(now English edition: "Gentleman Jack")
(now English edition: "Gentleman Jack")
July 26, 2019
Anne Lister is fascinating (although not such a great person, it turns out), but this book is rather dull.
March 3, 2020
Anne Lister was both amazing and a monster. I wish I had half her swagger.
July 21, 2023
I enjoyed this particular biography of Anne Lister because of how real Anne came out to be, with all her warts and accomplishments blended together just like any other human being.
Judging from the reviews quite a few readers were shocked and upset over how unattractive Anne comes off, narcissistic, manipulative and mean through the words of the author. I really doubt Steidele set out to make Anne a evil monster. The main point is to not forget that this is a story based on the real person’s diary which was not supposed to become public. Have people tried to keep a diary? You cannot possibly include all points of view when describing even the most mundane events and come off as nice, fair, etc. Even if it were true, so what? Nobody has an obligation to be a nice person and it’s sexist to insist that women should be so. Humans are human and that’s the most interesting thing about us. When Anne mentioned how grateful she is to have a diary to pour her heart out and how much it helps her deal with the stress, fears, anger and life in general, it’s obvious she did the best she could with what she had at the time.
And she did so much! She traveled extensively, run her family estate and thought up new ways to generate profit. She studied numerous subjects, including medicine and Greek and read widely, often reviewing books like M.Shelley’s Frankenstein for example. She fell deeply in love and cheated, tried to climb a social ladder and managed to find a life partner that suited her wants, which was an enormous feat in a strict patriarchal society of the 19th century England. She had written over four million words with only half of it having been decoded until recently. I’m looking forward for the remaining millions to become available - what a Life!
(one last thing, I listened to this in an audio narration which I heartily recommend as the actor did such an amazing job bringing Anne alive)
Judging from the reviews quite a few readers were shocked and upset over how unattractive Anne comes off, narcissistic, manipulative and mean through the words of the author. I really doubt Steidele set out to make Anne a evil monster. The main point is to not forget that this is a story based on the real person’s diary which was not supposed to become public. Have people tried to keep a diary? You cannot possibly include all points of view when describing even the most mundane events and come off as nice, fair, etc. Even if it were true, so what? Nobody has an obligation to be a nice person and it’s sexist to insist that women should be so. Humans are human and that’s the most interesting thing about us. When Anne mentioned how grateful she is to have a diary to pour her heart out and how much it helps her deal with the stress, fears, anger and life in general, it’s obvious she did the best she could with what she had at the time.
And she did so much! She traveled extensively, run her family estate and thought up new ways to generate profit. She studied numerous subjects, including medicine and Greek and read widely, often reviewing books like M.Shelley’s Frankenstein for example. She fell deeply in love and cheated, tried to climb a social ladder and managed to find a life partner that suited her wants, which was an enormous feat in a strict patriarchal society of the 19th century England. She had written over four million words with only half of it having been decoded until recently. I’m looking forward for the remaining millions to become available - what a Life!
(one last thing, I listened to this in an audio narration which I heartily recommend as the actor did such an amazing job bringing Anne alive)
May 27, 2019
What a fascinating book about a fascinating life! I could not put my Kindle down this weekend.
A little sad because I feel I've read spoilers for tonight's HBO episode, although I'm eager to see the Sally Wainwright version of events!
I especially loved the detailed account of Anne and Ann's life & travels together (in Imperial Russia! in the winter!) after their marriage, which the Ann Choma biography skimmed over. It was interesting to learn the history of the decoding process, and the disagreements between the researchers about the importance of publishing certain extracts--the arguments Anne/Ann had! I want to see how Anne justifies herself. Luckily I feel that now the HBO/BBC show is such a success, that the decoding/publication process will be sped up!
I need a little break from Anne Lister now, but I'll certainly be reading more of her this summer.
A little sad because I feel I've read spoilers for tonight's HBO episode, although I'm eager to see the Sally Wainwright version of events!
I especially loved the detailed account of Anne and Ann's life & travels together (in Imperial Russia! in the winter!) after their marriage, which the Ann Choma biography skimmed over. It was interesting to learn the history of the decoding process, and the disagreements between the researchers about the importance of publishing certain extracts--the arguments Anne/Ann had! I want to see how Anne justifies herself. Luckily I feel that now the HBO/BBC show is such a success, that the decoding/publication process will be sped up!
I need a little break from Anne Lister now, but I'll certainly be reading more of her this summer.
June 16, 2019
I read an article about Anne Lister some months ago, and found it very interesting: the bare facts of her life are fascinating. An independent woman, Lister travelled extensively, and managed to take control of her uncle's estates due to her determination and strong business acumen. She was also a lesbian, and had many different female partners over her life, and lived openly with a woman, considering herself to be married. She wrote obsessively in her diary, using a secret code in a mixture of English and Ancient Greek to recount her relationships with women. However, the details of Lister's life are not as fascinating as the broad strokes. Her diary, while an important document about queer life in regency England, is not particularly interesting, and her relationships are full of arguments and impetuous decisions that are not compelling to read. A Tory, she spends a lot of time frittering away money and treating her tenants harshly. Undeniably, Lister is an interesting figure in queer history, but I think an article does her justice: she doesn't need a whole biography.
May 23, 2024
Über Verena (merci beaucoup!) bin ich auf diese Biographie von Anne Lister - der infamen lesbischen Alpinistin/Gelehrten/Herzensbrecherin/uvm aus dem England des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts gestoßen und sie hat mich schnell in den Bann gerissen. Die Basis für die Biographie sind Annes ausführlich geführten Tagebücher, in denen sie genau ihren Alltag, ihre Liebschaften, ihre Reisen dokumentiert. Steidele hat sich auf das lesbische Liebesleben fokussiert (wofür ihr manchmal ein Vorwurf gemacht wird - ich finde es legitim!).
Ich lese sonst nicht so viele Biographien und finde es spannend, dass im Zentrum dieser eine Person steht, die so ambivalent ist. Anne Lister war in vielen Dingen Pionierin; sie war Erstbesteigerin eines pyrenäischen Gipfels, und wahrscheinlich die erste mehr oder weniger offen lesbisch lebende Frau in England (über die es so viel Zeugnis gibt, zumindest).
Bei den ersten Textausschnitten, die Verena mir vorgelesen hat, fand ich Anne sympathisch und vor allem herausragend, wie selbstbewusst sie in jener Zeit schon mit ihrer Attraktion zu Frauen (und ihrer Ablehnung Männern ggü) umgegangen war. Schnell wird aber klar, dass hier auf keinen Fall uneingeschränkt von einem lesbischen Vorbild gesprochen werden kann. Annes Blick auf andere Frauen stößt schnell auf, sie objektifiziert sie, bewertet ihr Äußeres, sieht den Reiz meist eher in der Eroberung als in der Person selbst, betrügt und belügt sie, spielt ihnen Romanzen vor, um an Geld oder Sex zu kommen.
Die Bezeichnung "OG Lesbian Fuckboy" ist noch viel zu zahm für Annes Umgang mit ihren zahlreichen Loverinnen. Ich kann gar nicht sagen, welche von Anne Listers "Glanzmomenten" ich am übelsten fand: als sie die beste Freundin ihrer ersten Partnerin Eliza kennenlernte und direkt mit ihr etwas anfing? Als sie die Schwestern einer anderen Geliebten klärte? An einem Wochenende mit mehreren Frauen verkehrte, nur um gleichzeitig in Briefen ihrer eigentlichen Partnerin die ewige Treue zu schwören?
In ihren Tagebüchern wird ersichtlich, dass sie sich einerseits sehr nach einer tiefen, innigen Beziehung sehnt, nach einer Lebensgefährtin - es aber gleichzeitig kein einziges Mal schafft, eine Partnerin auf Augenhöhe zu sehen, statt sie zu idealisieren oder abzuwerten. Das ist ein sehr trauriges Bild, was da gezeichnet wird, gleichzeitig auch ein sehr realistisches. Es handelt sich um eine Dynamik, in der sich manche Menschen immer wieder finden, sicherlich unabhängig von Zeit, Raum, Geschlecht...
Der Gegenstand, den Steidele sich gesucht hat, ist also erst einmal ein super Faszinierender. Auch der Stil, in dem sie die einzelnen Tagebuchfragmente aneinanderreiht, kontextualisiert und einordnet, fand ich angenehm und lesbar, stellenweise sehr witzig, wenn sie z.B. auf Widersprüche zwischen Annes Liebesschwüren und ihrem tatsächlichen Verhalten hinweist. Aber man darf Steidele keineswegs ankreiden, sich nur mit Listers sexuellen Eskapaden zu beschäftigen. Besonders interessant zu lesen fand ich die Abschnitte gegen Ende, in denen Anne und ihre letzte Partnerin gemeinsam durch Russland und Georgien reisen und Bergsteigen. Man muss sich natürlich vergegenwärtigen, dass so eine Reise damals für zwei alleinreisende Frauen etwas ganz ganz anderes war, als heute einfach in eine Billigairline Richtung Osten zu steigen und in Tbilisi ein wenig Party zu machen.
Stellenweise hätte ich mir noch mehr politische und historische Kontextualisierung gewünscht. Anne ist eine erzkonservative (reaktionäre?), die eine gute Prise Sozialchauvinismus an den Tag legt; spannend hätte ich es gefunden, ihre Ansichten zur gerade aufkeimenden Arbeiterbewegung noch mit objektiveren Einschätzungen umrahmt zu lesen. Oder vielleicht sogar zu proletarischen Perspektiven kontrastiert?
Insgesamt macht Steidele aber wirklich eine gute Arbeit, was die Rahmung der Biographie angeht. Sie kommentiert etwa auch auf einer Metaebene ein wenig, was das exzessive Tagebuchschreiben Anne Listers eigentlich zu bedeuten hat oder wie die Rezeptionsgeschichte aussah.
Auch wenn ich Anne Lister sicherlich nicht gern über den Weg gelaufen wäre - die Lektüre hat etwas mit mir gemacht. Als Frau, die Frauen liebt, wird mir immer so warm ums Herz, wenn ich feststelle, dass es Frauen wie uns schon immer und überall gab, egal wie widrig die Umstände waren. Damit meine ich auch gar nicht nur lesbische/queere Liebes und Begehren im engeren Sinn, sondern auch die Fokussierung auf Frauen generell, das Anstreben eines frauenzentrierten Lebens, die Ablehnung einer heterosexuellen Ehe als die einzige Lösung für ein glückliches, erfülltes Leben. (Hierzu eine Empfehlung, trotz aller Kritik und wackeligen Takes darin mal wieder Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence zu lesen!!!)
Gleichzeitig hat die Lektüre in mir den Wunsch geweckt, Frauenbeziehungen nicht nur idealisiert zu betrachten, sondern auch deren Schattenseiten Raum zu geben. Vielleicht wird es Zeit für ein Rereading von Girl, Woman, Other oder ich könnte mal In the Dream House lesen. Beides sind Bücher, in denen auch missbräuchliche lesbische Beziehungen geschildert werden.
Ich lese sonst nicht so viele Biographien und finde es spannend, dass im Zentrum dieser eine Person steht, die so ambivalent ist. Anne Lister war in vielen Dingen Pionierin; sie war Erstbesteigerin eines pyrenäischen Gipfels, und wahrscheinlich die erste mehr oder weniger offen lesbisch lebende Frau in England (über die es so viel Zeugnis gibt, zumindest).
Bei den ersten Textausschnitten, die Verena mir vorgelesen hat, fand ich Anne sympathisch und vor allem herausragend, wie selbstbewusst sie in jener Zeit schon mit ihrer Attraktion zu Frauen (und ihrer Ablehnung Männern ggü) umgegangen war. Schnell wird aber klar, dass hier auf keinen Fall uneingeschränkt von einem lesbischen Vorbild gesprochen werden kann. Annes Blick auf andere Frauen stößt schnell auf, sie objektifiziert sie, bewertet ihr Äußeres, sieht den Reiz meist eher in der Eroberung als in der Person selbst, betrügt und belügt sie, spielt ihnen Romanzen vor, um an Geld oder Sex zu kommen.
Die Bezeichnung "OG Lesbian Fuckboy" ist noch viel zu zahm für Annes Umgang mit ihren zahlreichen Loverinnen. Ich kann gar nicht sagen, welche von Anne Listers "Glanzmomenten" ich am übelsten fand: als sie die beste Freundin ihrer ersten Partnerin Eliza kennenlernte und direkt mit ihr etwas anfing? Als sie die Schwestern einer anderen Geliebten klärte? An einem Wochenende mit mehreren Frauen verkehrte, nur um gleichzeitig in Briefen ihrer eigentlichen Partnerin die ewige Treue zu schwören?
In ihren Tagebüchern wird ersichtlich, dass sie sich einerseits sehr nach einer tiefen, innigen Beziehung sehnt, nach einer Lebensgefährtin - es aber gleichzeitig kein einziges Mal schafft, eine Partnerin auf Augenhöhe zu sehen, statt sie zu idealisieren oder abzuwerten. Das ist ein sehr trauriges Bild, was da gezeichnet wird, gleichzeitig auch ein sehr realistisches. Es handelt sich um eine Dynamik, in der sich manche Menschen immer wieder finden, sicherlich unabhängig von Zeit, Raum, Geschlecht...
Der Gegenstand, den Steidele sich gesucht hat, ist also erst einmal ein super Faszinierender. Auch der Stil, in dem sie die einzelnen Tagebuchfragmente aneinanderreiht, kontextualisiert und einordnet, fand ich angenehm und lesbar, stellenweise sehr witzig, wenn sie z.B. auf Widersprüche zwischen Annes Liebesschwüren und ihrem tatsächlichen Verhalten hinweist. Aber man darf Steidele keineswegs ankreiden, sich nur mit Listers sexuellen Eskapaden zu beschäftigen. Besonders interessant zu lesen fand ich die Abschnitte gegen Ende, in denen Anne und ihre letzte Partnerin gemeinsam durch Russland und Georgien reisen und Bergsteigen. Man muss sich natürlich vergegenwärtigen, dass so eine Reise damals für zwei alleinreisende Frauen etwas ganz ganz anderes war, als heute einfach in eine Billigairline Richtung Osten zu steigen und in Tbilisi ein wenig Party zu machen.
Stellenweise hätte ich mir noch mehr politische und historische Kontextualisierung gewünscht. Anne ist eine erzkonservative (reaktionäre?), die eine gute Prise Sozialchauvinismus an den Tag legt; spannend hätte ich es gefunden, ihre Ansichten zur gerade aufkeimenden Arbeiterbewegung noch mit objektiveren Einschätzungen umrahmt zu lesen. Oder vielleicht sogar zu proletarischen Perspektiven kontrastiert?
Insgesamt macht Steidele aber wirklich eine gute Arbeit, was die Rahmung der Biographie angeht. Sie kommentiert etwa auch auf einer Metaebene ein wenig, was das exzessive Tagebuchschreiben Anne Listers eigentlich zu bedeuten hat oder wie die Rezeptionsgeschichte aussah.
Auch wenn ich Anne Lister sicherlich nicht gern über den Weg gelaufen wäre - die Lektüre hat etwas mit mir gemacht. Als Frau, die Frauen liebt, wird mir immer so warm ums Herz, wenn ich feststelle, dass es Frauen wie uns schon immer und überall gab, egal wie widrig die Umstände waren. Damit meine ich auch gar nicht nur lesbische/queere Liebes und Begehren im engeren Sinn, sondern auch die Fokussierung auf Frauen generell, das Anstreben eines frauenzentrierten Lebens, die Ablehnung einer heterosexuellen Ehe als die einzige Lösung für ein glückliches, erfülltes Leben. (Hierzu eine Empfehlung, trotz aller Kritik und wackeligen Takes darin mal wieder Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence zu lesen!!!)
Gleichzeitig hat die Lektüre in mir den Wunsch geweckt, Frauenbeziehungen nicht nur idealisiert zu betrachten, sondern auch deren Schattenseiten Raum zu geben. Vielleicht wird es Zeit für ein Rereading von Girl, Woman, Other oder ich könnte mal In the Dream House lesen. Beides sind Bücher, in denen auch missbräuchliche lesbische Beziehungen geschildert werden.
May 31, 2019
Fascinating and informative - although I do think it's a bit of a stretch to suppose that Anne Lister could have been the inspiration for Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights. Gives an even greater appreciation for the TV series. Love that this biography doesn't gloss over Anne's dickishness and self-absorption; if she wasn't such a narcissist, we wouldn't have had 4 million words of priceless 19th century history at our disposal!
January 15, 2019
It's difficult to argue with the author's conclusion that Anne Lister was an egotistical fortune hunter, but her diaries are an invaluable historical document, disproving the homophobic argument that LGBT people are a modern phenomenon. This biography is a quick, informative read.
January 25, 2020
Terribly dull, read to the page 35. I couldn’t take anymore of the fuckboy attitude and rather nasty way of speaking about her romantic interests. This book is basically an outline of Lister’s life and lovers. The writing has no feeling and is very clinical/basic. One star for the pretty cover.
May 25, 2019
This was such a good read!! Anne lister is hugely admirable in one sense, but also a total nightmare. Also a massive Tory.
August 3, 2019
Interesting read about a fascinating historic character. Anne Lister was a female (lesbian) ‘Casanova’, born in 1791, who seduced and loved many women and wrote prolifically and often graphically about it in her diaries. As well as her complex love and sex life, which makes for a fascinating piece of LGBT+ history, she also travelled widely across Europe and into Russia in a time when it was extraordinarily adventurous to do so, she also entered into several (rather unsuccessful) business ventures in a time when women just didn’t get the chance to do that. She lived openly with another woman as her wife and generally gave a big fuck you to the conventions of the day for a woman’s role. Hurrah! However she wasn’t always a very good person - some of her lovers she treated atrociously, and her upper class attitudes towards the poorer classes were decidedly lacking in empathy. But her story held my interest.
Her diaries were largely written in code - and when first decoded, various shocked prudish descendants and researchers hid them straight away again due to the sexual content! One disappointment of this biography is that the author is working from someone else’s transcriptions of Anne’s diaries, and after a while the transcriber clearly has had enough and sets out summary notes rather than the full detail, which is a shame as some of the full story must be lost.
Her diaries were largely written in code - and when first decoded, various shocked prudish descendants and researchers hid them straight away again due to the sexual content! One disappointment of this biography is that the author is working from someone else’s transcriptions of Anne’s diaries, and after a while the transcriber clearly has had enough and sets out summary notes rather than the full detail, which is a shame as some of the full story must be lost.
March 21, 2020
If, like me, you came to Anne Lister, seduced by the TV show, then be aware that her character was definitely improved for the show! While Anne was unapologetic about being a lesbian - and for the time she was about as 'out and proud' as it was possible to be - she was also a serial seducer. If we read a diary by a man detailing the sort of conquests Anne lists, not to mention her careful premeditation on how to seduce, manipulate and occasionally coerce women in to her bed, we would be saying some very salty things about his morality and calling him a womaniser. Anne was very much about the chase. She often had three or four lovers on the go at a time, and while she might have been inclined towards polyamory, she rarely included her partners in the decision making. In other words, she had at least two long standing understandings of commitment with two separate women and then cheated on both of them constantly with various different woman. Excerpts of her diary would definitely seem to support the author's opinion that Anne enjoyed seduction for its own sake, and while she was hardly immune to forming long standing attachments, she fell in and out of love quickly and one person was never enough for her.
Anne was a fascinating individual. She exhibited a headstrong desire to go her own way, a very developed sense of self, intelligence and will power - and the less admirable traits of selfishness and using her cleverness to manipulate everyone around her in order to have her own way. As nice as it would be to be able to hold her up as an example of a pioneering lesbian, Anne was progressive only in so far as it suited herself. She was a life long Tory, a member of the landed gentry and very resistant to having the rights of that class curtailed, she was classist and snobbish about the nouveau riche, she happily used child labour on her farms and in her coal mines, and she was actually rather dismissive of other women; paradoxically, she adopted the attitude of Victorian men whereby women were to be discreet, humble, virtuous and chaste, while still pursuing more vigorous mental and physical stimulus herself and expecting the women she dallied with to be clever, refined and genteel. In short, it seems no one really quite met her high standards and that her love was lavished entirely on herself.
All that sounds rather damning but Anne was remarkable in that she insisted on carving out a place for herself in a society that was becoming increasingly restrictive and chauvinistic. Worth remembering that during the 18th C there was initially no ban on women voting if they happened to be the land owner of that borough. By the time Anne owned Shibden Hall, women were forbidden to vote regardless of status. No doubt some of Anne's more unattractive traits came about as a direct consequence of the time she lived in and the lengths she was forced to go to in order to act with agency on her own whims. Certainly no one would criticise a man of that time in the same way Anne was criticised!
There are lots of biographies of Anne Lister - many deal with her being a female land owner and refer to her diaries as important historical documents (having carefully repressed and ignored the coded passages which detailed her conquests, her sexual exploits and the quality of her orgasms.) I think this book is an important introduction into Anne as a whole person and certainly her diaries are at least as important as a document of LGBTQ+ history as they are of the changing times of the beginning of the industrial revolution. She may not have left the world better than she found it and she was monstrous in many ways in her treatment of her lovers and wife, but she was a vivid, strong willed person who ran at life and adventure and there's a lot to admire in that. On the whole, I found the author largely unbiased; not interested in presenting Anne as a lesbian saint or as a cliché predatory queer, but as a person with both good and bad qualities. It does a lot to restore Anne's personal life to the record and combat the erasure of lesbians from history. While it requires bravery to go against the norm, Anne wasn't facing the same oppression and risk of death that homosexual men were during the same era. It was a different set of prejudices. It was widely accepted that women would form 'romantic friendships' with other women and then marry, completely unsullied by whatever may have occurred. It was an era where unmarried women usually shared a bed with another woman - witnesses to their mutual chastity. So while Queen Victoria declared a homosexual relationship between women to be impossible and therefore not to exist, it wasn't unusual or even necessarily frowned on for such relationships to occur. ( There's a huge misogynistic mindset behind all of this which I won't get into now.) However, while women were unlikely to be hanged or imprisoned for a homosexual relationship as some men were, prejudice could take the form of complete erasure (especially historically), ostracism (this was something you could really only be open about if you were both mentally tough and wealthy enough to resist social sanction.) and of course, sadly, correctional rape.
Anne Lister's wife, Ann Walker, seems to have been an extraordinarily brave woman to have gone against her friends and family and social opinion to move in with Anne Lister having 'married' her. Especially since she was of a naturally shyer disposition than AL.
Anyway I've rambled enough. This is a very interesting book and AL's diaries are important historical documents. Don't expect the charming, headstrong but mostly likeable heroine of the TV drama but if you're interested, I definitely recommend this.
Anne was a fascinating individual. She exhibited a headstrong desire to go her own way, a very developed sense of self, intelligence and will power - and the less admirable traits of selfishness and using her cleverness to manipulate everyone around her in order to have her own way. As nice as it would be to be able to hold her up as an example of a pioneering lesbian, Anne was progressive only in so far as it suited herself. She was a life long Tory, a member of the landed gentry and very resistant to having the rights of that class curtailed, she was classist and snobbish about the nouveau riche, she happily used child labour on her farms and in her coal mines, and she was actually rather dismissive of other women; paradoxically, she adopted the attitude of Victorian men whereby women were to be discreet, humble, virtuous and chaste, while still pursuing more vigorous mental and physical stimulus herself and expecting the women she dallied with to be clever, refined and genteel. In short, it seems no one really quite met her high standards and that her love was lavished entirely on herself.
All that sounds rather damning but Anne was remarkable in that she insisted on carving out a place for herself in a society that was becoming increasingly restrictive and chauvinistic. Worth remembering that during the 18th C there was initially no ban on women voting if they happened to be the land owner of that borough. By the time Anne owned Shibden Hall, women were forbidden to vote regardless of status. No doubt some of Anne's more unattractive traits came about as a direct consequence of the time she lived in and the lengths she was forced to go to in order to act with agency on her own whims. Certainly no one would criticise a man of that time in the same way Anne was criticised!
There are lots of biographies of Anne Lister - many deal with her being a female land owner and refer to her diaries as important historical documents (having carefully repressed and ignored the coded passages which detailed her conquests, her sexual exploits and the quality of her orgasms.) I think this book is an important introduction into Anne as a whole person and certainly her diaries are at least as important as a document of LGBTQ+ history as they are of the changing times of the beginning of the industrial revolution. She may not have left the world better than she found it and she was monstrous in many ways in her treatment of her lovers and wife, but she was a vivid, strong willed person who ran at life and adventure and there's a lot to admire in that. On the whole, I found the author largely unbiased; not interested in presenting Anne as a lesbian saint or as a cliché predatory queer, but as a person with both good and bad qualities. It does a lot to restore Anne's personal life to the record and combat the erasure of lesbians from history. While it requires bravery to go against the norm, Anne wasn't facing the same oppression and risk of death that homosexual men were during the same era. It was a different set of prejudices. It was widely accepted that women would form 'romantic friendships' with other women and then marry, completely unsullied by whatever may have occurred. It was an era where unmarried women usually shared a bed with another woman - witnesses to their mutual chastity. So while Queen Victoria declared a homosexual relationship between women to be impossible and therefore not to exist, it wasn't unusual or even necessarily frowned on for such relationships to occur. ( There's a huge misogynistic mindset behind all of this which I won't get into now.) However, while women were unlikely to be hanged or imprisoned for a homosexual relationship as some men were, prejudice could take the form of complete erasure (especially historically), ostracism (this was something you could really only be open about if you were both mentally tough and wealthy enough to resist social sanction.) and of course, sadly, correctional rape.
Anne Lister's wife, Ann Walker, seems to have been an extraordinarily brave woman to have gone against her friends and family and social opinion to move in with Anne Lister having 'married' her. Especially since she was of a naturally shyer disposition than AL.
Anyway I've rambled enough. This is a very interesting book and AL's diaries are important historical documents. Don't expect the charming, headstrong but mostly likeable heroine of the TV drama but if you're interested, I definitely recommend this.
October 12, 2020
Due to research issues (outlined here by other reviewers), this should NOT be the first book you read about Anne Lister.
That said, if you're new to the topic, the first thing you should know about Anne Lister books is to NEVER FORGET you're reading (or watching!) someone's INTERPRETATION of Anne Lister. All biographers and researchers of Anne Lister lay a heavy hand on their works in determining what they think you should know about her or how they want to present her based on their own feelings about her. (For example, Steidele says at the very end that she fell in love with Anne only to be betrayed by Anne. I strongly believe that means she wasn't paying attention to the real Anne all along.)
So, reader: Beware.
That said, if you're new to the topic, the first thing you should know about Anne Lister books is to NEVER FORGET you're reading (or watching!) someone's INTERPRETATION of Anne Lister. All biographers and researchers of Anne Lister lay a heavy hand on their works in determining what they think you should know about her or how they want to present her based on their own feelings about her. (For example, Steidele says at the very end that she fell in love with Anne only to be betrayed by Anne. I strongly believe that means she wasn't paying attention to the real Anne all along.)
So, reader: Beware.
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