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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Super interesting, I would've read 300 pages more.
Anne is a bitch but I'm saying this with love: I get her, more than I probably would like to, and other than the period-typical bullshit, she clearly was an amazing woman.
Anne is a bitch but I'm saying this with love: I get her, more than I probably would like to, and other than the period-typical bullshit, she clearly was an amazing woman.
adventurous
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
medium-paced
An amazing insight into the life of someone historically important yet so often overlooked - able to go much more in depth than the TV show too. I really enjoyed it!!
I think I'm mainly disappointed with this book because I didn't understand exactly what it was when I picked it up. Since it's a companion book to the TV series, it only covers the short period of Lister's life that the show does, with a brief background summary of...everything else. For what it was, the book was interesting, especially since I haven't seen the show yet. It does make me want to seek out more of Lister's actual diary covering more of her decades of writing, though.
Gentleman Jack is a short biographical account of a couple years in the life Anne Lister, the first woman in England to have a recorded marriage to another woman, in 1834. The content and courtship between the two women is very fascinating and detailed. Anne Lister kept precise record of all her daily activities and relationships, writing in a cryptographic hand of her own development to talk about the more explicit parts of her attraction to and relationships with women, as well as other parts of her life she specifically wanted to keep secret.
I wish the book involved even deeper pulling from the actual diaries as opposed to just using them to contextualize the narrative the author is telling. Reading the passages in Anne’s own voice was the most engaging part of the book. I also wish a longer time frame was given rather than just the year or two of courtship between the two women. Its ending was way too abrupt—the book builds up the whole story of the women getting together and then ends with essentially “Yep now they’re married and here’s how they die.” I wish we got more insight into their life together after they finally reach their commitment. For this narrative to be about their relationship it would’ve made sense to see it to the end. Perhaps to achieve this the author could have cut out the business-specific parts and developed the actual relationship in its place. (Although I must say the business aspect is pretty interesting too.) Contradictorily, my issue is that it tries to do too much yet also too little in its 258 pages.
On a separate note, while the author does briefly talk about Anne’s more negative characteristics, I think it’s important to do more than note occasionally that she was very conservative in every other aspect of her life besides her sexuality. She even blackmailed her tenants into voting conservatively (she would evict them if they voted otherwise) because she didn’t want them to get more rights as tenants, and preferred to instead control them in the way that she saw fit. Despite this being a common practice of landowners during this time according to the text, I still think it’s okay to look at historical figures through a critical lens even if they were progressive in some aspects of their lives.
I wish the book involved even deeper pulling from the actual diaries as opposed to just using them to contextualize the narrative the author is telling. Reading the passages in Anne’s own voice was the most engaging part of the book. I also wish a longer time frame was given rather than just the year or two of courtship between the two women. Its ending was way too abrupt—the book builds up the whole story of the women getting together and then ends with essentially “Yep now they’re married and here’s how they die.” I wish we got more insight into their life together after they finally reach their commitment. For this narrative to be about their relationship it would’ve made sense to see it to the end. Perhaps to achieve this the author could have cut out the business-specific parts and developed the actual relationship in its place. (Although I must say the business aspect is pretty interesting too.) Contradictorily, my issue is that it tries to do too much yet also too little in its 258 pages.
On a separate note, while the author does briefly talk about Anne’s more negative characteristics, I think it’s important to do more than note occasionally that she was very conservative in every other aspect of her life besides her sexuality. She even blackmailed her tenants into voting conservatively (she would evict them if they voted otherwise) because she didn’t want them to get more rights as tenants, and preferred to instead control them in the way that she saw fit. Despite this being a common practice of landowners during this time according to the text, I still think it’s okay to look at historical figures through a critical lens even if they were progressive in some aspects of their lives.
Definitely the least tiring and time consuming read of all my dissertation research so far, and it will prove to be very useful. Even though it is a slightly more (though not fully) academic/historical text, and I already knew what happened from watching the TV series, I found myself hooked and caring for Anne's story, particularly in regards to Ann Walker. If you're interested in learning more about Anne Lister and the actual events of her life during the period Gentleman Jack portrays, then I would definitely recommend it.
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced