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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
This was a super fun, whirlwind Anne Lister biography that eased my suffering somewhat in waiting for the next episode. The primary focus is on the years of her life covered in the first season of the TV show, and it is astonishing how closely the show follows the source material; much of the dialogue is pulled directly from Anne's diaries. And, unlike most period dramas that add kissing stuff to a show or film to appease modern audiences, in this instance the source material has MORE kissing stuff. Wild, and absolutely bloody brilliant. Makes me love the show even more for choosing to emphasise the quiet intimacy and gentleness of Anne and Ann's tentative relationship in their choice of scenes and direction. Love it intensely. Great companion to the show.
I was a little disappointed with this one, to be honest. I finished watching Gentleman Jack and now found myself fascinated by Anne Lister, and I was very excited to read more about her life beyond the scopes of the TV show. However, this book doesn't really go much beyond that, and only covers about two years of Anne's life which are mostly also portrayed in the TV series. This is a shame to me, as there is so much more of her life to explore.
That aside, this book does give fascinating new insights about what drove Lister, and what her passions were. We learn more about the academic inside her, and her drive for studying which wasn't understood or allowed in her time. Moreover, this book helps explain Anne's drive for getting a wife that really had to be upper class and rich, as status was more important than love in marriages in that time period. It was particularly interesting how she based her entire idea of lesbian relationships around heterosexual relationships, as that is all she would have known.
If you haven't seen Gentleman Jack the TV series, give it a go! It's a great portrayal of the first modern lesbian marriage.
That aside, this book does give fascinating new insights about what drove Lister, and what her passions were. We learn more about the academic inside her, and her drive for studying which wasn't understood or allowed in her time. Moreover, this book helps explain Anne's drive for getting a wife that really had to be upper class and rich, as status was more important than love in marriages in that time period. It was particularly interesting how she based her entire idea of lesbian relationships around heterosexual relationships, as that is all she would have known.
If you haven't seen Gentleman Jack the TV series, give it a go! It's a great portrayal of the first modern lesbian marriage.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Fascinating! I don't know much about queer history or the important people within it, so I'd never heard of Anne Lister until the recent HBO series. This book only covers a few years of her life and focuses on her relationship with Ann Walker. In fact, the series follows it quite well with some added story-lines about the tenants and servants. That's not a surprise since it seems like Choma and Sally Wainwright (the series's writer/director) are friends and that this show was a long-time-coming passion project for Wainwright.
Because it focuses on only a few years, it's a little lacking--only because I wanted more. Anne herself is so intriguing that I wanted this book to be twice as long as it is. I'm sitting here in 2019, barley capable of making life decisions because I know someone will have something to say about it. And I feel like I no longer know what I want to be or what I want to make of my life. Yet 200 years ago, Anne broke the rules of femininity and society because she knew exactly who she was and exactly what she wanted out of life. How inspiring. One thing that gets touched on briefly that I would've loved to read more about was how she reconciled her sexuality with her Anglican faith. It's mentioned that God made her exactly how she was supposed to be and to go against her nature would be to go against God. But I would've loved to see how she wrestled with that and came to that conclusion through thought. (Is the solution that I should just go read her diaries? Probably...)
I would've loved knowing more about Ann Walker, too. I don't know what sort of documents exist in relation to her besides Anne's diary entries, so perhaps that's not possible. But I wanted to know more about her struggles with mental health and how she was seemingly able to overcome them (at least while Anne was alive). Just the fact that she had these issues that arose from pressure from her family regarding her fortune and her life as well as what I assume to be something akin to modern-day internalized homophobia is really intriguing to me, so I wanted to take a deep dive into her psyche, in a way.
While this all sounds like I was disappointed in the substance, I wasn't. The subject is inherently interesting, and the book was easy to read. The focus is narrow enough that it's a great jumping-off point to learning about Anne Lister.
Because it focuses on only a few years, it's a little lacking--only because I wanted more. Anne herself is so intriguing that I wanted this book to be twice as long as it is. I'm sitting here in 2019, barley capable of making life decisions because I know someone will have something to say about it. And I feel like I no longer know what I want to be or what I want to make of my life. Yet 200 years ago, Anne broke the rules of femininity and society because she knew exactly who she was and exactly what she wanted out of life. How inspiring. One thing that gets touched on briefly that I would've loved to read more about was how she reconciled her sexuality with her Anglican faith. It's mentioned that God made her exactly how she was supposed to be and to go against her nature would be to go against God. But I would've loved to see how she wrestled with that and came to that conclusion through thought. (Is the solution that I should just go read her diaries? Probably...)
I would've loved knowing more about Ann Walker, too. I don't know what sort of documents exist in relation to her besides Anne's diary entries, so perhaps that's not possible. But I wanted to know more about her struggles with mental health and how she was seemingly able to overcome them (at least while Anne was alive). Just the fact that she had these issues that arose from pressure from her family regarding her fortune and her life as well as what I assume to be something akin to modern-day internalized homophobia is really intriguing to me, so I wanted to take a deep dive into her psyche, in a way.
While this all sounds like I was disappointed in the substance, I wasn't. The subject is inherently interesting, and the book was easy to read. The focus is narrow enough that it's a great jumping-off point to learning about Anne Lister.
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Wauw! Gentleman Jack geeft een kijkje in het leven van een uitzonderlijke vrouw die haar tijd ver vooruit was, Anne Lister.
The hbo series gave me literal joy in a time of usual despondency and so when I saw this at the strand, I had to pick it up... I was glad to have read this, made me excited to read all the more nuanced and complicated inner workings of Anne Lister’s fascinating life. One thing of note is that the show cut things together to make things flow, and while this book dispelled some of the romance, it was also comforting to read that even Anne’s life was not as it was when romanticized. Show is amazing. The book was enjoyable, fun and insightful.
I wanted to be more into this book, but it just felt blah to me. 3 stars for the content and message it gives, but something about the dialogue and back and forth of the narrator and Anne Lister's diary just came across as annoying and uninteresting. I will still try to watch despite the book being a little disappointing.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Very slow and bland. Cool to have journal entries and learn a lot of context and her pioneering spirit but nonfiction like this not my thing I’ve learned.
Solid 3 stars for me on this. I very much would like to read her diaries but appreciate this narrowed down scope on Anne Lister and s1 of Gentleman Jack.