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big_orange_sapphic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
annecarts's review
2.0
DNF
Anne Lister is such a fascinating character she should easily make a good biography. Unfortunately I found this dry and the writing style with parts of the original letters thrown in didn't work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Anne Lister is such a fascinating character she should easily make a good biography. Unfortunately I found this dry and the writing style with parts of the original letters thrown in didn't work for me.
Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
ghsr's review
3.0
I don't normally like historical biographies and at times I did find it hard to get through (I think it's all the dates - I automatically get bored and feel like I'm in history class?) BUT the sheer amount of dyke drama makes up for it, and the audio book is narrated by Heather Peace who is the PERFECT narrator for this. The story of Anne Lister's life is incredibly interesting, and very much ahead of her time. If you want to know more after watching the TV show, this is perfect.
mugglemom's review
4.0
Have not seen the Netflix series but I do know that the real-life story of Anne Lister is incredible. This novel was extremely informative and not having any other to reference, this very good. Just goes to show that we don't know what we don't know.
I'm always amazed at how much Victorian society so majorly shifted social change.
I'm not sure what to make of the author's take on the Bronte sisters being influenced by Anne but it's not a far leap. I think this very small part of the book distracted me somewhat.
Would love to read all 4 million words by Anne but hell no. This will do just fine.
I'm always amazed at how much Victorian society so majorly shifted social change.
I'm not sure what to make of the author's take on the Bronte sisters being influenced by Anne but it's not a far leap. I think this very small part of the book distracted me somewhat.
Would love to read all 4 million words by Anne but hell no. This will do just fine.
sammy_'s review against another edition
3.0
The TV series Gentleman Jack has piqued many people's interest (including my own) in reading more about the real-life Anne Lister, 19th century landowner, lesbian, traveller, and prolific diarist.
On the one hand, like a lot of reviewers, I have to be honest - she didn't seem that nice. She pursued potential partners largely for their fortunes, had several partners at a time despite promising life partnership, and was in favour of - and widely used - child labour. Her relationship with her final partner, Ann Walker, appeared particularly toxic, and coercive at times, with Lister setting out to acquire - and then spend - the majority of Walker's fortune.
On the other hand, as other reviewers have also noted, she was a 19th century landowner. If the subject was a man, few people would be surprised to hear of a 19th century landowner marrying for money, treating his partners with indifference and infidelity, or resisting social change which threatened his own privilege - so why should we feel shocked when the subject is a woman?
Additionally, what's remarkable about Anne Lister's diaries is their frankness. Amounting to five million words in all, there was little detail she left out - whether it cast her in a good light or not. Intended only for her eyes, they were brutally unsanitised. If any of us committed our true feelings and motives to paper for thirty years, would we come off that well?
Although the book draws heavily on diary extracts, other reviewers have found the depiction overly negative. I can't comment, having not read other biographies of Anne Lister, but I felt that Seidele largely allowed verbatim content to speak for itself. The question is how selective she was in choosing that content. The book ran a little long, but with five million words and thirty years to summarise (including extensive and remarkable travels across Europe which could fill a volume by themselves), I could forgive that. In any case, the true appeal of any biography of Anne Lister will always be Anne Lister.
On the one hand, like a lot of reviewers, I have to be honest - she didn't seem that nice. She pursued potential partners largely for their fortunes, had several partners at a time despite promising life partnership, and was in favour of - and widely used - child labour. Her relationship with her final partner, Ann Walker, appeared particularly toxic, and coercive at times, with Lister setting out to acquire - and then spend - the majority of Walker's fortune.
On the other hand, as other reviewers have also noted, she was a 19th century landowner. If the subject was a man, few people would be surprised to hear of a 19th century landowner marrying for money, treating his partners with indifference and infidelity, or resisting social change which threatened his own privilege - so why should we feel shocked when the subject is a woman?
Additionally, what's remarkable about Anne Lister's diaries is their frankness. Amounting to five million words in all, there was little detail she left out - whether it cast her in a good light or not. Intended only for her eyes, they were brutally unsanitised. If any of us committed our true feelings and motives to paper for thirty years, would we come off that well?
Although the book draws heavily on diary extracts, other reviewers have found the depiction overly negative. I can't comment, having not read other biographies of Anne Lister, but I felt that Seidele largely allowed verbatim content to speak for itself. The question is how selective she was in choosing that content. The book ran a little long, but with five million words and thirty years to summarise (including extensive and remarkable travels across Europe which could fill a volume by themselves), I could forgive that. In any case, the true appeal of any biography of Anne Lister will always be Anne Lister.
sophiareads_'s review against another edition
informative
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Misogyny, Classism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Racism
moliveiradev's review against another edition
2.0
This book would've been a 5/5 hadn't the author used a condescending tone in the last few chapters and seemed to handpick diary transcripts to justify what seems to be her opinions of Anne Lister.
The book is very well researched and an interesting read overall, but the tone of the writing started to annoy me from the point Anne and Ann marry and settle into Shibden Hall.
I got the feeling that, throughout the book, the author disapproved of Anne's actions that, some times, aren't the most correct and overlooked many details in her diary entries that definitely hinted that her marriage wasn't has catastrophic as the author made it out to be. Anne wasn't perfect, that was clear from the start.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the parts about Anne's travels and the things she saw (and marvelled at). I also enjoyed many parts of the chapters about her life with Ann Walker and feel the author did a disservice to both of them as painting Anne as a gold digger and Ann as a nervous wreck. Anne Lister wasn't as monstrous and Ann Walker was definitely not as weak as she is portrayed to be in many instances. However, I think many of these faults stem from the lack of transcripts from Anne Lister's diaries from that period. Had the author transcribed and decoded some diary passages, she certainly would've had material to get closer to her research subject.
I'd recommend this book to everyone who wants to know more about Anne Lister and her amazing life. However, I would advise potential readers to take a lot of the things in the last chapters with a grain of salt and to try and disregard the author's tone and simply enjoy Anne's accounts of her final travels with her wife.
Anne's obsession with her diary will certainly gift us with a complete account of her life during this period and, until all of it is transcribed and made public, we probably shouldn't make assumptions that may be taken out of context.
The book is very well researched and an interesting read overall, but the tone of the writing started to annoy me from the point Anne and Ann marry and settle into Shibden Hall.
I got the feeling that, throughout the book, the author disapproved of Anne's actions that, some times, aren't the most correct and overlooked many details in her diary entries that definitely hinted that her marriage wasn't has catastrophic as the author made it out to be. Anne wasn't perfect, that was clear from the start.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the parts about Anne's travels and the things she saw (and marvelled at). I also enjoyed many parts of the chapters about her life with Ann Walker and feel the author did a disservice to both of them as painting Anne as a gold digger and Ann as a nervous wreck. Anne Lister wasn't as monstrous and Ann Walker was definitely not as weak as she is portrayed to be in many instances. However, I think many of these faults stem from the lack of transcripts from Anne Lister's diaries from that period. Had the author transcribed and decoded some diary passages, she certainly would've had material to get closer to her research subject.
I'd recommend this book to everyone who wants to know more about Anne Lister and her amazing life. However, I would advise potential readers to take a lot of the things in the last chapters with a grain of salt and to try and disregard the author's tone and simply enjoy Anne's accounts of her final travels with her wife.
Anne's obsession with her diary will certainly gift us with a complete account of her life during this period and, until all of it is transcribed and made public, we probably shouldn't make assumptions that may be taken out of context.