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jailala's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Finally finished! This book has been a conundrum for me. Originally, I'd been eager to read about this 'Gentleman Jack' a woman supposedly ahead of her times and living the way she saw fit. I enjoy histories, women's studies and cultural explorations but I must admit the first part of this book was hard to get through.
As described and written in her own words, Anne Lister was a person I would not have wanted to deal with either as a friend or acquaintance. While I celebrated her understanding of her own sexuality and loved how she said that since it was her nature that meant her god could have nothing wrong with how she felt or 'he' would not have created her so, I found her, personally, to be the worst of landed gentlemen of the time period. In short, she was a cad. She was only ever in any relationship for what it would bring her and often was only in a relationship long enough to enjoy the 'conquering'. It seems Anne Lister was only ever fully enamored with Anne Lister.
The first part of the book is an extremely tedious account of Lister's 'romantic' conquests - not tedious because of the author Angela Steidele's retelling but because of Lister's way of recording everything (and I do mean everything) and her own interpretation of her life which only ever found fault with those around her and never with herself.
She was also quite the drama queen and constantly moaning and lamenting these trials she 'found' herself in even though almost 100% of the time, she herself was the reason for the problems. Especially since she was only attracted to women who would put themselves in a subservient role to herself with all sorts of her own rules placed upon them.
Ugh.
By the time her political ideation was explained, I had already developed a strong dislike for the woman but understanding even more about her (again, in her OWN words) only made me dislike her more. She literally believed herself better than other people and used child-labor in her coal mines. She demanded monogamy from her romantic entanglements even though she gave herself excuse after excuse to do just as she pleased with whomever she had her eyes set on. She even kept secret from her lovers that she had a venereal disease even though she was ticked at the woman who gave it to her for not mentioning it! She even married a couple of women at the same time! She hounded her last romantic interest and third wife, over money which she admitted over and over again in her journals was why she married the woman in the first place. In fact, she treated this person so badly that Anne Lister feared for the woman's sanity but kept on hounding her. Never once did Anne Lister think she might be the cause of any of her mistresses' distress.
Angela Steidele does a faithful recounting of Anne Lister's life and there are several interesting tidbits about the times and places in which Lister lived and traveled (especially a few interesting suppositions about the Brontes) but be warned! This woman seemed only to emulate the worst kind of gentleman of the early 1800's. If you've read Austen, think Wickham or Willoughby.
I would've given it a higher rating if I'd seen more of Steidele's hand in the book and less a perfect recounting of Lister's life.
As described and written in her own words, Anne Lister was a person I would not have wanted to deal with either as a friend or acquaintance. While I celebrated her understanding of her own sexuality and loved how she said that since it was her nature that meant her god could have nothing wrong with how she felt or 'he' would not have created her so, I found her, personally, to be the worst of landed gentlemen of the time period. In short, she was a cad. She was only ever in any relationship for what it would bring her and often was only in a relationship long enough to enjoy the 'conquering'. It seems Anne Lister was only ever fully enamored with Anne Lister.
The first part of the book is an extremely tedious account of Lister's 'romantic' conquests - not tedious because of the author Angela Steidele's retelling but because of Lister's way of recording everything (and I do mean everything) and her own interpretation of her life which only ever found fault with those around her and never with herself.
She was also quite the drama queen and constantly moaning and lamenting these trials she 'found' herself in even though almost 100% of the time, she herself was the reason for the problems. Especially since she was only attracted to women who would put themselves in a subservient role to herself with all sorts of her own rules placed upon them.
Ugh.
By the time her political ideation was explained, I had already developed a strong dislike for the woman but understanding even more about her (again, in her OWN words) only made me dislike her more. She literally believed herself better than other people and used child-labor in her coal mines. She demanded monogamy from her romantic entanglements even though she gave herself excuse after excuse to do just as she pleased with whomever she had her eyes set on. She even kept secret from her lovers that she had a venereal disease even though she was ticked at the woman who gave it to her for not mentioning it! She even married a couple of women at the same time! She hounded her last romantic interest and third wife, over money which she admitted over and over again in her journals was why she married the woman in the first place. In fact, she treated this person so badly that Anne Lister feared for the woman's sanity but kept on hounding her. Never once did Anne Lister think she might be the cause of any of her mistresses' distress.
Angela Steidele does a faithful recounting of Anne Lister's life and there are several interesting tidbits about the times and places in which Lister lived and traveled (especially a few interesting suppositions about the Brontes) but be warned! This woman seemed only to emulate the worst kind of gentleman of the early 1800's. If you've read Austen, think Wickham or Willoughby.
I would've given it a higher rating if I'd seen more of Steidele's hand in the book and less a perfect recounting of Lister's life.
daryanili's review against another edition
So badly written. I think the story might have been interesting had there been some nuance. Enjoyed the first third of the book but the rest became repetitive. Writing style was quite dry and I did not enjoy the translation. Good narrator though.
mimithorp's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
dernichtraucherin's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.0
points for the author, anne lister can choke <3
sunnie's review
adventurous
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.5
A really interesting biography. This is of course not the book's faults, but after watching and falling in love with the show I was actually kind of surprised to learn how much of a terrible person Anne Lister was. Kind of a bummer.
cj24's review against another edition
4.0
I became interested in this book following the Netflix series “Gentleman Jack” but I have some conflicting thoughts with this one. The downside: It was easy to tell that the author did not think highly of Ann Lister, which I found unfortunate since it would have been a much better novel without that bias. On the other hand, it was a recollection of some fascinating history of a woman that was not ashamed of who she was. I plan to visit Shipton Hall in the future!
filledwithbirds's review against another edition
1.0
In my opinion this book presents a rather unfair portrayal of Anne Lister and the way she behaved towards her lovers. Steidele’s criticisms of Anne Lister seem lacking in nuance and consideration for the fact that Lister was a complicated person who lived 200 years ago. The complexity of Anne Lister’s situation as a masculine-presenting lesbian in the early 19th century is completely disregarded for the sake of a very narrow perception of her as some kind of monster. Whether Lister truly was the manipulative predator portrayed in the book or not is up for debate, but the fact that Steidele used almost entirely secondary sources leading to misinformation definitely diminishes the credibility of her sweeping judgements. I almost enjoyed the book but it seems at points to lack important context, and some of the facts are straight up wrong and misleading. Anne Lister’s life was so vast and trying to compact it into a single small volume is a recipe for disaster. I really would not recommend reading this. For anyone interested in reading further about Anne Lister, I recommend Jill Liddington and Helena Whitbread’s books.
ophelia_wears_black's review against another edition
4.0
The only reason this book did not receive 5 stars is because by the end of it I had grown exceptionally disillusioned with its subject - the infamous Anne Lister herself, which, in my opinion, means that the biographer, Angela Steidele, did an excellent job of depicting Anne as a fascinating but real person, not often in the most favourable of lights, but attempting to remain objective throughout.
The narrative takes us along for a ride, through the darkest crevices of Anne Lister's extraordinary diaries. The reason I say they are "extraordinary" is that Anne Lister, an occasionally redeemable narcissist, wrote down in minute detail her daily routine and the goings on in the world around her, placing herself at the centre of a period in British history, which many have found fascinating.
Whilst I personally started this book expecting to immediately fall in love with the dashing and debonair character of Miss Lister (due to my unrelenting love for historical and modern LGBT biographies and the powerful stories they often tell), I found instead a conceited and self-serving individual, who was, above all, terrible at being a successful landowner, which is what she seems to be esteemed for by fans. In fact, most of her time appears to be spent abroad, attempting to woo this lady of the aristocracy or that.
I would highly recommend this book due to its historical accuracy and the attempt to delve deeper into what is, for the most part, an unsympathetic character. Although, like me, you may not like Miss Lister by the end of it, you would be able to appreciate her unwavering devotion to her freedom and prosperity, as well as her brash sense of identity.
The narrative takes us along for a ride, through the darkest crevices of Anne Lister's extraordinary diaries. The reason I say they are "extraordinary" is that Anne Lister, an occasionally redeemable narcissist, wrote down in minute detail her daily routine and the goings on in the world around her, placing herself at the centre of a period in British history, which many have found fascinating.
Whilst I personally started this book expecting to immediately fall in love with the dashing and debonair character of Miss Lister (due to my unrelenting love for historical and modern LGBT biographies and the powerful stories they often tell), I found instead a conceited and self-serving individual, who was, above all, terrible at being a successful landowner, which is what she seems to be esteemed for by fans. In fact, most of her time appears to be spent abroad, attempting to woo this lady of the aristocracy or that.
I would highly recommend this book due to its historical accuracy and the attempt to delve deeper into what is, for the most part, an unsympathetic character. Although, like me, you may not like Miss Lister by the end of it, you would be able to appreciate her unwavering devotion to her freedom and prosperity, as well as her brash sense of identity.