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The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
Jul. 31st, 2012 09:57 pmOn one of the various lesbian literature tumblrs I follow, I found out about The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister. Anne Lister was a woman living in Yorkshire, England in the early 1800's, who chronicled her daily life, including her self-driven education and the management of her estate. One remarkable thing about her diaries is that many of the entries are written in code, and when people decoded these encrypted entries, they discovered a new facet to her adventures: her unapologetic, detailed romances with several women.
I tried to have this book Interlibrary-loaned, but it turned out to be unavailable anywhere in the U.S. O_o So my wonderful, amazing librarian wife got the university to buy the book for its collection. And now I have it XD And it's fascinating.
The parts that aren't encrypted are still extremely interesting (even if I am reading it primarily for its contribution to lesbian history). Anne Lister was very isolated even in a culture where she necessarily spent a lot of time with other people. As part of the only landowning family in her town, she obviously felt like she was of a different social class than everyone around her and she didn't have anyone she could relate to. She obsessed over a particular girl from town but refused to formally call on her family, because doing so would be beneath her. She's a total snob, and her candor is both amusing and shocking. It's very cool to be able to read something so honest when the majority of stuff I've read from this period was intended for publication and therefore had an agenda.
And the lesbian parts are, well, awesome. According to Anne, EVERY girl in town is in love with her. She has, at the moment (I'm up to 1819, two years into the diary), three primary targets of her affection - her true love who was recently married and from whom she is now somewhat estranged, a local girl from the town, and an older friend whose "temper" she much dislikes but who she fantasizes about because of the good times they had and her current disillusionment with her true love. I keep thinking about what a treasure this diary is, because Anne's experience is just like so many other girls' - the ups and downs, the exercises in self-delusion, the plans about how to act around the object of her affections... Not only does it show that girls now feel the same things as girls two hundred years ago, but it gives a lesbian perspective that sounds surprisingly modern.
Also, after more than a hundred pages, it finally dawned on me that all the in-code references to "kissing" may be a euphemism. Heh.
I definitely recommend this to anyone who's interested in women, Victorians, gender expression, or GLBTQ history. If you're interested in all four, it's the jackpot :3
I tried to have this book Interlibrary-loaned, but it turned out to be unavailable anywhere in the U.S. O_o So my wonderful, amazing librarian wife got the university to buy the book for its collection. And now I have it XD And it's fascinating.
The parts that aren't encrypted are still extremely interesting (even if I am reading it primarily for its contribution to lesbian history). Anne Lister was very isolated even in a culture where she necessarily spent a lot of time with other people. As part of the only landowning family in her town, she obviously felt like she was of a different social class than everyone around her and she didn't have anyone she could relate to. She obsessed over a particular girl from town but refused to formally call on her family, because doing so would be beneath her. She's a total snob, and her candor is both amusing and shocking. It's very cool to be able to read something so honest when the majority of stuff I've read from this period was intended for publication and therefore had an agenda.
And the lesbian parts are, well, awesome. According to Anne, EVERY girl in town is in love with her. She has, at the moment (I'm up to 1819, two years into the diary), three primary targets of her affection - her true love who was recently married and from whom she is now somewhat estranged, a local girl from the town, and an older friend whose "temper" she much dislikes but who she fantasizes about because of the good times they had and her current disillusionment with her true love. I keep thinking about what a treasure this diary is, because Anne's experience is just like so many other girls' - the ups and downs, the exercises in self-delusion, the plans about how to act around the object of her affections... Not only does it show that girls now feel the same things as girls two hundred years ago, but it gives a lesbian perspective that sounds surprisingly modern.
Also, after more than a hundred pages, it finally dawned on me that all the in-code references to "kissing" may be a euphemism. Heh.
I definitely recommend this to anyone who's interested in women, Victorians, gender expression, or GLBTQ history. If you're interested in all four, it's the jackpot :3
