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The Secret Diaries (2012)

by Anne Lister(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1844087190 (ISBN13: 9781844087198)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Virago UK

review 1: I first heard of Anne Lister a year ago when the BBC did a documentary and a dramatisation about her life. This book is extracts from her diary with commentary by the editor giving additional details of what is happening in Anne's life at that time. The diary itself is a mixture of dry and dull preceedings with heartfelt and heartbreaking discussions about the women in her life and their strengths and failings. It is wonderful as so much of queer women's history is often dismissed as being "emotional friendships" and even though the women use the language of romantic love scholars are always quite trepedatious about saying whether the women involved actually "got up to anything". While part of me can respect the historical position that you don't want to say something happ... moreened without the evidence to back it up. To say that these women were having these relationships without the physical side just seems terribly naive. This book is great as it is a first person account of such lives and friendships in the most wonderful detail. Here the women clearly have physical feelings for each other, act on those feelings, suffer jealousies and love, and also recognise the bond of romantic love in other women who also love other women. One of my favourite parts was when Anne went to visit a Lady who lived in Wales with her partner of 40 or 50 years and Anne was thinking how wonderful it would be to live with a woman for that long, and how she discussed the women's relationship with her other friends and wondered if the Lady's relationship was purely Platonic or like theirs, and they all seemed to think it was like theirs. It was also interseting that when Anne did meet other women outside her circle of friends she was quite hesitant to tell them about the nature of her relationship with women, even after these women had admitted to their own relationship with women. While the diary never discusses prejudice against them, just the fear that M's husband will suspect the true nature of their relationship, it shows that the women weren't able to be at all open about their feelings. Though it was interesting on how many occasions Anne discussed M with her aunt and her aunt was always giving her advice on M and the other girlfriends. One of the things I think is rather sad about this is that many people have dubbed Anne as "not very nice" (rather like they have Radclyff Hall). It seems like these women are looked down on for rejecting a society that doesn't accept them. Not to mention the fact that they are often continuing several affairs at one time. Rather than seeing this as an attempt to find love and companionship in a society where it's denied them they are judged for not being part of a "monogamous feminine ideal". Surely if they were lesbians and in love Anne should have just contented herself with M? But M was married and not availble to be a full time partner to Anne. The relationship came across as very sad and very real and very "modern" to me. I'm really glad I got this book. I borrowed it from the library but am definitely going to buy my own copy as well.
review 2: ‘I owe a great deal to this diary’.Anne Lister (3 April 1791 - 22/9/1840) was a member of a family of prominent land owners: the Listers of Shibden Hall in Halifax (West Yorkshire, UK). In 1813, when her surviving brother accidentally drowned, Anne became heir to Shibden Hall. During her lifetime, Anne kept a diary which runs to some four million words. Thanks to this diary, we have access to a lot of detail about Anne's life: her sexual and emotional relationships with women; the minutiae of upper-class 18th century daily life; and the castes and customs of life in a provincial town.In this book, Helena Whitbread has concentrated on the years from 1816 to 1824: this is the period during which Anne's two most significant relationships - with Mariana Lawton (nee Belcombe) and Isabella Norcliffe - developed and are chronicled in significant detail.`I love, and only love, the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs.' - (from 29 January 1821)In her introduction, Ms Whitbread writes that Anne Lister began her diaries in 1806, with entries becoming more detailed from 1808. But as the entries became more detailed, Anne developed a code (which she refers to as `crypthand') which gave her the freedom to describe her life in great detail. After all, no-one else would be able to understand the code, would they?The story of how the diaries were discovered, decrypted, then hidden because of their contents and then finally partially published is fascinating. So is the content - especially (but by no means exclusively) to those interested in women's and lesbian history. Anne Lister's account of 18th century life, of the detail of routine life and of her activities and aspirations is absorbing. Some of her views and opinions would seem quite archaic to many of us today but then she never intended for us to be reading them. Now that I have read this book, I am keen to know more about Anne Lister's life. Particularly after 1826 when she became the owner of the Shibden estate.Apparently, many of Anne's neighbours saw her as an eccentric, a bluestocking who learned Latin, Greek and Geometry and who discussed politics. Anne Lister was the first woman to be elected to the Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society. The BBC has made a documentary drama about Anne Lister which I've not yet seen. If you are interested in the social history of this era, from less conventional perspective, you may enjoy reading this book. I did. Jennifer Cameron-Smith less

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