#anne lister's diaries

[booksandchainmail]

I've started reading Anne Lister's (early 1800s lesbian) journals, some highlights:

where they start off, she's accompaning her ex-its-complicated (Mariana) who just got married on her honeymoon. Anne responds to this heartbreak by fucking Mariana's sister (also along on the honeymoon)

she is also an absolute dirtbag towards this sister (confusingly also named Anne aka Nantz), "she would gladly have gotten into bed or done anything of the loving kind I asked her", "I said she excited my feelings in a way that was very unjustifiable unless she meant to gratify them"

part of how she explains she's gay to Nantz is saying how pretty hr sister Eliza is. Notably this is not the sister that Anne has been dating.

then she immediately drops Nantz and makes a snide note that "superior charms might not be so easily come-at-able on such easy terms"

Later she meets back up with Mariana and then proceeds to spend so much time hanging out with yet another sister (Lou) that Mariana gets jealous, which Anne glosses over in a way that might read more heartfelt if she had not previously a) noted that one of Mariana's sisters was very pretty or b) slept with another one

On the one hand she is such a snob towards her neighbors, but on the other its clear she's acutely aware that they are all aware she is Different and are gossiping about her, so I find it hard to hold the classism against her

her idea of flirting with a local middleclass girl she meets is to send her a poem about having a temporary fling with a social inferior. Luckily she does not go through with this idea, but big Darcy energy

at one point she buys a pistol and shoots out of her window and the recoil knocks it out of her hand so dramatically that the pistol smashes the glass

so much of these journals are about finances, which I'm sure the historians adore, Anne keeps noting down how much everything cost

There's some interesting gendered bits going on in her: Anne mentions at one point sitting in just her underwear and men's suspenders, and mentions "the abuse I had received for [...] manners like those of a gentleman". She's also very focused on getting a full (masculine) education: classics, math and science, etc, and there are multiple places where she notes particularly when a(n unfamiliar) man treats her intellect as an equal.

there's one long bit that really gets me where she goes on for a while about the various expenses of traveling by coach and ends it with "Any gentleman might travel on these terms, if he chose to go into the traveling room & was sure of being well received so long as he did not give himself airs, but behaved like a gentleman. Indeed, he said, many gentlemen did travel in this way..."

gods I wish she lived in a time where she could be butch

Anne Lister kept parts of her journals encrypted, mostly the lines to do with her sexuality, and there's a strange poetry in the way this collection renders the encrypted text in italics, queerness once unreadable but still written plainly alongside the deniable straightness, "Had a hot supper & did not get back until 3. I slept with M---"

[amphibious-thing]

The thing about Anne Lister is that her diaries are an incredibly valuable source on what was like for sapphic women in early 19th century England but Anne herself is kinda unlikable.

[misswlister]

"we shall do better by and by, and we shall be mutually dull without each other."

- Anne Lister, 4 December 1838

[wlwmoviebracket]

round 2 (36/64)

[verypersonalscreencaps]

Top 5 First-Time Watches of December 2022 1. Aftersun (2022, dir. Charlotte Wells) 2. The Fabelmans (2022, dir. Steven Spielberg) 3. Les Années Super 8 (2022, dir. Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot) 4. The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010, dir. James Kent) 5. Another Round (2020, dir. Thomas Vinterberg) A special month with my favourite film of the year!

[austenreusedcostumes]

This lovely blue dark dress is worn on Poppy Miller as Isabella Knightley in Emma (2009) and worn again on Maxine Peake as Anne Lister in The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010) and many years later worn on Emma Greenwell as Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) and worn again on Crystal Clarke as Georgiana Lambe in Sanditon (2023)

Credit: fictionturnedherbrain

[chizucore]

i promise i think about things other than kimi ni todoke guys but i literally only remade tumblr to yap about knt post s3 and i come here to unwind. no serious work here only shoujo manga

[cassmouse]

Current history project research progress: Hitting my head on the desk, tearing my hair out, and yelling 'WHY MUST HISTORY BE SO ELUSIVE??????' to no-one in particular

[maggiecheungs]

She appears to have delicate health & talks of thinking much, & looks a look of melancholy.

Anne Lister, No Priest But Love

[addictivecontradiction]

The secret diaries of Miss Anne Lister, 2020

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This lovely Blue Dark Dress is worn on Maxine Peake as Anne Lister in The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (2010) and many years later worn on Emma Greenwell as Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) and worn again on Crystal Clarke as Georgiana Lambe in Sanditon (2023)

[mylittleliterarycorner]

Friday 22 June 1821 [Halifax]

I owe a good deal to this journal. By unburdening my mind on paper I feel, as it were, in some degree to get rid of it; it seems made over to a friend that hears it patiently, keeps it faithfully, and by never forgetting anything, is always ready to compare the past & present and thus to cheer & edify the future.

Anne Lister

[lifewithaview]

Suranne Jones and Joe Armstrong in Gentleman Jack (2019) Oh Is That What You Call It?

S1E3

Lister confides her hopes for a future with Ann Walker to her aunt, as Mrs. Priestley's inkling about the two women's relationship presents a threat. Meanwhile, John Booth is surprised at his own romantic success.

[misswlister]

"my aunt wished me my health and many happy returns of my birthday" abril 3, 1836.

happy birthday miss Lister! 🎂💗

[it-goes-on]

Anne Lister circa 1818

[verypersonalscreencaps]

"Consider it an engagement. The day you come to live with me, we shall wear these rings on our fingers."

MAXINE PEAKE & ANNA MADELEY as Anne & Mariana THE SECRET DIARIES OF MISS ANNE LISTER (2010, dir. James Kent)