A review by cassandrat
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister by Anne Lister

4.0

The HBO show Gentleman Jack made me curious about the primary documents and recorded personality of Anne Lister. There are a few books with collections of her diaries, and this book gives about eight years of entries (1816-1824) of 25 to 33 year old Anne Lister and her many crushes. If you want to know more about the show, I recommend "Female Fortune Land, Gender and Authority The Anne Lister Diaries and OTher Writings, 1833-36". That publication has illustrations, background, and edits out the boring parts. It also starts with Anne's relationship with Ann Walker and her coal dealings. There is very little beyond love affars in 1816-1824. It was amazing how she seemed to fawn over a different woman every season and maintain so many relationships. I also noted that some events from the show were not concurrent at all. I recommend reading the diaries over a long period just every once in a while, because it gets a bit tedious. Most entries describe who she talked to each day, what reading or writing or studying she did, which woman she slept with or not, and mending clothes. I really liked that the coded portions are in italics. Anne seemed to code anything about money, mending underclothes, and sex.