Gentleman Jack is the new HBO television drama about the historical love story of Anne Lister and her wife, Ann Walker, in 1800s England. Gentleman Jack, named after one of Lister’s sobriquets, creator and sole writer Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax) imagines what we can’t know. Wainwright gives us a profoundly human heroine who’s never just an idealistic queer woman. Between Wainwright’s crisp scripts and star Suranne Jones’ flawless performance, it’s tempting to believe that Anne Lister was the most fascinating person of the 19th century, both a product of her time and an anti-conformist whose forward thinking would not be appreciated in its entirety during her lifetime. Gentleman Jack is full of ambivalences, never letting us forget what an original Anne is, while suggesting that a lifetime of asserting herself in order to get what she wants—and usually having the weight of moral authority behind her—may have left her ill-prepared for cooperation or compromise.
Anne Lister (1791–1840), now known as ‘the first modern lesbian,’ was a wealthy, independent landowner who was renowned in her time for dressing always in black, without bothering to indulge in the feminine frills like the others of her sex. She was the 19th century equivalent of a “butch” lesbian, and she became known to locals as ‘ Gentleman Jack.’
Her lesbian lifestyle, however, was one of the best kept secrets of her time.
Starting at age fifteen, Anne began to write in personal diaries, a practice which she continued throughout many years of her life until her untimely death from an insect sting, at age forty-nine, while travelling in Russia. Her diaries are extremely detailed and total more than four million words. Anne’s earliest diaries include entries documenting her first love, a fellow pupil, Eliza Raine, at the Manor School in York.
The encoded portions of Anne’s diaries document her passionate love affairs with other women. Anne was strikingly free and easy about her sexuality and her numerous romantic encounters. She openly courted young women–many of whom seemed most willing to fall under her spell.
-for more visit: https://www.annelister.co.uk/
The first filmed version of Anne Lister’s life was the 2010’s Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister. Secret Diaries covers the time from about 1816, when Anne’s girlfriend Mariana marries a wealthy gentleman, until around 1832 or shortly after, because that’s when Anne meets and falls in love with local heiress Ann Walker. Gentleman Jack begins in 1832 with Anne meeting Ann Walker and is entirely about their affair.
Anne Lister (1791–1840), now known as ‘the first modern lesbian,’ was a wealthy, independent landowner who was renowned in her time for dressing always in black, without bothering to indulge in the feminine frills like the others of her sex. She was the 19th century equivalent of a “butch” lesbian, and she became known to locals as ‘ Gentleman Jack.’Her lesbian lifestyle, however, was one of the best kept secrets of her time.
Starting at age fifteen, Anne began to write in personal diaries, a practice which she continued throughout many years of her life until her untimely death from an insect sting, at age forty-nine, while travelling in Russia. Her diaries are extremely detailed and total more than four million words. Anne’s earliest diaries include entries documenting her first love, a fellow pupil, Eliza Raine, at the Manor School in York.
The encoded portions of Anne’s diaries document her passionate love affairs with other women. Anne was strikingly free and easy about her sexuality and her numerous romantic encounters. She openly courted young women–many of whom seemed most willing to fall under her spell.
-for more visit: https://www.annelister.co.uk/
The first filmed version of Anne Lister’s life was the 2010’s Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister. Secret Diaries covers the time from about 1816, when Anne’s girlfriend Mariana marries a wealthy gentleman, until around 1832 or shortly after, because that’s when Anne meets and falls in love with local heiress Ann Walker. Gentleman Jack begins in 1832 with Anne meeting Ann Walker and is entirely about their affair.
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