Gentleman Jack (Movie Tie-In): The Real Anne Lister

I need to say that English for me is a second language, so reading this book in English was for me very special. Enjoyed every Page of it and must be read before watching the series. Can the autor white another one for season two of the series??? Well, any how it's awesome!!!

Interesting

Great companion book to the HBO Series Gentleman Jack, including excerpts from the original diaries of Anne Lister. A historic account of the story of Ann Walker and Anne Lister and the first same sex marriage occurring in 1830s England. Bloody Brilliant!

Such a remarkable awareness of the perils faced by women (and especially lesbian women) in the 1800’s is presented in this book. In an age where women were given few choices in life and given even less rights Anne Lister carved out a spot in the world where she was relatively comfortable with who she was. A world traveler, landowner, businesswoman, employer, and lover she blazed trails despite enumerable societal restrictions.

If a GJ fan you will enjoy the additional.Very happy with my purchase.

This books weaves a narrative with factual context from Ms Lister’s diaries.I could not put the book down. Absolutely superb and a good supplement to the HBOMax series. Bravo!

I was reluctant to get this book because movie tie-ins tend to be superficial. However, this was written by historian Anne Choma, and is a fascinating look at Anne Lister; the “tie-in” just means that most of the book focuses on the two years covered in the show. A very good starting point to learn about Anne Lister before exploring more in-depth biographies or her actual diaries.

My main takeaway from this read was clarification of many creative departures from recorded fact, taken by the creators of BBC/HBO Gentleman Jack. I applaud each one of which I am now aware. Thus, the brilliance of the production/show is only enhanced and that was hard to do as I was already a big fan. Everything from the casting of Suranne Jones and pretty much everyone in support, to the story-line, transmutations and implications made it all the more emotionally charming/grabbing and intellectually processable. That makes the book a great companion piece for sure, IMHO.For example: The relationship between AL and VH is nebulously left to one's romantic imagination and assumptions as to what happened and the nature of their liaison. The book clarifies that in a way that was a tad of a surprise but very appreciated in terms of it conveying a depth of sentiment that forwards the story and understanding of the character Miss Lister.The Gentleman Jack production Miss Lister is deeply appealing while, for me, the real-life Miss Lister, not as much. I want to spend endless time with Suranne Jone's Miss Lister...not so much with the Tory conservatism and a little too much narcissism and emotional and pragmatic self-efficacy of the real-life Lister.One star off for the cheap quality of the paperback.

I don’t generally buy books which are heralded as a movie or tv tie in. But this companion to a forthcoming tv production about a period in Anne Lister’s life is a compelling read. I’ve read a couple of books about Anne Lister which cover the whole of her life in greater depth. Gentleman Jack is informed, well written and examines a crucial couple of years in the life and times of this extraordinary lady.It’s fitting that, at last, she’s receiving recognition. Her incredible diaries amount to over 5 million words and now have UNESCO status as a world heritage document. They provide a meticulous account of the minutiae of her life and activities and as such are a valuable social history resource.Anne Lister was a woman of keen intellect and endless energy. Defying social and gender norm, she dressed always in black, often wore breeches and gents topcoat and was openly ridiculed for her masculine appearance. She was openly lesbian and took a number of female lovers and had a marriage ceremony with one. Doubtless there’ll be much interest in her love life, but this remarkable lady had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. She was widely travelled and even experimented with dissection whilst in Paris, just because she wanted to learn about anything and everything. She was familiar with the classics in literature and the works of the great philosophers.This trailblazer was also an expert in land and estate management at a time when women had few legal rights as landowners or business people. She was also a paradox in that despite her liberalism in many areas, her attitudes towards workers was traditional and she resented the working class radicalism that was demanding reform. She was concerned about the impact such change would have on social order.Gentleman Jack is thoroughly researched and reads like an adventure tale. I recommend it as an excellent way to learn more about this astonishing individual.

What an informative and well written book about Anne Lister! Fascinating to learn more about her. Really interesting to hear about how life was in her time. Most interesting to hear what a trailblazer Anne was and what made her tick with fantastic detail. Unputdownable - highly recommend- if you want to read just one book about her (I’ve read quite a few) - this is the one to choose.

Like many people I had heard of and knew a bit about Anne Lister, but this book will expand your knowledge and acts as a good accompaniment to the series, which as I write this is currently on TV, and I know a number of people are enjoying watching.As a companion book to the series, this of course takes in mainly the period that the TV drama is concerned with, although we do read in places of Anne when she was younger, and the other women she became romantically entangled with. Why she is known by so many is not only because of the fact that you can still visit her home, Shibden Hall, but because she was a prominent lesbian and kept diaries giving us an insight into not only her sexual encounters, but also so much more, such as the running of her estate in quite some detail, the political and business concerns of the period, and also lots of travel writing, giving us an insight into other countries at this time.Even if you had all her diaries before you, all de-coded for most of us it would not be a thrilling read, as there would be too much detail on so many subjects and thus it would become boring to work your way through, so this book is ideal in that it gives you loads of relevant information, as well as appropriate diary entries, which makes for a short, comprehensive study of this fascinating woman.Anne Lister was certainly a woman of differing ideals and full of subtleties, as she negotiated herself around a predominantly male world, whilst also at the same time carrying out clandestine relations with women. Although interested in many subjects and a polymath, it has to be admitted that she was quite the snob, always worming her way into the higher society that she would not normally be acquainted with, and thus she also looked down upon the poor and could be exploitative when it came to making money.An anachronism in some ways, even back in her own lifetime, she was also ahead of her time when it came to how women were generally treated, and the fact that she ‘married’ another woman. Dead at forty-nine, and although you will not like everything about her, one thing I think we can all agree on in this was a woman who was in many ways larger than life and lived life on her own terms. This thus makes for a read that will especially please those enjoying the TV series and wanting to know more about this remarkable woman. In this e-book edition, after the main text there are pictures and photos before the index.

It’s not often that I sit and read an entire book in a day but that what’s happened. A great insight into just a small part of who Anne Lister was.Anne Choma has perfectly documented the trials and tribulations of the formidable first modern day lesbian landowner back in the 1800’s. From her dalliances with the ladies to her formidable land management skills.Given that this is a companion to the BBC series, I can’t wait to see how Sally Wainwright translates it to screen!This book has definitely whet the appetite to find out more about Anne’s life. A must read for anyone interested in the history of Anne and ‘shabby little’ Shibden.

If you loved the 'Gentleman Jack' TV drama you should read this book, it'll sort out the timelines and give lots of extra insight. If you didn't like the 'Gentleman Jack' TV drama, because it seemed all too far fetched, over acted or simply unbelievably energetic, you should read this book, then you'll find out that, yes, Anne Lister really was like that and in her own words!The introduction hops about like a flea in terms of timelines, but it does leave you wanting to know more, much more, which is exactly what every good introduction should do.Anne Choma clearly loves her subject but isn't rose tinted about some of Anne's less positive sides, she does however give us some of the great insight that are buried in these diaries, to help us understand what really made Anne Lister tick. I read the book primarily as a mine of information for tips on Anne Lister's clothing, as I am busy making a sculpture of her, but the details were so delicious they had me snorting with laughter, so this really was no trial at all! Most especially, the difficulty of getting inside Miss Walker's thick knitted drawers; well it is West Yorkshire, combinations are still popular there, and for good reason!The only thing I really disagree with the author about is her description of Anne Lister's hair, which was perfectly normal for the time, just not overblown, but one of the things that delighted me, as a visual artist, was the use of a different diary page with each chapter. Some pages had more code than others, and all of them show how eye wateringly hard it is to read Anne Lister's diaries; the code is easier to read than her 'plain hand'. This subtly shows the reader how lucky we are to have so much of it typed out for us, and (I'm sure) the migraines suffered by others so that we can.If you are looking for historical social comment, a window in the the early 19th Century, an exploration of Britain's industrial past, a European travelogue, a jolly romp of a book or a romance, read this book.