The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short StoriesMargaret Reynolds And more than that - sometimes women love women. Like Queen Victoria, the world has preferred to believe that sex between women is impossible, resulting in a long silence between the writings of Sappho and the flowering of talent produced by feminism and the sexual revolution. Lesbian writing has come a long way since Virginia Woolf's famous essay of 1928. Since then women have challenged traditional forms of expression and subject matter in an extraordinarily rich and varied discourse to give voice to the lesbian imagination. In this wide-ranging anthology, Margaret Reynolds has brought together the work of thirty-two women from Britain, continental Europe, and the Americas - including three specially commissioned pieces - that covers nearly a century of lesbian writing, from Sarah Orne Jewett (1897) to Jeanette Winterson (1993). The collection ranges from Frances Gapper's pastiche of a Romantic melodrama, through the wry humor of Merril Mushroom's description of butch and femme courting rituals, to the wit of Alison Bechdel's cartoon strip. The anxiety of unresolved desire is present in many stories - Radclyffe Hall's Miss Ogilvy is unable truly to find herself in this world, Djuna and Lillian hold back from each other in Anais Nin's "Cities of the Interior", and the energy and commitment that should go into a loving relationship are stifled by convention in Jane Rule's story of passion outside marriage. But here are brave spirits, too - Renee Vivien's Sarolta and her Prince(ss) live forever in a vision of ideal tenderness, Colette's heroines preserve the sanctity of their little white bed, and Jewelle Gomez's bulldagger society survives far from the haunts of men. There arecoming-out stories, stories about cross-dressing, vampire tales, science fiction, parody, and romance. Each story is quite different from the others, yet each acknowledges a particular facet of lesbian history and makes it real. |
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Results 1-3 of 59
Page 3
... seemed to have fallen sound asleep , really typified these larger conditions , and a little leaven had made its easily recognized appearance in the shape of a light - hearted girl . She was Miss Harriet's young Boston cousin , Helena ...
... seemed to have fallen sound asleep , really typified these larger conditions , and a little leaven had made its easily recognized appearance in the shape of a light - hearted girl . She was Miss Harriet's young Boston cousin , Helena ...
Page 109
... seemed to be tantalizingly near but which , all the same , I knew was unattainable - a blessing , which , if I could only grasp it , would quench my thirst , still my pulses , give me an Elysian peace . At other times , it was the power ...
... seemed to be tantalizingly near but which , all the same , I knew was unattainable - a blessing , which , if I could only grasp it , would quench my thirst , still my pulses , give me an Elysian peace . At other times , it was the power ...
Page 334
... seemed to fall in love with me - one gentleman , madly enamoured and attempting to scale the wall to my bedchamber , fell from a drainpipe and was killed ; another , a melancholic , drowned himself ; several were slain or horribly ...
... seemed to fall in love with me - one gentleman , madly enamoured and attempting to scale the wall to my bedchamber , fell from a drainpipe and was killed ; another , a melancholic , drowned himself ; several were slain or horribly ...
Contents
SARAH ORNE JEWETT Marthas Lady 1897 I | 1 |
RENÉE VIVIEN Prince Charming 1904 translated | 20 |
The Wise Sappho c 191618 | 26 |
Copyright | |
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