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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Page 220
... roll , a white one and , when everyone had one , there'd be one left ; you'd take it . It was always the last one , the wheat one . You'd lean forward in your chair and reach your right arm over the basket and flex ... wheat roll , 220 BREAD.
... roll , a white one and , when everyone had one , there'd be one left ; you'd take it . It was always the last one , the wheat one . You'd lean forward in your chair and reach your right arm over the basket and flex ... wheat roll , 220 BREAD.
Page 224
... wheat rolls . You didn't eat white ones and we took the basket back at the end of breakfast with one white roll left in it . You didn't say anything about it . You just looked at the basket and didn't take a roll . No one else said ...
... wheat rolls . You didn't eat white ones and we took the basket back at the end of breakfast with one white roll left in it . You didn't say anything about it . You just looked at the basket and didn't take a roll . No one else said ...
Page 236
... wheat roll sitting in the basket . We all ate our breakfast and at the end I took the basket back to the counter and the fat girl who poured coffee with her mother saw me and smiled . She saw the wheat roll and looked at me . I said not ...
... wheat roll sitting in the basket . We all ate our breakfast and at the end I took the basket back to the counter and the fat girl who poured coffee with her mother saw me and smiled . She saw the wheat roll and looked at me . I said not ...
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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