Anne Lister:I Know My Own Heart
In the book, I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791-1840, offers the diaries as a fascinating story of the ?everyday? life led by an early 19th century lesbian. The diaries were found in the 1980?s and deciphered by Helena Whitbread. There are a few diaries, but this one focuses on the period from 1817 ? 1824, which was the most emotionally developing years of Anne?s life. As well, it is also when she best chronologically details her vivid and sexual relationships with other women. The journals took Whitbread six years to interpret the esoteric cod invented by Anne in order to keep her secret love affairs safe. She also used this type of correspondence when maintaining relationships with other women. Even though all these efforts were made to conceal her sexual secrets, the lesbian content is still very slight, and hard to sift through the tedious details of her daily activities.
Due to the time period of the text, it is important to have some historical understanding about past confines in society for women. Women really had no human rights at this time, since they were not considered ?persons? till 1919. Women were the property of
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