This article is written by Adai
"Gentleman Jack" ended perfectly, with a Douban score of 9.1. Audiences who have watched the show shouted "not addictive" and "urgently need to renew a second season". Friends who have not yet seen the play may wish to make up for a history lesson and learn about the lives that have really existed in this story.
1 Mysterious diary
The story to be told today began in the 1890s when a gentleman named John Lister discovered dozens of diaries while sorting through family archives at his ancestral home, Hebden Manor.
A sizable portion of the diary uses a strange encoding. Troubled by this, John turned to his good friend Arthur Brell, a scholar of antiquities.
Unexpectedly, they actually deciphered the key words of the code by mistake!
So the two of them slept and immersed themselves in the work of translating encrypted diary entries.
It was not until many years later that people realized that these diaries were of great significance in the history of British literature (but little known at the time).
The author of these diaries was Anne Lister (1791–1840), a female landowner, successful merchant, and traveler in Yorkshire, England. John was his collateral descendant.
Portrait of Anne Liszt
As the translation work progressed, John and Arthur were shocked by what Anne wrote down in her diary. The part of the code that was written hides the unknown side of Anne Liszt. That was definitely subversive in the 1890s. It was the controversial content that kept her diary sealed for nearly a hundred years.
For someone like John who dared to declassify it, the situation was both awkward and dangerous at the time. After discovering the secret life of his ancestors, he was afraid that the discussion of the diary would bring innocence to himself and his family. Panicking, Arthur urged him to burn his diary. With a passion for the study of antiquities, John did not do so, but hid them deep in the Liszt family archives of The Hillbden Manor.
John died in 1933, thinking he had finally taken the secret to his grave. Two weeks later, Muriel Green, a young librarian who didn't know what was going on, was appointed to investigate the Liszt family archives.
Intuitively aware of some missing pages, she contacted Arthur Briar. Old Arthur told the story of Anne's secret diary and told her the key words of the decryption.
When Muriel began translating, he found that the diary detailed Anne's love affairs with many women in Yorkshire and the provinces. She knew that the social climate at that time would not tolerate the existence of such information.
Because just five years ago, the whole of England was engaged in a controversy over a novel, The Well of Loneliness. The book was officially considered corrupt and immoral and banned.
Under the influence of the "Well of Loneliness" incident, Muriel avoids the diary of Anne, who would also be classified as "corrupt and degenerate".
Thirty years have passed. In the 1960s, the mind tended to be liberated. The dusty past gradually surfaced.
Felice Ramsden was a female veteran of Halifax's high society. She was a local historian full of enthusiasm for life, and after eight years of studying the diary of Anne Lister, she decided to publish her results. But the Halifax township commissioners, who owned the copyright to the diary, feared that the local reputation would be tarnished as a result, and they objected to her publication.
Even in the liberal 1960s, Anne Lister's secret diary was still unknown.
Twenty years have passed since this shelving. In 1988, after seven years of painstaking research, Helena was able to publish this secret diary!
At first, Helena just wanted to write a short essay about Anne Lister. When she came to the library to check the literature, the library's document manager told her that Anne had a habit of keeping a diary. So Helena accidentally opened a page of Anne's secret diary, and since then she has been addicted to this series of diaries.
2 Anne Liszt
Anne Liszt's otherworldly life is finally on display.
In a four-million-word diary, Anne recorded her life and feelings in great detail. The words are passionate and heart-wrenching sincerity. Deciphering codes and reading diaries allows people to further understand her as the first person known as the modern Female XXX in Britain.
In 2010, the BBC made a TV movie based on it.
Anne Lister's extraordinary diary and her real but unusual life laid the foundation for the film.
The one-episode, 90-minute episode brings together a variety of shining stars, including Maxine Peake; Anna Madeley; Susan Lynch; Christine Bottomley; Gemma Jones; Dean Lennox Kelly and Tina O'Brien.
At the same time, the BBC produced a documentary: "Declassifying Anne Lister", which restored a real history and a real Liszt -
Studying Anne Liszt's diary and recounting her life became a lot of fun. In addition to her enthusiasm and innocence, Anne in the diary also showed a cold and ruthless side, and it was this trait that eventually made her a well-known businesswoman. Despite the many betrayals and tragedies that followed, she lived up to the title of "pioneering industrialist", a "fearless explorer", a "snob full of ambitions to climb the dragon and the phoenix".
Seventeen of Anne's more than twenty diaries were repaired
3 Anne's lover
Anne's diary begins with a tiny emotional phrase: Eliza left us
There are only three words like "Eliza has left us". This was the beginning of her vast four-million-word diary.
In her diary, she unabashedly describes her life as the life of a "female admirer."
On the first few pages of the diary, she wrote normally in ordinary "blunt words", recording the daily life of the hostess who had lived in The Hillbden Manor. The details are vivid and detailed. The large number of cipher codes scattered throughout the diary reveals even more compelling content. Through decoding, the amount of text information translated is huge.
Anne was actually Lesbian and had a long-term relationship with a woman named Mariana. She lived in a time when the relationship was not recognized. Although people often refer to it as "romantic friendship". But it could not be clearer in the diary, and a large number of sexual | descriptions confirm that emotion.
Anne was born in 1791. Her father fought in the American Revolutionary War. However, he was wounded in the first battle and retired as a local conscription officer. Her mother married her father at the age of eighteen, and her mother was a weak and beautiful woman. Anne was born in Halifax, not Hebden Manor.
Young mothers simply can't control their daughters. At the age of seven, Anne was sent by her family to a boarding girls' school. In order to change her "tomboy" personality, she was punished almost every day.
"Eliza", recorded at the beginning of the diary, is Anne's first love at this girls' school. They were all fifteen-year-olds at the time and shared a bedroom at the school. Anne was expelled from school for being stubborn, reckless, and arrogant, and Eliza stayed. But that summer, Eliza went to Halifax to live with Anne. When she returned to school, Anne wrote the words in her diary: "Eliza left us."
Later Eliza was ruthlessly abandoned by Anne.
In 1813, Anne came to Northclives for a vacation and met Marianna, the daughter of a doctor. Anne thought Marianna was the most beautiful woman she had ever met. She confessed in her diary that she liked dignified, delicate, beautiful and delicate women.
Marianna met her requirements.
Marianna in the movie
Their relationship lasted for three years. In 1816, Marianna married a wealthy old man, Charles Lawton, but did not end her relationship with Anne. Instead, they continued their rendezvous with Charles on their backs.
However, the long-term gathering of less and more will inevitably alienate feelings, and they will eventually part ways.
In 1815, Anne moved into The Hillbden Manor and settled down. The manor housed her single uncle James and her unmarried aunt Anne, as well as other siblings. All four of her brothers died young. Naturally, the inheritance of The Shipden Manor fell to Anne. In order to familiarize herself with the management process of the manor, she had to live with her uncle and aunt. Locally, she was exceptional and maverick.
Losing Marianna, from one day in 1817, Anne decided to wear black forever to honor her lost love. This set her apart naturally from the other young ladies. Because women's clothes in that era were mainly bright light colors. Anne, on the other hand, was wearing a long black coat, a black top hat, and thick black leather boots at her feet. Curious to kill the cat, the people of the town are eager to learn about this mysterious woman, and this woman is pornographic.
Suddenly in the company of such a noble man as Anne, Miss Brown was flattered. When Anne pursues her with ill intentions, the old-fashioned Miss Brown thinks she is only being respected as a female friend.
August 26, 1819. After two years of chasing, Anne finally managed to plan a hot kiss. But for Anne it was just a chase game, and once the "prey" was in hand, the freshness was gone. In fact, since the kiss, Anne's relationship has ended.
At that time, a "fever to go abroad" was set off. Anne also followed the trend and went to Paris in 1819 to receive an education. She attends all the lectures given by the leading scientists there, advocates the natural sciences, and has a small human dissection room.
4 Career · Partner
Anne's broken connection with Marianna ended in 1823. It can also be said that the love affair of her entire youth was completely interrupted in 1826.
Because her uncle had died, she was tasked with the revitalization of The Shipden Estate. Her biggest business rival was Christopher Rosen, the town's banker and magistrate. Its family influence is very strong. While Anne's uncle was still alive, he leased part of the estate to Rosen, and Christopher Rosen used the land to make a lot of money from coal mining. When Anne took over the manor, she intended to reclaim the land and mine it herself. Brutal commercial competition formed between them. Apparently Anne won the competition, and she was a successful businesswoman.
As a young woman, Anne hoped to find a wealthy woman in high society, rich and with titles, with whom she could spend the rest of her life. But as she grew older, she came to understand that it wasn't realistic. She wrote in her diary: "I didn't have enough money and not enough social status for the nobles to want to bring me into their ranks." So by the time she returned home from Paris, her desire to join the nobility had been disillusioned.
She found that in her hometown, not far from her home, there was an heiress, Ann Walker. This delicate lady lost both parents at an early age and suffered from anxiety disorders.
Miss Ann Walker from the TV series
She was more than ten years younger than Anne. The Walker family and the Liszt family did not intersect before, but as merchants, they were really rich.
On September 27, 1832, Walker appeared in Anne's diary. This means that Anne really came out of the heartbreak of breaking up with the love of her life, Marianna.
So she began to pursue Ann Walker, using popular control methods, transforming Walker into the woman she wanted, and soon succeeded.
Anne wrote in her diary: "Miss Walker was cautious during the day and enthusiastic at night. However, at this time, she no longer pays attention to love, and pays more attention to "current assets" and "manor income and expenditure". She became more ruthless and determined to be utilitarian.
In 1834, two ladies went to a Church in Yorkshire for Mass. After the service, they stayed behind to receive the special blessing of the pastor. The pastor didn't know it, but in the hearts of the two ladies, the blessing was God's approval of their relationship.
Ann Walkley then moved to Hebden Manor to live with Anne Lister.
The situation was good: Anne and Miss Walker together owned a large amount of land and money. As a result of their wealthier, their land- and money-based status on the ground was consolidated, which was enough to put an end to gossip.
So, no matter how out of place their lives may seem, no one dared to challenge Anne and her lover. Anne even named a mine "Walker's Well" in her coal mining territory.
5 Travel · A legendary life
Unlike the average woman at home, Anne, who lived a stable life and had a successful career, became obsessed with long-distance travel, especially on the European continent and Russia.
At that time, female travelers were not uncommon, and some people had already traveled to Russia. Anne also wanted to go to places she had never been before, to more exotic countries. Her plan was to travel across Russia to Persia. This has to cross the Caucasus Mountains.
But unfortunately, she never reached her destination.
In 1839 Anne left the small town of Halifax with her wife and crossed the Continent east to Russia, only to be infected by a parasite carrying the fever virus on her journey.
In September 1840, Anne Lister died at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. Miss Walker spent six months transporting her body back to the family cemetery for burial.
Anne's diary stopped six weeks before her death.
Although the Regency period tolerated Anne's unusual way of life, the society that followed was not so tolerant.
The story goes back to the very beginning, thanks to John, a collateral descendant of Anne Liszt.
Anne's greatest achievement was that she left us a four-million-word diary, which required great courage and concentration to write. These diaries subverted all the ideas of later generations of the lives of women in northern Nineteenth-century England.
The female characters of Jane Austen, a famous female writer of Anne's contemporaries, are mostly stereotypical and do not cross the thunder pool.
After reading Anne's diary, we learn that even under the restrictions of the old customs and regulations at that time, there was still such a different way of life as Anne Liszt.
Anne and her writings, like beacons of independence and autonomy, stood in Yorkshire more than two hundred years ago, and her radiance broke through the shackles of high society.
At this moment, apart from her ego and snobbery, we have only admiration for this nineteenth-century woman.
There was a passage on the Sina Weibo ID [European Literary and Art Review]:
I silently glanced at my large bookcase, there were many diaries, but I couldn't find two of them. Shame on you...
The source of the image comes from the network
Source & Subtitles:
The first season of "Gentleman Jack"
"Declassifying Anne Liszt"
The Secret Diary of Anne Liszt
(Image from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)